Samhain Valentine

When we work our way
back from this world
first we go through
twilight with its fiery
pitfalls then through
personalities hiding
in morning skies
like a wiser kind of
desire disembodied
but still seeking us
and then back still
further through clouds
of feeling stitched back
into all things
the silence behind
which finally we find
as we suspected
the original crime
was love all along

Taurus Valentine

The full moon
the white bull
carries on his
horny shoulders
however saturnine
or terrible
the voices
of its storms
reflected once
our promissory
hearts undergoing
love’s surgeries
its scissors tracking
sinew cutting
toward the bone
that sun
that wound
its home 

Exile Valentine

To bare Patmos
he brought son mere
the man ripe
with spent fury
the wild man
of grief they
called him
after the cave
voices started
talking to him
once every week
he and she would
eat together
she would show
him her garden
he would tell her
about his visions
they both loved
the same man
how could they
not revere the
other’s love
as well?

Tryst Valentine

At 9:50
the wind
licks me
my neck
and cheeks
why then
why here
I notice
we are all
ticking
geese and trees
again I
notice you
but now
from a place
inside
the wind

Wednesday's Valentine

It’s Wednesday
but I thought
it was Friday
to run ahead
of time is what
dreaming does
to the nerves
when we return
to rigid space
always rearranging
the props but
when the patio
is swept we sit
and dream at ease
two iced coffees
please

 

Futile Valentine

I’m nursing
some new
grass along
under a new
moon not all
deep matter is
dark matter
take my manure
thinly laid
as cloisonné
over thick gold
even the sun
has gathered in
a hoard against
my army of
green spears
raised swords  

American Valentine

Hardly ever
shutting up
about God
while only
really believing
in matter
in money
hardly ever
quiet about
freedom while
keeping slaves
for three
hundred years
and still today
hardly ever
able to discern
the charming
phony from
the honest face
of friend will
be our end

Arcana Valentine

Even the sun reversed
is good in a lesser sense
with their plaid shirts off
the trees look amazingly
athletic I almost said
pathetic because there
is that too sitting here
at nature’s bedside
while she drags out
where that word
came from they called
it a thing at first
but it looked like
a hand issuing from
a cloud grasping
a wand or club

Unapologetic Valentine

Every day
I lose faith
in poetry
and some days
it doesn’t come
back like later
in the day
after it’s had
time to reconsider
the foolishness
of all its words
gestures tokens
everything it’s
ever said
and just admit
it just admit it
and apologize

Parzival in October Valentine

One small red leaf and I
occupy this cloud-like table
floating above the sheep meadow
of the central park
of my castled mind
with its magic bed
laying open on the page I read
half of the leaf so red
lifts slightly in my mind
as easily in the wind
my mind lifts too
while the bed crashes around
in the room where my mind
evicts all its symbols
out onto the lawn
and even my heart that forest
feels heartlessly glad for a time

Passing Valentine

Out of infinitely
distant realms
wafts this little guy
gray-yellow moth
would you believe it up
onto a leaf for me
or equally not for me
but then flies off
to think the whole
thing is made up
of innumerable
small sacrifices
everyone is making
for everyone else
whether we
want to or not

Rescue Valentine

Always the world
tries to lull us
out of ourselves
but we snap back in
almost at the last
moment the one
we are in our dreams
our dream selves
come to our rescue
by getting remembered
and then we abandon
this shining world
for inner pleasures
the hard work
of overcoming
the fear in the eyes
of every animal we meet
even when they love us
they don’t trust us
completely

Driven Valentine

I language am
the empty garage
free of the car
longing for the car
if I photograph something
it becomes my toy
my victim my joy
when I’m on the freeway
I feel part of some great
piece of music my one
note in Bach or grunge
sometimes Schubert
weaving weaving
I wear a mouth guard
for when reality hits
which makes it
hard to sing

I language am

humming myself

Perched Valentine

This morning
wears its
cool insignificance
like a sweater
it swaggers-saunters
past me
not noticing
my cloudless
eyes my
miniscule I
perched here
watching him
loving him
just one
of that
dragonfly’s fans
and friends  

Song of the Grass-whip Valentine

Snip-snip-snip
the lobotomy the
vasectomy of the
nailery of slavery
in Thomas Jefferson’s
capacious mind the
flown circuits where
neurons meet their
waiting dripping backs
blades of grass
the only truly
free man ever
at Monticello was
a slave who
never stopped
plotting to escape

 

Foursquare Valentine

I would offer
you Buddha but
in Buddha there
is no I no takers
 
no Buddha either
for that matter nor
what we call human
or natural selection
 
which wouldn’t exist
without a mind
to think it
up and out

Undebateable Valentine

If I look out
the window and
tell you I
see a tree
and you look
out the very
same window and
tell me you see
an elephant’s trunk
charging toward us
flailing and flopping
like the cock
of someone being
fucked by wedged
processions of swans
heading north for
love and money
really? and how
a free economy
can only support
lies if we’re
not all equal
really

Ativan Valentine

To be free
spirits is all
we’ve ever wanted
 
to climb above
seas of shame
above coercive kings
 
and conscience queens
who’ve lived through
their humility to
 
fame and wealth
in spiritual things
above it all
 
to be free
spirits to have
torn loose 

Baffled Valentine

Having copped to
what we see
can’t be trusted
isn’t even real
we are baffled
for some minutes
it’s fall when
we look around
at two options
pretend this is
real all this
or take it
to another level
as art or
artifact of countless
intelligent life forms
we too must
see ourselves inside

October Valentine

I see world
we built you
up to tear
you down you
decide the time
place the people
their delivery and
the rallying executions
you hate us
now world rejected
casting off each
merely provisional part
of you as
bird or leaf
magic stone of
love gone wrong

My Ego's Valentine

My ego thinks he’s me
my ego thinks he can
go around letting people
think he’s me like
pretending to be a doctor
when all he wants
is to take off your clothes
my ego thinks he’s real
my ego doesn’t see you
standing there shivering
naked and alone
my ego thinks he
can examine you
my ego thinks
he’s not immortal
my ego thinks
I might be
my ego thinks
we could go on
like this forever