For Will and Laura

It is a great pleasure to have childhood friends
To have shared so many years in places that now seem so small
Friend's homes, old classrooms, even older football pitches
And the paths we walked (or cycled) together that connected them all

If you get to know someone when they are young
It is as if you are witnessing the start of a melody
The opening strings of a crescendo to that will one day come
Lyrics, that now sadly, echo only in memory

But then, you get to be a witness
To their life, their music, and their journey
Until one day the song sounds even more beautiful
As you realise it's turned into a harmony

Will, you were already playing an incredible tune
I felt so lucky to get to listen along
But Laura, you add to him, and he adds to you
And I think everyone here can attest, you both make such a wonderful song

So, I ask you both, do not be silent with your chorus
Be uniquely yourselves when you stand before us
It's time to play your parts together, and play them true
Are you ready? I'll count you in. One, two...

***

(Many thanks to the person who wished to go uncredited for translating this poem into Spanish for some of the Wedding guests, this was really cool to see!)

Es un enorme placer tener amigos de la infancia
Haber compartido años en lugares que ahora parecen tan pequeños
Las casas, las aulas, los campos de fútbol
Y los caminos que caminamos juntos (o en bicicleta) y que los unían a todos 

Si conoces a alguien de joven
Es como si presenciaras el comienzo de una melodía
Las primeras cuerdas de un crescendo que está por llegar.
Letras que ahora sólo resuenan en la memoria.

Más en adelante en la vida, se llega a ser testigo
De lo que sólo puede considerarse un viaje increíble
Hasta que te das cuenta de que la música cantada
Es mucho más hermosa como una armonía

Will, tú ya tocabas una melodía increíble.
Me sentí muy afortunado de poder escucharla.
Pero Laura, tú le añades a él, y él te añade a ti.
Juntos, hacéis una canción maravillosa.

Así que, os lo pido a los dos, no os quedéis callados con vuestro canto.
Sed vosotros mismos cuando estéis ante nosotros.
Haced vuestro papel, y hacedlo de verdad.
¿Están listos? Uno, dos...

Feelings

y'know, maybe there's something to this whole true love thing?
    can't be.
why?
    well, if there were, I reckon more people would do it

I've been dabbling a little in a dark art
Celebrating an emotion previously kept deep in the heart
Trying to figure out if such a feeling is for me
Something I've previously only ever had the urge to flee
I'm not going full ice bath just quite yet
I'm not sure if what I'm feeling is something I'm gonna regret
So I'm taking it slow, this methodical engineer
Is trying to let go and to face his fear

but why is it good to be vulnerable
    what do you mean?
i'm scared of doing things wrong
    but if you don't start, how will you ever do them right?

Candles

We shared a moment,
which turned into eternity.

We listened to each other,
even when we could hardly hear.

We sent gifts of love,
not knowing if they would reach.


It would be easy to give up
To let go of what we had
To accept the loss
Live in a darker world.

Instead, we strove to reach the candles in the distance.
Knowing that, if we did, we could shine together beyond imagination.

Lover

What makes a good lover?
Is it virtue enough to be attracted to each other?
Let's praise each day for all that we do.
If our love is true there's not a single fault with you.

Now, I admire a good love story as long as I have a tissue
But if we talk about such love as truth then I have an issue
You know humans? Kind of goofy looking, walk on their back paws
Well they're living and they're breathing and they're not without flaws

They try their best but they make mistakes
So love can turn into a test of how much you can take
So to love unconditionally without condemnation
To take no action when they hurt you is foolish infatuation

To love is to be vulnerable. Yo, to love is to take risks.
Love is not just for the able. It is for illness, age, broken bones, and slipped disks.
It is for the rich and the poor. For the strong and the weak.
Love, at its core, is kind of bleak.

But in that bleakness, it is beautiful.


What makes a good lover?
            One who sees beauty through the cracks.
            One who does not drift away or turn their back.
A good lover is kind. A good lover is forgiving.
A good lover gives a life that is worth living.

We're Animals

Sometimes I like to say
Let's go wild and adventure
So lets go to our baser nature
And be animalistic in how we play

Yet

I don't wanna be a jellyfish
     'cause without needing to wish
        you can already see right through me
I don't wanna be a zebra neither
     'cause I don't need ya
          to spend that much time crossing me

I don't wanna be a lion
     I'm not lyin'
          I don't wanna have that much pride
I don't wanna be an armadillo
     Couldn't be your pillow
         I just wanna be right there by your side

I don't wanna be a bat
     Or a rat or a cat
         Or anything else in fact than what you see
I don't wanna be a tortoise
     Or a porpoise
           Or anything other than you and me

I don't wanna defend
    The fact I wanna to spend
          Every second at your beck and call
In the end,
    Let's not pretend
         We're anything but animals after all

       

A Muse

She'd was both cute and dangerous, and gosh darn did she know it

She'd inspired lovers and labourers, adventures and poets
Not a soul in this world or the next could resist her charms
Let me explain to stop you being vexed and maybe save you from harm

The most transient and beautiful thing, well after life herself see

She'd overthrown more kings than the oracles at Delphi

Her true name is unknown, she's a Goddess in most culture

She helps Fate be sewn, is more persistent than the vulture

She is bedfellows with Destiny, touching the vestibule of hearts of many a lover

Employed tirelessly to make it irresistible to you when you meet your other

That love is not always requited, yet no known person had found a way to refuse

My determination alighted, I made a pilgrimage to the being known as Muse

As a poet in training, I felt it just a part of my learning

My heart should be paining so my skill could be earning

Following the footsteps of Shakespeare, Byron and Keats

Though it was patently clear this path had witnessed many fantastic feets

I drew closer to her throne, thanking of the travesties she'd help cause
Her will was her's alone, and her history gave me pause
She'd caused hearts to break and strive, thrown men from many a cliff
Though through some she became alive, yet others she made lay stiff

My feet took me to hers, and I stared at her in awe
That I could infer one so great could ever be a flaw!
That I could ever have doubted her heart, it put me to shame
The only being worthy of the great Art done in her name

This Being too influential to deny, so beauteous to behold
She would be my path to the sky, as my sense took hold
I remember her danger. I come to sense as I linger
Deciding to stay a stranger, I showed the great Muse the finger

I walked alone long and friendless down the path I once came

Though it seemed sometimes endless, not once I felt shame

While I may have no Muse to aid my poems and writing

I hope to still amuse and, just maybe, sometimes be enlightening

Dedicated amusedly to the rather drunk girl I was chatting to at a party who absolutely refused to believe it was possible to write love poetry without any sort of muse.

Love: What is love?

Ladies and Gentleman, what is love?
And don't worry, this ain't some bullshit hypothetical
From someone about to brag lyrical
About everything love has meant to him

No, this is genuinely a curious question of a stranger to the concept
Someone who's been told a thousand tales
Of how love can cure ten thousand ails
But never the contents of the ointment

Sure you can call me an unemotional husk of a human being
And you may be right but that doesn't mean I'm less curious
of that which people angrily search for until they're furious
Savagely tearing at their own absurd misconceptions of the small word

Is love just lust by another name?
But coated and quilted to look presentable
Pretending to be something it doesn't represent at all
A dark desire lifted as something to which to aspire

Some claim to have found it easily,
Without smugness but full right to feel that way
For achieving easily what will take some to the end of days
Who're wondering nought but what all the fuss was about

Or is it by definition undefinable by mere words?
Love is what it is, there's no clear map or directions
Just a collection of rumours and vague descriptions
And the journey is what makes you worthy

Ladies and Gentlemen, what is love?
Quite frankly I've no idea
And while I'm willing to learn - I'm still unclear
So here's to somehow finding out what exactly love is about.

Love: Long Distance

Dear Lover,
Though you're many miles away,
There's no one I hold closer to me than you
Though right now I can't hold your hand
You're still the one helping me pull through

Though when I wish you "good morning"
You may be wishing me back "good night"
Though you may be too far for me to see you
I assure you, you're still my light

The distance is far,
Sometimes it can feel too great
From the space between us,
You've seemed distant of late

Just know I'm holding on
Waiting for the day
When we've saved up the money
When we've found a way

To bridge the distance
The world has put between us
It feels like I've done wrong
Being punished for some crime

Yet we'll stitch up the gap
So well that it seems seemless
So that every time I do see you
We embrace again for the first time
Love, x

Love: The moon

When we make love, it'll be to the moon
It'll shine brightly, it'll almost swoon
The great celestial orb will look down on our pairing
So great are we even the moon is moved to caring
It'll see us there, and bless us with moonlight
So let us show our love to the moon tonight.

Mate, fuck the moon.
Fuck thinking you have to be beholden to a lump of rock in the sky
A rock that hides half the time and even then only ever shows half it's face
An oversized pebble that can only reflect the light and energy of others, and produce none itself.
I don't want to be like that. You and me shouldn't hide, even if times are dark.
And we should live off no light but our own.

When we make love, it'll be to the stars
They'll glitter gently from way afar
We'll draw dot to dot over the canvas of the sky
We'll make wishes on any stars that try to shoot by
So lay down with me, and lets take inspiration
Let us show our love among the constellations

Mate, fuck the stars.
Fuck those giant balls of fire hanging in space
That seem nice from afar, but burn any who get to close
Those pinpricks, so many light years away
I don't want to be that far away from you, or to be hurt if I get too close
We shall burn with our own brightness

When we make love, it'll be to the Earth
It'll bless us gently as we lie on it's turf
We'll spin with the planet as it revolves around us
If you listen close you can hear the rocks discuss
How they were made for us alone
So lets show our love on this Earthly stone 

Mate, fuck the earth
Fuck this big ball of rock that cares not
We are insignificant to it, and rightly so
We do no matter to it at all, I can honestly say.
Although it may not seem much, you matter to me
We shall create our own world between us

When we make love, I want to express it in metaphors
I want all to realise that you are the one I adore
That the world shall be amazed by our creativity
And the love that is present in our imagery
To describe the love I feel for you
Lets make love like no one else could do

Mate, fuck metaphors
Fuck wordplay as a means of romance
I want to take action and explore this world with you
I want us to know reality, and embrace that for all it is
We don't need to exaggerate to show how in love we are
We shall create and be our own hyperbole.