Six Unexpected Readings for Literature Lovers
With Humanist Celebrant, Nat Raybould
Photography: The Curries
I am delighted to welcome the leading UK Humanist Celebrant, Nat Raybould for this blog post. Nat brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to wedding ceremonies, making them not only a celebration of love but also a deeply personal and meaningful experience. Humanist wedding celebrations, free from religious connotations, focus on the essence of the couple’s journey, their values, and their shared vision for the future. This approach allows for a truly bespoke ceremony, reflecting the individuality and personality of each couple. In this post, Nat shares six unexpected literary readings perfect for those who wish to add a touch of literary elegance to their special day.
It’s a wonderful idea to include a reading or readings in your wedding ceremony: it can provide a unique splash of personality, and allows your loved ones to contribute to your special occasion. However, if you Google “wedding readings”, you are served the same selection of choices time and time again. There’s nothing wrong with a classic reading, of course, but if you are a proud literature nerd, perhaps we can dig deeper…?
Here are some of the most glorious readings I have discovered during my six years of being a humanist wedding celebrant. Some are standalone works, and others are excerpts from larger pieces – but all of them speak directly to the heart. Even if you don’t use these specific readings, they may spark your journey towards ones which are perfect for you. Enjoy!
Photography: Philip White
NOTE FROM NAT: This poem speaks clearly and sincerely of a shared future that is realistic. You really see the forks, curtains, spoons and pillows – each day filled with everyday love and everyday wonder.
Marriage
WILLIAM LETFORD
I could take this opportunity
to wish you love and happiness
but you've already got that.
No, my wish for you
is the incidental, the ordinary,
to know someone
by the way their fork moves across a plate,
to see the majesty in someone's back, sleeping.
My wish for you
is twenty thousand mornings
climbing out of bed together.
My wish for you
is twenty thousand sunsets
that you can't see
because the curtains are closed and
you're sitting in a room talking about
nothing in particular.
Let the special occasions
take care of themselves,
learn to recognise
the wonder in the everyday.
My wish for you is a life lived together
filled with breakfasts, suppers, spoons and pillows.
NOTE FROM NAT: I have always enjoyed the varied works of the late writer and raconteur Clive James. Although he was Australian, we claimed him as a Brit, and this poem’s peculiarly British references wedged against the highly poetic emotional core provides a glorious contrast of textures.
Have You Got A Biro I Can Borrow?
CLIVE JAMES
Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I’d like to write your name
On the palm of my hand, on the walls of the hall
The roof of the house, right across the land
So when the sun comes up tomorrow
It’ll look to this side of the hard-bitten planet
Like a big yellow button with your name written on it
Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I’d like to write some lines
In praise of your knee, and the back of your neck
And the double-decker bus that brings you to me
So when the sun comes up tomorrow
It’ll shine on a world made richer by a sonnet
And a half-dozen epics as long as the Aeneid
Oh give me a pen and some paper
Give me a chisel or a camera
A piano and a box of rubber bands
I need room for choreography
And a darkroom for photography
Tie the brush into my hands
Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I’d like to write your name
From the belt of Orion to the share of the Plough
The snout of the Bear to the belly of the Lion
So when the sun goes down tomorrow
There’ll never be a minute
Not a moment of the night that hasn’t got you in it
NOTE FROM NAT: this reading would be perfect for one member of the couple to read to the other; especially suitable for an intimate wedding. The last line comes as a surprise, and hits hard!
i climb into my bathtub the same way i fell in love with you
MARIA GIESBRECHT
dipping my toes in and then all at once / which
is to say
i know nothing of slowness
which is to say it doesn’t feel right
until i’m fully submerged – ever!
i climb into my bathtub the same way i’ll keep
loving
you / until my skin is wrinkled
Photography: Philip White
NOTE FROM NAT: The next two readings pair well together, as they both espouse a humanist point of view but in charmingly differing ways. Mary Oliver’s poem Don’t Hesitate is a heady blend of realism and optimism, and the extract from Alan Watt’s philosophical essay playfully compares our life journeys to high artforms, to great effect.
Life Is Not A Journey
EXTRACT FROM AN ESSAY BY ALAN WATTS
Our existence is musical in nature.
Music as an art form is essentially playful.
You play the piano, you do not “work” the piano.
Why?
Well, music differs from say, travel.
When you travel you are trying to get somewhere.
And we are all too often busy getting everywhere faster & faster & faster.
In music though, one doesn’t make the end of the composition, the point of the composition.
If that were so, the best conductors would be those who played the fastest.
And there would be composers who only wrote finales.
It is the same when dancing, you don’t aim for one particular spot in the room.
And when you get there, you say, “I’ve arrived”.
The point of dancing is the dance.
And we must remember to dance while the music is playing.
Don’t Hesitate
MARY OLIVER
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty.
Joy is not made to be a crumb.
NOTE FROM NAT: My final choice is a modern-day classic from the luminous Maya Angelou. It is perhaps the most well-known of this selection, but I couldn’t leave it out. Everyone should read this poem out aloud at least once in their life, and experience the warm silence after that final sentence. If you have never done so, do it now.
Touched By An Angel
MAYA ANGELOU
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
Thank you for journeying with me through these brilliant pieces of writing. If your heart is lit up by the creativity laid out here, then perhaps a celebrant-led ceremony is for you. And if it is, then I am here for you, and dying to hear your love story…
Nat Raybould is a humanist celebrant based in London. She writes and leads stylish, witty and elegant wedding ceremonies for intentional modern couples, in the UK and beyond.