What follows is a poem I wrote for a reading I did at the wedding of two of my best friends, Karl and Hannah. I set out with the aim of try...

What follows is a poem I wrote for a reading I did at the wedding of two of my best friends, Karl and Hannah. I set out with the aim of trying to capture on paper the kind of love you feel for someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. When I read it at the wedding in front of their 23,000 guests, there were tears and wailing and old women holding their hands up to the sky and children praying that they'll never hear another poem again and singing in the streets for days on end. I was carried through London on the shoulders of my admirers and everyone forgot that a wedding was even taking place. It should be noted that I'm writing this introduction before the wedding and setting this blog post to publish itself on a schedule.
 
I met a man who asked me why I’d ever want to be wed.
It’s the biggest waste of time and money on this earth, he said.
He told me all a wedding was was some rings and a piece of paper
And my time would be much better spent on some alternate caper.
 
I thought about the question, til my thinking bone was sore,
And then I came out with some words that I had never planned
Like, life is just a birth, some jobs, a death and nothing more
So why we bother with it, I’ll never understand.
 
War is just some bombs, a thousand limbs and two ideals
And no one ever questions how a soldier fighting feels.
Business is just money, and religion is just words
Yet people follow those two things in masses, swarms and herds.
 
The simple fact is this, I said: that everything boils down
To something pretty small if you cook it long enough
But the way I feel, forgive my heart, is simply like I’ve found
One person in eight billion who’s made of better stuff.
 
Laughing isn’t just laughing when I have her by my side.
It’s feeling so sensational I get all warm inside.
Sadness isn’t just a tear and anger not a scream
Because, to me, she means so much, they’re both more than they seem.
 
I’d literally do anything to make this woman smile,
And the icing on the cake is that I know she’d say the same.
I’d like to spend with her every minute, hour, while
And share with her my everything, from gladness through to pain.
 
So I’m afraid I don’t agree that marriage is just that,
A day in tails and fancy clothes and a silly hat.
The paper acts as wrapping and the rings act as a bow
To decorate the greatest gift of love I’ll ever know.