words

After our meeting with the rabbi on Sunday, Ari and I have sussed out what our ceremony is going to look like.  Well, so far as we want to know.  We know all the parts, but some things that the rabbi will say, and our vows to each other are still saved for surprises. 

Initially I had been reading all of these ceremonies (I moderate an online forum of knitter and crocheter brides and we have a dedicated thread for that) and thinking we'd use one or another as readings in our own.  I saved only my very favorites, and read them to Ari on the porch one night, but he just wasn't sold.  I was a little bummed at first (the words, they are so beautiful!), but I understood his reluctance and we decided not to have readings.

And this one wouldn't have worked anyway, not for our wedding at least.  But for a spring wedding, all sunshine and peonies and joy, this would be perfect.

Today by Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.
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source

And, in case you were wondering, my favorites were Our Union Could Be Like This by Hafiz, a children's book called I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg and I'll Be There For You by Louise Cuddon.

I found Billy Collins through the ever-awesome East Side Bride, who posted my now favorite video of a three year old kid reciting from memory Collins' beautiful poem Litany.