Painted Valentine

If I stand and look at my garden
As we all must full of stubble
Or hopefully you planted a tree
Just so against a sickle moon
A boat pushing from shore
These blue blobs are the waves
You must cross said a small boy
To me it just looks like my life
And there on the opposite shore
This is the castle a brown smudge
His stained finger pointed to
And looked up at me to see
If I was grasping his intent
And if I was ready to go

Rant in Heaven Valentine

When I get back to heaven
I'll only have one question
OK and your point was
What could you have possibly thought
Would have to happen
If you started thinking again
What was the exact moment
You drove us out into the cold
Abandoned us to our feeble brains
And then called it self-destruction
I suppose for you it was still a question
That lingered in your might
To step back and see I mean
What could possibly go right

Last Night's Valentine

In my dream you were a baby again
Our fat-cheeked Boobalina
When we lived in that little cottage
Pressed against the woods
Torn from some book of fables
To be a part of the creation
Of another distinct person
And watch the mystery unfold
The privilege of the power
To show you the beauty of the world
How could I do that if someone
Else hadn't shown me how
To give you all she gave me
Even the things my father forgot

Starry Valentine

With minimal effort
But to maximum effect
Or with maximum effort
To minimal effect
Until the effect recaptures
The effortlessness of the dance
Moving like visible air it's
The effect on the audience
Exhausted by their efforts
To make sense of their lives
Who come here to be healed
And put into a trance
By the pure movement of bodies
And the music of spheres

Apologetic Valentine

An apology is always reparative
Even if it's not accepted
Which is the greater sin
The refusal to be reconciled
When the chance is there
Bungled to see someone
Further and deeper
Who reaches out to you
Momentarily naked
You know you saw it
Before you denied it
And you know an apology
Is always in order
If there is any love at all

Fortunate Valentine

Someone who won a fortune
Had so much fun and satisfaction
Sharing it with others
He had nothing left for himself
Some thought this wise
Some thought it foolish
For him he felt it was just
The right thing to do
He said he had enough
For himself and hated to see
Anyone less fortunate
If he could do something about it
Anyway he planned to share the next one
As soon as it came his way

Each One Valentine

As long as those who had gotten ahead
Took care of those who had fallen behind
So no one was left entirely on his own
In that time of the shared importance
Of all things when we were
Just learning to stand and speak
When after the shattering
Little by little the soul
Sank down into the body
Like a feather or a stone
When the spirt of all
Lived in each one
For that short time
Do you still remember it

Personal Valentine

If you cognize we all
Must be born again
In different minds and bodies
If you go far enough out
On that inevitable limb
And wonder why it should be
This way why mother why
You must have an archangel's eyes
To take a drone's wide view
Of things and yet it changes everything
Whole histories fall into place
Chance and destiny make sense
The world impersonates us
As we impersonate the world

Entrance Valentine

The qualification for entrance today
Into a deeper awareness
Involves remembrance and remorse
There's always a cross somewhere
Whatever the prognosis
The qualification is loss
In the quest for a conscience
I mean if they take away your keys
And put you out on the street
All you can do is love
What you do and take
Some concern for the others
And cram for the final exam

The Sun My Muse Valentine

Is it anthropomorphic
Or ancestral that the gods
Look like us an immediate
Family resemblance
And then there's the child
Who doesn't echo either parent
An animal and an angel joined
Which is how we write the stars
With our hereditary numbers
Or the outlines of a person
Still being sketched in
By twelve immigrant artists
Staring at the sun

Mountain Valentine

Why would you roll a boulder
Up a mountain in the first place
When Moses went up to the mountain
He brought back two new boulders
It was the metaphorical thing to do
You can have a boulder
Resting on your heart and I
Have seen some perched
Above my head but they
Did not fall as it happens
Look I am still carting around
This boulder body
All I gained by falling

The Way Back Valentine

Maybe drugs are really a form
Of spiritual meditation
A true desire to leave the brain
And cross over into some bliss
The question if the thinking
Gets clearer and knows
Or loses itself on the way back
But isn't it our feeling for things
And whether we will learn to
That's constantly being fought over
It all comes down to a battle of wills
One ends on one's knees
To pray or to weep

But What Love Valentine

Some angels are windows  
Who live in the eyes
Of creatures and people
Some angels are doors
You'd rather not open
But sooner or later you must
Some angels abandon
The houses they're sent to
And sit outside in the tree
Some angels would rather not carry
Such bad news all the time
To neighbors and friends
But what love says they must

Kept Valentine

O my unhappy pomegranate tree
Whose fruits grow rotten
Before they ripen
But in May you glow like a bride
So I keep you around
For those few weeks
You can surround me
With your fragrant body
In bloom and fertile
And just standing there
Like innocence itself
Struck by your first desire
And shedding all your petals

What Do You Want Valentine

A rather large mourning dove
Or is it an eagle sitting there
At the very top of the tall palm tree
Or just the gray of a dead branch
Palms die from the top
I don't have my glasses on to see
But this one's just turned
And lifted a white wing
Not a leaf but a bird
It looks a little absurd
Too large for its perch
And it keeps turning and turning
Uncomfortable with its victory
Its restive incongruity

Of Course Valentine

Climbing the ladder of being
Is it better if you don't look down
Of course he had to look back
For love of her but to the gods
It felt like treachery a lack
Of trust in their strict commands
There was a certain way to do things
Without any certainty
Or investment in the outcome
They insisted on
Some rungs of the ladder
Are broken off or breaking
They said but go ahead
Let go I've got you

Invitation to a Fireplace Valentine

Come join me and I'm already there
It's just my body that's missing
But somehow our eyes are joined
When we stare at the same fire
Me at the picture you sent
You at the actual blaze
And yet it warms us both
My flames are bright and still
While yours burn on
Sizzling and dancing in our eyes
Until we become the flames we see
When you look across at me
The future is just a memory

Alchemical Valentine

Haven't you noticed not every recipe is equal
Some must be followed to the letter
While others require the addition
Of an experienced imagination
An invention from what's at hand
For which we're starving
A feast of only the necessary
Ingredients to keep life going
But what if you have no stove
Or spoon or bowl to plate
Your steaming masterpiece upon
While your glutton guests look on
The invisible dish of love
You rush to serve them

Valentine to Love

Don't worry
I'm not going anywhere
At least not quickly
Even at three a.m.
I'll be here
Listening to you breath
Watching your face
Decipher some dream
You might be having of us
Or having nothing to do with us
Even when you turn away from me
Into a deeper dreamless sleep
Where everything's forgotten
And we are gone

United Valentine

The united states of Europe
The united states of China
The united states of the Middle East
The united states of the Russias
The united states of the Americas
The united states of Antarctica
The united states of polar bears
The united states of egrets
Who lead solitary lives 
The united states of music
The united states of conscience
The united states of civil wars
Despite what Hammurabi wrote
Some of the best literature
The united states of bliss

Wind's Valentine

Way up the wind has carved
The delicate skeleton of a fish
The gods have eaten and thrown down
Earlier I watched an emerald cloud
Through which a sun was drifting
Only visible when I closed my eyes
A whole city of perceptions
Gathered in the naked tree
Of course I was only seeing things
The gods fishing for a compliment
The clouds baked like loaves
The mountain becoming transparent
And all of us just resting here
Waiting to be fed

Winged Valentine

The impression left by death
On the so-called living
Is the unanswered question
Of our age you can watch it
In the movies and the libraries
Piling up with possible solutions
Where death keeps interjecting itself
One's own just out of range
To miss temporary things
Like being touched
By another body
Pressing itself against you
Like wings touching down

Guilty Valentine

Working my way back to the earth
Through a long dream of being lost
And thwarted at every turn
By my own failure to follow directions
To trust the signs and symbols
Of a language I couldn't speak
Hurrying through the dark streets
Either empty or crowded
Some faces dead some living
Until you finally appeared
And gave me back my body
And said yes I could awake
Take up my bed and walk
And sin no more

Mineral Valentine (for D)

Now the three stones I stole
From a hidden beach I found
Must find their own connection
To one another where they
Stand in the photograph
Of a family just arrived
They could be three generations
Reunited after centuries
One is fat but graceful
The other all hard angles
Their daughter veiled in white
They could be the father the son
And the holy ghost

Another Valentine

It's this holy matter we produce
That gives rise to time and space
As if the earth were the first drop
Of paint to be placed
On a newly-stretched canvas
Of a woman holding a child
The drop that might become the eye
Of an angel crouching in the corner
Or part of her blue mantle
Always falling short of what
The artist had in mind
For his dark surface
Another masterpiece

New World Valentine

Secretly we long for the time
When the soul will be evident
In every face when a glance
will reveal its true intent
When there are no more secrets
What will we make of it
When the appearances are disclosed
To be better or worse than thought
When it will be impossible to lie
When what one sends out into the world
Will be immediately obvious
And to be faced inside
Where there is no where left to hide

Love Affair Valentine (for D.)

If a man sneezes seven times
In the middle of the night
In his own backyard
Does it make a sound
Even if no one hears it
It's become a kind of ritual
With him to go out and stare
At the stars his first response
Looking up is to sneeze
And wipe his eyes
He feels he owes the cosmos
At least ten minutes of his time
To call out you bitch
And turn and go back to bed

Body's Valentine

What are we doing to the body
This idea of the body carried around
Sketched out over time
All about prettiness and valor
Or is it just the holy grail
Childhood returns to recover
A vessel that could hold the world
In the right goldsmith's hands
Every body that has ever been
Piling up becoming the earth
Becoming everything around us
The body itself a resurrection underway
The tomb of a body
Toward which a woman is running

Whispered Valentine

When I see bright contrails
Heading north and south
I like to think of the young pilot
Staring at his radar screen
Or talking to the lives he carries
When he may be thinking
Of his breakfast this morning
The most important meal of the day
Which he missed because
Of too much love-making
Or kissing his children goodbye
For a few minutes he cannot
Remember where he's flying
Until I whisper it to him

Epiphany Valentine #3

I'm so vain and humble
I think I'm listening to myself 
When all along it was you
Speaking through me
It wasn't like I wasn't there
When all of this was going on
I was trying to speak and listen
Chew my words and not mumble
When I still thought I could be humble
But without my vanity
Where would I be
If you're not proud enough
To speak to me

Epiphany Valentine #2

It's all been cooked
And the soul has eaten
Just the dishes to put away
And bathe in the aftermath
Of glory living in the earth
How many Christmases
Growing dimmer and dimmer
And still the Messiah
Hasn't come or is he
Already here among us
And the seasons just the four
Stages of his memory after he's
Moved on from grief

Epiphany Valentine #1

What good can it do
To see you in heaven
If on earth I pass you by
What did it feel like
To abandon all the comforts
Of your home leave your father
To come to live alone
With your speechless mother
Such an impulsive thing
Don't you sometimes regret
The long work of your love
Breathing the final loneliness
Of the world under that dove

Still Valentine

The light is still carving our eyes
So we can begin to see its suffering
And its morning glory
Are interweaving themes
Spread across a wide panorama
So the eye can see the I
As if mirrored in each one
So diligent a sculptor light
So small a cup to hold it
The original idea of a nest
Or the hand of a leaf
Clinging to stones there
Where the sun sleeps

Dreamed Valentine

Death proves the body exists
As an assemblage of the soul
And though ephemeral
They must meet again
Somehow to resurrect it all
The passion and the pain
And be a solid object in the world
Three stones I took home
From the shore and glazed
Them with my tears amazed
The body is so delicate a thing
To hold so tightly to
That even after dying
It can sway and sing

New Year Valentine

All the ways death finds to deceive us
The sun penetrates and unravels
Every year there's a little more
Light in space though at times
We can hardly perceive it
A new kind of light that
Can't by nature be stopped
It is starting to come into our bodies
When we cross over into
Earth's night where
Physical things seem so real
So when we leave there's
Inevitably more a tiny
Illumination that is added