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Even if you don't know Dylan Thomas from Bob Dylan, and
you're pretty sure T.S. Elliot was that guy who wrote the words to Andrew Lloyd
Weber's "Cats," all is not lost! In fact, there are ways to learn to write the
words you want. With four simple steps, you can take what you feel in your heart
and make it come out as sweetly as any Shakespearian sonnet.
Step 1:
Decide on a theme
Finding
a theme should arguably be the
easiest part of writing poetry for
your wedding vows. But you don't
want to be stuck with something
trite or cliché, even though the
theme of romantic love is probably
the oldest known for poetry. There
are lots of ways to avoid writing
the same old "roses are red, violets
are blue" type of poem. One trick
the pros use is to envision what a
newspaper article about your
relationship would say. Would it
discuss how and where you met? How
your relationship has stayed strong,
even during the hard times? What
your love has meant to one another?
Since newspaper articles get right
to the point, this exercise can help
you pick out an overriding theme for
your vows.
Step 2:
Allow time for reverie
No, not
"revelry" (hopefully that will be
what your wedding day is all about),
but reverie ? a quiet time devoted
to a kind of dreamy meditation. Try
some tricks for allowing yourself
time to truly think about your poem
-- and not just those things that
allow you to "act like a poet." Go
for a walk alone, listen to
instrumental music, or simply shut
the door to a room in your house and
ask not to be disturbed. The most
important thing to remember with any
of these methods is that you don't
let other people interrupt your
time.
Step
3: Choose your topic
Theme,
as discussed above, is the driving
idea behind your poem. The topic,
however, is the specific vehicle you
use to express the theme. While
finding the theme should be the
easiest part of writing a poem for
your wedding, finding a topic that
isn't hackneyed and trite can be a
challenge. For instance, love is
your theme, but the beauty of your
betrothed's eyes may be the topic.
You are using the example of her
eyes as the symbol for your love.
The key is to find something new.
There's something that makes your
chosen one special, be it
appearance, wit, or style. That's
the topic you want to choose. Poets
use tools like automatic writing,
journals, or "dream work" to come up
with topics for their prose. (These
tools are all discussed in detail in
the home-study course I put together
for couples personalizing their
wedding vows ? visit http://www.WeddingVowToolkit.com
for more info.) But anything that
allows you to spark your creativity
can suffice if you're short on time.
Step 4:
Pick Your Style
As many
different poems as there are, there
are almost an equal number of styles
in which they are written. There are
traditional forms, modern, post
modern, and many more. You can work
on fitting your rough draft poem
into one of these many forms, or you
can go with no form at all. The
benefit of working on an art form is
that there are no hard and fast
rules on what the end product must
look like. Perhaps you'd like to try
your hand at penning your vows in
the form of a Shakespearean sonnet.
Or, to go a completely different
route, maybe "experimental" is right
up your alley. No matter what you
choose, just make sure it fits your
style. After all, personalizing your
wedding vows means just that ? they
should be personal, not forced to
fit into a style that just isn't
"you."
Chris
Simeral is the creator of The
Ultimate Wedding Vow Toolkit, the
wedding-coordinator-approved
home-study course for couples
personalizing or renewing their
wedding vows. Learn more at
http://www.WeddingVowToolkit.com.
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