Fun Takes on Wedding Season Poetry
Poetry is often thought of as the most romantic literary genre. With this rosy reputation in mind, reading a poem to your partner, transcribing it in a card or incorporating it into a letter, or even incorporating poetry into your wedding vows can enhance your special day. The arrival of warm days, late sunsets, and blossoming flowers signal wedding season. These four poems represent the beauty, creativity, and enduring joy of love, as well as add a sense of individuality to the celebration.
For the quirky couple:
“Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem” by Matthew Olzmann
With “Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem,” Matthew Olzmann depicts the comforting, lived-in imagery of a long-term relationship. Rather than reveling in over-romanticized generalizations, Olzmann instead opts for specific, seemingly random details that showcase just how well the speaker knows their partner: “Because you yell / at your keys when you lose them, and laugh, / loudly, at your own jokes. Because you can hold a pistol, / gut a pig. Because you memorize songs, even commercials / from thirty years back and sing them when vacuuming.”
Like the daily, domestic detail of vacuuming, the Mountain Dew image at the center of the poem takes something that seems inconsequential and reveals it as a powerful, surprising symbol of love: “And one day five summers ago, / when you couldn’t put gas in your car, when your fridge / was so empty–not even leftovers or condiments–there was a single twenty-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew, / which you paid for with your last damn dime / because you once overheard me say that I liked it.”
For the classically romantic couple:
“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” by e.e. cummings
With allusions to the moon, the sun, and the concept of fate, e.e. cummings’s classic poem “[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in]” presents love as eternal and elemental. Cummings’s likens the beauty of his love to the beauty and sensations of the natural world, writing, “i want / no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) / and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant / and whatever a sun will always sing is you.”
The poem’s title serves as its central theme and its last line. Cummings illustrates the interconnectedness that love can create, and the way the feeling always lingers with us. “Here is the deepest secret nobody knows / (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud / and the sky of a tree called life;which grows / higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) / and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart / i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart).”
For the couple establishing found family and community:
“i love you to the moon &” by Chen Chen
Chen Chen’s “i love you to the moon &” similarly plays with natural and celestial language, but in a way that feels daringly and playfully futuristic. Chen proudly identifies as an LGBTQ poet, making “i love you to the moon &” an unabashed celebration of both love and queerness. The poem delights in the escapism of love, exploring the idea that it could take us beyond this world and into the most imaginative possibilities: “let’s go by the speed of / queer zest & stay up / there & get ourselves a little / moon cottage (so pretty), then start a moon garden / with lots of moon veggies.”
“…let’s wear / our sailor moon jean jackets while twirling in that lighter, / queerer moon gravity, let’s love each other / (so good) on the moon / let’s love / the moon / on the moon.”
For the down-to-earth-couple:
“Love Poem With Apologies for My Appearance” by Ada Limòn
Ada Limòn’s “Love Poem With Apologies for My Appearance” exemplifies one of the best parts of love: That it gives you the freedom to be your most authentic, unfiltered self. In the poem, Ada Limòn details an unglamorized version of love: “I’d like to say this means / I love you, the stained white cotton T-shirt / the tears, pistachio shells, the mess of orange / peels on my desk, but it’s different than that. I move through this house with you, the way I move / in my mind, unencumbered by beauty’s cage.”
Limòn also points out that the most loving relationships empower us to more fully access and cultivate self-love. “When you say it back, lights / out, a cold wind through the curtains, for maybe / the first time in my life, I believe it.”
Bonus: Write your own wedding season poetry with our passionate poetry prompts.
