Discovered Valentine

A prize is given

For the discovery

Of a nerve in the brain 

Where a fear is hidden 

Its location waiting

To be triggered 

But the fear itself

How did it get there

Except through some

Immaterial perception

In the mouse's mind

That placed it there

For whenever it was needed 

Somehow Valentine

In my narrow yard

Suddenly appeared

A wild garden flowering 

Where my tree had been

An impenetrable forest

Of colors out of nowhere

Broke through in the part

I'd let go and never got to

Finish finished for me

Somehow it knew

I would be here amazed 

To behold it 

Fall on its way

The killing frost

The broken-hearted child

Come again to stay

Another Valentine

There must be a hundred

Purple flowers to choose from

So why do its yellow wings

Settle on just this one

Feeding there for a while

And then flying off

As if there were no others

And later in the evening

Coming back to the same one

Which having had its day

Is dying all folded up

In a white shroud

Their seed inside

Saved for another world

Another field of wings

And purple flowers 

Then Go Valentine

After the roadside asters and

The brazen mums in stores

After the leaves fly off 

Like fallen soldiers off to war

And the soul is the only

Bird left singing 

Far out on an island

Still be be discovered 

Then go and stand there 

Under the crooked tree 

Let the worst be done

Loss find its rest in love

In purple asters 

And in brazen mums

Fall Planting Valentine

My willful spring

My summer full

Of feelings

My thoughtful fall

All come to rest

In winter's gleaming

Ice that catches fire

In whatever seeds 

You buried

Farmer of my soul

I remember you striding

Though the bright fields 

Coming home exhausted

In the darkness full of hope 

Taking It Valentine

As I've been doing

For some time now

Every morning

I sit in the sun

Or the gray of clouds

And stare back

At the world

I try to keep a respectful

Expectant gaze 

As if I was talking

To a child or friend

Love can't be taught

But learned she teaches me

To sit in the sun these clouds

And take it all in gratefully 

If I Wait Valentine

If I wait upon a god

It's because a god

Waits on me

More and more I feel

Our hidden collaboration

Unseen becoming seen

I trust it because

Of its wry humor

Throwing walls up against me

Or coddling my woes 

The trick is to find

Your god before he

Finds you napping

And joins you in the bed 

Still Unfinished Valentine

The opera I wrote

Took 83 years so far

To assemble and rehearse

Involving millions

Of players over

Several continents

And a quilt-work of plots 

For its single performance

To an audience of one

Sitting in the darkness

I remember the inspiration

For the whole composition 

I was having breakfast

With my angel and thought

I have nothing better to do 

And an eternity to do it 

To My (Michaelmas) Friends Valentine

It took me long enough

To find out something definite

About my life and world

And though you all are shy 

About honors I want

To honor you my friends

It makes me feel I might

Have achieved something

Just to be in your company

We all suffer the delusion

Of aloneness in the struggle

To make something of ourselves

Something worthy

Of true friendship

Abidingly 

Left Behind Valentine

A little patch of moonlight

Fallen on some stones

In the shape of a cup

Or it could be a shield

A shadow like a sword

Falling across it 

When the moon

Divorced the earth

She took all her jewelry

With her but she left

This bracelet behind

Fallen on stones 

In her haste

Half out of her mind 

Debtor's Valentine

I omitted my sins of omission

In the audit of my soul 

My accountant sent me back

To the enormity of my debt

Hidden in the things

I did not do and now regret

Things I left unsaid

Out of indifference or shame

How make amends 

For what could have been

Fill back in the gaps

Where the light went missing

Still grateful for the debt

I struggle to repay 

September Valentine

The gospels these days

Are all about healing

The blind and the deaf one

Who calls out in the crowd

But what I don't understand

Is how they all didn't

Beg for mercy right then

When they had a chance 

To reach out to him

In the flesh which I

Would I have done

If I call out to him today

As it was in the future

And will be in the past

Only love will last 

Here Valentine

It is still Uriel who passes

The sword of summer

To Michael at the changing

Of the guard in late September

Here in the desert

Fall is the spring we live for

We plant tomatoes 

That will ripen by Christmas 

When all the fields turn

A sempiternal green 

And we can drive out 

To the hills to see 

Our wasteland blooming 

If I Stand Valentine

If I stand

Half in sunlight

Half in shadow 

With a line that passes

Cleaving me in two

Can I feel the balance-

Point for those few seconds

When the soul is still

And the body trembles

Time hovers there

Waiting to resume

A little eternity

Seeps through

Carried by the moon