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AIBU?

suitable wedding poem- terminal illness

54 replies

PanannyPanoo · 23/06/2017 17:12

Has any one got any ideas on something suitable to be read at a wedding when one of the couple has a critical illness

OP posts:
user1469880122 · 23/06/2017 17:32

This one?

Now touch the air softly, step gently, one, two ...
I'll love you 'til roses are robin's egg blue;
I'll love you 'til gravel is eaten for bread,
And lemons are orange, and lavender's red.

Now touch the air softly, swing gently the broom.
I'll love you 'til windows are all of a room;
And the table is laid, And the table is bare,
And the ceiling reposes on bottomless air.

I'll love you 'til heaven rips the stars from his coat,
And the moon rows away in a glass-bottomed boat;
And Orion steps down like a river below,
And earth is ablaze, and oceans aglow.

So touch the air softly, and swing the broom high.
We will dust the grey mountains, and sweep the blue sky:
And I'll love you as long as the furrow the plough,
As however is ever, and ever is now.
William Jay Smith

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 23/06/2017 17:33

That's beautiful.

originalbiglymavis · 23/06/2017 17:33

If there's a Scottish connection you could go for 'my love is like a red red rose'. We had this at my folks funerals.

originalbiglymavis · 23/06/2017 17:35

A Red, Red Rose
By Robert Burns
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.

(Wee tear in my eye) 🌷

FlaviaAlbia · 23/06/2017 17:37

Do you know the wishes of the couple? I'd be inclined to go for something joyful at a wedding despite the illness but the bride and groom would set the tone...

PanannyPanoo · 23/06/2017 17:43

Definitely joyful. What I have found hard is so many either refer to the start of a journey or adventure or, how being 2 is better than 1, or make reference of the -even you are dead we will still be together -type.
Even Winnie the pooh!
I imagine I need to search for uplifting poem rather than love which all seem a bit inappropriate for someone with a very limited future.

OP posts:
NeedMoreSleepOrSugar · 23/06/2017 17:55

I came across this recently:

Keep On Smiling

© Alexandra Skiathitis

Published: February 2008

If at times you feel you want to cry.
And life seems such a trial.
Above the clouds there's a bright blue sky
So make your tears a smile.

As you travel on life's way
With its many ups and downs
Remember it's quite true to say
One smile is worth a dozen frowns.

Among the worlds expensive things
A smile is very cheap
And when you give a smile away,
You get one back to keep.

Happiness comes at times to all
But sadness comes unbidden
And sometimes a few tears must fall
Among the laughter hidden.

So when friends have sadness on their face
And troubles round them piled
The world will seem a better place
And all because you smiled.



Source: www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/keep-on-smiling

FlaviaAlbia · 23/06/2017 17:57

What about one of Shakespeare's sonnets? 29 or 116?

EllaElla · 23/06/2017 18:02

'i carry your heart' by ee cummings.

Drivemetofolkestone · 23/06/2017 18:03

What about "Have you got a biro I can borrow?" by Clive James? It's not heavy going, and the ending might fit well.

Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I'd like to write your name
On the palm of my hand, on the walls of the hall
The roof of the house, right across the land
So when the sun comes up tomorow
It'll look to this side of the hard-bitten planet
Like a big yellow button with your name written on it

Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I'd like to write some lines
In praise of your knee, and the back of your neck
And the double-decker bus that brings you to me
So when the sun comes up tomorrow
It'll shine on a world made richer by a sonnet
And a half-dozen epics as long as the Aeneid

Oh give me a pen and some paper
Give me a chisel or a camera
A piano and a box of rubber bands
I need room for choreography
And a darkroom for photography
Tie the brush into my hands!

Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I'd like to write your name
From the belt of Orion to the share of the Plough
The snout of the Bear to the belly of the Lion
So when the sun goes down tomorrow
There'll never be a minute
Not a moment of the night that hasn't got you in it

WhatWouldLeslieKnopeDo · 23/06/2017 18:26

I saved this feature from the Guardian for the Royal Wedding as I thought many of them were beautiful. What about Love Listen by Ann Gray?

Let's love, listen, take time
when time is all we have.
Let's be unafraid to be kind,
learn to disregard the bad
if the good outweighs it daily.
Let's make a gift of silence,
the day's hushing into dark,
and when we hold each other
let's always be astonished
we are where we want to be.
Let's hope to age together,
but if we can't, let's promise now
to remember how we shone
when we were at our best,
when we were most ourselves.

Though it depends how matter of fact they are being about theif situation, as it might be upsetting if they'd prefer not to discuss it.

Mrsglitterfairy · 23/06/2017 18:40

We had the footprints poem at pur wedding. Maybe that will be suitable.

suitable wedding  poem- terminal illness
WhatWouldLeslieKnopeDo · 23/06/2017 18:41

Driveme that one is really lovely :)

Welshmaenad · 23/06/2017 18:44

Union by Robert Fulghum
You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point, you decided to marry. From that moment of yes, to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making commitments in an informal way. All of those conversations that were held in a car, or over a meal, or during long walks – all those conversations that began with, “When we’re married”, and continued with “I will” and “you will” and “we will” – all those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe” – and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding.
The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped, and dreamed – well, I meant it all, every word.”
Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another – acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, even teacher, for you have learned much from one another these past few years. Shortly you shall say a few words that will take you across a threshold of life, and things between you will never quite be the same.
For after today you shall say to the world –
This is my husband. This is my wife.

Mrsglitterfairy · 23/06/2017 18:44

We also had this one which is very sweet

Mrsglitterfairy · 23/06/2017 18:45

This one even

suitable wedding  poem- terminal illness
Mrsglitterfairy · 23/06/2017 18:47

3rd time lucky...

suitable wedding  poem- terminal illness
Chasingsquirrels · 23/06/2017 18:50

I knew I shouldn't have opened this thread from the title, we married last year about a month after DH's cancer diagnosis (wedding just arranged when he started feeling unwell). Some of these are lovely.

CaptainHammer · 23/06/2017 19:07

DriveMe I love that one

Izzy24 · 23/06/2017 19:14

What beautiful words to read.

RibenaMonsoon · 23/06/2017 19:28

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)


By E E Cummings

Lovestonap · 23/06/2017 19:37

We had this poem/reading

Marriage is commitment to take that joy deep, deeper than happiness, deep into the discovery of who you most truly are. It is a commitment to a spiritual journey, to a life of becoming-in which joy can comprehend despair, running through rivers of pain into joy again.

And thus marriage is even deeper than commitment. It is a covenant -- a covenant that says:

I love you.

I trust you.

I will be here for you when you are hurting, and when I am hurting, I will not leave.

It is a covenant intended not to provide haven from pain or from anger and sorrow. Life offers no such haven. Instead, marriage is intended to provide a sanctuary safe enough to risk loving, to risk living and sharing from the center of oneself. This is worth everything.


I liked it because it wasn't too fluffy, but acknowledged that the whole point of marriage is to face inevitable pain and difficulty together.

But I also like the biro one.....

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FoxSticks · 23/06/2017 19:41

I love this one because of its simplicity, about love and nothing else.

LOVE
~ By Roy Croft ~

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.

tootsieglitterballs · 23/06/2017 19:42

If you want something uplifting and that will bring a smile, even a laugh, then Pam ayres has written some wonderful wedding suitable poems.

billabye · 23/06/2017 19:42

Driveme I love that one

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