High School Valentine

I got a D in Greek

The speech not the stories

But an A in Horace

Sublimi seriam sidera vertice 

Nor men nor gods can lift me

Who appears in Limbo

In Dante's Comedy 

Though he was Virgil's

Close friend and rival 

If I remember Horace

Stayed on the farm and wrote

His own pagan comedy

In which he played all the parts

Master of the art 

For Dante to follow 

Mystery Valentine

We need to have

A detective's attitude 

Toward the world sometimes

Calm and observant

Following the clues

How things are set up

To amuse and confuse us

While the murders flourish

But we know they want

Desperately to be found

And hurry on

To the confessions

Of the last pages

Where all is resolved 

Called On Valentine

When I was a child

All my friends were saints

All my friends were devils

Inside I was convinced it was 

St Anne who saved me

At five years old 

Crossing the highway

Headed for the beach

In my youth we wanted war

A little more than peace 

Time and peace aren't found

In the same sentence

Yet it is my youth

That calls me on 

Not Knowledge But Forces Valentine

At the opposite ends of evil

Stand the too much

And the too little

From the beginning

We made statues of them

And honored their requests

While the good went on

In the world unnoticed

Quietly and without fanfare

What proves its goodness

In being harmed

Learns not to harm

We carved on stones

For future wanderers to find 

Making Up Valentine

Down under is to the earth

As the earth is to heaven 

Where they send all their criminals

And a few saints to save them

They both want to be caught

They want to be reassured

There's someone out there

More compassionate than them

They take us back

To the scene of the crime

Whether to commit it

Or absolve it 

We're still making up

Our minds 

Begotten Valentine

We are begotten not made

The way a machine is made

Out of a concept

That comes to us

Out of the air

In a blazing light

We are formed out of words

Magicians weave over us

To calm the spell

They keep trying to undo

Faced with the world we've made

We children of the gods

Begotten of their mercy

And their too much joy 

Kept Valentine

If you can read them right

You must have noticed

It's all hand-made

These stars at night 

Each word carefully placed

In the buzzing treasury

Where everything is kept

Where the eyes in the e's

Hold their gaze

And the o's form

A church choir

Singing between

The g's and the d's

Hoping to be saved 

Love Awaits Valentine

Love awaits us all

If we practice it enough

We get to play a tune

We get to stand up

And just start singing

In the grocery store

In another language

We get to keep love

Under-wraps  at length

And go home hungry

Love feeds us love

To feed on and grow strong

Love is full of surprises 

And aren't you one

As much as I 

When Valentine

What will you do

With your little life 

When you wake up

In the land of light 

Where everything's transparent

Clear abrupt I think

First I'll find a little

Motel on the edge

Of town considering

What's ahead they will be

Waiting I know

To embrace me

To take me in

But I'll just need

A few moments alone

To kiss the darkness goodbye

And hold you morning

In my arms 

Compelled Valentine

 My mission is missing today

The letter didn't come

Or it did and I've misplaced it

So I'm free to do whatever

And maybe a nap later

What compels me to report

My findings to you

Except another morning

With its lists of clouds

But today it's endless blue

As a baby's smile

A little wave

Moving out into

The world 

The Words Slip Away Valentine

What do you call it when

You toss four or five balls

In the air and try

To keep them there

What do you call it when

You struggle to recall

The word for something

You are always doing

Throwing a ball and catching

It and then another one

I'm up to three for now

What do you call it 

This skill this art

Forgetting and remembering

The words like lovers falling apart

Then getting back together again 

Morning Song Valenttine

A single leaf is moving

In the gray dark yard

Like an oboe tuning up

The yellow violins start to sway

Their green arms

Back and forth but only

Silence carries the song 

Enclosed like a seed inside

But look the conductor

Finally arrives

To make the whole yard

Shiver in that first

Lifting of the light

Singing the darkness out 

 

Since My Last Confession Valentine

You stink old man

It was a fly

Suggesting a shower

But I just sit here

Thinking how how many souls

Have occupied this body

Crusty now around the edges

In its slow dissolving

How many bodies

Have occupied this soul

In just one life-time

Never enough time

To make proper amends

Or hopefully shower 

Who Gives Valentine

We sense another revolution brewing

A line approaching that must be crossed 

We look back to the past 

To see what happens next

The destruction of the cities 

We have just rebuilt

These are the days before all that

When I can write to you calmly

Who make it to the other side

Whether in heaven or on earth

Keep going freedom awaits

Did you think our lives

Weren't worth it 

Given over and over again