The Happy Debtor's Valentine

Justly my debtors need

My just debts be paid

So they can pay their debtors

But the debt is never paid

More added on along the way

All my life I've taken

Trying to pay it off

Often building to the brink

It can no longer be forgiven

So let's just get this straight

Once and for all forever

You owe me nothing yes

And I owe you everything

Across The Yard Valentine

Vatic with a grin

Buddha baby death

Sits across the yard

Nervous as a secret

Shrouded in flowers

We generally agree

On all the details

But he's a little squishy

On the dates

When he signed his last will

He included a codicil

Stipulating preparations

For another fall his final

Burial and entombment

Never admitting for a moment

That had happened long ago

October Mind Valentine

His burial came in the spring

When his body became the seasons

So in the fall you could feel

Him weaving in the air

And you could almost sense him

In the dead leaves lifting

Almost palpable where the last

Flowers embrace the first frost

In love with the earth

As he had always been

I have watched him stand

For hours in a shorn field

His thoughts so still and magical

Even if only in my mind

Dancing Valentine

If these words weren't wood

I could carve your face

On a cane and hobble

Around the yard dancing

To make us laugh

Which is not always easy

To be silly children together

I remember that picture

When you slapped a bunch

Of carrots over my waist

And made me blush and laugh

At the camera's click

'The juxtaposition of the incongruous'

That's what love is

Alexei's Valentine

No one would be more surprised

Than him if he had not returned

To his own country knowing full well

What would happen to him there

He was a person entirely himself

Who must be restless in heaven

Away from all he loved

Remember he left them all

Behind in the end

Left death itself behind

For those devils to test him

Because he thought not much

Of himself but loved his family

He knew he would return

Searching for his own country

In their faces

Two Skills Valentine

Soft blows of a hammer on wood

Tapping it all perfectly into place

My neighbor's always making crosses

Or working on his salvaged cars

Two skills I never mastered

Though I did lease a little factory

Of words on the outskirts of town

Until I filled it up

With useless fictions and had to

Burn it down to stay alive

One bone-chilling night

I had yet to learn the carpentry

Of invisible things

How to set the heart humming

Seasons Of Heaven Valentine

I imagine our earth

Must have filtered down

Out of heaven the heaviest

Silvery pieces of sand

Reflecting everything above

Cascading down to the bottom

Heaven's soul birthing these bodies

From the rain and the mud

Into such marvelous creatures

But it must have been we

Ourselves who were clamoring

To be alive on this earth

As if only those who've known the depths

Could create from bodies a new heaven

Leo's Valentine

When Leo Tolstoy compiled

His own holy gospel

Weaving together selections

From the other four

He bypasses the whole

Bethlehem story the shepherds

And the stars followed

A mother's worries for her child

And at the end there is no

Resurrection no Emmaus

It all stops suddenly at the cross

Was it his melancholic nature

Blinding him to the best parts

The good was it made a small book

Soldiers could carry over their hearts

Ceremonial Valentine

All we know about the past

Might be divided

Between awe and loss

If you look at the hand-prints

Emblazoned on the cave wall

One miraculous event after

Another and another

And at the same time

A skipping broken record

When all we had was our hand-prints

We had to put them on the wall

Where it was not lost on us

You would certainly find them

In the fellowship of the heart

Thirsty Valentine

He too lived in a desert

Where the heat of summer

Can get so intense it starts

To melt the soul

Forests turning into flames

Burning sand with a single lake

Who knew when I got here

Geography was fate

Climate an arranged marriage

Which could be why he

Only spoke of flowers once

In words that sound like

What you might say

To soothe a child

Last Stop Valentine

Having sown themselves

They spread around the yard

But why do I want

To tell you about them

They are just purple flowers

Tall trumpets blaring

Their silence in the sun

Because I know you too

Would admire their stature

And their tact each bloom

The last stop on the road

To the invisible world

Their thin skin separating us

And yet offering us a way in

The Limits Of Language Valentine

Yitcon Stein Victim Sign

Vidkin Stein Vet Constrain

Victim Stain Vince I Am

Drinken Stein Thicken Stein

Rickon Stein Pitkin Stein

Veteran Stein Vetcon Stein

Vilkon Stein Vat Contains

Vidkin Stein Victim Stein

Victor Stein Fit Con Stein

Vector Rhyme Wit Gen Stein

Victor Shaw

The New Eleusis Valentine

I've been reading Plato's Proclus

And the other sacred masters

Alongside the latest poems and novels

Until it's all a fine muddle

Weren't the first hymns

To Chaos and Bewilderment

The god Ignorance

Who is torn to pieces

By the intervening years

Of conscientious study

Of moods and words

Connections we know are there

Now more and more begin to hear

The call of that first human being

Who looks exactly like you

Recognizable in all the stories

Sky Harbor Valentine

I imagine a little bag we all carry

For stuffing things we really need

To hold on to and I don't mean memory

Or maybe it's just a pocket

Where you keep a still

Unwritten note to yourself

Always ready to present it

To guarantee your flight

Or a purse where you know you put

The password somewhere in here

Emptied on the counter

That little bag of necessities

Waste and treasure saved

You imagine will get you on that plane

Invented Valentine

After marvelous encounters

With great personalities

Clearly not all of this world

After long conversations

About why so many languages

Long gone or just coming into being

We finally invented a speech

Of our own an affection

In the air dividing the light

Between us which myself

Would be the first to relinquish

If I can only keep one promise

Let it be to trust you completely

My angel and real friend

If not for my sake then for yours