Teenage Valentine

Above all my mother

Hated phonies and liars

Which was a lot of people

In those days she thought

But it was her spontaneity

That taught me so much

About getting over myself

I so admired her pride 

Even when I hated her

Which happened with

Increasing frequency

As we got older

No it wasn't hate

More like fear

I didn't love her enough

As much as she did me 

Moving On Valentine (for Susan)

It's not the last beach

But it's been a long stretch

To linger in one place

Longing to leave it

When there are so many

not so oceanic forests

You could be climbing

Remember the stones you stole

Will have to be returned 

To sender before you

Close the door at last

Don't think the sea

Won't follow you

In all its splendor  

Heading Valentine

Time to gather

My thoughts together

Flocks of them heading

For better weather

Swirling skies of them

That cannot settle

Oceans below

And ice above

While some are left behind

Old now enough

To over-winter

And sit in barren trees

And sing and whimper 

If You Will It Valentine

Of the dark gods

And the gods of  light

Each of us

A little heaven

Come to earth

To make something

Never made before

That can't be done

In heaven each of us

Given a piece of bread

A portion of delicious fish

To go on and make 

Of it what we will

Something living still 

Newly-Weds Valentine

Still a lot of sun

To go around

And the migrant moon

To keep in touch

With our mad escapades 

And as many stars as we

Could possibly need

To stitch a life together

While we have these perfect bodies

And these perfect minds

While all we love

Passes before our eyes

And the world can still

Be sorted with a kiss 

Come Fall Valentine

Do you wonder more

About where things come from

Than where they're going

Is your soul deciduous

Like mine or evergreen

Do you prefer falling

Asleep or waking up

Do you take instruction

Leaving everything behind

Or do you travel blind 

I can't make up my mind 

Come fall and I believe

I'm just another leaf

I sweep and sweep 

Standing In Valentine

Is it possible

To care for flowers

More than a human being 

If you have a garden

While so many are starving

Your favorite rose

Just coming into bloom

Is it indifferent

As it opens to the sun

Just hovering there

In its complete perfection 

Impossible rose

Standing in for all the children

Dying in the world 

Walled Valentine

Over the top we go

Always a bit too much 

Of too little carriage

Of our thoughts to their

Inevitable conclusions 

When we are young

We only know one thing

That the old must go 

If something new can open

The next new glittering thing

Or something of true value

The construction of the future

What our lives are worth

If we break through its walls

Elemental Valentine

No matter how long

You pretend to be the plants

 Or curl up in the piled stones

Burying summer under

All the plans you made 

Or weaving through the air turn

Your flowers into thunderstorms 

Just to affirm your power 

Reaching into everything

Your proof of magic 

Now I see you

Now I don't

But don't think I don't

Touch you taste you near 

Joy's Valentine

Nothing penetrates like joy

Against all refusals to open the door

All of a sudden it can sweep 

Into your lungs out of nowhere

Beyond all reason your heart

Leaps for the few minutes

It can tolerate so great

Expansion but no matter

How much you want it

To dissolve you 

You can't contain it

It moves out to fill

The whole forest with light

Taking back its position

In the sun and stars  

Laughter To The Rescue Valentine

It was his fate and fortune

To make funny happen

To lift laughter

To an art form

Anyone could practice

To expose our inherent 

Capacity for silliness

In all our serious games

To tear us from our thrones

Our complacency and pride

The joker in the corner of our lives

Who never breaks a smile

But leaves us rolling

On the floor sometimes

Rescuing our lives 

If I Do Nothing Else Valentine

My purpose today

Is to cut my hair

And wash it and scrub

My body clean

While my soul

Can only stand

Out in the rain 

To simulate the same

Desire to be free

Newborn and fresh

To start again

Just give me a minute

To put on some clothes

And dry my dripping soul 

Arranged Valentine

After a long courtship

For better or for worse

If worse to make better

We marry the earth

Even as infant kings and queens

We are spoken for 

One way poverty

One way riches

Things work out

So uniquely for each of us

We can only celebrate

What's common between us

Love leads us to the marriage bed

How can we refuse 

Orange Wings Valentine

Come rain

Embrace the air

Don't be lonely anymore

 

Despite so many flowers

Orange wings stay only a minute

Not finding what they want

 

What is the connection

Between two lizards

Circling on the wall

 

I seemed content

With the eternal

Until love busted in 

 

Come rain

Start me up

All over again 

Not Too Late Valentine

I am informed 

By unimpeachable sources

That the monster 

I was sent to tame

Turns out is me

Like you I at first 

Wouldn't believe it

But after some research

Re-tracing my steps 

I had to admit

How much my monsters

Taught me and the debt

I owed them only saved

By my late regret 

Far From Home Valentine

In the end I find

Myself a little melted

Overwhelmed but purple

With joy by all the things

I find myself wanting

I pull over to the side

Of the road by an old tree

Out here in the countryside

The rolling hills of heaven

To see if they're still there

Which of course they are

And this dying pine destined

To become an archangelic being 

And today I get to behold it

We together far from home 

Already Valentine

I'm full of anxiety

I won't get to read

All the books I've saved

Too busy re-reading 

All the ones I've loved

I read to recall and forget

What I think and hear

What someone else

Has to say about 

This our adventure

Across time and space

What they think about

This moment or

Lose their way and I'm

Left waiting for the sequel

Re-tracing my steps

Already October 

Discovered Valentine

A prize is given

For the discovery

Of a nerve in a 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 

As it surely will 

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