Simple I and Compound I Valentine

How thinly can I spread myself

Like a film around the earth

I try to hold it all like a bubble

On the fingertip of my thoughts

Like a cosmonaut in a sattelite

The way the brain orbits the heart

Which is not intimidated by greatness

But can accommodate it all

Out there at the periphery

There's a beach where planetary

Waves of light break through

The roiling sands of stars

And we far out at sea

And we calling from the shores

Emergent Valentine

Today I would like to acknowledge

A new fifth temperament emerging

In our time which was always 

Latent there expressing itself 

In a few continuing examples

Carried to the limit of human 

Ability over the centuries

But now it's become widely 

And deeply available

As a free option that more

And more people are taking

Advantage of only a few

Hundred years old it's still

An infant carried around

With them a tender love

 

Remembered Valintine

When someone does something enormous

For you when you need it most

And least expect to find a friend

Waiting at the end of your rope

Sooner or later that Tuesday comes

For you when Wednesday is refused

The door slammed in its face

And death seems the only victory

Over an ineffectual life

But what about that enormous

Gift on offer now and always

Not the birds singing in your belfry

But the one who remembers you

Following Something in the Air Valentine

I hover in the morning

Like an anxious bee

Finding the flowers fewer

And the tree has turned

Its back on me it's all

About ascension now of leaves

And stillness in the clearing

And there's no returning

To the hive the honey gone

All we made lifted from us

By the nervous hands of gods

We wander off alone

In search of yet another queen

Our wings still green

My Desert Flowers With Birds Valentine

Every day the chirping Verdin comes

A tiny bird with a greeny breast

Swinging from branch to branch

Of the sprawling hibiscus bush

Fishing for drops or bugs

In the crevices of the buds

And the throats of the flowers

But the hummingbird has already

Taken for itself the first sweetness

Thus the Verdin's chirping-chirping

As she gathers all that's left

And then when they're both gone

I swear to God a dove

Pounces on the next door roof

Nodding and pacing and staring

Too late to bless us all

A Theory of Tenderness Valentine

In the reflection of the water

On the ceiling I can see

The breeze breath out dark forms

That spiral across its surface

And rush at one another and embrace

Some of yesterday's rain I caught

For just this purpose in a pail

A little experiment so I could lie

On my back on the floor and look up

To a facsimile of the beginning

So I could feel what a drop feels

Falling from the roof and yet

Reflected dancing on the ceiling

Before the restless sun moves on

Waiting At The River Valentine

When the whole story is known

Of how they grew up together

And played and roamed as cousins

The quiet and the talkative one

And after both their parents died

If they decided to set out together

Into the wilderness of the world

Long conversations into the night

Days trudging through ancient towns

In search of some fading light

Or did they separate early on

Each to his own journey alone

Promising one day to reunite

Convalesent Valentine

I got my ego bruised

My mind was much amused

Be humble or get humbled

The first rule of the world

I took my ego to the Hospital

Of Incurable Ideals to mend

The doctors on their rounds said 

My Vanity would have to be removed

Tomorrow morning but confirmed

It would grow back again

Unless I took my medicine

Huge blue forgiveness pills

Like swallowing a truck

Unless I ground them down

Leaning Valentine

Researching temples

I come upon my own

Unfinished shack

I still own the blueprints

For the dome if still no door

Just an opening in a wall

Leaning precariously up 

Against another wall

But inside a table and a chair

Still waiting for the mason to arrive

Meanwhile I keep hope the bricks

Will be willed into position

And the four pillars lifted up

Out of time and space

And the gods feel welcome

Solstice Valentine

Even the sun gets bored with itself

Climbing its mountains of light

And stops at some plummeting summit

As close as it can get to God

And stands there for an eternity

Waving on the motionless future

Gathering the courage to turn back

And face the darkness it's created

Dear earth I will not abandon you

I am coming back to fill your darkest

Corners and your bleakest dreams

I will touch you on the shoulder

I will take you in my arms

At Jacob's Well Valentine

If I think of all

The waters of the world

As its shining soul and all

Its continents as limbs

Always at the mercy of the waves

If I picture Atlantis and spring

Floods baptizing whole deltas

At the places where rivers meet

And flow together separately

The imprint of the swirls betraying dancing

I start to feel how the world

Is slowly dissolving in its longing

Always to return to its source

And the depths always rising to the surface

In the rain that tries its best

But who will slake the water's thirst

Father's Valentine

Although we were so eager

And of the purest mettle

To give ourselves entirely

Through no fault of our own

The sun refused to take us in

And stood there waiting to see

What we would make of this being

Turned away at the very gates

Exile comes after betrayal

Not only from them but from ourselves

So the first water was made of longing

And our resulting tears oceans of them

Poured out on the barren ground

Where we would have to start again

Coming to St. John's Valentine (for Thelma)

I think of you now resting comfortably

So we can finally have that midnight

Bedside chat now we are old

Enough to have traveled far and weary

And seen the brilliance of the world

And of our children and I ask

You how we have deserved all

This bliss leavened with sorrow

Do you remember that moment

Only of value to you

When you knew it all

Made sense and could take

A breath and pause in peace

And then let it all go

Sometimes Valentine

I blow so many chances

To be good to you but sometimes

I'm all over them and push

Back as if I'm delivering a baby

Something that can grow between us

So I can smell and taste you

Like a blossom in an animal's mouth

The long metabolism of love 

With its four stomachs and its open

Fields and towns along the river

Sometimes standing there I can hear

Out of nowhere the clang

Of a metal hammer just once

Cracking the anvil of my heart

On His Day Valentine

Whether we realize it or not

Words can be anything they want

A whole nation or a small colony

Trapped on the shores of a magical island

Where the soul of language itself appears

In its fancy English dress

Turning the world back into theatre

Not since the Greeks or Golgotha

Are we so appalled and lifted

By our foolishness and terror

Put before us so precisely

Out of the mystery of his life

Sketching out our futures

In the beauty of his lines

Research Project Valentine

If you really want to research sadness

Whether of grief or from oppression

Starting with the etymology and the first

Blurred mentions of it

Visible on melancholy walls

And how it spread through languages

And tribes and was or wasn't written down

Charting its evolution from mere

Tears to full-blown tragedies at last

Then you must put it all aside

As something imponderable and wait

While all your questions are taken

Up to higher echelons of thought

Where sadness finds its source in love

The Heart Stuck On Its Own Survival Valentine

I would welcome a new Spartacus

Or a world Gandhi someone who sees

It's still the distribution problem stupid

As has been the case for centuries now

That we still worship a golden calf

And let a greed-based money system

Bully us out of our political rights

And infect our spiritual lives

But the terrible fact about slavery

Is that it will not ever be overcome

By just a few courageous people

Who have won their freedom

As individuals while the whole

World suffers and won't wake up

Auto-de-Fe Valentine

Large fires are breaking out

All over the world

But still some people

Show up for choir practice

As if standing in the midst

Of the smoke and flames

Singing their souls right out

Of their bodies the will to sing

Is so strong in them

For twenty minutes or so

Which is as long as it takes

For a burning at the stake

Before the choirmaster screams

Yes yes but now once more

Let it burn you let it burn

Till there is nothing left but gold

One Left Valentine

It may be some shiny minerals

Are becoming beautiful plants

Some brave plants turning into

Fierce animals unfolding human limbs

And some few individuals already mirroring

Angelic superior beings but

How far can you think ahead

The number of singers seems to decrease

As you move up the choir

Until there is only one voice left

A light that is growing into a man

As if he lost his way and fell into time

Circling back the other way

Recovering his glory

Not A Fable Valentine

When Joy came to live with Despair

They birthed a bittersweet lamb

(Imagine naming your daughter Despair

Or Joy who turned out to be a boy)

But it was then they realized

They really were gods and 

What it felt like to be helpless

Right away they recognized

Their awesome power and reconciled

Though they couldn't live together

They would raise their child

As equal partners filling her head

With light and darkness love and loss

Until she could speak her own night

And day and go her own immortal way

Trying To Find You In A Crowd Valentine

The ghost of you still haunts the world

You the one who returns home

Under an assumed name

No one recognizing your face

A stranger who shows up

In airports and dark streets

Making your way around the globe

Surviving on forests and lakes

Appearing and disappearing and still

Searching for a few lost souls

To whom you can confide

The secret no one wants to hear

The love you cannot hide

Sailing 'Little Ugly' Valentine

For two Chicago summers

We bought the only boat

We could afford a home-made

Wide-beamed cabined sloop

With a tiny galley and two beds

What we knew of sailing

You could have stowed

In an overhead compartment

We just wanted to be on the water

So one night we took her out

And breezed along the shore

Raging stars to starboard and

The streaming city lights portside

Trying to outshine them

Losing all track of time

We almost couldn't find

The harbor entrance dazzled

And then collided with the dock

Slow Valentine

Too hot to think

Too cold to move

I like to be outside

And sit at one remove

From myself and look

Around and up into

The early morning light

Gathering its strength

Never not in ordinary awe

A few plants I'm intimate with

I like to watch them catch it

And hear them call to me

Go slow go slow the world

My lover is coming back to me

What To Make Of Such Things Valentine

Today I read 95 years ago

In the dead of night

British bombs placed in mines

Dug right below those sleepers

Killed over 10,000 Germans

They could hear it in Cambridge

And today listening I can still

Hear it whispering out there

Someone said just before

The explosion in the silence

He heard a nightingale

Singing clearly as if

It was the end of the war

Surrounded by Spirits Valentine

Wherever metal hides in stone

Wherever water finds a plant

Wherever air the birds have flown

Or lifted a flower to a bee

Wherever an animal loves you

And trusts you to love it back

Wherever you make a place

For water and lifts it to your lips

Wherever you let the air

Breath you in and out

Wherever the old fairy-tales

Are read to someone dying

See we told your so they say

We were already here and waiting

Pentecost Valentine

Life lives while death dies

Or you can say it backwards

It seems abstract to put it lightly

But it comes to the same thing

If we see life is invisible

While death is all around us

If we can sense what lives

In life itself invincible

Or it would not be life

Unending source of going on

Then when we are born again

After a long convalescence 

We will recognize the mountains

And the lake where life was born

Arriving and Departing Valentine

Who says I have a one-track mind

As if that couldn't be a virtue

And my mind wasn't a grand

Central station to which all

My crowded thoughts return

Some with smiles some with dismay

Some with no luggage at all

And a few dimes in their pocket

Searching the faces each thought

With a mind of its own

I can hardly bear to think of it

Until I catch your eyes

Who says we don't carry

The whole world with us

In our muted cries

Magic Carpet Valentine

My first real clue was noticing

Something was always dying

So something further could be born

This meant there was a

Conversation going on

Between the weaver and us

If you think of the future

As a kind of carpet being woven

Remember how in Ephesus once

We held up a whole boatload

Of fellow tourists and our own

Companions who glared at us

While we kept on bargaining

With the old tired rug dealer

And wound up paying too much

And losing a few friends

When we finally boarded that boat

Dressing the Wounds Valentine

When they finally got the word

The body would be released to them

They bundled it up and hurried off

In the dark end of twilight

To a secret place and laid it down

Weighing little more than a child

As if this had all been planned

The bowl of water ready at hand

To wash the gaping wounds

Oil the whole body and wrap it

Tightly in a long white cloth

As if they knew there would be

Only a day's pause between death

And its extinction and that

Nothing more could be done

But go back home and wait

Again Valentine

Give me a little theme O muse

Or tell me the story again if you must

Of your mute wandering

Hospital to hospital

O pilgrim of pain no one

Willing to take on such grief

As if you dared them to

And then who would you be

You've started to mumble 

In your sleep and I

Laying beside you awake

Try to write down everything

You say in my ink of tears