Friday, February 26, 2010

Brown Valentine

Carrying today’s dead out

to the compost

I perceived your face

carefully among them

vines torn from the

trellis conversations

bitterly brown red

a child screaming in

the background so I

had to make a nest

for the bad oranges

for you to lie down in

at the top of the heap

I had to sit down

and talk with you

for a long time

before I could go

back into the house.

Friend's Valentine

Today everything slid

into place for me

its rightful place

without spectacle

or obfuscation

the leaves went

into their basket

the spoons and knives

into the knowledge drawer

me into you

but for my friend

nothing worked out

yet but to continue

where you left off

I can’t even remember

what seeds I planted

under the pomegranate tree

two months ago

sprouting now

all over the place.

Solid Valentine

Try to hold on to all

your lives you’ll

need them all to hold

on to everyone else’s

take as much clay

as your hands can

comfortably contain

with wrists touching

leaving a small space

between your fingers

at the top of the

world you’ve made

then come the suffering

gods with their artistic

ideas points becoming

planes plains becoming

borderline features

of your own body

the latest Platonic

solid you have shaped.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Crystal Valentine

I dreamed I was

starting to resemble

a large pointed smoky

quartz crystal

a crow in his youth

frequently freaked

out being yelled at

just because I didn’t

think to ask the right

question didn’t think

to think to ask

the question wandering

for thirsty years

abruptly waking up

in a world where

thinking had ceased or

was rarely seen again.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Cooing Valentine

A couple of dozen doves

in this Palo Verde tree

of course it’s for you

who else can see it from here

green in the rain the bare

branches and the doves

dripping and that enormous

rainbow’s serious singing

inaudibly on the way back

to the hotel last night

that was yours too

the names on the room’s

furniture just making it

into your dream

every single spectacle

it was all for you

for you.

TV Valentine

A little tight in the ass

but he landed it

a zebra on the freeway

same day delivery

the closest I can come

to something lovely

is to be simply honest

with you yes I’m watching

TV alone in my house

feeling extremely separate

in that isolated

normal way from the rest

of you world and knowing

my only way back

in the dark is to swim

fiercely in the direction

of my heart.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Rage of Age Valentine

Trying all our lives

to live into that unique snowflake

posture of death that is ours alone

some days you can become

completely conscious of

standing in another world

in which this world

is being worked on as if

it’s all that matters

if not all that exists

to which he said

I just put my girlfriend

on a plane to Tulsa

and my boyfriend’s still in jail

I guess I’ll go for a walk

it isn’t like you just

got here is it anymore?

Morning Slipping Away Valentine

Thinking is not what thinking is

mine or yours

it is not owned

anyone already has a brain

that belongs to all in common

each separately

a body’s set

of lungs and moods

each with its own

sensations of freedom

think of memory’s mortgage paid

universe of floating

or unpaid

scrapbook of the dreamer

no one’s dreamed.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

My Friggin' Valentine

If I can perceive

every awful thing

about myself

I’m capable of

without flinching

and just decide

not to do it

then I’m free

beyond any country

my will a wild dog

or horse to the ground

I have wrestled

imprisoned together

and if I can think

of every beautiful thing

about myself I love

without getting too absorbed

I might be getting somewhere

closer to you.

Red Valentine

Memorize this look

on my face so you’ll

know what I look like

when I’m enjoying

watching you

or when I’m walking in

and you look up

I love you but I do not

love you enough

let me try again

let’s have supper

together later

and afterwards

a soak in the tub.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

White Valentine

An empty page like a well-made bed

I can’t resist but stretch

out on rolling like a cat

in dirt to maintain

his sleekness and indifference

a rage like an undone head

may find in here some reach

for warmth for silence sleep

the exhalation of the night

inner and outer away

angling through eyes and ears

having to trouble to dream

to turn over and hold

your body next to me.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Preview Valentine

Fold these words

in two even places

you’ll have a triptych

reading I love you

by this one deed

I am free

more than in any

other way possible

while still one flesh

that’s all it says but

by the way the body’s

sprawled it appears

he’d just risen

pen in hand

to get more ink

the book left folded

on the table.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

January Valentine

January is the slowest fucking month

dragging unemployment down

into the gutter

going south on lilacs

the rain wasn’t worried

it was terrified

what were my motives

I would ask myself

if the price

as Malcolm said

of freedom is death

the cost is life

you laughed.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Farewell Valentine

A sprig of marjoram

offers itself to you

one evening what else

can I do but take it

there are things in the oven

I cannot speak of

but they’re for supper

it was a long day-life

and illuminating

but from what source

inside does dreaming come

that’s what amazes me

not the white pillar

gleaming in the darkness

far out at sea.

Leafing Valentine

I tend to favor

the smaller red

and yellow over

the taller orange

nasturtiums who are

feathery prolific

and flower fuller now

but the nearer I get

to the north of

some specific leaf

where every leaf

considers itself vigilant

remarkable and equal

to any color or flower

the more I see love

has all the power

and stacks the world

with pictures of itself

in every trembling face.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Black Hole Valentine

There’s a hole

in that cloud

up there hell

no that’s the mouth

of a dragon

staring at a baby

sitting right in front

of it slowly

they struggle one

another into a kind

of Ezra Pound

face kissing

the mush of history

what is revised

in heaven is

reversed on earth

I look to see

it gone.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Nameless Valentine

Grateful to my enemies

for teaching me to pray

for them the process of

dissolving one another

witnessed in war ruins

the myth of humanity

those roadside grave markers

the Mexican families leave

what are they called

they must have a word

for what is missing in

education

I don’t know

their name?

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Cloudy Valentine

Caught between

the stupid and

the greedy

as the poem falls

overboard swept

downstream shortly

was it the Azores or

Amsterdam when

you lifted your head

above the horizon

of my thigh

the map of love

written all over

your face?

Friday, February 5, 2010

An Emblem of the Human Soul Valentine

You have to look out

across the drama of the world

to see what’s also going on

in multiple realities

here and there overlapping

tongues licking shores or

simply sailing out to the edge

of whatever you think

about the word cosmic

as only a mind can do

what is glimpsed

and grasped there

glimpsed and grasped

again of you.

Wittgenstein's Valentine

The record of one

man’s perceptions

going to and fro

over the ground

of thinking when it

split in two

before and after

the ice cream slurping

that we don’t but

want to trust even

our own thoughts

a dead face

can begin to breath

again always

there’s a heart-beat

long before any

heart shows up.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Changing Valentine

What doesn't change me
doesn't leave me
doesn't deceive me
then what do I do
to care for that part
oh yeah hat 14
more color therapy
a new mystery drama
you are thinking
aren't you
I suppose you'll call me
when you settle in
on your side of death
will you see me
any clearer
than I see you now
yet we know
we're both here
and there.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Furnished Valentine

Time did enter

the picture

merely as a further

gesture of space

matter subsequently filled

the river imagined its banks

so if maybe it doesn’t return

it’s still a river

and we’re still waiting

on the banks

after the earthquake

furniture sales soared

in all the other countries

people rushed to the stores

what did that portend?