Intended Valentine

The invention of the material world

Was always a delicate operation

The great had to want to become

Smaller and smaller

Light squeezed into bodies

From the outset a painful

And yet exuberant process

Of dissolving and giving birth 

And frequently they must 

Have to stand back in wonder 

At what they're painting

With their brilliant colors seeing

If they're still on the right track

To the masterpiece they intended 

Inevitable Valentine

If there is only one consciousness

What is this purple flower doing here

This flesh and bones

Don't we have to imagine 

The mind that made it

Dissatisfied with being just air

Deciding to draw real leaves

A material flower

A body to be loved

And cast aside

Time devouring time

Consciousness opening its mouth

So wide it encompasses

Us all in one gulp 

Once Loved Valentine

The thought of you dropped into my head

And immediately a mockingbird

Landed right in front of me

Glanced at me and hurried off

Scratching in the grass then gone

But not before I recognized 

You'd heard me and sent this bird 

To show me one of the things 

You've become living on the other side 

That you are never far away

Even when I forget to think

How once loved there remains

An abiding connection

An immediate reply

Out of a blue sky 

My Teacher's Valentine

Assembling my unruly thoughts

The practical comes first 

I try to focus on the rhythm

Of their confusion like a classroom

Of raucous kids before the teacher

Walks in and they all rush

To take their places

Three Greek words

Are written on the board

But no hands go up

To say what they mean

And the teacher wrapped

Up in some poem is staring

Out the window again 

Gene's Valentine

Even when it's cold out he drives

With all the windows down 

He claims it's his Ukrainian childhood 

He can't get enough fresh air 

A friend of a friend I don't

See him often now or ride

In the van his father left him

Before his mother died

Through the freezing streets 

As much as my imagination wants to

The cold exciting him

To stories of warm bread

Baking every morning

Going down to fetch some 

After Valentine

The rain's last drop

We watched it die

Silvery in the sun

The garden soaked

The leaves gone gold

The summer tucked away

Pulled up by the roots

This little tree

May suffer a shock

Transplanted to a better spot

Our prayers dug in

Around it to survive

Long after we are not

But random breeze

Coaxing its leaves out

Stored Valentine

Startled by the squeaky wings

Of a dove passing overhead

Like an old shed door pried open 

Where I have stored some things

I couldn't quite get rid of

Dare I cross the threshold 

To retrieve that stolen look

Now buried in a stack of books

You gave me see I've kept them

In memory's little hideaway

Among the things I mean to mend

Some day that broken bicycle 

For instance still has life

And those skates I skated by on

As if it would never end 

Just Valentine

I just realized today

The word 'companion'

Comes from 'with bread'

To be where bread

Is made a coffee

With a friend or

Another glass of wine

Just to be together

For a timeless time

Again and again just

To accompany one another

Bread of my bread

Wine of my wine

Proud to be your friend 

All Lives Valentine

Though all lives can be divided

Into pre and post-evolution 

You have to grow ancient

To see how the second half of life

Is completely different

From the first a point

Can be reached of breaking

Away from wanting so much

For yourself and more for

All the others in your life

How can there still be

More unloved people

In the world than loved

Isn't it after all the new

Twenty-first century

And we have all we need 

Dim Recollection Valentine

Come to think

Of it that year

I turned fifty

The purpose of my life

Swerved around after its long

Pilgrimage unconscious

Of time I reached

The age of reason

Finally I seemed ready

For my life to come to me

I cleared a space for it

I tore it down to the bone

We would dance more often

We would never be alone 

Time Is For This Valentine

The spring was cold and stalled

The summer long and dry

The fall was disappointed in us 

So now our hungry hopes all

Come to rest on winter's

Falling endless snow

To count down the days

To the coldest night

When the light flares up again

The slate wiped clean by flakes

The stars called to account

Their glowing falling on the ground

Love creeps in without a sound

And the child comes home again 

Auctioned Valentine

When did the prophets become

Profits when did art 

Not dominate the markets

We can't make the peaches glow

But we can paint them for a show

Can this really be my life

And keep them living in a bowl

Of celadon if you prefer

And keep them hanging on a wall 

Islands of accomplished

Transformations of the light

Each priceless peach

And look a few coins tossed there

On the table an unfinished

Glass of wine come sit

Would Valentine

Ideas where we live

Drift down into practical matters

Through us angels become

Both gardeners and flowers

He who invented the plow

Birthed a soul to pull it

A body to feed a job

To go to a street to wander

Today my angel told me

You too are just an idea

Working itself out on the page

Another ecstatic poem we're writing

If you just get out of the way

The word would come 

Brian's Valentine

His hands could have been

The hands of God coloring in

The first clear lines of light

Seeping into the paper 

But they're just an old man's

Bent and mottled hands

Imitating God's geography 

Pointing out our present location

Where God plays into his fingers

His latest brilliant illustration

Floating there unfolding forms

In the museum of the future

How far we've come so far

How far his hands will go