Expressing Your Love – vol. 24
When couples search for a wedding reading, they’re often looking for words that feel honest, grounded, and deeply human—something that reflects real love, not just idealized romance. An excerpt from “Wedding Song” by Naomi Long Madgett is a beautiful choice for couples who value authenticity and emotional depth in their ceremony.
This poem doesn’t promise perfection. Instead, it honors commitment in its truest form: choosing one another again and again, even as life changes.
A Love That Tells the Truth
One of the most powerful reasons couples choose this excerpt from “Wedding Song” is its honesty. The poem opens by acknowledging something many people feel but rarely say aloud: love is not static. Feelings evolve. Seasons change. There are no guarantees that every day will feel exactly the same.
Rather than weakening the vow, this truth strengthens it. The poem reassures couples that love doesn’t have to be perfect or unchanging to be real. It allows space for growth, struggle, and transformation—things every lasting marriage will encounter.
Commitment Beyond Certainty
This reading resonates especially with couples who see marriage not as a fairy tale, but as a conscious, ongoing choice. The poet does not promise “stars forever bright” or unending ease. Instead, she offers something far more meaningful: the certainty that her heart will follow her beloved through every landscape of life—joy and sorrow, light and shadow.
For many couples, this reflects their own relationship story. They are not pledging a flawless future; they are pledging partnership through whatever comes.
I cannot swear with any certainty
That I will always feel as I do now,
Loving you with the same fierce ecstasy,
Needing the same your lips upon my brow.
Nor can I promise stars forever bright
Or vow green leaves will never turn to gold.
I cannot see beyond this present night
To say what promises the dawn may behold.
And yet I know my heart must follow you
High up to hilltops, low through vales of tears,
Through golden days and days of somber hue.
And love will only deepen with the years
Becoming sun and shadow, wind and rain,
Wine that grows mellow, bread that will sustain.
