Wondered Valentine

If on the seventh day they rested 
Who comes to finish up their work
They could only get so far before
Their idea had to carry on without them
Only once the pillars were in place
And the great doors swung open
Could they relax their singing
Could they stand back and look
Soberly at all the risks they took
And realize what was missing
And long for a new Monday to come
To lift Friday on its shoulders
And wonder waiting to see
What would become of their sun

Taken Valentine

Space is so indefinite
Time is so subtle
It's no mistake
We're so in trouble
Take your body
For my example
Made of ash
A beautiful chaos
Dissolved on the tongue
From which a new
Beginning comes
The taste of love
So harsh so kind
Not even trouble minds
or space or time

Called Valentine

You call to say you're craving
To be touched but all we have
Are voices trembling in the ether
You're well you say and go
For walks you send me pictures of
Beauties you come across
Trees blooming I've never seen before
Whose names you do not know
What does it matter to have seen
Them glow and watched in wonder
Colors fit to burst the mind
To rescue it from sorrow
But send me more and more
You whose name I love and know

Queen of the Night Valentine

Stumbling in the darkness of our day
We come upon the lady of the stars
Asleep among her jewels
Her stillness makes us shiver
As you pull the cover back
To find her beauty naked
Her flesh a shock of light
And we just stand there caught
Feeling lost for a long while
I remembered how we cried
Making love for the first time
But brushed the memory back
Here was some other kind of love
And we could hear the dragon rustling
Underneath her bed and see the crown
She would stand and place upon her head

Borrowed Valentine

That up starts a flower
And down falls a seed
Revives an eternal need
Each petal celebrates
Some elemental struggle
Each root some creed
Fastened to the ground
By some angelic power
That only lives a day
And never makes a sound
O that I could borrow
That courageous will
For just a half an hour
Who would I be tomorrow

His Valentine

Hobbled by grace
In an anxious place
I limp along
He who keeps me
Wobbling lives there
In the darkness
Of the dawn
What good was all
My study but another
Kind of worry
And yet he takes me
To his breast and often
I feel his arms about me
Putting me to rest

Annuciation Valentine

To the bats are given the moths at night
To the butterflies the breath of sunlight
To the mockingbird is given the whole morning
And to the dove her afternoon moaning
Even to the puddle is given the blessing
Of three sparrows bathing at once
But to me is given you
The caught breath and the bounced heart
When we collided and were born
Into another life together
Even to fate is given a second
Forgiveness one in a million chance
And to the wind is given
At last a new heart

Dreamed Valentine

Wandering into the forest of the dead
In search of my mother and father
I came upon an ancient cottage
Where an old man still lived
Who pitied me and gave me supper
Let me sleep by his small fire
And in the morning sent me off
Follow that dove who follows the crow
Until you come to the abandoned castle
Of your soul you'll know it by the fog
No I pleaded let me stay with you
For another life-time or two live on
But he'd have none of it
And pushed me toward the dawn

Unregretted Valentine

I admit it was how much
He didn't know about himself yet
That his uncertainties outnumbered
What he was still working on
His early smile and nervous strength
I doubted he had just one angel
It must have taken a hierarchy
To corral his wandering soul
And tame it into this body
I admit it was his wounds
That caught me matching my own
And convinced me it is love
That's buried in bodily matter
The mystery hidden in plain sight

A Bird At Every Corner of Space Valentine

There are no mockingbirds among the stars
Or nightingales or sparrows
There is a crow and a dove though
An eagle and a swan who swim
Together in the same reflection
I know because I went
Into your room and stared
At the star-map dusty on the wall
There is a winged horse
But no unicorn anywhere yet
Don't all these animals above
Look down on our menagerie
Amazed and curious to find
Their mountains and lost seas

Busted Valentine

I have taken the pedestal down
Where sat the bust of Thought
Busted thought with his
Angelic daydreaming gaze
And winged head when I finally
Bought him for my sixtieth
He'd only one wing left
Turning into a sphinx
You can't pick him up
By the wings anymore
But lift him by the base
And place him on a table
There's still something Grecian
About him it's obvious
He was among the first

Lost Valentine

In order to explain me to you
I'd have to go back to yesterday
For which I wrote down the wrong
Date and had to scratch it out
I was reading about bats and butterflies
And lost track with where I was
So absorbed in their different
Modes of flight I imagined an earth
Surrounded by butterflies and an
Earth surrounded by bats
The one in the sun and the other
In twilight the one who carries
Everything upward and the one
Pinned and blind to the earth

Yard Bird Valentine

I go for a jog with the snails
Several about on this cloudy morning
Promenading the red bricks
They know how to pull their weight
After a rain and leave a wake
I envy their trusty horns
So different from my clumsy feet
It's all about sliding into third
Cruising home out of the park
Athletes of an invincible patience
While I shuffle back and forth
Sometimes having to dance a little
To avoid that crackling sound
Of the end of the world

Storied Valentine

Of course while the plague rages outside
The lovers rage in their bed
Forming new replacements for the dead
And the moon that desiccated flower
Flashes brighter every hour as it rises
Dissolving in the sun
A victim and a hero come
And gone the same as always
The fifth season of disease
Is a movable feast but it's not
As if we haven't practiced dying before
It's the stories of our childhood
That give us the strength to live on
So tell me another one

Counter Measures Valentine

As far down into fear I can go
With most of the world awake
All night and shivering
Just that far can I feel
The opposite is real
How far down into matter
Can we go before it swings
The other way love
Doesn't conquer anything
Or need to be conquered
In times of great fear
It takes on a luminous quality
That can spread like a pandemic
If we let it go that far

Whatever Valentine

Whatever happens great beauties
I know you will be there
I know the exit is just around
The corner but I'm not sure we're
On friendly enough terms yet
I'd rather outlive everyone
I love and know so they
Won't have to suffer my defeat
If things were easier
On the other side I'd be
The first to let you go
But life goes on there
Much like here I think
Our love is everywhere

Bench Valentine

There's a bench behind Chartres
Where I am still sitting years later
Actually I was sitting and rising
At the same time it was like
I'd found a hidden line of force
Running down into the ground
And reaching far out into space
I felt exalted and cast down
By all the people who had come this way
The beautiful thinkers and the
Pilgrims who have lost their faith
But the one thing that holds us all together
Was holding me on that bench

Parable of My Tree Valentine

Three birds came to my tree
I'm just telling you the truth
The first one was so small
I couldn't see him though
He sang a jubilant song
But was soon gone
The next chirped harshly
With a scolding tone
The third I'm still waiting for
I imagine a pelican or a stork
Or the red-tailed hawk
Might rest in my little tree
I love them all equally

Warned Valentine

Overnight our priorities shifted
We could all smell the dragon
Looming in the air though
No one could tell where he was
We were back in the woods
In a fairy-tale of disaster
Told over and over
And new every night
Forgetting how it ends
And then remembering again
I should have loved you more
I should have broken through
And warned you not to go

Another Sighting Valentine

The red-tailed hawk is back
I caught her flying west
And then she returned
Heading east as though
She'd just gone to fetch something
Was it my gaze her eyes
Were seeking making sure
I knew she was there
I like to think we have
That kind of contact
When intelligence isn't enough
And the heart must assert
The privilege of her presence

Sought Valentine

If water seeks to equalize the earth
And air seeks the brotherhood of breath
And fire seeks the freedom of all things
Then the earth must be the place
They're bound to happen
On a particular rainy day
When each drop is respected
For the world it is
And the air is sweetened
With green wines
What are you seeking
Fire in my heart
Blood in my veins

Earth's Valentine

Why make a physical body
And go to all that pain and trouble
Of planning and redacting
If not to get something done
Why use emotions and will
And a few simple ideas
To develop organs and blood
Out of the empty marrow of bones
If not to realize something
Not otherwise conceivable
That our bodies are not our own
That we merely have the loan
Of these fine arms and eager legs
And leave to the earth their forms

Confident Valentine

Three contrail crosses in the sky
Are nature imitating culture
These red hibiscus flowers
Always remind me of cardinals at the farm
On the snowy branch of the future
Which always breaks out into three twigs
There's the long future of the past
The brief future of the present
And the endless future of the future
Rock scissors paper
The laughter of I'll see you later
But sooner or later never comes
Spring comes in its place
Still confident in life

Nirvana Valentine

She's learned to live peacefully
With the birds in the tree above her
She humbly chews the grass
Selecting carefully each stem
She knows it's a waste of time
Though she could leap into that tree
With a single amazing bound
But they would all have flown
As when they try to drive her off
She merely sleeps on curled
Fetally at the foot of the tree
As if she had conquered the world
With her slim victory of bliss
And would not be returning

Setting Out Valentine

On one of those bright spring days
When the sun and the breeze
Are at their best allegorical green
Envious to be everything
And four paths open to you
In the woods behind your house
One to a hole in a rock
One to an empty well
One to the thorny blackberry patch
But I've forgotten what
The fourth one takes me to
The one I keep taking
Back to you

Future Valentine

If I write my initials on the air
It's like a magic seal or sign
That flows out into the atmosphere
Attesting I was here once
And wanted to bless the earth
Though I'm no priest or angel
But so when I return
After that long passage
Through the stars I'll find
What I have left behind
Here in this place and time
A stirring of air and light
A garden where I sat
Waiting for you to come home

Earth's Valentine

Here on earth where we
Can do anything we want
Where birdsong and darkness can combine
To give us another day and night
Where we tend our flocks of trouble
In our little worlds and loves
Here on the only earth where we
Can become a human being
You'd think we could be happy
If not content or satisfied
To live and let live
To see out of all the possibilities
For life there is only this one
Earth to get it done

Niether Living Nor Dead Valentine

The souls in the other world
Which faces us askance
Do they look back at us
Feeling abandoned and forlorn
Compelled to remember everything
Without being able to change
Even a comma or penny spent
Dazed in a coma of regret
In a land without night or day
So patient with our neglect
Who were these actual people
Who carried us into this world
How can we know what we are
If we don't include us all

Lingering Valentine

Once a month you come closer to us
On the birthday of your death
Though you're always keeping
An eye out and listening
Never now not there
It's like peering down
Into the depths of the ocean
Or staring up at the stars
On a hill far from cities
Only in dream and memories
Or sudden appearances in the mind
Can we meet now always
While I linger in the flesh
With so much to be loved

Lord's Valentine

The body is long
But the soul is brief
The body and the soul
Are curious about everything
But the I is interested
In one thing only
'What does it mean'
It's curious the Lord says
Bring two or three with you
If you come alone
I may not show up
Just kidding he says
The Lord is such a kidder