T he Bargain by Sir Philip Sidney

My true love hath my heart and I have his,By just exchange, one for the other 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 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.

The First Day by Christina Rossetti

I wish I could remember the first day.First hour, first moment of your meeting me;If bright or dim the season, it might beSummer or winter for aught I can say.So unrecorded did it slip away,So blind was I to see and to forsee,So dull to mark the budding of my tree.That would not blossom for many a May.If only I could recollect it!Such a day of days! I let it come and goAs traceless as a thaw of bygone snow.It seemed to mean so little, meant so much!If only now I could recall that touch,First touch of hand in hand! -Did one but know!

If I can make you cry by Paul Williams

If I can make you cryIf I can make you fill with pleasureJust by holding you In the early hours of the morningWhen the day that lies ahead’sNot quite begun.If I can make you smileIf I can move you closeTo laughter with a word or twoWhen your day’s been filled with strangersAnd the castles that you buildAll tumble down.Oh well, that’s enough for meThat’s all the hero I need to beI smile to think of you and meYou and IAnd how our pleasures make you cry

Love by Guy De Maupassant

It is a short word, but it contains all:It means the body, the soul, the life, the entire being.We feel it as we feel the warmth of the blood,We carry it in ourselves as we carry our thoughts.Nothing more exists for us.It is not a word; it is an inexpressible state indicatedby four letters

Feeling Safe

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort, ofFeeling safe with a person;Having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words,But pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and Grain together.Knowing that a faithful hand will take and siftThem,Keep what is worth keeping an then – with the Breath of kindness –Blow the rest away.

The key to LoveThe key to love is understanding…The ability to comprehendNot only the spoken word,But those unspoken gestures,The little things that saySo much by themselves.The key to love is forgiveness…To accept each other’s faultsAnd pardon mistakes,Without forgetting – But with rememberingWhat you learn from them.The key to love is trust…Though dark doubtsLie in hollowed thoughts,It must shine brightly onWith reassuring radianceThat suppresses fear with faith.The to key to love is sharing…Facing your good fortunesAs well as the bad, together,Both conquering problemsForever searching for waysTo intensify your happiness.The key to love is giving….Without thought of return,But with hope of just a simple smileAnd giving-in, but never up.The key to love is respect….Realising that you are two separate peopleWith different ideas;That doesn’t belong to each other,But belong with each otherAnd share a mutual bond.The key to love is inside us all…It takes time and patienceTo unlock all the ingredientsThat will take you to its threshold;It is a continual learning processThat demands lots of work…But the rewards are more thanWorth the effort…and you is the key to me.

From the I Ching

When two people are at one in theirInmost hearts, they shatter even the Strength of iron or bronze. And when Two people understand each other inTheir inmost hearts, their words are Sweet and strong like the fragranceof orchids.

Keres Indian song

I add my breath to your breathThat our days may be long in the earthThat the days of our people may be longThat we may be one personThat we may finish our roads together.

Love by Roy Croft

I love you Not only for what you areBut for what I am with you.I love you,Not only what you have made of yourself,But for what you are making of me.I love youFor putting your hand into my heaped-upHeartAnd passing over all the foolish, weak thingsThat you can’t help dimly seeing there,And for drawing out into the lightAll the beautiful belongingsThat no one else had looked Quite far enough to find

I love you because youAre helping me to makeOf the lumber of my lifeNot a tavern, but a temple;Out of the worksOf my every dayNot a reproachBut a song.

I love youBecause you have done More than any creedCould have doneTo make me good,And moore than any fateCould have doneTo make me happy.

You have done itWithout a touch,Without a word,Without a sign.You have done it by being yourselfPerhaps that is what Being a friend means, after all

Unhurried Days

While unhurried Days come and go,Let us turn to each other inQuiet affection, walk in peace to theEdge of old age

Long Marriages

Oh, the head that lies on the pillow- Twenty, thirty, forty years.The hair that was brown goes grey,Then white.

But all the time the love increases.To see the head they’re all those yearsIs itself a charm against the things?Of night!

Together

We have lived and loved togetherThrough many changing years,We have shared each other’s gladnessAnd wept each other’s tears.And let us hope the future,As the past has been will be:I will share with thee my sorrows,And thou thy joys with me.

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage if true minds admit impediments.Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds,Or beds with the remover to remove:O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark.That looks on tempest 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 cheeksWithin 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.

Marriage- Mark Twain

A marriage…. makes of two fractional livesA whole, it gives to two purposeless livesA work, and doubles the strengthOf each to perform it,It gives to two questioning naturesA reason for living, and something to live for;A new fragrance to the flowers,A new beauty to the earth,And a new mystery to life.

Thy Love by Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee:If ever wife was happy in a man,Compare with me ye woman if you can,I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,Or all the riches that the east doth hold.My love is such that rivers cannot quench,Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.Thy love is such I can no way repay,The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.Then while we live, in love lets so preserve,That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Margaret Lawrence to Benedict Greene

I think that never in a thousand letters could I ever begin to tell you what it means to be able to some home to you.I never realised how starved I was for this deep wonderful sweetness, a small place where my love lives which he gives to me as my own and tells me is mine.It’s a symbol of the sweetness and the peace I know with you.It’s made up of all our hours together – the hours of the days and nights we have had together.It means music to me, and the blessing of good food, preparing it for you and me to eat together.It means the talking one can only do with one’s dearest, closest, oldest friend and the silences one falls onto only with this friend.It means all the happy things done together, and work that suddenly become play because it has been shared with a friend and lover.

Let Them by George Bruce

Let the young make up their love songs,On which subject they are securely ignorant.Let them look into eyes that mirror themselves.Let them groan and ululate their desire into a microphone.Let them shout into their proclamations over the tannoy-A whisper is enough for us.

Quiet Thoughts by Hugh Prather

The quiet thoughtsOf people a long time in loveTouch lightlyLikes birds nesting in each other’s warmthYou will know them by their laughterBut to each other they speak mostly through their solitudeIf they find themselves apartThey may dream of sitting undisturbedIn each other’s presenceOf wrapping themselves warmlyIn each other’s easy

A Union

There is nothing more lovely in life than the union of two people whose love for one another has grown through the years from the small acorn of passion to a great rooted tree.Surviving all vicissitudes, and rich with its many difficulties branches,Every leaf holding its own significance.

Marriage Is

Someone to believe in And to put their trust in youSomeone who appreciatesThe special things you do,Someone to be close to,In your heart and mind,Someone who’s the loveYou might have thought you’d never fing,Someone who stands by youAnd who’s faith can make you strong,Someone you will cherish Every day, your whole life long.

By Emily Matthews

The Meaning of True Love

It is sharing and caring, giving and forgiving,Loving and being loved, walking hand in hand,Talking heart to heart, seeing through each other’s eyes,Laughing together, weeping together,Being together, always trustingAnd believing in each other….For love that is shared is a beautiful thing-It enriches the soul and makes the heart sing !(Helen Steiner Rice)

As A True Heart

Accept my love, as a true heartAs ever lover gave:‘tis free, it vows, from any art,and proud to be your slave.Then take it kindly, as was meant,And let the giver live,Who, with it, would be world have sent,Had it been his to give.(Matthew Prior)

From Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

Love is temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsidesyou 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 artand a fortunate accident.Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other,Underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

WHAT IS A SOULMATE?

If you have found a smile That is the sweetest one you’ve known

If you have heard within a voiceThe echoes of your ownIf you have felt a touch

That stirs the longing of your heartAnd still can feel that closeness

In the moments you’re apart.If you have filled with wonderAt the way two loves can blend

To weave a perfect patternThat is seamless end to end

If you believe some things in lifeAre simply meant to be,

Then you have found your soul-mate,Your heart’s own destiny.

Wherever I am, there’s always Pooh,

There’s always Pooh and me,Whatever I do, he wants to do,

“Where are you going today”? Says Pooh,“Well that’s very odd ‘cos I was too.“Let’s go together” says Pooh says he

“Lets go together” says Pooh……

So wherever I am, there’s always Pooh.There’s always POOH AND ME.“What would I do”? I said to Pooh

“If it wasn’t for you.” And pooh said“True, it isn’t much fun for one,

But two can stick together”, sys Pooh, says he.“That’s how it is”, says Pooh

WHAT IS LOVE

Sooner or later we begin to understand that love is more than verses on valentines and romance in the movies. We begin to

know that love is here and now, real and true, the most important thing in our lives. For love is the creator of our

favourite memories and the foundation of our fondest dreams. Love is a promise that is always kept, a fortune that can never be

spent, a seed that can flourish in the most unlikely of places. And this radiance that never fades, this mysterious and magical joy is the greatest treasure of all – one known only by those who

love.

OGDEN NASH (1902 – 1971)To keep your marriage brimming

With love in the loving cupWhenever you’re wrong – admit itWhenever you’re right – shut up!!

OUR LOVEBy Bruce B Wilmer

Our love is something we have built from passions hopes and dreams

It’s safe from any passing moods, secure from all extremes.It’s something real and special, something solid, something

pure.Its something we can always count on ringing sound and sureIt’s something our grounded in the heart, emitting confidence

It lives in our emotions; it is something we can sense;Our love remains a binding force, resistant to all strife

Amidst the outer pressures it’s our anchor throughout life.

LOVE IS GIVINGANON

Love is giving, not takingMending, not breaking

Trusting, believing, never deceivingPatiently bearing and faithfully sharing each joy,

Every sorrow, today and tomorrowLove is kind, understanding, but never demanding

Love is constant, prevailing, its strength never failing,A promise once spoken – for all time unbroken

Loves time is forever.

MY OATH TO YOU

When you are sad, I will dry your tears;When you are scared I will comfort your fears.

When you are worried I will give you hope,When you are confused I will help you to cope.

And when you are lost and cant see the lightI will be your beacon, shining ever so bright.

This is my oath I pledge to the end. Why, you may ask?Because you are my lover and my friend.

WHAT IS LOVE?

Love is just not looking at each other and saying, “You’re wonderful”.

There are times when we are anything but wonderful.Love is looking out in the same direction.

It is linking strength to pull a common load.It is pushing together towards the far horizons, hand in hand.

Love is knowing that when our strength falters,We can borrow the strength of someone who cares.

Love is strange awareness that our sorrows will be sharedAnd made lighter by sharing; that joys will be enriched and

multiplied by the joys of another.

Love is knowing someone else cares that we are not alone in life.

Partners

The first dance of all when they danced heart to heartThey knew, they both knew, it was only the startOf something more wonderful than a mere dance

More than a thrill of a passing romance.

They knew without saying that Love, the real thing,Had touched them that night with its shimmering wing.

No word had been spoken and yet they both knewThat suddenly all sorts of dreams had come true.

It’s many a year since the night that they metBut that first dance they will never forget

Then a boy and a girl and now husband and wifeStill happy, still dancing and partners for life.

Patience Strong (1907-1990)