take 3

last one today, I promise.
This is a cry for help.
I'm making a present for my sister for her wedding and I'm looking for a few love poems.
It's not like I don't know any love poems-I do.
It's just that my favorite love poems tend to be about death, too.
which is not very wedding-y.
and kind of awful sounding when I type it out.
so. what is your favorite love/friendship/relationship poem?
help a sister out.

guidelines:
1. not depressing
2. not risque
3. not ... lame.

thank you.



Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

--Pablo Neruda