Why Did They Come To This Country Valentine

At the end of a broken line

At the end of another year

You find yourself besieged

Alone in a house of trouble

Uncertain whether to oppose

The snow or just walk out into it

An immigrant of your own recovery

The little bits of sanity you grasp

A squeaking dove on the roof

A circle of sun crossing your head

Sleeping with your boots on

And your gun in your hand

Who would have thought that this

Was victory this struggling bliss

Placed Valentine

Where a massacre occurred

One of the holy places on the earth

After a few hundred years

The victims returned and built

A school of the living arts

Where flower arranging led on

To the geometry of the stars

Dispersing its students like seeds

In an explosion of gratitude

Into the general population

But a long time the killing will go on

Before some child can stare out

Her drowsy classroom window

At the whole world a holy place

But Not Of It Valentine

All of these parts of ourselves

That come from distant places

Or just across that field

Arriving and departing

I want to know them all

But how could I intrude

When we collide and coalesce

Into this world for a while

On our sacred honor

Each in our own way

To come to the spirit in things

Hidden in macaroon clouds

And in the smallest gesture

That you are alive inside

For Murdered Children Everywhere Valentine

Searching for a way to sneak

Death back into my daily life

It's hard to be natural with enough

Aplomb and tact to carry it off

Not my death but death itself

That it still goes on

This dematerializing earth

Eventually the heat

Congealed into the sun

It was a Sunday I remember

You were dying but the wind

Was just getting started

Just getting up on its feet

Ready to carry us away

Because You Asked About The Wind Valentine

Mostly it's snowing

Or about to snow

And the wind rains down

On the roof all night

Blow after blow

Artfully in the morning

It stands back to gaze

At its masterpiece you

Huddled under the wings

Of its brilliant whiteness

How long can you wait

If what you wait for

Is already here think of it

The heart is the only thing

That sustains us it is a lake

It is only three miles around

And deep as an archangel

Just Asking the Solstice Valentine

Is it a minor curious thing

That when we say the word love

The O is silent we say uh

As if we're not quite sure 

Writing it one way

And speaking it another

We put it at the end of letters

When really it wants to be

In the greeting the salutation

Right after the place and date

On which it happens to appear

And how can we overlook that

Blessing O that goes on 

Sounding like a birth or death

Christmas Again Valentine

When I close my eyes I can see

The immensity of the darkness

And slowly a hole of light

Wears through and grows

Almost blinding but then

An inky wave rolls in

Completely covering it again

The darkness takes a breath

And then slowly the light

Creeps in again and plunges

Through the clouds and then again

The darkness easily consumes it

But all the while what great beings

Are pacing back and forth

And what new earth is being born

Doubled Valentine

We get our mathematics wrong

Two is the first number

And one comes after it

But only when they unite

And then a third can be born

The one we usually place first

Is really only half of two

Searching for its other part

But by itself it can do little

And often leads a lonely life

It knows two comes first

And has merely usurped its place

But when two ones come together

Someone greater than either is born

Intervening Valentine

After many years of having my back

My angel finally sat down beside me

You know I love you she said

But let's get something clear

It's time for us to work together

In a closer more conscious way

How we used to when you were young

Before you pushed me away

And even though you refused to see me

And burned all my letters unopened

I never stopped holding you close

You were the brother I never had

But now it's time to let you know

How much my life depends on you

To finally let me in

Practicing Valentine

I went out in my pajamas

But came back for my parka

It's very cold today

And since I was young

I've had a thing for sitting

Bundled up out in the cold

In the sun for an hour or two

I can be perfectly warm

Inside with a book when

Some strange longing

Pulls me out into the cold

It's like sitting in the fire

Of heartlessness and scorn

With only my angel to keep me warm

Speaking Valentine

Something stops me at the surface of things

Is it my fear of heights as I look down

Into the deep darkness within

It's like all I can see is a blank wall

And yet my rejected mind

Thrown back upon itself senses

Movement behind the wall

I can hear a breeze speak

A few syllables like leaves

Enough to know there's something

Present on the other side

Like someone practicing the speech

She will deliver my angel

When she finally breaks through

How Buddha Comes to Christmas Valentine

His temple was only a step away

Having swept the paths clean

And thrown the doors wide open

He had invited his old friends

Plato and Elijah over

And all their children

For the festivities of light

When he would ascend with them

To release the soul of the world

Within the enormity of heaven

Constellations peeping down

Where they would drink wine together

On the porch and eat sweet bread

While they waited impatiently

For the little family to gather

And love finally be born

Our Fathers' Valentine

What a sad world you've grown

And we your children once

Just wanted to be like you

But you made riches your family

And we with our silly love

Abandoned chasing after you

Haven't you noticed the more

Wealth you reap the lonelier

The more desperate you become

Until your fame swallowed you up

But it was never about the money

The funny thing it never is

You were always that frightened boy

Mistaking love for worldly power

Getting to Christmas Valentine

If only my angel so vague

Could get a word in edgewise

But finally she calms me down

We sit together in the open sun

While she reads from a book

Where it's all been written down

And down go my defenses

As her voice rises and falls

I barely remember a word she speaks

But the rhythm carries me on

Till we come to the heart of the story

And for a moment she can't go on

And puts the book down

She still can't quite believe it

That he would decide to be born

In the most forgotten town on earth

And leave us in heaven to mourn

What Is Christmas Valentine

Every Christmas we return

To the place where we were born

Called back by everything we touched

To forget everything we've known

And slip back into our mother's womb

As she walks through the crowded town

For a few moments we go back

To the comfort of being unborn

Not yet anything the world

Has ever known as if

We left something behind

That could link us to a crime

Some face we overlooked

That must be our own

Funeral Birth Valentine

He upstaged Christmas

With his sudden death

The mourners sang carols

And the children carried

Lanterns to the burial

Or maybe he planned it this way

To depart on a festive note

And couldn't wait for the child

To come but had to run

Down the road to meet him

To be there at the mother's labor

And hold the father's hand

After all someone had to feed the donkey

Someone had to tend the lambs

Advent Calendar Valentine

Examining the conscience of the sky

The great moral principles floating by

Frayed at the edges filling with light

Or rain refusing to fall

Ever-flowing reflections

Of what they see below

With some days the clear

Radiance of blue breaking through

So sincere and pure

Or piling up in awesome ranks

Ready to deliver the final blow

A rain of ashes

Or the peace of snow

Estella's Valentine

I wanted to try to understand

What she couldn't understand

About the longings of her friend

It seemed she had taken her words

Right to the end of reason

Where an abyss opened up

On the other side of which her friend stood

Waving a vision of another world

Was it a failure of imagination

That she felt such despair

How could they be friends again

One locked in intellectual torpor

The other reading things in the air

This seemed the central question of our time

Maybe the only question ever

Exchanging Gifts Valentine

To you in a vast blizzard

If you don't mind the dirt

I'm sending a clump of new grass

Dug from my desert yard

But only if you send me

Some of the crystal 

Silence you'll be rich with

And a strand of that blue

Morning after the chaos

Settles over the lake

Speechless of course you'll be

As Simeon having seen

This green falling from heaven

And rising from the earth

Not Yet Valentine

If all the things that have happened

Are outnumbered by those that haven't

If everything we've forgotten gets

Its memory restored if we drive

Out into the landscape on a whim

Where one stream flows past us

And the other carries us along

If we are with the new trees lifted

While their other half plunges down

Roots in darkness leaves in sun

Will we come to the lost mountain

Where all that hasn't happened yet

Is born and find ourselves at last

Numbered among its stones

A Right Valentine

Trying to put things right

You pick the wrong time and place

So all you saved to say is lost

What's true sounds false

Your love a contradiction in terms

A misunderstanding understood

Staring you in the face

Unforgivable love that comes

Too early or too late

A charm gone stale

A daftness with a certain grace

That strips you down and bare

All that can and can't be healing

In a warm embrace

Musical Chores Valentine

Doing the dishes

I put on Wagner

For the hoovering

I move to Mahler

For the dusting

Usually Nirvana

Or the nuns of Santa Ana

Making the bed I prefer

Rhythm and blues

Or the old Gospel tunes

Or taking a shower

I favor Satie

Or something cleansing

From Debussy

Sleepless Valentine

You can't be serious

Writing a poem

There's too much at stake

The frivolous must wake up

And sit in the front row

Watching itself being taken apart

Demeanor and tone must go home

The audience whittled down to one

Small child on a dark stage singing

To see one you must be alone

Where you might never come back

If you go there unprepared

With too few sleepless nights

Still Valentine

Six sad exuberant historians

I studied over the holiday break

Four evangelists and two fairy tales

As they appeared in the European

Middle Ages and nothing of what

Was going on in China or

The Yucatan Peninsula at that time

I mean where were you in 1492

Or 1942 never in the same place twice

It startled me how much the basic forms

We keep and continue to dress up

With new and interesting characters

All the old traditions of master and slave

And still Jesus comes and is born

Birthday Valentine

Near as someone must be

Who lives inside of us

Yet far away as a touch

Or voice of greeting or goodbye

What are you dead making of us

With your invisible weaving

How will you rouse us

From sleep to see you again

Just slipping back into memory

Behind the locked door

Of your beautiful body

While we linger here

On the darker side of love

Haunted by your heart

Gratitude Valentine

They say your heart swells

If you're truly grateful like a balloon

It exits your mouth with a sigh

Of relief rising to join the clouds

And the birds going by slowly

So you can savor it

They say when a kindness

Comes home to you as if

From a foreign country

You start to breath again

The pure intoxicating air

Of our mountain homeland

For a moment if you dare

December Valentine

It's December here

Because November is gone

You can take it out 

Of the oven now

And let it cool on the counter

Some of the trees I remember

But most are bare as days

Largely a blur forgotten just

A few leaves saved

And those unfallen remain

To rattle on impractical

To try to save them all

Baked and eaten like bread

A scent I only recall

Giving Day Valentine

Every morning now a mockingbird

Lands on my neighbor's roof

To get a load of me first

With her left then her right eye

Sitting here in the sunny shade

Don't you ever fly she asks

Her scolding is like an opera to me

Just lazing here in the shadowy light

Don't you see I say

You are what I dreamed of

The last bird in the world

Don't you see you conjured me

If I'm ever to fly

You must marry me

An Arborist in My Former Life Valentine

I've read all the bibles since a child

And studied the mysteries of all their trees

Oak and cedar and palm

Olive pomegranate fig

All descendants of an apple seed

But they only led me to a cross

His idea of love finally

Orchestrated as a single note ringing

When you strike the trunk with a mallet

A wooden stump on a barren hill

Or that white pine hanging from a cliff

Half-dead half-green

Greener than green has ever been

The perilous lives of trees

Who end up in a blossom

Beyond Valentine

Will I be a murderer and thrive

Or a servant who can barely survive

Or caught between the two

Tetter from side to side

Will I find a family of theives

Or thrown down on my knees

And choked or shot or get

Lost among my options

I watched a seed float on the breeze

It looked alive and wilfull

Searching for a place to settle

I followed it for miles and miles

It led me on a merry chase

Beyond Cain and Abel

Forgotten Valentine

If you put it that way frankly

If you tell me it's all

Very simple just listen

If you break it down again

From the beginning for me

Piece by piece I can

Get inside you maybe I can

Feel and understand

The outlines of a plan for us

What you had in  mind

Half a secret to yourself

When you said just trust me

Would I make you up and then

Just forget you love of mine

Roaming Valentine

He sucked at sports

When he was young

Preferred the lake to sit

For hours reading by it

Or roaming the city streets

Entirely on his own

An old man in the disguise

Of an uncomfortably young body

From the first day he figured

There was something out there

Across the lake behind the faces

In a book or look that would fill

His heart with amazement

And prove he was no stranger

None's Lover Valentine

A call from None

What does None

Have to say today

It doesn't leave a message

And I don't pick up

Which says it all

None's non-commital

Echoing my hesitancy's

Dim hope to call back later

I don't want to talk

About it right now or listen

To None go on and on

Who could get a word

In anyway with nothing

Left to say

A Theory of Knowledge Valentine

The dead he knows

Are wiser than him

More useful more

Capacity for living

In a deeper way

They have gotten behind

Experience and thought

To the place they come from

Which they grow to become

They are not strangers like him

To one another despite the initial shyness

As after a long uncertain hospital stay

They come back home to regale us

With their survival and narrow escapes

Tortured Valentine

All week he has been tortured

By the thought of an old woman

Excreting in the street one night

He stumbled on her coming home

He knew this was happening

But not to him disgust

And sorrow turned away

Did he behold her angel

In his tortured thoughts

Turning his back to her

Waiting asking can I help

Her angel answering with a sigh

And think about all the others

Neither your sisters nor brothers

Evening Valentine

He sees now what morning is 

A metaphor for you

And for another morning

Just like this one

It stands between

Two other mornings

Whose hands replace

All other mornings

And who strive toward

The same afternoon

All that any morning

Can accomplish you are

A darkness to him

Brimming light so bright

Returning From Heliopolis Valentine

Do you remember when you were four

Our long escape through the desert that fall

The strange excitement of the caravan

Sleeping fitfully under the stars

Our arrival at the already ancient city

Finding that little blue house and field

Behind the crumbled temple of the sun

The forest of the obelisks was gone

But the soul of Plato could still be seen

Pacing or sleeping under the palms

When we would go for walks

Breathing wisdom right out of the air

And then later on the hard trek back

So looking forward to having friends again

And to building a new kind of life

Phone Call Valentine

Later when she was older

His mother was a greeter

At a small funeral parlor

She smiled in a friendly manner

Though her heart was full of terror

When she led them to the door

And said she would see them after

But she wouldn't be going in

The dead body appalled her

She confided to the guests

One too many times 

So they had to let her go

Which she couldn't understand

She wept more than the grievers

Embarrassed to take her hand

Better Valentine

In some prior life he must

Have paid the highest price

To deserve these beautiful days

Not without their own delusions

To compensate for the loss of heaven

For which he settled on the earth

Maybe the only place 

That would take him in

Rejected by every other planet

Apprentice his stubbornness

To the great Lord Courage

So he could dream in his old age

Of coming better days

In Which He Begs the Future Valentine

The time will come

When the woman of wisdom

And the man of love

Will dissolve into one

Self-generating person

After the long back and forth

The time will come

When there's no more hiding

Except as children play it

Much will have been settled

The days brighter the nights darker

What was matter will finally be forgiven

But the long beaches will survive

Veteran's Valentine

He tried to keep a doctor's distance

Once he saw the world was sick

From his own disease he learned

How close to get to a diagnosis

Without turning the heart away

He lived every life he treated

In the firm knowledge

It was his own he felt

How to be nothing 

But someone else's 

Flesh and blood

How to hold the magnitude

Of healing in his hands

Our Town Valentine

When loosey Lucy and hairy Ahry

Ran into the world to play

Wasn't it to escape their arguing parents

Weren't they both rejected as kids

Peculiar and fierce and brilliant

Twins stuck together at each other's back

Each plotting the other's surrender

Everyone knew them in the neighborhood

All their enemies were their friends

Until the day they left town

One to become a famous doctor

The other a great singer and actor

I've kept their autographs somewhere

In centuries to come

They'll be worth millions

November 9th Valentine

He likes to attend the fall 

Conference of the gnomes

Under the dying lantana

The ceremony of the seeds 

Being carried to their tombs

The unveiling of the Theotokos

The chanting of the drones

And then everything hurriedly packed away

Nothing emptier than an empty room

Where some mystery has been

He likes to come early

To watch the gnomes assemble

The king and queen carried in

Down the long dark corridors

And sit long after to remember

Up North Valentine (for Mary)

Earlier every night these nights

Following us around

The stars come to Arizona

To rearrange what's falling

As they must everywhere

Trying to get their story straight

From Michigan they stretch out

The absolute to the breaking-

Point and then turn up here

Hardly the worse for wear

A wizard in the woods up there

Sends me instructions and a map

That tells me what I'm seeing

Children playing on the shore

Venus still moving toward us all

 

Lasting Valentine

Flowers come before animals or minds

They flow out of the sea of gemstones

Where the original fire is trapped

Ridiculous but colorful

To be worn or cast off

The world's first words

All vowels in a drone

Outlines of some personality's

Peculiar thing all its own

Some kind of justice for us

That the most fragile and forlorn

Be the sign and seal

Of what will last

Mysterious Valentine (for Jess)

The mystery of the desert rose

That most surprising flower

Is that everything she touches

Turns to gold around her

She has the kind of power

That seems able to create its own

Conditions for survival

That have little to do

With where she finds herself

In the land of rattlesnakes 

And lost seas this time

Or just waiting to spring up

In the right dead heart

That could be yours or mine

Already Valentine

Those birds were already there

Swirling in the stucco air

And what looks like a sturdy bridge

Is really the back of a snake

Among waves and hills rising

On a day that's still to come

The wall holds the scene for it

So there's no need to paint it

The sun passes over of course

Bringing its ruins and palaces

Back into motion again

But those birds were already there

Coming out of nowhere 

On wings of attention

Pretending Valentine

If you be Jacob I'll be the angel

If you be Hiram I'll be Solomon

If you be the shirt I'll be the shoulders

It won't always be this easy

As when you hid from him in shame

Your unsolved crimes fictitious names

Dividing your life into halves

Exposing its failures and lapses

But if you be you then I must too

Just in a different version

Don't worry it will only last

For a few blinding seconds

What never seems to pass

Left Behind Valentine

I suppose I could squeeze the planet

Into my schedule a half-hour after lunch

But when did we put the earth into a home

Early onset of dementia or is it us

Who have lost our minds

Who insist upon falling apart

Who wake up not knowing

Where we are or where we've been

When was the earth ever not us

As if we could go our separate ways

As if we were merely tourists

Trampling the ruins and temples

Of a lost people a forgotten tongue

As if we would never return

This Time's Valentine

A conspiracy of desire

Led to this fire in the mire

Where we camped out for a night

Where we stood love on a ridge

Among desolate things looked over

The one thing we had come here 

To accomplish in a moment

So secretly prepared

Through many lifetimes

Would not slip by unnoticed

This time would not be

Forgotten lost to us

We would be young again

And this time eternal

Walking Valentine

He dreamed he was still walking

In the garden in the early afternoon

Considering that scrumptious apple

His beautiful soul was offering him

Lead us not into temptation

And yet you did just that

Weren't we still children

Sexualized before our time

But we had tasted beauty once

As an animal that lived in us

Or a plant that would return

Like a goodness after a long absence

And we would not let you again

Get away with it dear snake

Dancing Valentine

My angel keeps rescheduling

My death and then forgetting

To tell me about it

We dance around the very idea

That it matters in the least

If I show up that day or not

Or postpone it yet again

The appointment will be kept

All that's left to be done

Will have to wait in line

While they scan my passport

Ask me where I was born

And the purpose of my visit

As the secret service arrives

Only Valentine (for Mt. Tamalpais)

His friend does not appreciate

The mockingbird's return

As much as he used to

He feels he is losing touch

With trees and says aloud

The mountain is only good

For hiking the parched gullies 

For crossing he is losing

Sight of any longing

To belong to all this

Mineral manifestation of the gods

He says only the sea can save him

His first and last love

Even if it's only a memory

Seen from a mountain top

Audition Valentine

A panoramic picture

Of the history of the earth

Hovers above his head

The not-yet stars floating out

Into the great sea space

And he can hear a woman singing

Her heart out down the street

In the background of the beginning

When the earth trembles into being

The youngest of her sisters

And the first to leave home

Defying the neighbors and the gods

With her singing alone

Pumpkin Valentine

 Brilliant.

A self-portrait? 

Where's that candle?

My Once and Future Valentine

You don't have to kneel

To plant the over-winter seeds

Hollyhock and sweet alyssum

But it is a kind of proposal

To assume a reverential posture

That the earth become a bride

A first promise to be faithful

To stay alive and loving her

Even if some of the seeds

Don't flower you planted them

It is good if your knees hurt

And your arms ache a little

That you live in constant anticipation

Human Valentine

Every day he tries to get something done

Often not what he hoped it would be

For example to carry one word

And follow its thread so that

Whatever's going on outside

Something permanent is being

Sustained on the inside

Today's word is human

As it has been for many days

It all depends on the season

Whether the word is covered

With the snows of summer

Or the falls of spring to him

What is human is what can sing

Overlooked Valentine

I skipped a page and had

To come back to it to find

Still nothing written here

Its blank abandoned gaze

Like the open mouth of a bird

Said feed me feed me

But I refused it words

How could I improve

The purity and silence

Of its several parallel horizons

So we just stared at one another

Blankness calling to blankness

Until suddenly the ink

Grew restless and the poor pen

Could do little to stop it

Like blood rushing from a cut

And expiring on the paper

Whence Hummingbirds and Moths Valentine

Ingenious as a pocket

Happy as a banjo I try

To follow one leaf rocketing falling

Thrown up against the sky

With nothing to regret

It was just this one being

Among so many similar beings

Released from the cocoon of the tree

(how could hard wood unfold

Such fleshy wings)

Still every fall I have to turn

My tree around to the sun

So the side that died

Over summer can leaf again

Free As Destiny Valentine

All he could say was what he saw

Alone when he objectified himself

When he could take a striking overview

Of his life and stand in judgement of it

Among a rank of grimacing angels

Who had warned him not to go there

That the beauty and the evil of the world

Would overwhelm and tame him

Though he pleaded there was no other way

And in the end they had to let him go

Assisting from the sidelines

Crying over advice not taken

Sighing over the hard result

As when his heart was stolen

Just as they foretold it would

Every Thursday Valentine

He wished he had a handy-man

Who every Thursday would come

And finally get something done

For this man of all thumbs

A worker bee for this drone

Who makes a list for him

Of where to dig or paint

The dripping under the sink

The gutters the broken gate

While he just sits and writes

About his service to the queen

His loyalty to the crown

His plans for a new kind of honey

Such as the world has never seen

Transfigured Valentine

All he wanted was a little garden

Where wanting would go away

Re-absorbed into the green sheen

That keeps starting up again

Clay turtle under yellow Mums

Don't kid yourself he'd say

Mountains of years to get here

But you could still make it in a day

Dogs howling behind the gate

At a freight train creeping past

The moon for its caboose

Sitting late into the darkness

Drunk on the swirling stars

All his senses breaking loose

Mt. Tamalpais Valentine

Wide open for business

Mt. Tamalpais stirs

Enlightenment customers

An anxious queue of ants

With the sun for sale

Many fashionable colors many

Sizes with prices slashed

And planned surprises

When you reach the summit

Of the barely-climbing cost

Where kind Tamalpais moves

To give it all away

The light all wrapped and shining

Delivered in a day

Wearing the Mountain Valentine

Don't we have work to do

And yet I find you staring

At the aspen or searching the clouds

(There are no clouds in the perfect blue)

As though you're trying to continue

Some lost dream now half-awake

What mountain are you walking

Around what old trails

Do you hope will lead you

To yourself don't you see

The one behind you and the one

Who runs ahead how your feet

Are wearing the mountain away

Old friend come home to me

Re-Educated Valentine

So I sat in the first grade again

Our shouting valiant teacher drowning

Not waving in the tossing waves

Only the phlegmatics paying attention

I chatted with a smartly-dressed

Young man hiding in a corner

Behind a desk he'd toppled

I admired his vest and shoes

We talked of dogs and cats

I asked which painting

Of the sun coming up in the sea

Was his among the thirty

Each so wonderful and unique

Versions of it living on the walls

Masked Madonna Valentine #2

What is the real difference

Between a veil and a mask

What keeps out and what

Keeps in protectively

The cloth on which your body

Was imprinted for example

Or the sheets where you

Were conceived or a napkin

Over the face of a newborn

Hidden one of my heart

Lady who stood for Isis

At the grocery store

One cool stare

Under so many layers

Masked Madonna Valentine

Between her floppy hat and mask

Her hearing aids and glasses

When she takes one off 

It all collapses they laugh

At her when she answers

A question that wasn't asked

The dim one in her family

Who aspires to poetry to read

To children and the dying

And the dead who are

Not really dead but earnestly

Present for her they laugh

Together taking off their masks

Seaside Valentine

A breeze rumples the umbrellas

Along the empty sunny beach

In one of those Hawaii moments

That drift in and out of my brain

The desert calls home to the sea

The desert rose drops its leaves

Until there are only a few

Pale pink flowers left

The bulbous root has eaten

All its dirt and anything

Can come into the mind

Is it because the sea knows

How to rest how to lay

A body down on sand

 

More Day Valentine

I love how the days are in color

Thrown up on the golden screen

And the nights in black and white

Unfold their mysterious meetings

In the back alleys of dreams

I think of orange the cheerful one

Who at midnight grieves to gray

But at dawn comes streaking back

I put it down to the sun

That love does not stay

Wandering and searching for the one

Who will follow it all the way through

The darkness to the final day

Pleading for mercy for one more day

Song of Ascent Valentine

Some days I just have to

Make myself do things

The will of my will

Engages with some

Higher will softly

Urging me into action

I buckle with determination

Casting off gravity

Ascending from the chair

And I make me walk

Lovely from here to there

Getting something done

The table wiped clean

Something on the stove

Manifesto Valentine

The first nation I belong to

Seeks the dissolution of nations

It wishes we could have long ago become

One earth country

But clearly that will have to wait

My first religion is apocalytic

I mean just seeing one another

We are torn asunder
You invite me from myself

Or rip me apart sweetly

Until I learn to listen

Just shut up and listen

While you undress yourself

And we stand revealed together

Under Construction Valentine

I built my tunes on other tunes

Some stones stolen others borrowed

Taken from tombs and modern ruins

That they go not unsorrowed

And though I grinned when my towers crumbled

A crust of dust still coats my lips

From where their heights were humbled

Settling into a mound of bones

So I had to start again by touch

To read like flesh the lettered wind

And build an arch of whirling

Not of bricks but birds

Dragging my heart along

To its unwritten song

Her Valentine

Someone's motherless mother

Beautiful homeless October

Wandering and begging at corners

How can I be satisfied in the world

With the shopping-cart and rags

You leave behind the useless

Precious things you gather

The heaps of soiled grandeur

Let me sit on the side of the road

With you and ponder the asters

Let no one come to rescue us

Gone beyond words and gestures

Let all we own be scattered

It was only our love that mattered

Beastly Valentine

Years later I still wince

Remembering how I cursed you

The lightening-bolt of my bitterness

Shocked even me

Exposing my self-satisfied

Complacency that I

Had put all that behind me

My hatred and my fear

Something demonic I still

Wrestle to contain

Poor self-pitying beast

Forgive him in your name

That through his suffering and pain

I learn to love again

When Valentine

I put my fortune back

In the cellophane wrapper

Where it said to store

The dreams of my youth

And put my chopsticks down

Friends are a valuable

Resource you read smiling

As I passed you the check

And boxed what's left

For later after a walk

It must have been a birthday

But I can't remember whose

When we had so much to say

And little time to lose

More Valentine

With hardly any fuss or bother

Always straightening its fringe

The lake spreads out

Fresh carpets of morning light

For its amazing guests

The winged and the wingless

Who can enter freely now

The great vestibule of the abyss

Paved with amethyst and ruby

As one by one their names are called

Way out the fishing trawlers

Have already caught the darkness in their nets

But fail to see the derelict on the shore

Content to be left behind

But always wanting more

Intervening Valentine

In the cooling narrow courtyard

Under a drooping pomegranate tree

Like a body heavy with bruises

We sipped coffee and caught up

While a mockingbird assaulted us

With its echoing repeating songs

Matching us word for word

Until we couldn't go on

It was so insistent and enthused

We sat in silent happy sorrow

For the scolding of our lives

And then it was gone

Having mended between us

Yet another wrong

The Beautiful Land Valentine

October is the kindest month

Turning the sky away from us

And then rushing back in a blaze

As if the sun were torn

Whether to stay or go on

Full of last-minute reminders

Intimate rains that crawl into bed

Like an exhausted traveler

Mumbling about the future

He found at the end of

What is it he says

The world and time

But here they lie down together

In sweet October weather

New Moon in Libra Valentine

Not all leaves fall

Not all falls leave

God willing we think

But what about

Willing the good

Who fall like leaves

Loving the beautiful

Wind undressing them

Who having shone once

Are eager to fall

Remember me they ask

We went to school together

Have you forgotten it all

And everything forever

October Valentine

Our summers are like your winters

Great drifts of rolling heat pile up

Like your plowed snow and iced trees

And their silence is almost universal

As when only one bassoon is playing

And the conductor is crying

Not for the melody alone

But because he forgot to kiss

Someone on the way out the door

Your winters grieve for our summers

Our summer letters get lost in the mail

But come our springs and falls

You have to admit it's best

That everything collapses and unfolds

And finally the truth's exposed

Reversed Valentine

Is everything on earth reversed

So as the body ages

More and more the spirit

Rages to be free

And younger and younger

It seems to grow inside

I seem at my best a child

Sitting in the circle of old lives

Explaining how the moon was made

Really from the rib of Eve

Leaving her husband behind

Until no one understands

How I could know

In her dying we stronger grow

Toyohiko's Valentine (for Joan)

When Christ became the ruler of the sun

It was already a step down for him

But he took the ineffable with him

Preserving the legacy of his father

And found a face among his people

On which to place that gaze

His father wore waving from the door

Those confidence-bestowing eyes

Leaving all caution behind

To build a new beginning

He would call his Earth Beloved

And find a shack among the poor

Where he and his father could live

In their old age and more

Forlorn Valentine

Out of our loneliness lust

Out of our helplessness rage

Out of our separateness fear

But still the children come

And the clouds and the sun

Still work on carrying and

Scattering the new dreams

And the cactus and the desert rose

Still speak of tender triumphs

Only the hummingbird knows

And the gods still live in the trees

And those hopes who become crows

Still caw and caw forlorn

In the hearts where love is born

Michaelmas Valentine

The two-headed dragon is everything

We don't want to become

But are unless we tame him

Or at least hold him at bay

Said the girl showing me her picture

Her vision of the angel was a red blob

Worked into a flowing cape

And the calm features of a face

Poised to strike the writhing monster

She'd scrawled in blue and yellow-brown

She's given them equal room

And drawn a thin horizon-line

Between them where

She wasn't sure the sun

Was coming up or going down

Some Valentine

Having gotten in over my heart

Which was all about being young

I learned to steal small things

In times of need and lie

Not professionally but it

Could come in handy when

I was alone with nothing

I thought the world should share

Its reality and wealth with us

It wasn't like there wasn't 

Enough world to go around

Like that day I stole some courage

And lied like a coward later

I wanted some of everything

Feeble Valentine

This morning's blue is so lucid

After last night's crashing rain

As if some argument had been resolved

Between earth and heaven

About going their separate ways

Is it obtuse to think of them

As lovers who struggle

To valorize each day

The blue is so pure now

The ground is so green

And me their feeble invention

Standing in between

Is it childish to feel

So grateful and relieved

Returning Valentine

When you have lived

In one place for a long time

But have visited Greece

And Paris and the Bahamas

There comes a morning

A chirping and a singing

Only you would recognize

When having crossed

The silent blazing desert

A certain insistent thrill

Returns to the empty tree

Of your mind just as you

Were ready to hang up

On the world it catches

On a twig and sways you up

Stacked Valentine

I dreamed I was in a storage locker

At a storage site of dreams

You know one of those places

Where they give you a space

The size of a prison cell to stack

The boxes of dreams you couldn't sell

Too good to throw or give away

It's silly of us to keep them

Piled bodies sleeping in the dark

To throw good money at the dust

So old I don't remember what they are

But in this dream I was just here

To pay the bill and ask

For a new key and lock

Concentration Exercise Valentine

I don't need a real paper-clip

To see one in my thoughts

I can hold it in the back

Of my brain and move it

Horizontally around carefully

Searching for stray memories

And stacking them together

Or vertically stretched out

Like a needle probing for inspiration

From my soft spot to my throat

My mind will go anywhere it's told

But who moves it or knows

If the paper-clip will hold

Or once released from its grasp

Where its gatherings will go

Self-Completion Test Valentine

I wanted to tell you about _____________

But __________ got in the way

It was only a question of ___________

And ____________ a ________ of a day

Or two it wasn't that _______________

At the  __________ I can say

I'm still not sure if this ______________

Is a ___________ or a __________

Our touching ___________ or __________

But I can tell you it _________________ me

Was it ______________ or

________________ you saw in me

The ___________ or the ___________

That gave me this ______________

          

Forest Valentine

The dogs of fall return us to our noses

The smell of stars in the mossy air

While the taste of summer lingers

On our fingers the garlic and the roses

On the lake the ducks are late for mating

And the wood-paths stretch out

The promise of a yellow mood

A fading sound of wonder and relief

As represented by the rain and wind

Forcing us outside ourselves

How superficially summer lands

Now the skin is flayed away

Now we walk around the forest

Carrying our heads in our hands

 

Alone Valentine

Leaning forward head in hands

A seated woman weeping 

I found hiking in the mountains

She could have been the moon

Glowing faintly in the milky

Morning light or the crone

Of some misery following me home

But she was certainly no vision

Real tears issuing from stone

She filled a cup and made me drink

A sour flowery taste of dark loam

With bits of the bodies of bees

I spit out with racking sobs

But now that I'd found her she said

I would never be left alone

More or Less Valentine

When I was an amateur genius

Arrogant as the river was green

And strode the polluted cities

Of my dreams I could still be

A timid student of the stars

Where lived my kith and kin

That I could read my way to glory

And still come back to my earthly life

Transformed by the example

So now I live in two worlds

So completely I can't chose which

As if between two children

I could love one more

Or tell one from another less

Home Valentine

You ask if I can follow you

To the car-detailing shop

And on the way home we can stop

For breakfast or pull off and stare

At what they've done to the river

What river you ask and follow

It with that drive-by smile 

That still leaves me taken

You ask if you are following

Me to hell now we are lost

Haven't I taken the wrong left

No your other left you moan

We together forever

Cruising home alone

Aesopian Valentine

She had fallen on her back

Unable to right herself

A shiny black beetle

Waving her six frantic legs

In the air when a yellow

Butterfly stopped by to shout

I'll run for help but never returned

The red hibiscus watched all this

But couldn't lift a leaf or speak

Until at last a sparrow came by

To carry her to its brood

For which the beetle was so grateful

To be realized as food

To have taken so large a leap

On her way back to God

Even You Valentine

To reach the point you begin to see

Death cannot be our real destiny

That death is the boogie-man under the bed

The part of us we love to fear

What is scarier than love

To love the thing you fear

To come to the place you start to sway

Between two worlds two dreams

Separated by your own personal abyss

Every morning every night

To have perceived the little man

Who hangs with his arms outstretched

Holding back the sun and the moon

So even you can pass

All You Valentine

All you I get to love

Who believed me as a child

When I made up the world

Sweet or stern yes or no

Who blessed me as a friend

And carried me through the waves

Forgive me in my old days

For not getting to know you enough

Full of my old lameness and doubt

You suffered through but thrilled

There is still time unlimited

And still space unbound

Where we can sit and talk

All you I get to love

Dusty Valentine

Little moth of light

Combing the ceiling night

Little rainbow shards

Darting around the room

Dust of infinite stars

Settling on my face

Laughter coming from the furniture

The floor gets up to dance

Let me join you falling

And rising swirling beings

Airborne and looking for a life

And never still not finding it

And not ever quite resolved

To have just one brief life

Moon's Valentine

When the moon left the earth

And was caught in its orbit

It was like a lighthouse raised

A point of entry and departure

A little boat of glowing light

Carrying the dark sun

Growing brighter and brighter

As more passengers came onboard

Until it was full to overflowing

A deep brilliance free of the earth

With a pure longing to sail on

But when the moon returned to the earth

Its light got caught in the churning waves

Sinking all its cargo of death and birth

Undeserved Valentine

It wasn't the war

Terrible as it was

But that despite

The enormity of it

No one cared

To face the causes

No one would own

How it began

Buried in the rubble

Each blow an excuse

For another attack

But one man just

Stood there silent

Letting death rain

Down upon him

What no one deserved

He accepted as fate

And knew love would win

Past Valentine

What can I do with my past

Stacked up like luggage by the door

Where do you think you're going you ask

Leaving this tangled mess behind

For someone else to sort your clothes

Having disposed of your body

Swept the patio locked the gate

And what have you forgotten to pack

Did you think you were going without me

Did you feel you would never be back

The past is so vast and small

And most of it hidden or lost

How many more lives must it take

For the future to remember it all

From Valentine

From the bottom of my feet joy

From the edges of my fingers anger

From the turnings of my eyes wonder

From the top of my head sadness

From the way you look at me levity

From the way the world looks back gravity

From the crater of my heart a cup

From the river of my brain

Overflowing or dry as dust

From where you are listening to me

Tasting me on the tip of your tongue

From where I am touching your face

From where I am unafraid undone 

Childish Valentine

Riding the body with my airy thoughts

And trying to cultivate a big heart

For whatever seems to be going on

And at the same time feeling secluded

Here on the tropical island of myself

Where supplies run short

And no boat comes sometimes

I rarely sleep at night anymore

The stars next door loud coupling

Or arguing about the future

My unhappy parents

Forgive me if it's not too late

To grieve for your childhoods

And to thank you for my own

Reflected Valentine

Beauty proves the body

Is a transitional object

A bridge or doorway to the mystery

As it unfolds through the centuries

How it invokes the eye and ear

With its flashes of lightening

The still evolving blood

Touched by an inner light

With planetary implications

The body mirroring the body

Of the stars and sun as one 

But how the body loves the moon 

The first place love can happen

Whenever Valentine

At nine I met a beautiful boy

The one I wanted to be

But he rejected me

At nineteen I married my ideal

A wooden statue of the Virgin

At a time in her life when

She could still understand me

At thirty-nine I parked the car

Lost on some mountain road

Overwhelmed I'd got this far

Some time later I saw

How easily overwhelmed

I had been whenever

Beauty approached me

I was who I wanted to be

Blue Paper Valentine

Some thought-knots

Are so tightly tied

How stupid can I be

Only the heart-knife

Can cut through them

Or working its deft fingers

Carefully ease it apart

Like a present I unwrap

Wanting to save even the blue paper

And the immaculate foil stars

Lifting from the layered box

As from a tomb my life in pieces

And there at the bottom a little

Tube of glue to put it back together

Neighborly Valentine

How can we fetch ourselves back

To sanity all couples ask

Where will we find the place

Of agreement beyond all

Disagreement families want to know

Is it kids not listening to their parents

Or parents not listening to their kids

At midnight the paramedics showed up

To take my neighbor's body away

Two policemen whispered outside my window

I only spoke to him or saw him

Actually a few times in twenty years

He was a man who lived alone like me

And did I once think to bring him cookies

Or he once to bring me a beer

All Photographs Are Lonely Valentine

Today is so still so strict

Breathing seems intrusive

The clouds concrete slabs

The trees transfixed as paint

The stop-light stopped at red

And I alone walking the empty streets

Where have you all gone

Following the crying out of town

People of the earth

To some festival or grave 

And left me in this photograph

Where calm has finally come

Where nothing moves or needs to

And nothing can be done