One Heart Valentine

It only takes one human heart

To account for the whole world

Everything necessary is there

To explain how it all

Got started in the foundries 

Of the gods how to wrap

A flame in streams of iron

Folding and folding it over

Pounding and pounding it

Plunging it into the water

Until it sings on its own 

As the earth feeds our hearts

So our hearts feed the earth

We re-gift what we receive

I trade my heart for yours

Who knew these dying leaves

Were plotting another flower 

I Almost Make it Valentine

A child singing in the refrigerator

The sound of me trying to breath 

I almost make to the last notes 

Before the coughing craters the song

It's as if my lungs are rejecting

Earthly air for some stronger stuff

So the more I breath it in

The more it chokes me out

By the end of the week

I'm completely wrung out

Waiting for the medicine to kick in

Laying here listening to the wind 

Who knew you could make it back

On the music of passing birds 

Epiphany Valentine

Mostly sick through the Holy Nights

Barely able to stay awake 

I was given a series of dreams 

Called 'The Science of Manipulation'

Anecdotes and instructions on how

Even intelligent people can be

Used and played to some end

In personal and professional situations

Painful to watch go on so long

And always come to such sorrow

In the very last classes

You were tested on the strength

Of the cleverness of your lies 

And failed if you believed a single one  

New Year's Eve Valentine

Clearly we must find

What has real significance

What to hold onto

Before the year runs out

Time is not arbitrary

Except the way we count it

Centuries taking their places

Half-read histories on the shelf

We must sift through so much

To get to the good parts

But there they are

In all their glory

All involving you 

Assuring us a future 

Thanks To Him Valentine

I feel Joseph

Wordless always

In the background

Like the Father

Of us all never

Gets the gratitude

He deserves

For making it all

Possible in a practical

Way feeding the animals

Lighting a fire

At Mary's feet

Holding the child

While she sleeps 

Orbiting Valentine

I will not to will

I think not to think

But I want to feel 

Deeper and deeper

What can't be willed

What can't be thought

That heart pulsing

At the center of your words

Is what interests me most

Its entanglements

And lovely contradictions

I feel certain if I dive

Deeply enough into it

I too will come alive 

 

Coming Home Valentine

Where was I

I was going somewhere

Sitting in the middle 

Of a plane a young boy

In the back talking on and on

At the top of his voice 

Everyone else trying

To sleep and in the front

Seats somewhere a toddler

Screaming on and on

It was a performance

Of considerable power

I tried to read your book

About the decisions

We must make soon

I had to rally all my will

And concentration 

To endure your story 

Of innocence and murder

Endless talk on one side

Endless wailing on the other 

 

Never Valentine

A gray day

The muse away

Smug as a bug

With nothing to say 

Except this mute

Announcement that

Whatever you're having

I'll have that too

It's been a long day

And it's just started

Nothing and everything to do

Quietly and stealthily 

Staying openhearted

Never parted 

Just So You Know Valentine

Two crows way up

Pursing a hawk

In dizzy circles

We watched until

They melted away

The sun swam in

Whale-like and back

Up into the clouds 

It is Christmas today

Whenever you read this

Just as I was trying

To reach you and we both

Hung up at the same time

Laughing and calling back

What was that 

Oh there you are 

And We Valentine

I wonder if we don't see

Very far into the future

Because what we do see

We don't like and turn back

To the uncertain present

But the present task is always

To prepare the future

Imagination is useless

If it only serves the past 

Whose future we turned out to be

How can we now working together

With thoughtful hearts

Despite the crows

Yet make a human being 

Way Back Valentine

Never more carefree

Than when you're lost 

And don't know it yet

That mountain that shouldn't

Be there wakes you up

From the music blasting

Singing at the top of your lungs

Three hours the wrong way

To turn or not turn back

Push on to another life

Existence is so temporary

And your favorite sickle moon

Is just rising over there

The bright rim of a cup

Lifting the darkness to your lips

Rolling all the windows down 

Scourged Valentine

We have a flicker

Living with us now

These sunny winter days

Who comes and goes

Reading the riot act to us

With piercing shrieks

Finding us all so frustrating

Recalcitrant and lame

How many times do I have to

Startle you all awake

And you hunching over there

Don't think I don't see you

For a shirker and simpleton

Trying to get away with it

By writing it all down 

Always Valentine

The thing about the light

Is that it's always being

Newly-minted newly-arrayed 

Replacing the old light

Breathing its last gasp

Having finally reached

Its moment of decision

Whether to breath the earth

Back in again or let it darken

The thing about the light

Is that it's always conscious

Of what it loves

Stopping and turning back

To find it again 

Accidental Valentine

A button on the cuff

Of my shirt hit

The edge of the cup

A tiny bell rang out 

The smallest sweetest 

Note in the world

The chime of some clock

Dissolving time 

As if it was all accidental

And yet I could have

Spilled the cup

Reaching across the table

Passed by not alerted

By that pure bell 

Four Valentines

Gabriel conceive me

A blaze of light on snow

Raphael heal me

What else are flowers for

Uriel enlighten me

Out beyond the stars

Michael receive me 

In the rattling of the leaves

In the fog above the creek

Give me back all my illusions

In the panorama of your gaze 

Open wide my life

That this new dying

Be my last my first 

If You Go Valentine

If you go to the philosophy store

Recently relocated nearer the docks 

For stimulating boat-rides under the stars

Take this buy-one get-one coupon 

I've been saving about to expire

For a book to set me on fire

You might find it in a back room

A few copies left of your own

Past lives in manuscript form

My doctoral thesis in which 

I argue there was ever only

One real person on the earth

Though it would take a while 

For so many to accept it 

Higher Mathematics Valentine

If I spend ninety percent

Of the sun thinking only

Of myself that leaves ten

Thinking of the world

Sun take away world

Only equals the minus of myself

Except for the addition of you

You dare to sum me up

If I can put it like that

With a glance or a kiss

Will I never not be foolish

In your midst 

Still counting on my fingers

All your suns and worlds 

Nothing Here Valentine

A sunny day in the yard

Wrecking all the records 

Warm when it should be cold 

But if you sit here with me

 

You can see how the breeze

Is made up of many

Little strands weaving 

Through the rusting leaves

 

Stirred into a whirl here

Or trembling over there 

How it's not one thing at all

But a thousand creatures

 

Breaking free and inter-mingling 

Inviting us to join the dance

We may not get another chance

If nothing here can stay