Life's Valentine

Isn't life a little like

Falling off a cliff

The speed with which

The rocks go by

The suspense the thrill

Of trying to take it all in

So we lose track of falling

Drifting in and out of time

Like fish feeding offshore 

Life is so delicate

When you touch it 

It lets you pet its wings

It ponders you

With such sharp eyes 

Body's Valentine

Isn't the body already a lot

To take care of to love

Like having three dogs 

To feed and train and if

That wasn't enough

A soul barges in

Each dog with its own soul

One running at the mouth

About some dream one

Always begging for more

And more attention

And the smallest one asleep 

I call Heart

I say Heart come

But she just dozes on 

All Saints Valentine

There's something so feminine

About flowers so funereal

The shock of them in their stalls

When you walk into the store

Something so unreachable

You can't not reach for them

But beauty's price keeps

Going up and up

Not in the budget

So I just stare and stare

At all our future glories

I believe that we will look

Like this amazement

On the gardener's face

So like your lover's

Stunned by flowers 

Holy Family Valentine

Water brother

Father fire

Sister air so sweet

Leave only earth

To be our mother

To hold the family

Mostly together

But brother went to town 

And got polluted

And sister drowned

And father slowly 

Burned away

So mother took

Another lover

And birthed

Another naked day 

All Souls' Night Valentine

When did you first notice

How like an iceburg

So much of your soul 

Is hidden from you

It's the first clue

That here is a mystery

A murder you hadn't

Noticed over there

It must have been

When you were sleeping

And your soul comes to wake you

And you know who did it

Who the murderer is

But you'd already guessed it

How it all turns out

To be continued in the end 

Leaving Valentine

At intervals the rain

Throws itself down 

Hard like someone

Come a long way

Carrying such a load

Of grief and renunciation

And then just sauntering off

Placing little suns on every leaf

Some gods still keep

The old ways of bringing 

Sorrow into joy just

By giving themselves away 

Relinquishing everything

Drop by drop leaving

Such a glow behind 

 

Having Worked Valentine

Only the birds and us

Run on two legs

But they have better arms

For penetrating  

The vastness of things

They are not intimidated 

Like shards of courage 

Broken off having worked

Themselves up from dragons

On earth there are so many 

In heaven only one

He nestles there 

In the corner of my eye

He soars above 

Time To Time Valentine

Let us come back

To the babies in our world

Again and again

The ones we pass

In the grocery store

Strapped to their father's back

Or pushed along in a pram

Through crowded streets

Where we can catch their gaze

Their heads turning back

To see if we can make them smile

Take this two year grinning girl

Wearing a T-shirt that says

Her brother is already

Kicking in her mother's womb

Let us be babies again

Full of beginnings

From time to time

Let us bring heaven down 

Later Valentine

How will we know them

When they come

The new geniuses out of the blue

Supplementing the old lights

If we don't sometimes

Sit and listen for them

The better ideas out of the future

Mere pictures of what is happening

In heaven falling from the sky

To be sorted later 

Later and later it gets 

To be a true listener

To let the beauty of the world

Speak for itself

And be heard 

Out Of a Blue Sky Valentine

One dark cloud attached

To two shining puffy ones

On either side like ears

On a gray brain asking

What do you make of this

Random picture of your soul

Passing by dissolving

Gone before you can look

It in the eyes

By soul I mean

Everything and nothing

Yes it was nothing dear 

A god made a joke

I'll tell you later 

For You Valentine

It's for you hummer

We're planting this tree

Where you can rest

Your busy bones 

And consider a nest

Might be possible

Its branches the least

We can do in return

For giving us the gift

Or iridescence suddenly

As if an angel could be so small

Stopping our minds a minute

With invisible wings

On any passing afternoon 

Phoenix Valentine

If you think of yourself as a phoenix

That creature of many feathers

Who nests at the bottom

Of a now invisible sea

Whatever brings us to the desert

Must have some new religion 

In mind an early purgatory

A certain cleansing by the sun 

We are carried back to Egypt

To the springs of the Pharaohs

Wondering what to take with us 

From this whole panorama

And yes our temples

Gutted and forlorn waiting

Impatiently to be re-born 

Night Out Valentine

If I am the earth

And you are the stars

And we are having supper

At some restaurant on Mars

Filling and drinking

Our goblets of moon

And you reach

Across the table

Offering your hand

And say this whirling

Will never stop

In which I hold you still

Drunk with love

Let me fill your cup 

Lost Tragedies Valentine

Aren't we all

Approximately perfect

In our roles as humans

Forgetting our words sometimes 

Or drifting off script

Improvising riffing

Stunning the audience

With some new take

On the ancient speech 

The one about the sinking

Of all our tragedies in the sea

A few saved as always

To go on and perfect 

Teenage Valentine

Above all my mother

Hated phonies and liars

Which was a lot of people

In those days she thought

But it was her spontaneity

That taught me so much

About getting over myself

I so admired her pride 

Even when I hated her

Which happened with

Increasing frequency

As we got older

No it wasn't hate

More like fear

I didn't love her enough

As much as she did me 

Moving On Valentine (for Susan)

It's not the last beach

But it's been a long stretch

To linger in one place

Longing to leave it

When there are so many

not so oceanic forests

You could be climbing

Remember the stones you stole

Will have to be returned 

To sender before you

Close the door at last

Don't think the sea

Won't follow you

In all its splendor