The Holistic Celebrant
I have collected a selection of poems and readings you may like to use during a ceremony, I hope you will find something suitable. I intend to add more regularly.
My little man, down what centuries
of light did you travel
to reach us here,
your stay so short-lived;
In the twinkling of an eye
you were moving on,
bearing our name and a splinter
of the human cross we suffer;
flashed upon us like a beacon,
we wait in darkness for that light
to come round, knowing at heart
you shine forever for us.
Hugh O’Donnell
This was a life that had hardly begun
No time to find your place in the Sun
No time to do all you could have done
But we loved you enough for a lifetime
No time to enjoy the world and it’s wealth
No time to take life down off the shelf
No time to sing the songs of yourself
Though you had enough love for a lifetime
Those who live long endure sadness and tears
But you’ll never suffer the sorrowing years
No betrayal, no anger, no hatred, no fears
Just love – Only love – In your lifetime.
Mary Yarnall
An epitaph upon husband and wife
To these whom death again did wed
This grave’s the second marriage-bed.
For though the hand of Fate could force
‘Twixt soul and body a divorce,
It could not sever man and wife,
Because they both lived but one life.
Peace, good reader, do not weep;
Peace, the lovers are asleep.
They, sweet turtles, folded lie
In the last knot that love could tie.
Let them sleep, let them sleep on,
Till the stormy night be gone,
And the eternal morrow dawn;
Then the curtains will be drawn,
And they wake into a light
Whose day shall never die in night.
Richard Crashaw (1613 – 1649)
Look upward where the white gull screams,
What does it see that we do not see?
Is that a star? or the lamp that gleams
On some outward voyaging argosy,
Ah! can it be
We have lived our lives in a land of dreams!
How sad it seems.
Sweet, there is nothing left to say
But this, that love is never lost,
Keen winter stabs the breasts of May
Whose crimson roses burst his frost,
Ships tempest-tossed
Will find a harbour in some bay,
And so we may.
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)
I’ll miss you tomorrow
When the toothpaste cap is on
I’ll miss you tomorrow
When I must unlock the front door
I’ll miss you tomorrow
When mine is the only reflection in the mirror
But I will celebrate today
The memories of you
Claudet Monroe
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