In 1997 or 1998 I lived next to two folks named Michael and Andrea in a massive building on the west side of Manhattan called The Archive. When they got married, they asked me to write and perform a poem at their wedding. I needed an easy entry point to the poem so I chose to write about their dog and came up with “How Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog,” which now almost 20 years later has been read at well over 200 weddings. That doesn’t put me in the ballpark of sonnet #113, but it means when a friend says to me, “You’ll never guess what poem they read at the wedding I went to over the weekend!” I can pretty confidently say, “Actually, I bet I can.”
Years ago I contacted a letterpress printer and had him design a simple broadside to be printed on beautiful paper so I could have something to give to friends who were getting married. Then I started offering them for sale on my website. They were popular, and I went through many reprints, but it never occurred to me to increase the size of the paper from the awkward 7 by 11 inches to something more standard. Honestly, what do you do with a print that is 7 by 11 inches? It necessitated a special matte be cut that you could then drop into a larger frame.
Well I am happy to report that “How Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog” is now available in a 9 by 12 inch broadside. The poem “floats” in the middle of a larger piece of paper giving me more room to write an inscription and easily dropping into a 9 x 12″ frame, which is a very popular size. It will sell for $10 starting on July 1, but until then it is only $5. I hope you’ll buy one for yourself or a happy couple in your future.
I just received my copy of this poem as my wedding present for my best friend and his new bride. It looks fab thank you. I love the personalisation and can’t wait for the happy couple to come back from their honeymoon and see it. Now I just need to organise a frame!
Lovely idea!