Zoo At Pentecost Valentine

Visiting the manicured prison

Of exotic trees and animals

You could have been an ibex

Your long horns stuck

In the wall behind you

We discover what the tall

Palm trees are lifting for

The elegant awkward giraffes

To rub their long necks on

Do you remember riding them 

Nomads of an endless shore

In some long-forgotten life

When we were all on friendly terms

And they had no reason

To be afraid or shy from us

Or was there ever such a time

Or is it still to come

When all the locks are broken

And all the trees fly off

Leaving their names behind 

Stopped Valentine

If you can picture the whole world

As one walking human being

As sooner or later

We are compelled to do

A body with its internal organs

In various states

We call countries

And its ever-changing complexion

We call the weather

If you can feel it

Striding through the cosmos

Like a man going off to work

Or a woman coming home

Don't you stop amazed

At the bravery of it all 

There Valentine

Do you balk and temporize

When the only way out

Is to apologize

Does it worry you

When you tell a lie

As we all do

Once in a while

Are there moments 

When you stop thinking 

Of yourself when you swim

Out past the world

To find your star

Let me meet you there

In that timeless time

Even if only in my mind 

Conjured Valentine

I call the dove to my yard

She says maybe later

I call the finch to my roof

He sings a brief motif

From some forgotten opera

Promising a revival

I call the voice of a child

Just barely audible

It could be joy or sorrow 

To come and sit with me

And play a game of checkers

Let me lose to you again 

In the glory of your smile 

In the victory of tomorrow 

Quantum Valentine

The quantum of kindness

In the world at any given time

Like hills in a landscape

Like ponds reflecting the sun

Is directly proportional

To the weight of a heart

Or a hand on the scale 

When did kindness become

Inappropriate weakness

Did she grow up poor

In a hidden forest

Still waiting for some prince

To come and claim her 

Unless Valentine

Closer and closer we're coming

To the clear perception of our

Dependency on one another

The old upon the young 

To carry the golden bough

Through the underworld

Of our current delusions

The concept of it sweeps

Though minds coming to think

The same thought

Unless we are kinder 

To one another 

We are doomed

To kill the earth 

Right Now Valentine

When I say I now

I mean you too

Whoever you are

Who reads this

How could this rendezvous

Not happen these glancing

Moments together

But right now I am alone

Waiting patiently

For your arrival

My future loves

I have a meal to prepare

And a wine to select

I have put my heart in your hands 

Amid The Screams Valentine

If you don't like children

It's not a good sign

But I can understand

You might want a break

This morning I overheard them

Playing in the yard next door

Their screams and eager laughter 

Hitting a ball around

And then suddenly silence

All swept indoors

I remember being five

Watching them from the fence

Half wanting to go with them

Half content on my own 

What Is Met Valentine

When we gather together

The insufficiency of each

Feels completed in the other

A temporary wholeness holds 

As among musicians or singers 

Warming up for some concert

Where can we take this song

But to our mother's grave

And bid her wake and speak 

Our childhood stories once again

One more time before

We fall asleep

In the presence 

Of our king 

Operatic Valentine

How many acts are there left

In this singing world

How many scribbled drafts

And obvious revisions

Do we have to go through

To get it down

To the right inflections

Because I love you isn't 

Enough syllables

To get you there

The one thing that could

Actually be believed

The thing that made you

Stop and stare

Beauty undressing truth

The curtain closing  

Another Birthday Valentine

I slept in till ten

This morning something

I don't often allow

Because it was the birthday

Of your death and we'd stayed

Up all night talking

Long distance love affair

Now we meet up in the ether 

You half-reaching me

And I almost touching you

What's still here when they

Carry the body away

The body that loves the world 

So much it never wants

To leave except the pain

That carries it away 

Harbored By the Dead Valentine

We don't see them

Except in dreams 

But they're still there

They see us vividly

While ours is a coarse

Sensing of their presence

Like Gabriel they just appear

Like Mary we don't believe it

At first at times their love

Breaks through 

To remind us

We are always

Safe at home 

Sometimes laughing 

Predictive Valentine

After the war

Of all against all

We will hear 

A Baptist choir

John will come again

To the river and wait

Eternity will wait

Will you show up

Even if only at the last minute

Rushing in through the trees

Did you almost sleep through it 

Alarm after alarm going off 

Who would want to be the Christ

When you think of all that means 

Brothers Valentine

I think it's our clever brother Lucifer

Who teaches us about feeling free 

To do whatever we want

While it's the other brother

Who teaches us about grace

That mysterious element in the world

Or what is freedom for

He had his father's habits

And his mother's darling eyes

Which made him unafraid 

And eager as a child

To accept the whole world 

He must be in his twenties now

Still climbing the empty hills

Always just arriving

In the village of some heart 

Make Way Valentine

A beautifully cool day in May

Which seldom happens in the desert

And then the almost unrecognizable 

Sound of rain's answered prayer

Sweeping through the yard

The seasons themselves

Coming in out of order 

A few days of fall

Followed by blazing summer

Spring lost in the shuffle

I sense the air around me

Filling with bright angels 

And witches on long brooms

Come to clear a new path 

Breaking Through Valentine

Defying evolution

Every now and then

There's a revolution

In the human heart

Defying human reason

When faith is not enough

For hope to live on

Heaven intervenes

In some atmospheric way

It cannot help itself

But must rush in to rescue

What it can like a crazy man 

Running into a burning house

This human heart we carry

Through the flames 

At The Urgent Care Valentine

How is violence

Received in heaven

Is it carried in

On a stretcher bleeding

He was only a boy

Staring up at the doctor

He lost his temper

And killed his brother

Is there still one bed

Left for him enough

Of the right medicine

To slowly recover

But the wards are full

And we are running out of doctors 

More Valentine

I listened to the old men

Speak what they had learned 

As young men eager and afraid

In the temples of longing and love

What stuck with them

Through all the vagaries

And unexpected turns

The stones and shells

They would take back with them

To lay at the feet of love

Their hearts like begging bowls

Their eyes brimming with tears

Their silent wish in the end

To be sent back for more

After All Valentine

For one to get to three

It must endure duality

It must break the soul

Into an army of opposites

Warring in the will

While all along

It is only the heart

That can mend the mind 

Torn apart its cities

Laid waste its bodies

Screaming for their mothers

What is the heart after all

But a hovering thing

Our only true power