Turtle said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:08 pm

I love this poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/colors-passing-through-us/

Jayme said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:11 pm

I love a Mad Girl’s Love Song

http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/madgirl.html

my favorite lines?
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

Miss Nomer said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:14 pm

Anything by Billy Collins, but especially this one: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/marginalia/

I always write in the margins of my books and it horrifies my husband. I’m glad Mr. Collins agrees with me!

Becky said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:20 pm

I’m not much of a poetry buff, so I’m going old school with this one: The Meehoo and the Exactlywhat by Shel Silverstein

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/shel_silverstein/poems/14826

Eileen said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:24 pm

favorite romantic poem~

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 the 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)

–ee cummings

Amanda said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:29 pm

I love Shel Silverstein because he reminds me of my childhood and reading his poems with my deceased grandmother!

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
Shel Silverstein

*Michelle said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:31 pm

For our wedding I found a beautiful poem, and then added a few lines of my own.

Excerpt from “The House is Beautiful” by William C. Gannett:

I dreamed of Paradise,– and still,
though sun lay soft on vale and hill,
And trees were green and rivers bright,
The one dear thing that made delight
By sun or stars or Eden weather,
Was just that we two were together.

I dreamed of Heaven,– and God so near!
The angels trod the shining sphere,
And all were beautiful; the days
Were choral work, were choral praise;
And yet, in Heaven’s far-shining weather,
The best was still,– we were together!

I woke– and found my dream was true,
That happy dream of me and you!
For Eden, Heaven, no need to roam;
The foretaste of it all is Home,
Where you and I through this world’s weather
Still work and praise and thank together.

….

and my little insert here at the end =)

I know how tiny and small we seem,
Yet, how rare and precious, just by being.
My experience says we’re not alone,
And in my heart, with you, I’m home.
Through time and trials, we will weather,
Holding hands and hearts, we live on together.

Meg said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:31 pm

maggie and milly and molly and may
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

Mary said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:32 pm

I can’t help but share two. While not a poem exactly, I love this bit of prose. As you may or may not recall, it was read at our wedding:

“Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.”
-Louis de Bernieres

As for a poem,

Understand, I’ll slip quietly
Away from the noisy crowd
When I see the pale
Stars rising, blooming over the oaks.
I’ll pursue solitary pathways
Through the pale twilit meadows,
With only this one dream:
You come too.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Pink Heli said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:37 pm

Do songs count as poems? I’m lyrical. Check out Barry Polisar’s “All I want is you”.

Norah said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:44 pm

So I know this isn’t technically a “poem,” but it’s song lyrics from If It’s the Beaches, my absolute favorite song from The Avett Brothers. Hope that doesn’t disqualify me!

Here’s a snippet:

“Even though its hard to hide
Push my feelings all aside
I will rearrange my plans and
change for you

If I could go back
That’s the first thing I would do
I swear that I would
Do my best to follow through
Come up with a master plan
A homerun hit, a winning stand
A guarantee and not a promise
That I’ll never let your love
slip from my hands”

Kind of long for a wall decal, no? Some might call it a depressing “love lost” song, but I think it really speaks to the importance of compromise, of being willing to put your partner first sometimes.

I know you, Jenna, get a lot of flak for taking TH’s input as far as your clothes, television watching, etc. But to me, the concept of having to “rearrange my plans” for my husband doesn’t mean I’m giving up on who I am/what I want. The fact is, married couples set standards for each other all the time, whether it’s little stuff like taking out the trash or big stuff like how to raise a child.

While my husband isn’t quite as “idealized” as TH, I find myself making small changes every day to be the kind of wife he wants/needs/deserves. And vice versa, of course! This change business goes both ways! I don’t see what’s so wrong with that, as long as both partners feel that each change is a choice and not a mandate.

Jessicah said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:47 pm

We had this quote in our wedding ceremony, I’d wanted it since I was about 14!! It’s from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.”

p.s. Jenna, I found you on Wedding Bee when we were planning our wedding, and have enjoyed reading your blog since. What initially attracted me to your blog was all.those.stunning.wedding.photos!!!

Teale said:
February 26th, 2010 on 12:58 pm

One of my favorites is from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran. I enjoy many of the chapters, but this one has a soft spot, because it was a reading at our wedding. It’s from the chapter “On Marriage”
http://www.katsandogz.com/onmarriage.html

Kourt said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:02 pm

This poem holds a special place in my heart. My grandpa and I used to recite it all the time and for that reason, I will always love it.

“I heard a bird sing in the dark of December
A wonderous thing
And sweet to remember”

Simple, but fitting especially since it’s still winter here! lol

Evelyn said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:09 pm

Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Or do without

I’m not sure who it’s attributed to, but I know I found it in a conference talk YEARS ago. Perhaps Pres. Hinckley??

Emily said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:19 pm

There’s no way to pick just one. But, I do love Maya Angelou. Here’s a great quote:
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. ”
-Maya Angelou

Nikki said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:25 pm

The one I love most is long so I’ll link to it – it’s by John Piper who wrote it for his son’s wedding…
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Poems/ByDate/1208_Love_Her_More_and_Love_Her_Less/

christiana (us meets uk) said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:28 pm

I feel like such a biter – I like so many of the writers and pieces mentioned! But I do like “I carry your heart with me” by ee cummings

Amy Carter said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:29 pm

Here’s one I wrote when I was seven:

Love is wonderful,
Love is neat,
and love is always, always complete.
Although I wonder,
wonder a lot
who loves me and who does not.

Not bad for a first grader, eh?

megan said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:44 pm

One of my favorites (its more of a quote than a poem) is from Victor Hugo which we used in our ceremony:
“When two souls, which have sought each other for however long in the throng, have found each other, when they have seen that they are matched, are in sympathy and compatible, in a word, that they are alike; there is then established forever between them a union, fiery and pure as they themselves are, a union which begins on earth and continues and continues forever in eternity. This union is love, true love, such as in truth very few men can conceive of, that love which is as a religion, which defines the loved one, whose life comes from devotion and passion, and for which the greatest sacrifices are the sweetest delights.”

Also,
I love classic Shakespeare sonnets.

LX
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end,
Each changing place with that which goes before
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith, being crowned,
Crooked eclipses ‘gainst his glory fight
And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,
Feeds on the rarities of natures truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow;
And yet, to times, in hope, my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

Crystal said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:46 pm

True Love by Judith Viorst

It is true love because
I put on eyeliner and a concerto and make pungent observations about the great issues of the day
Even when there’s no one here but him,
And because
I do not resent watching the Green Bay Packers
Even though I am philosophically opposed to football,
And because
When he is late for dinner and I know he must be either having an affair or lying dead in the middle of the street,
I always hope he’s dead.

It’s true love because
If he said quit drinking martinis but I kept drinking them and the next morning I couldn’t get out of bed,
He wouldn’t tell me he told me,
And because
He is willing to wear unironed undershorts
Out of respect for the fact that I am philosophically opposed to ironing,
And because
If his mother was drowning and I was drowning and he had to choose one of us to save,
He says he’d save me.

It’s true love because
When he went to San Francisco on business while I had to stay home with the painters and the exterminator and the baby who was getting the chicken pox,
He understood why I hated him,
And because
When I said that playing the stock market was juvenile and irresponsible and then the stock I wouldn’t let him buy went up twenty-six points,
I understood why he hated me,
And because
Despite cigarette cough, tooth decay, acid indigestion, dandruff, and other features of married life that tend to dampen the fires of passion,
We still feel something
We can call
True love.

Hayley Marie said:
February 26th, 2010 on 1:50 pm

I love the style of e. e. cummings… I think it stems back to my sense of kinship over his lack of punctuation and capitalization. If I could pick a longer poem though, I’d have to say Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. Again, it’s extremely simple and can feel too childish but there is something so sweet and wonderful about that book.

i carry your heart with me by e. e. cummings

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 the 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)

Julia said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:02 pm

“Daffodils” (1804)

I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch’d in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed — and gazed — but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

Mrs. H-B said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:18 pm

This is my favorite. It’s a bit (okay WAY) on the serious side, but I always find some new little nuance whenever I read it. (Confession: It’s in my scriptures. Depressing? Yes.)

http://www.thebeckoning.com/poetry/yeats/yeats5.html

Jennifer said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:24 pm

This is part of an Irish blessing that I ended my Matron of Honor speech with at my best friends wedding…

May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings,
Slow to make enemies,
And quick to make friends.
But rich or poor, quick or slow,
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

Katherine said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:29 pm

“Hope” is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

Emily Dickinson

Lizzie said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:32 pm

I love this one by Robert Frost:

The Master Speed

No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have speed far greater. You can climb
Back up a stream of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will,
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power of standing still-
Off any still or moving thing you say.
Two such as you with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar

Brooke said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:35 pm

My favorite poem is a children’s rhyme I learned when I was young, and got to use again for a graphic design project which became the best work I did in that class! Here it goes (and the author is anonymous)

“I wish I had a nickel, I wish I had a dime
I wish I had a boyfriend, who’d kiss me all the time

My mama took my nickel, my papa took my dime,
My sister took my boyfriend, and left me Frankenstein!

He made me wash the dishes, he made me wash the floor,
He made me wash his underwear, and kicked me out the door!!”

ah, still gets me every time!

Jessica Peck said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:44 pm

My favorite poem is John Donne’s A Valediction Forbidding Mourning. It’d about long distance love, and since 1/3 of my relationship has been extended LDR (hello, 5 time zones!) my FI and I are erading it at our wedding. Here you go:

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
“Now his breath goes,” and some say, “No.”

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
‘Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers’ love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, ’cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’ other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th’ other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.

Laura L. said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:51 pm

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

HamiHarri said:
February 26th, 2010 on 2:55 pm

I can’t think of one that makes me swoon right now – so I’ll stick with a classic (and the first poem I learned

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Sugar is Sweet
And so are You!

danielle said:
February 26th, 2010 on 3:04 pm

when i was 15, i had this poem pasted on the front cover of my binders. it still is so beautiful all these years later:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/our-lady-peace/

Sarah said:
February 26th, 2010 on 3:17 pm

That Wife Blog is so cute
And she’s got Prizes to boot!

Here’s hoping that I win
My house decor is pretty thin

Hope kissing up gives me a better chance
If I win I’ll do a Happy Dance!

MrsW said:
February 26th, 2010 on 3:19 pm

Right now (I tend to cycle through favorites) my favorite is actually a hymn by Isaac Watts, “How Sweet and Awesome Is The Place”

How sweet and awesome is this place
[originally How sweet and aweful is the place]
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores!

Here every bowel of our God
With soft compassion rolls;
Here peace and pardon bought with blood
Is food for dying souls.

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”

’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May with one voice, and heart and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace.

Jess said:
February 26th, 2010 on 3:28 pm

I’m loving the giveways today – my husband and I just bought a house, and now I’m on the hunt for decor inspiration. These giveways have been perfect!

I’m with Eileen. I love the classic “i carry your heart with me” by ee cummings. How could you not?

Joy ( Poodle) said:
February 26th, 2010 on 3:32 pm

I love Pablo Neruda and this is the translation of one of my favorite poems.

http://www.links2love.com/poetry_67.htm

amy said:
February 26th, 2010 on 3:43 pm

hmm i’m actually more of a quote person than a poetry person…and my favorite quote as of late (esp in relation to my own life): life is what happens when you are busy making plans.

Jessica Reed said:
February 26th, 2010 on 3:46 pm

This is one that is super cute to add to a new baby card, and fitting in honor of your little one coming soon!
Blessings come in many shapes,
In sizes large and small,
But a brand new little baby
is the sweetest of them all.

Katy said:
February 26th, 2010 on 4:03 pm

Holy lots of giveaways batman! You are too generous!

Here’s my recent favorite that I’d like to do just what you did on the wall or get a print made of it and frame it – - I love it in lieu of my feelings for the boys, so I’d probably put it in the family room, hallway, or boys’ room with pictures near it/surrounding it.

***********

You are the trip I did not take
You are the pearls I cannot buy
You are my blue Italian lake
You are my piece of foreign sky.

(Anne Campbell)

***********
LOVE LOVE it!

Liz said:
February 26th, 2010 on 4:31 pm

Lips that taste like tears, they say
Are the best for kissing
– Dorothy Parker

Brittney (meltonbritt) said:
February 26th, 2010 on 4:34 pm

I love this quote (it’s not technically a poem) but it’s so cute!

“By perseverance the snail reached the ark”

Jules said:
February 26th, 2010 on 5:02 pm

I like it because it’s slightly uncomfortable…

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise

As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—

Emily Dickinson

Tamara Kenyon said:
February 26th, 2010 on 5:25 pm

Okay so this one is a long one, because this is so dear to me.

This is a passage I had read at our wedding from the Alchemist

“It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.”

I’ve been wanting to have the vinyl letters to put this last piece on our wall with a wedding photo: “Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.”

JessicaMayLords said:
February 26th, 2010 on 5:28 pm

Oh it is simply too hard to pick just one.

I will share with you my two favorites.

The first is this:
As the Ruin Falls

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I have never had a selfless though since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love — a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek–
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

-C.S. LEWIS

If you’re interested in what this poem means to me (impossible to know exactly what it means to the author) I wrote about it here: http://jessicamaylords.blogspot.com/2009/09/as-ruin-falls-all-this-is-flashy.html

And my favorite love poem:

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

–Pablo Neruda

Gretchen T said:
February 26th, 2010 on 5:45 pm

My all time favorite poems is This Is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams because it reads like a sticky note!

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Hizzeather said:
February 26th, 2010 on 6:09 pm

“In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti

I think it’s pretty well known, but it’s my favorite.

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him,
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When he comes to reign;
In the bleak midwinter
A stable place sufficed
The Lord God incarnate,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for him, whom Cherubim
Worship night and day
A breast full of milk
And a manger full of hay.
Enough for him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But his mother only,
In her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him —
Give my heart.

Laura said:
February 26th, 2010 on 6:17 pm

i love romantic poems, but this unromantic one is one of my favorites for how it twists the meaning:

you fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye

-margaret atwood

Kat Speyer said:
February 26th, 2010 on 6:34 pm

I heard Kary Wayson at a poetry reading at Open Books, a poetry bookstore in my neighborhood. She was reading this poem when we arrived, a few minutes late. It stuck with me. Something about the longing in it:

“More of the Same”
but even with my mouth on your thigh
i want my mouth on your thigh.
at the center bite of bread i want the whole loaf
toasted, and an orange. On a sunny day
i want more sun, more skin for the weather.
i’m in Seattle wishing for Seattle,
for this walk along the water, for her hand while i hold it:
i want to tie my wrist to a red balloon.
i’m counting my tips.
i’m counting the tips i could have made.
i want the television on, the television off.
in the ocean, i want to float an inch above it
and when my father finally held me
like a stripe of seaweed over his wet arm,
i was kicking to get away, wishing he’d hold me
like he held me while i was kicking away. listen to me.
i want to leave when i’m walking out the door.

Rachel said:
February 26th, 2010 on 6:52 pm

SOUND OF SILENCE
By Raymond J. Baughan

http://deletingtheadjectives.blogspot.com/2010/02/let-us-be-silent-that-we-may-hear.html

Jamie J. said:
February 26th, 2010 on 7:04 pm

Neruda’s Sonnet XVII
Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Lindsay said:
February 26th, 2010 on 7:49 pm

“The God Who Loves You” by Carl Dennis

Kind of depressing, but oddly beautiful at the same time. Okay, really a downer, not just “kinda” a downer.

Britt said:
February 26th, 2010 on 8:16 pm

My favourite love poem is I carry my heart (I carry it in my heart) by E.E Cummings

stacey said:
February 26th, 2010 on 8:26 pm

i’ve always loved shakespeare’s sonnet 116:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

LeiLani said:
February 26th, 2010 on 9:09 pm

Any of the poems I blogged about for my love letter box here:

http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/10/26/help-me-pick-a-quote-for-our-love-letter-box/

I’ve been wanting a vinyl piece FOREVER! I’m not sure why I haven’t gotten one already?

Maria said:
February 26th, 2010 on 9:14 pm

Best advice about writing ever– Arte Poetica, by Vincente Huidobro:

“Que el verso sea como una llave
Que abra mil puertas.
Una hoja cae; algo pasa volando;
Cuanto miren los ojos creado sea,
Y el alma del oyente quede temblando.

Inventa mundos nuevos y cuida tu palabra;
El adjetivo, cuando no da vida, mata.”

Translated (and losing something):

“Verse is like a key
That opens a thousand doors
A page turns, something takes flight
How many believing eyes look
And the hearing soul remains trembling
Invent new worlds and care for their word”
The adjective, when it does not give life, kills

Anna Murphey said:
February 26th, 2010 on 9:38 pm

I’m content the angels must have sent you…

Put in my daughter’s room.

From Singin’ in the Rain.

R said:
February 26th, 2010 on 10:00 pm

http://home.att.net/~tennysonpoetry/lh.htm

“Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, match’d with mine,
Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine–”

Courtney said:
February 26th, 2010 on 10:19 pm

Not sure if this exactly qualifies as a poem, but it is also one of my faves. Always have wedding on the brain!

“Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.” – Louis de Bernieres

That Wife » Blog Archive » Thank You Giveaway Winners… said:
February 27th, 2010 on 11:30 pm

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