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 frozen

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 

Called Valentine

They call to say

Your mother's dead 

There is a bird

Singing in the yard

A little dying song

You both can hear

So raw and festive

You can't help

But sing along

The joyful dirge

Of her soul ascending

At the other end

Of the phone a song

With no words 

Whoever Valentine

I join hands with all those

Who are sitting somewhere in the world

Trying to write a poem

Though they might never

Call it that a few words

On a scrap of paper

Because something forgotten

Has come back to them

Overtaking them with joy

And they just have to write it down

Tell whoever finds this note

I surrendered here

I put everything at your feet

I await your glory 

Eager Valentine

If I think of each of us

Putting our daub of paint

On the moving canvas of today

Some beautiful some smudged

I start to think I understand

What the painter has in mind 

Filling in the same scene

Over and over again

Each one perfect in its way

But still something eludes him

Each one beginning as if

Nothing had come before

Earlier efforts stacked in the corners

Eager to sketch one more

This day of days 

 

The Rest Valentine

As usual they were hidden and left

For later scholars to exhume

The shattered mummy texts

Bodies risen from the dead 

Put into readable books

Of verses and stories 
They wanted us to keep

No idea of what

Would become of us

Reconstructing their lives

Here's how to make a fire

In your heart here's how

To sleep at night

All the truth of things

You'll ever need

Just fill m the rest