Ever Valentine

And what to do with this soul

We've been working on so long

With its cosmic moods

And hidden intentions 

Just trying to make a living

If I look sideways at my soul

I can see what's moving

In the darkness of its will

A child locked away

After forgiveness

The real fight begins

Love carries a sword

So it won't ever have to use it

As if beauty was enough 

We Are All Birds Valentine

You send me a picture

Of a three month old baby

Laying on its stomach on the floor

In the bird position

Head up wings tucked back

As if about to take off or land

That bird now caught

In the shape of a baby

As if to say Look

I made it through meteors

It was a long migration

I am yet another word spoken

In the conversation of gods

Who sing in unison I am 

And Not To Be Valentine

What to do with these bodies

We've been given chosen

These sinews and bones

These searching eyes 

What do they represent

And how to meet the bodies

Our prayers just keep

Bringing back every day

All the labor that goes into it

To come to more than nothing

To slowly be perfected

Its daily sacred task

And not to be afraid 

This Now You Speak Of Valentine

Can you really believe

It's only a few inches

Of kindness we've come

After all these centuries 

After all the stories

We've told one another

That the old must die

So the new can be born

Our souls recycling

Can you really believe

There is only becoming

More and more becoming

Don't you believe

We are also divine 

Right Now Valentine

What's happening right now

That's important in the world

Is a single gold flower

Catching the sun

All around it purple shadows

The darkness finally asleep

I just noticed its fiery

Loneliness as it receives

Its drop of glory

From that endless source

It made me laugh and weep

To see how far it's traveled

To let me be its witness

Adding its bright flame

To all to come 

Unless Valentine

They say if a few

Huddle together thinking

The same thought

Freely as one soul

They make an opening

For a higher being

To step through

Escaping heaven

Bypassing death

Aren't the gods

Like the dead

Always waiting

To be welcomed in

Unless we forget

Where we are from 

On Lawrence's 'Pentecostal' and the Source of All Poetry, Pentecost, 2026 Valentine

Between the domestic

And the cosmic

We can see

The lines are blurred 

Like buildings in a puddle

And yet they're married

Equally to the same reality

Of time and space they take

The peonies I bought

All dropped their petals

At the same time this morning

Covering the table

What can you make of that 

Trying Valentine

I was trying to address

My life so far

Since my last confession

The statistician of my soul

Says the numbers aren't looking good

I keep getting a different sum

I've yet to spend

Combing through the columns 

Is it our regrets

That will crawl us back

Something I meant to say

That might have made you laugh

I'm trying to coalesce

What it was that made it

Come down to this caress 

To Be A Saint Valentine

The future pauses for a while

The past mumbles on

You have to have good feet

To be a saint all that

Standing and singing

All that feeling peace

You have to touch the ground

To stand up right and walk 

You have to keep track

Of everything while

Noticing nothing 

So far out of place

Your simple glance

Can't set it straight 

Always Coming Valentine

Are they a prophecy

Of some future age

Or the gleaming residue

Of some former time 

The saints and angels

Who come into this world

As into the lion's den

Their paths lead upward

And downward as they

Push maya aside 

This beautiful world

In which I cannot find

Myself except in you always

Coming to my rescue 

What Good Valentine

There is a bird in my brain 

I have yet to name

A nest of woven twigs

Where she has laid her young

Where are they now

When spring is almost done

Sister to pelican and dove

Come back when those have gone

Give me back my wings

What good is a heart that cannot fly

Endlessly toward what it loves

But whenever I approach the nest 

She flutters off so fast

I barely catch a glimpse

Of her pale breast 

Peonies At Pentecost Valentine

As we can plainly see

The peony takes the rose

One step further 

It suggests its capacity

For love goes even deeper 

Than love first thought

Imagine if your destiny

Was to be licked by flames 

Into a roseate cluster

Or have a candle flame

Appear above your head

The possibility of flowering

Could still come to you

The peonies confirm it

The rose has promised us

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