Celebrate in Shropshire Shropshire 2018 | Page 18

Readings Wedding Joys ••• (after Auden) ‘I have no name: I am but two days old.’ What shall I call thee? ‘I happy am, Joy is my name.’ Sweet Joy befall thee! Let skylarks soar, spiralling high overhead, Singing on the wind the message, They Are Wed. Scatter the confetti, petals fall where they stand, Toss high the posey to the happy clapping hands. Pretty Joy! Sweet Joy, but two days old. Sweet Joy I call thee. Thou dost smile, I sing the while, Sweet Joy befall thee! You are my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest. My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song, I know love can be forever if deep and strong. The Question The stars are all wanted now, alight every one. Uncloak the Moon and raise high the Sun, Said across the wide oceans, run through the green woods, Enjoy the celebration, life has proved to be good. (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 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 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. • (William Blake) Ring all the bells, blow loud the horn, Allow the children to laugh and shout in the early morn. Play the flute and beat the drum, Bring out the couple, let all the celebration come. Sonnet 116 Infant Joy • (Karla Kuskin) •• People always say to me “What do you think you’d like to be When you grow up?” And, I say “Why, I think I’d like to be the sky Or a plane or train or mouse Or maybe be a haunted house Or something furry, rough and wild… Or maybe I will stay a child.” 17 www.georginabalmerphotography.co.uk