So you know what's NOT easy? Finding love poems or readings that are not too mushy, or not desperately preachy about how hard it is to stay married, or not just generally lame. I have bought several love poetry books thinking there would have to be something in a book with a hundred poems that would do -- but no. Of the poems that aren't too Hallmark-y, half are secretly about longing for someone else. The remainder are often quite good, but, ahem, too sexy for a family audience.

The good news is that all this searching has helped me find a list of poems for people to read during our Friday afternoon games day for the Love Poem Reading Contest, where the sexy might sneak under the wire and the too-saccharine might be amusing. The bad news is that I still don't have any great readings for the wedding per se.

I leave you with a good Ogden Nash poem that exemplifies the problem of finding something that's not a cliche. . . and still makes you smile at the end anyway.

Geniuses of countless nations
Have told their love for generations
Till all their memorable phrases
Are common as goldenrod or daisies.
Their girls have glimmered like the moon,
Or shimmered like a summer moon,
Stood like a lily, fled like a fawn,
Now the sunset, now the dawn,
Here the princess in the tower
There the sweet forbidden flower.
Darling, when I look at you
Every aged phrase is new,
And there are moments when it seems
I've married one of Shakespeare's dreams.

posted by Karen @ 4:57 PM