For Laura & James Yeary
The poet Robert Grenier once wrote, “I hate speech.”
The poet James Yeary recently wrote, “I hate metaphor” (or something like that). We will pick up that metaphor at the end of the ceremony, but here is a strand of it. Take one and make sure you are connected to at least one other person.
Handout lengths of yarn. Everyone has the end of one in each hand. (To symbolize that we are all connected to James and Laura.)
Weave a web of poets/poetry (with and without metaphor).
Please listen to these poems/parts of poems. Listen, reflect, and be prepared to recall/recite a word, phrase, line or lines later (to each other, to James and Laura)
Have the couple rotate in the four directions as I move in the four directions in the opposite direction to signify we are all of all spaces and those within/inside our movement are within/inside.
Position 1 Facing away
1. C. D. Wright
Everything good between men and women
has been written in mud and butter
and barbecue sauce. The walls and
the floors used to be gorgeous.
The socks off-white and a near match.
……………………………….Eyes
have we and we are forever prey
to each other’s teeth. The torrents
go over us. Thunder has not harmed
anyone we know. The river coursing
through us is dirty and deep.
………………. No fires should be
unattended.
The first few tongues are clearly
preparatory.
Move 90 degrees/Position 2 Facing Right
2. Larry Eigner
things
stirring
together
the wind
fly
objects
birds, shove
out
thermals
…………………………
Many lives
budding ahead of
us
the tree
branches enough
the leaves
fall out
on the wind
…………………………….
waves sounding
damp air
birdcalls in trees
there’s a shadow in the sun
bluebird
and crow
does a plane shift
there is one time
Move 90 degrees/Position 3 Facing Gathering
3. John Donne
And now good-morrow to their waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
[Her] face in [his] eye, [his] in [hers] appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Move 90 degrees/Position 4 Facing Left
4. Mary Rose Larkin
Come and absolve the resistance
come chance tides
come expound breath intelligible
come shine
come abound unfold in and about go
The name of this intersection is frost broken up
heavy spar reign heavy phrase ravishment
strands careening
let us unfurl instead: weather
see also river
see also self and the less restricted sense
From The Name of This Intersection is Frost
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2010/larkinMR.html
Move 90 degrees/Position 1 Facing Away
5. Crag Hill
he she there
he she here
hear her
hear him
hear them
hum
hear here
there there
they are
theirs
their hum
they are
ours
our hum
hear her
him
there his
her
she he there
she he here
hear him
hear her
hear their
hum
hear there
here hear
there
they’re
they are
theirs
hum them
they are
ours
our hum
her him
here
his her
there
he she
she he
hum and
hum and
hum
hear them
here
Move 90 degrees/ Position 2 Facing Right
6. William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
….
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.
Move 90 degrees/ Position 3 Facing Gathering
7. William Carlos Williams
Even in the time when as yet
I had no certain knowledge of her
She sprang from the nest, a young crow,
Whose first flight circled the forest.
I know now how then she showed me
Her mind, reaching out to the horizon,
She close above the tree tops.
I saw her eyes straining at the new distance
And as the woods fell from her flying
Likewise they fell from me as I followed
So that I strongly guessed all that I must put from me
To come through ready for the high courses.
Move 90 Degrees/ Position 4 Facing Left
8. e. e. cummings
love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
Move 90 degrees/ Position 1 Facing Away
9. Kenneth Koch
He loves you as a sheriff searches for a walnut
That will solve a murder case unsolved for years
Because the murderer left it in the snow beside a window
Through which he saw her head, connecting with
Her shoulders by a neck, and laid a red
Roof in her heart. For this we live a thousand years;
For this we love, and we live because we love, we are not
Inside a bottle, thank goodness! ….She loves you
Best at dawn, when even before she is awake the sun
Receives her in the questions which he always poses.
Move 90 degrees/Position 2 facing right
10. Juliana Spahr
We come into the world.
We come into the world and there it is.
The sun is there.
The brown of the river leading to the blue and the brown of the ocean is there.
Salmon and eels are there moving between the brown and the brown and the blue.
The green of the land is there.
Elders and youngers are there.
Fighting and possibility and love are there.
And we begin to breathe.
We come into the world and there it is.
We come into the world without and we breathe it in.
We come into the world.
We come into the world and we too begin to move between the brown and the blue and the green of it.
Move 90 degrees/Position 3 Facing Gathering
11. Jane Hirshfield
Today when persimmons ripen
Today when fox-kits come out of their den into snow
Today when the spotted egg releases its wren song
Today when the maple sets down its red leaves
Today when windows keep their promise to open
Today when fire keeps its promise to warm
Today when someone you love has died
or someone you never met has died
Today when someone you love has been born
or someone you will not meet has been born
Today when rain leaps to the waiting of roots in their dryness
Today when starlight bends to the roofs of the hungry and tired
Today when someone sits long inside his last sorrow
Today when someone steps into the heat of her first embrace
Today, let this light bless you
With these friends let it bless you
With snow-scent and lavender bless you
Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly
Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears
Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes
Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you
Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days
Now speak the word, speak the phrase, speak the line or lines that have resonated for you. Let your voices be heard. Speak to those next to you.
Now speak to those behind you and in front of you. Let your voices be heard.
Now speak to Laura and James. Let our voices be heard.
Closing
We are joined here together to celebrate James and Laura and each other resonating in this place in this time. We are joined here together to celebrate Laura and James and each other and this place and this time and the places and times James and Laura will inhabit, with and/or without us. We are joined here together to celebrate. We are joined here together. We are joined.
On the count of “We,” pass your connections to Laura and James. May they take these strings, this ball of metaphor, with them for the rest of their lives together.
Now it is time for James and Laura to be heard. Please exchange your vows.
Now it is time to exchange rings. May these wedding bands ring in your hands for the rest of your lives together.
Now you may kiss the groom.
I now introduce you to Laura and James Yeary.
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