Celebrated contemporary poet Harry Baker’s Dust is a moving tribute to the value of love in everyday shared moments. Written to his wife, its central message is that love is not built on big gestures such as flowers, fancy dinners and champagne but on consistent, small actions and shared, comfortable experiences which build a lifelong companionship. It underlines the poet’s desire to be with someone long enough to gather dust, signifying a long and enduring togetherness and deep everlasting love.

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Dust by Harry Baker

Its not the flowers, its the weeding in the mud with you
It’s not the champagne it’s that cuppa in that favourite mug you use
It’s knowing anything I eat will include some for you
Because you’re not hungry but might just have a couple spoons

It’s not the dreaming, it’s the waking up with you,
I want to be here long enough to gather dust with you

Its knowing if it came to it and I had option to
I would not change a single thing of what I’ve got with you

For us love isn’t in the air, that’s just where we found it
All this is built upon what we have done to ground it
It’s not the spark when we first met
It is the lifetime built around it
It’s by small amounts, that mounds and mounds like mountains
I need not justify or adjust of fear that I’m judged by you
Such is the glorious consistency of loving you
My hearts not skipped a beat
It just constantly thuds for you
Such is the everyday magnificence of loving you
It’s not something we fell into, so much as stumbled through
It’s the spectacular normality of loving you

It’s not the dreaming
It’s the waking up with you
I want to be here long enough to gather dust with you.

Ceremony Reading: Dust by Harry Baker

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