They Stand For Us Valentine

We go to the tree nursery

And pick out our children

As all parents do

An orange tree and a fig

You always wanted a fig

To look after in the yard

And we both love oranges

They said to water them

Every day for a week

But how can we be sure

They're not starving or drowning

They sleep so soundly

We're not even sure they're breathing

Except the wind stirs their leaves

With dreams of growing up

And being loved by us 

Though We Know Valentine

Though we know 

We are imperfect 

And have far to go

We can still feel perfectible

If we keep practicing

I practicing being me

You practicing being you 

But it turns out I love you

For your imperfections

How they perfectly dovetail

With my own not a wrong note 

When we sing off key

You perfecting me 

Even If Valentine

Even if each lifetime

Is just a single step forward

Wouldn't you still want 

To make the journey

Too late now to return

As far back again

As we have left to go

Somehow when we sleep

The mountain wakes up in us 

The spirit of climbing

Against our better judgment

Risking our lives as if

Keeping some promise we made

Remember me you said 

School Days Valentine

Sometimes I think of them

As my secret family

Body soul and spirit

Father spirit Mother soul

And me their needy bodkin

Sending me off to school

Through dripping winter mornings 

Where what I find about myself

Changes every day but what

Do our parents know

About us how we love

To hear their stories

And sing the old songs

About their plans for us 

Life's Valentine

Isn't life a little like

Falling off a cliff

The speed with which

The rocks go by

The suspense the thrill

Of trying to take it all in

So we lose track of falling

Drifting in and out of time

Like fish feeding offshore 

Life is so delicate

When you touch it 

It lets you pet its wings

It ponders you

With such sharp eyes 

Body's Valentine

Isn't the body already a lot

To take care of to love

Like having three dogs 

To feed and train and if

That wasn't enough

A soul barges in

Each dog with its own soul

One running at the mouth

About some dream one

Always begging for more

And more attention

And the smallest one asleep 

I call Heart

I say Heart come

But she just dozes on 

All Saints Valentine

There's something so feminine

About flowers so funereal

The shock of them in their stalls

When you walk into the store

Something so unreachable

You can't not reach for them

But beauty's price keeps

Going up and up

Not in the budget

So I just stare and stare

At all our future glories

I believe that we will look

Like this amazement

On the gardener's face

So like your lover's

Stunned by flowers 

Holy Family Valentine

Water brother

Father fire

Sister air so sweet

Leave only earth

To be our mother

To hold the family

Mostly together

But brother went to town 

And got polluted

And sister drowned

And father slowly 

Burned away

So mother took

Another lover

And birthed

Another naked day 

All Souls' Night Valentine

When did you first notice

How like an iceburg

So much of your soul 

Is hidden from you

It's the first clue

That here is a mystery

A murder you hadn't

Noticed over there

It must have been

When you were sleeping

And your soul comes to wake you

And you know who did it

Who the murderer is

But you'd already guessed it

How it all turns out

To be continued in the end 

Leaving Valentine

At intervals the rain

Throws itself down 

Hard like someone

Come a long way

Carrying such a load

Of grief and renunciation

And then just sauntering off

Placing little suns on every leaf

Some gods still keep

The old ways of bringing 

Sorrow into joy just

By giving themselves away 

Relinquishing everything

Drop by drop leaving

Such a glow behind 

 

Having Worked Valentine

Only the birds and us

Run on two legs

But they have better arms

For penetrating  

The vastness of things

They are not intimidated 

Like shards of courage 

Broken off having worked

Themselves up from dragons

On earth there are so many 

In heaven only one

He nestles there 

In the corner of my eye

He soars above 

Time To Time Valentine

Let us come back

To the babies in our world

Again and again

The ones we pass

In the grocery store

Strapped to their father's back

Or pushed along in a pram

Through crowded streets

Where we can catch their gaze

Their heads turning back

To see if we can make them smile

Take this two year grinning girl

Wearing a T-shirt that says

Her brother is already

Kicking in her mother's womb

Let us be babies again

Full of beginnings

From time to time

Let us bring heaven down 

Later Valentine

How will we know them

When they come

The new geniuses out of the blue

Supplementing the old lights

If we don't sometimes

Sit and listen for them

The better ideas out of the future

Mere pictures of what is happening

In heaven falling from the sky

To be sorted later 

Later and later it gets 

To be a true listener

To let the beauty of the world

Speak for itself

And be heard 

Out Of a Blue Sky Valentine

One dark cloud attached

To two shining puffy ones

On either side like ears

On a gray brain asking

What do you make of this

Random picture of your soul

Passing by dissolving

Gone before you can look

It in the eyes

By soul I mean

Everything and nothing

Yes it was nothing dear 

A god made a joke

I'll tell you later 

For You Valentine

It's for you hummer

We're planting this tree

Where you can rest

Your busy bones 

And consider a nest

Might be possible

Its branches the least

We can do in return

For giving us the gift

Or iridescence suddenly

As if an angel could be so small

Stopping our minds a minute

With invisible wings

On any passing afternoon 

Phoenix Valentine

If you think of yourself as a phoenix

That creature of many feathers

Who nests at the bottom

Of a now invisible sea

Whatever brings us to the desert

Must have some new religion 

In mind an early purgatory

A certain cleansing by the sun 

We are carried back to Egypt

To the springs of the Pharaohs

Wondering what to take with us 

From this whole panorama

And yes our temples

Gutted and forlorn waiting

Impatiently to be re-born