Love — a Wedding Reading by Roy Croft

Love

by Roy Croft

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what you have made of your­self,
But for what you are mak­ing of me.

I love you for
the part of me that you bring out;
I love you for
putting your hand into my heaped-up heart
And pass­ing over all the fool­ish, weak things
that you can’t help dimly see­ing there,
And for draw­ing out into the light
All the beau­ti­ful belong­ings
that no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are help­ing me to make
Of the lum­ber of my life
Not a tav­ern, but a tem­ple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.

You have done it
With­out a touch,
With­out a word,
With­out a sign.
You have done it by being your­self.
Per­haps that is what
being a friend means, after all.

by Roy Croft, Amer­i­can poet.

source: http://www.weddingguideuk.com/articles/wordsmusic/poems/lovepoems1a.asp#love