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Readings & Poems - Page 2

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Love
Scaffolding
Love Lives...
My Love
My True Love
Sonnet 116
Til Death do us part
Touched By An Angel
True Love
Untitled...
Why Marriage.
A History Of Love.
A Marriage
An excerpt from A Bridge Across Forever
Unknown
Untitled

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 you
rself, 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.

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Scaffolding

~ By Seamus Heaney ~

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be

Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

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Love Lives

~ By John Clare ~

Love lives beyond
The tomb, the earth, which fades like dew.
I love the fond,
The faithful, and the true
Love lives in sleep,
The happiness of healthy dreams
Eve's dews may weep,
But love delightful seems. 'Tis heard in Spring
When light and sunbeams, warm and kind,
On angels' wing
Bring love and music to the mind.

And where is voice,
So young, so beautiful and sweet
As nature's choice,
Where Spring and lovers meet?
Love lives beyond
The tomb, the earth, the flowers, and dew.
I love the fond,
The faithful, young and true.

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My Love

~ Linda Lee Elrod ~

When I met you, I had no idea
how much my life
was about to be changed...
but then, how could I have known?
A love like ours happens
once in a lifetime.
You were a miracle to me
, the one who was everything
I had ever dreamed of,
the one I thought existed
only in my imagination.

And when you came into my life,
I realized that what I
had always thought
was happiness
couldn't compare to the joy
loving you brought me.
You are a part of everything
I think and do and feel,
and with you by my side,
I believe that anything is possible
. (this day) gives me a chance
to thank you for the miracle of you
... you are, and always will be,
the love of my life.

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My True Love

~~ Sir Phillip Sydney ~ BR>
My true love hath my heart and I have his,
By just exchange one for another given
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven
My true love hath my heart and I have his.

His heart in me keeps him and me in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his because in me it bides
My true love hath my heart and I have his.

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Sonnet 116

~ By William Shakespeare ~

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-fix'd 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 prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

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Til Death do us part

~ By Carol D. Bos ~

I hope it is decades before death parts us
But I don?t know what God has in mind
I pray that he?ll let us be happy always
But I can?t comprehend plans divine.

It may be that turmoil will dot our landscape
With its gray skies and swirling intrusion
It may be that joy will fill both our hearts
And we’ll think pain is just an illusion.

But I think it’s likely we’ll see some of each
As we walk on this pathway together
I promise you now: I will give all I have
From my mouth you’ll not hear the word "Never."

With so much uncertainty, crime, and abuse
That exists, everywhere, all around us
More than ever we need to hold fast to the truth
Of our marriage. Life will not confound us.
Time together is fleeting; it is too scarce to waste
My goal is to make my life-mission
A beautiful tapestry highlighting us
Sewn with threads from our human condition.

I want to explore the full spectrum of life
Before we’re too close to its leaving
I want to embrace vast explosions of joy
That make both our hearts strong and heaving.

I know I will love you for all of my life
No matter the time we are given.
I’m your till death parts us-left all alone-
Until God reunites us in heaven.

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Touched By An Angel

~ By Maya Angelou ~

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

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True Love

~ Author Unknown ~

True love is a sacred flame
That burns eternally,
And none can dim its special glow
Or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tones
And hears with gentle ear,
True love gives with open heart
And true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands
It neither rules nor binds,
And true love holds with gentle hands
The hearts that it entwines.

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Untitled

~ By Christina Rossetti ~

What is the beginning? Love.
What the course. Love still.
What the goal. The goal is Love.
On a happy hill
Is there nothing then but Love?
Search we sky or earth
There is nothing out of Love
Hath perpetual worth;
All things flag but only Love
, All things fail and flee;
There is nothing left but Love
Worthy you and me.

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Why Marriage

~By Mari Nichols-Haining ~

Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,
With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body...
Because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of me,
Who won't hold them against me,
Who loves me when I'm unlikable,
Who sees the small child in me, and
Who looks for the divine potential of me..
. Because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the night
With someone who thanks God for me,
With someone I feel blessed to hold.

Because marriage means opportunity
To grow in love in friendship...
Because marriage is a discipline
To be added to a list of achievements.

Because marriages do not fail, people fail
When they enter into marriage
Expecting another to make them whole.

Because, knowing this,
I promise myself to take full responsibility
For my spiritual, mental and physical wholeness
I create me,
I take half of the responsibility for my marriage
Together we create our marriage...
Because with this understanding
The possibilities are limitless.

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A History Of Love

~ By Diane Ackerman ~

Love. What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings. How can love's spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable?...Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots stretching deep into dark and mysterious days.....

The heart is a living museum. In each of its galleries, no matter how narrow or dimly lit, preserved forever like wondrous diatoms, are our moments of loving and being liked.

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A Marriage

~ By Michael Blumenthal ~

You are holding up a ceiling
with both arms. It is very heavy,
but you must hold it up, or else
it will fall down on you. Your arms
are tired, terribly tired,
and, as the day goes on, it feels
as if either your arms or the ceiling
will soon collapse.

But then,
unexpectedly,
something wonderful happens:
Someone,
a man or a woman,
walks into the room
and holds their arms up
to the ceiling beside you.

So you finally get
to take down your arms
. You feel the relief of respite,
the blood flowing back
to your fingers and arms.
And when your partner's arms
tire, you hold up your own
to relieve him again.

And it can go on like this
for many years
without the house falling.

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Excerpt from The Bridge Across Forever

~ Richard Bach ~

A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

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Title Unknown

~ By Carl Sandburg ~

I love you for what you are, but I love you yet more for what you are going to be. I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals. I pray for your desires that they may be great, rather than for your satisfactions, which may be so hazardously little. A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall. The most beautiful rose is one hardly more than a bud wherein the pangs and ecstasies of desire are working for a larger and finer growth. Not always shall you be what you are now. You are going forward toward something great. I am on the way with you and therefore I love you.

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Untitled

~ Author Unknown ~

You can give without loving,
but you can never love without giving
. The great acts of love are done by those
who are habitually performing small acts of kindness.
We pardon to the extent that we love.
Love is knowing that even when you are alone,
you will never be lonely again.
And great happiness of life is the conviction
that we are loved.
Loved for ourselves.

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