Somehow Valentine

From Oedipus to Hamlet to Faust

A skip and a jump to us

Covered in a semester

Over coffee and smoke 

From Gilgamesh to Joan of Arc

To little Robert Maxwell 

Fetching light from the dark

Mineral brain to us

And we come back at last

In an electromagnetic rush 

For the next deciding battle

Fire against fire and light

Against hate and somehow a love

That embraces it all 

Slow Train Valentine

We are so small

It's hard not to wallow

In our smallness

Or let it overwhelm us

We are so huge

It's easy to get carried away 

With the fullness of ourselves

And forget to listen just listen 

The first rule of having a baby

Is not to forget the baby

The grocery clerk reminds me

And yet it keeps happening

How many billion years

Will it take the earth to become

A sapphire or a diamond 

We Are All Refugees Valentine

The thing about the earth

Is what to do with a body

As if in life we are given

A certain amount of gold

To spend on anything we like

And what to do about the soul 

Always hanging around one's neck

Always wanting to get

Something done but let's

Go for a walk she says

Love takes refuge on earth

As if it had nowhere else to go

Still trying to build a home 

Where Valentine

If you sit among holy spirits

It's appropriate to quake

It's a little in your face

To look them in the eyes

If you are a child brought

To your first church

To meet the God and you

Are not prepared 

For another fearful father 

Where is the religion

Where the child meets the child

And a lifetime friendship

Is fatefully arranged

Out of a simple gesture 

Missing Valentine

I try to imagine

The soul of my mother 

Before she came down

Agreeing to accept me

As her son did I

Talk her into it

Out of some debt

We still owe one another

We keep missing

Our Madonna years

You holding me

Me rocking you

Poised upon the altar

Of our hopes and fears 

History Is What Is Hidden Valentine

If you look at the multiple ways

The past keeps losing its grip

On what must be remembered

So it all has to be done

All over again from the start

As in a schoolchild's notebook

A hundred lines of 'I am not stupid

I am not that stupid' but not to have

Lost on me the hours

Of the turning of the light

You sun of love

Still paying the cost

Of all we've lost 

Nothing More Valentine

The armies of the cold

And the armies of the warmth

Are massing along the creek

And then dissolving into fog

The way fear melts away

When you catch sight

Of someone you love

And the real world

Reveals itself as nothing

More beautiful

Than this sitting by a creek

Feet freezing

Faces burning 

Dissolving into fog 

Undecided Valentine

Are you a warrior

Or a pilgrim passing by

Do you have something in mind

When you consider each day

What needs to be done

Going out to meet it 

Or do you take it

As it comes

Surfing the waves

Almost drowning or

Laying on the beach

With absolute trust

The angels will work it out

Heaven will tend its sheep 

Early Valentine

Alright we get it

Another one about a bird

But don't you sometimes 

Want to mock yourself

Like the proud mockingbird

Perfecting his song those

Few notes over and over 

It was given him to work on

Art for art's sake

But secretly his mate

Somewhere is overwhelmed

Against her better judgment 

Such is the insistence of his song

The early days of love 

Left Valentine

I take a spoon of honey

In my coffee in the morning 

And sit outside in the shade

And wonder how many

Others share the privilege

Of hearing that dove

Mourning her love over there 

Or the honor of this breeze

Assuring us there is

Still tenderness in this world

We few old monks

In our quiet choirs

With nothing but spring

Left to sing 

Bumbling Valentine

A small pile of sawdust

Left for me on the bricks below

The hole in the tree

A big black bumblebee 

Has carved to fit

Where it can nest 

But I'm the one

Bumbling about the yard

Sweeping it up

Watching it return 

So loaded with pollen

From working all day

In its gardens of glory

Leaving me embarrassed 

Sweeping the dust

With nothing to say 

 

Remember This Valentine

If your body becomes a cloud

As it will one day

Mingling and dissolving

In the hierarchy of air

If your soul becomes a star

Bundled along with other lights

Hurrying through the dark

I'll still be able to pick you out

And if your spirit has time 

In its celestial schedule 

To visit me now and then

You'll find nothing has changed

The old table still awaits us

Your bread my wine 

To Feel It Valentine

If light creates

The eyes to see it 

And sound the ears

To hear it does love

Create the heart

To feel it and air

The thoughts to think it

And longing the blood

Take up its course

In the willful body

Where life comes and goes

Always pressing forward

This delight in making things

This creation without end 

Returning Valentine

The white butterfly returns

The holy ghost in my yard

Checking and blessing things

I didn't know it could be so small

You must flutter before you fly

If you want to follow me

You must be cheerful

And not surrender

To any passing flower

Frail as a beating heart

Letting the breeze be your body

The sunlight breath you in and out

You must have the strength

To pull the whole spring after you

And cast out every doubt 

Evil's Valentine

The thing about evil is

It isn't even practical 

It whirls around and around

In ever-widening circles

Until it snaps in upon itself

And another day breaks through

Does the darkness hate the light

More than the light loves the darkness

Incomprehensible stars 

And yet they persist

Goodness is a fairy story

A completely believable tale

About the dangers of love

And endings you can trust

Will lead you home again 

Brought Valentine

Death and birth

Only seem to be

Part of this earth

A body bestowed

A body removed

With varying times between

A curtain opens and you

Are pushed out onto a stage

And looked at by the whole world

Silent for your soliloquy

What beauty have you brought us

From that better world

Body after body

To feed this hungry earth