Never Helpless Valentine

If your first act in the cradle

Is to strangle a snake

Winding around you

You know you are a fighter

An army of one poised

To obey without rancor

The will of the gods

And clever enough to bend

Them to your will with barely

Enough time for family or friends

So focused on the work at hand

Valor accepting its defeat

In its shroud of glory

A momentary flicker

But our hero stands alone

The first to enter heaven

Hindsight's Valentine

At twenty he invented fire

Or claimed to afterwards

But it was already there

Something you came upon

Under the pillow of a sleeping god

A fire that doesn't burn

Except the fingers of a man

To warm his nights cook his food

He forced the gods to share

Though it wasn't from greed

But fear of what he with foresight

Couldn't see they saw

Looking back from their eternity

The fire that would come

And sweep away them all

Son Of The Sun Valentine

But things got serious

With ravenous Dionysus

The life of the party

Always wanting more life

Joy descending into chaos

The theory was to fall apart

And then reassemble oneself

From the remaining pieces

A regenerative heart

At the basis of it all

But even the gods grow old

Leaving behind their fictive

Lives for us to follow he said

For we are gods as well

Daughter Of The Sun Valentine

It was their own chosen fate

The watchful almost fleshy gods

To start with beauty

Their endless story

They had suffered so

But it all came back to them

In the body of a young girl

Happy as a field of flowers

Who wandered into town

Searching for a boy from hell

Some Hercules or Hades

She could love and hate

Sharpen her courage on

That beauty have her hour

Though all her shrines are gone

To Be Read On A Plane Valentine

Every day a new dose

Of reality is injected

Into our brain and blood

The hypodermic sun

Willing everything into being

And then putting it all to sleep

With her little stepchild Reality

Too much to take in at once

But doled out in clouds

Beauty gets broken down

And then built up again

What else could be holding us up

We who are still learning

To leave ourselves behind

Midstream Valentine

When I remember all time

Is divided into before and after

That a certain line is crossed

Sooner or later in all beings

When time seems divided

Against itself one stream

Pushing into another going

In the opposite direction

Where you have to decide

Which way to succumb

Or stand there in the turmoil

Salvaging the present moment

Which has nothing to do with time

Relieved of before and after

Back And Forth Valentine

I don't want to die do you

I love the earth and you

Home away from home

But we kinda made this

Bargain I wish I could

Remember how I agreed

To such high interest rates

We will never pay it off

But I'm assured we return

Our debts in process of forgiveness

So much paper work red tape

Just to get back to a womb

A small apartment on the east side

Enough light to flood a room

Past Valentine

Memorial statues photos make of us

Until the movies came along

And now I have a video of you

On my phone for easy access

And a whole record of the world

Uploading our success and our

Falling short of one another

Repeatedly and stubbornly

But not all the pictures lie

Some you have to pick out

The electric field around us

From the experience itself

To see right past the picture

To the angels standing there

Coming Close Valentine

Close enough to touch

But never touching

This went on for months

Filled with long walks

Silent or speaking at the same time

No you go first I forget

What I wanted to say

But now fifty years later

I remember it your skin

Pulling me in us cowards

Of affection geniuses of delay

How could it be we never spoke

The truth we wanted to say

You see I still blame you for not

Going first but yes it was me

Death Is Always Early Valentine

Death falls in little pieces

Like a large fly lying on its back

Just here on my table

Under the brown lilies of Easter

Its legs folded its wings

Still catching some sun

No one to annoy or marry

Hatching little ones

No elaborate funeral to follow

Which no one attends

Which dandelion shall I

Place you under or feed

You to the lilies until

Our resurrection comes

Eighties Days Valentine

I usually start with yesterday

Without which no morning could come

Looking back over what was said

And done testing my memory

That certain gestures certain looks

Not be entirely lost on me

By which time it's afternoon

When serious work gets done

Listening to the Verdin sing

Worrying about the world to come

Doing the dishes for some fun

And suddenly it's twilight

Just enough time to catch

The button moon slip loose

The virgin dark undress

Conjugal Valentine

I watched your thoughts

Coming through on your face

I caught you thinking

Which doesn't often happen

Not the thinking but me

Catching you thinking

As in 'lost in thought'

Your eyes seeing both

Inside and outside of you

Stopping time so it all

Got quiet around us

And then you turned to me

And said, 'I was just thinking....'

As if I hadn't a clue

Always There Valentine

Some sixty years ago today

I took the habit of a monk

Face down on the floor I lay

And spoke a cloudy vow

I shortly couldn't keep

The sixties intervened

Like the sunny Renaissance after

The dogmatic Middle Ages

And I was given a small farm

A wife and a child both fine

A whole precocious heaven

With a woods where I

Could roam the rest

Of my life away

But you had other plans for me

Whoever you are

Carefully and patiently

Still homeward urging me

Except Valentine

What does the length of a day

Have to do with its width

Or its depth as you travel

Out farthest deeper down

If you let go of time

Except time to unravel

If you think of it as cubic

Transparent and alive

What does the length of a life

Have to do with what survives

If time doesn't matter

If after all it can't be taken

With you to the grave

Except what's saved

Some Days Valentine

Though I live in a small town

In the middle of an enormous city

At the bottom of an evaporated ocean

I am always conscious of the desert

Surrounding all of this which starts

To boil and bubble in early April

While we fearless frogs enjoy

These cool spring days before

(The tenderness that came back

After it had been given up on)

But what will we do with all these

Steep hills and deeper valleys

Some days I picture my life

As a mirage in this desert

The mirage of an oasis

I am crawling toward

Some days so vaporous and fine

Her Valentine

Just yesterday I discovered

There is nothing

Inside of light

She holds nothing back

But herself transparent

And up for anything

And willing to tell you

Anything you ask

And give it to you for a song

But it's darkness who holds

A place in her heart 

See how she sinks

Into his arms how she

Rises again even more herself

Novalis Valentine

Each poem of his is its own book

Of poems each line a corridor

Each word a room a door

You pass by listening

For something unexpected prophetic

Informative and thrilling

Wondering who speaks so

Urgently from so many mouths

All saying the same thing

Come I've something to show you

You won't believe her

Even when you meet her

My little suffering Sophie

Madonna of my love

It's Still Early Days Valentine

For a long time

We could only see time

Passing in light and darkness

So we called it Change

The god above all gods

Who ruled the weather

But then it happened

In the south of France I think

The god was captured

In the clock of the heart

And we could finally hear it

Ticking and tocking

The metal hand slipping

From second to third to fourth

Through us like a shiver

And then the bell would ring

Tribal Valentine

I think I've finally found my tribe

A school of red-headed finches

Who like me for my dandelion feasts

The gold I've turned to dusty seeds

Laid out for them each morning

We are a serious studious lot

Even if we hop about

From text to text precisely

Studying the light ever watchful

Of the dangers of being on the ground

From which we now and then

Ascend as one into the harboring tree

Our fears transformed to prayers

Our longings into lusty songs

Hear Tell Valentine

The grim reports from the far reaches

Of the human mind stop short

The lost armies of thinking

The last weary survivors

Set up camp there

On the cliffs above the river

Dreaming of bridges and boats

To float across this impasse

To the beautiful world that must

Be there on the other side of pitch-

Black darkness and cold

Where they light their fires

And tell their ancient stories

Of those who traveled there

And brought back word of gold

Quite Valentine

Have I settled for the shadow

Of my tree against the wall

Just now coming into leaf

In small bunches protruding

Into uniformly gray flowers

Nothing left of the tree

But the lines of its branches

When the sun sketches them

Gray on the gray block wall

Stripped down to its floating

Soul when now and then

Wind ruffles the light

And I can feel the real tree

Just there behind me

Pass through me quite

Trying To Get Down Valentine

So what's going on this morning

In that resting pretty head of yours

Leaving the tunnel of dreams

Sweeping up into a body's

Heaviness a befogged city's

Nervous energy becalmed

By the blue of this harbor

A bed's perspective on the day

Ahead where you lay your scene

Or might it not be better

To let life go on dreaming

That it's the real thing

While you sleep deeper and

Deeper beyond all dreams

My Own Best Patient Valentine

Anger keeps vulnerability 

At bay I heard you say

Which angered me even more

And if you said I love you

It would throw me into a rage

Which is why I never say it

Love is a treacherous word

If it's been used to control

And can't be trusted again

Love breaks you into pieces

That go to war with one another

You lose your sense of humor

Cancel your appointments

And forget to pay your fees

Coordinated Valentine

She didn't look that crazy

And wasn't one of the workers

In the book section with a cart

Picking out books at random

And throwing them into it moving 

Along quickly from row to row

But I caught her later

Putting all those books together

She had sorted them by color

A shelf of red and yellow spines

Began to shine on a middle row

It had taken her all of twenty minutes

To make literature and history

And even the romantic novels

Into the beginnings of a rainbow

And off she went to the women's section

Unpunctuated Valentine

Does every life end

With an ellipsis or a colon

Or with a question mark

Rhetorical or ironic

Or with an exclamation point

As in the beginning as in Spanish

Reversed like an announcement

Or a warning of some surprise

Buried in the story

To get ready for what's coming

The placement of a period

Must be rare sparingly used

Whoever writes the text

Lest it seem to pause what's next

All Fools Day Valentine

I try to imagine what beauty

Is up to today where her imagination

Takes her into the actual world

A thought as useful as a flower

Fed up with blooming

Let's bring something new

Her idea of a seed

Has run its course

Let's make a tree that walks

An animal that speaks

New French new English

But beauty balks

Hearing how humans mock

Scottish Symphony Valentine

I dinna ken 

On a drooping leaf

How the reddish wren

Can sit in the rain

Pecking and singing

So brae and bonnie

I dinna ken

How the rain can be

So plenty not to drown

Her rippling song completely

I dinna ken 

I've forgotten her Gaelic

Song she rains

From joy and panic

Rained-Out Easter Valentine

After the rain eclipsed the dawn

Which took most of the morning

The sky lay down in the usual puddles

Where we could watch the slow

Unraveling of the clouds

And the pale grail of the sun

Appear as a brightening moon

In the depths of an inch of rain

Before the rain returned

Rain and light together

Playing Bach all afternoon

It got cold and we wanted a fire

But we just let our bodies warm the room

While the light grew dark again

The Quietest Night On Earth Valentine

All that was left to us

Was the star of his body

A scintilla of light

Soundlessly falling

Into the darkness of the earth

Growing brighter as it fell

His first thought always

Of the lost trapped in the dream

Of death the great delusion's

Prison door flung open

All night he lingered

Breaking bread with them

As his star grew stronger

Bursting into a morning

Even distant galaxies could feel

A New Kind of Lightening Valentine

The prophecies of memories

When we first saw you coming

Turning looking back through centuries

Catching glimpses of your fires

And now to suddenly arrive

At the core of all suffering

And love's overcoming all

The obstacles still shocks our senses

We still don't understand

How to grasp a god

This most intimate thing

Taking your body down

Washing and wrapping it

Hardly the weight of a child

Broken Bread Valentine

When we all took our places

In that borrowed sunlit room

The Kyrios was smiling

As he scanned our faces

Such a buoyant serious smile

I remember now when

His startling quiet eyes

Met mine I did try

To take him all in

When he passed the cup to me

Though I wanted to refuse at first

Please pass me by I mouthed

But he just waited smiling

Till I buckled to his will

And went running from that room

From Her Hands Valentine

In a yellow apron for the day

Madonna does her shopping

She gets up well before the sun

Building hot coals in the oven

She's making bread this morning

As she has for centuries for the feast

She lets me sit in her warm kitchen

Rolling the dough telling me stories

Of the amazing things he got up to

As a boy their long serious talks

Past bed-time him staggering

Around in the morning dark

A piece of bread in his mouth

Gathering his books for school

In Hot Pursuit Valentine

You are the missing person in my life

Were you kidnapped and killed

Buried in some moonlit field

Or simply walk away of your own will

No one seems to know

Yet you often left me clues

Of where you might be found

Usually in the next town

But when I'd get there

You'd have moved on

I can only say I'm following you

Except when I'm distracted

By the silliness of the thought

Of always trying to find you

When you are already here

And have been all along

Eclipse Moon Day Valentine

Today the bright palms of victory

Get trodden in the dirt

The morning after begins

With yesterday's news

The body-count that keeps breaking

In and out of consciousness

I like to think I have a phone for a mind

And locomotive eyes searching

For where he spent the night

A god does not want praise

So much as loyalty and courage

But still in his last days

Someone must bring him food

He must get some rest somewhere

Quietly gather all his strength

Getting ready to be ravaged

Do You Ever Valentine

Do you sometimes travel

In a muddled meditation

Down to the musty basement

Where the old ledgers are kept

The paper turning into papyrus

The history of love written

In numbers on the backs of checks

To burn or settle into compost

The smell of it brings me

Back to my senses fast

The garbage in the gut of things

We pick through suddenly

Realizing we may have

Thrown away the best

On My Own I Bestowed Valentine

Doris and I Beau and I

Pam and I Paul and I

Bernie and I Pat and I

Scary Stranger and I

(I've forgotten your name)

Judy and I Dee and I

And Jess who woke me up

And John and Tony and I

Daniel and I David and I

A few pictures I can pull

Out of my pocket in heaven

Asking everyone I meet

Have you seen them

They're the reasons I am here

Thankful Valentine

I picture myself swimming

Far out on the ocean

Alongside an ocean liner

There are crowds along the decks

A few cheering me on

But most just watching

And I'm aware of whales

And sharks singing in the depths

Thankfully it's a sunny morning

Having spent the night

Sleeping on the waves

Floating on my back

Music drifting over me

From that sinking ship

Beautiful Soul's Valentine

A small town is like a little school

Where the great arguments begin

The first separations and betrayals

The making and unmaking of friends

But when I heard you'd passed 

I remembered feeling meeting you

You were not from here

Your huge golden hair an aura

Around your Persephone face

I mean the way beauty can shock

And wake you up

Something beyond knowledge

Happened between us and now

In your passing still does

Among School Children Valentine

That boy said my hair looks stupid

Her five year old face stares up at me

So hurt she's willing to share this

Even with an eighty year old stranger 

Come to visit her busy classroom

How does that make you feel I ask

But she just goes on staring

At such a stupid question

Sometimes boys your age

I try to explain are mean

To girls they are afraid of

And secretly want to be

Friends with but if you ask me

I can tell you your hair looks beautiful

My name is Peter what's yours

Whispered Valentine

Like the climates of different countries

The shifting moods of the world-I

All going on at once night and day

What kind of mind is this

Hurrying us all along

How much of it

Is it even conscious of itself

This child genius of the planets

I try to hold it in my little mind

When it laughs or cries out

My feeble fingers reach

For its giant hand I whisper

For whatever it's worth

I'm here I'm here

When Valentine

I'm looking forward to keeping

A promise I made long ago

When I get done working hard

Trying to avoid it

Perhaps it was presumptious

A little grandiose of me

Caught up in the moment

So enthralled by your presence

I didn't wreigh what I was saying

Something lost I recognized 

In you that I was craving

But maybe I was selfish

And too hasty and didn't see

How much your love would save me

The Art Of Gardening Valentine

Can you tell the dead-heads

From the still unopened buds

Guess the grasses from the weeds

Or feel what the crocus needs

Or search the clammy woods

For where the blood-root feeds

On what the naked maples bleed

Just before they drop their seeds

Out of all the catalogues you've read

Can you assemble in your head

A flood of color in a bed

A summer ascending from the dead

Will you be satisfied to find

The last of the asters burning red

Bought Valentine

Came the day I had to decide

Whether to live in a valley

Or on a higher hill to take

Instruction from a creek

Or look out over the world

I settled for a woods

On a rocky slope with a

Working well and a shack

Two rows of giant spruce

That formed a kind of cathedral

Where I still worship now years later

Those first days I built a fire

And watched the first snow fall

Something Else Valentine

Sorry isn't quite enough

To bring back the spring

Something else must intervene

In the heart's underground

That stirs the stones to think

They might possibly be flowers

That someday it could happen

And the dizzy flowers start

To dream that they can fly

Right up out of the darkness

Of the putrid silly heart

So spring can ravage them

With a whole new sorrow 

And a whole new joy

Not Far Valentine

Every morning around ten o'clock

I hear a sound I can't identify

From not so far down my street

An almost human screeching

Briefly three times

The wail of a child at first

And then metal scraping metal

Loud and piercing

Like a mechanical bird

Or locked-up baby monster

The song of its rattling chains

But why three times only

And why just when the sunny street

Reaches its most peaceful point

Must that beast let loose its cry

Driven Into Spring Valentine

Given the wrong directions

I found myself lost in the desert

On a road going nowhere

Run out of time to make it

Back to my appointment

So I just kept driving alone

On this twisting hillside road

The full sun leading me on

It had rained the day before

And the pure air was lending the desert

A luster that lit it from within

Great stretches where the original

And exiled trees survive alone

The loveliness and agonies of spring

Spring Planting Valentine

In a barren patch of ground

I threw some new seeds down

And placed four narrow sticks

In the sign of a star upon it

And poured some water

Salvaged from the rain

And watched it settle

Sparkling in the sun

Into the darkness of the soil

And having made my grave

I knelt and prayed

This new moon would unfold

From memories I've saved

A rising of green and gold

Free Will Valentine

I learned to use God early

For my own purposes

While he learned

To use me for his late

He introduced me

To his friends and gave

Me fairy tales to eat

Lost legends that put

Me to sleep and harsh

Blows to wake me up

He taught me to be

Objective about my fate

While I taught him to wait

I was coming but might be late

Loved Valentine

He knew four loves in his life

Two women and two men

But when it came to picking sides

Neither team would have him

And there were others along the way

Who fell in love with him

And would have given him their all

But he just didn't feel the same

Though he tried to settle down

Letting it all go on too long

Is it better to be loved or love

Without regret or compromise

Love's body and love's soul

Each struggling for control

Texting With The Dead Valentine

I spend the morning

Texting with the dead

Sending photos back and forth

Mostly to my mother whose birthday

Was yesterday and whose last

Necessary job was greeting

The bereaved in a funeral parlor

Though she was secretly terrified

Of corpses but tells me now not to worry

About dying it's been happening 

All along just another birthday

'I keep getting younger every day'

Signing off with a slew of emojis

And a link to falling stars

Hazy Valentine

Tumbleweed buried a town in the east

And we laughed uproariously at the sight

Imagining a match thrown

And the ensuing conflagration

Elsewhere a million acres

Had been burning for weeks

And in a city in the desert

A huge explosion hurled

Shrapnel killing a boy

Which seemed paltry compared

To whole countries on fire

Elsewhere for the time being

Gathering on the outskirts

The sirens' keening not so remote

We can't smell the smoke

Unwrapping Valentine

The gift of time at last

Arrives in a little box

I keep trying to open

But it keeps getting bigger

Until I find myself inside it

Working through the wrappings

The births and deaths of light

Emanating from the center

I think I will find there

My still-beating heart

Encrusted with time

When I get to the bottom

Of so many things 

And behold you waiting all along

 

Meeting Valentine

Some thoughts don't immigrate well

They get trapped at the border

Of consciousness refused entry

They spend their time filling out

Forms and living in tents

Showing up in nightmares

Consciousness can be a bully

When it comes to things of fear

It doesn't want to hear

From its hidden half

Like the elder brother a little enraged

When the prodigal appeared

All the lost thoughts gathering

And his father running to meet him

Desert Valentine

What can I know about myself

If taken to a rocky limit

The wide open world

Spread out before me

As if it were mine alone

Or that I could leap

And find deeper than gravity

Lies tension in the wings

I can feel sprouting

From my flailing arms

Out of memories and dreams

Conjure the other side of things

Neither bread nor stone

Both stone and bread

The Thrones Valentine

Time is much different on the moon

When earth shines back to it

The light collected from the stars

Two weeks of darkness two of day

Swaying on the sea of space

But who hasn't noticed

There's so much more darkness

Than light in the known

Picture of things the moon

The only hole in the heavens

Light pouring from light

Which we convert to lives

Doled out in nights and days

Gods of twilight gods of dawn

Nowhere Valentine

Just beyond Longing

Take the northern road

Where it all starts to look

Like Norway in the spring

Or Zurich in the fall 

All the seasons compacted

Into a few singular days

The whole point of your coming

Into the world summarized

At a roadside table the bride

And bridegroom have arrived

There is a mountain over there

And wine is being poured

And we have nowhere else to be

On The Other Hand Valentine

If God hadn't split himself in two

Giving a whole half to the earth

And the rest to the so-called cosmos

If he didn't show up

As the convincing witness

At your murder trial

And visit you in jail

If news of his passage

Hadn't reached us

When he entered all things

And took on a raging body

Tearing down the pillars

Of heaven to build a world

Where he could give himself away

Carl's Valentine

He reports a giant phallus

Seated on a crimson throne

Come upon in a hidden room

The inexorable will of God

The vision of a turd falling

From heaven crushing a temple

He felt cursed and blessed

Holding the secret of the world

That God wanted him to be brave

And stand up to him as himself

And grace would follow

After many terrible nights

Carried over from unconscious lives

The will to will the will of God

From/To Valentine

Leaping or limping 

From life to life

From flower to flower

Coming and going

From eternity's hive

Where the living honey

Of true devotion 

Is built up where rests

The queen of spring

On her bed of begetting

Careless as she's ever been

While the world swarms around her

Neither leaping nor limping

Both born and unborn

Stopping By Birds On A Foggy Morning Valentine

In plain English

That invisible bird says

'Keep it keep it

Keep it a secret'

Those two things

Flight and singing

Practicing first

Accomplishing second

Stop us in our tracks

One a talented virtuoso

The other a palpable genius

The two things they've kept

Leaving us what's left

To make do as we will

We're Not Ghosts To them Valentine

Let's stop whining about the dead

As if they can't overhear us

As if they're not realer

In their way than we are

Of course they have their own

Important business to attend to

Their own personal quarrel

With the way things went

But their real work is you

And me their slow construction

Of a dialogue a story a poem

In which they remember us

As who we must become

When we give up the grave

Stolen Valentine

I received the invitation

But there was no address

I knew it was a castle

Affording nothing less

Even the road started to rhyme like this

Until I came to the massive gate

Where they weighed and pummeled me

Made me sleep on the floor in the hall

But I couldn't rest roaming

From room to room one night

Until I came upon the bride

Sleeping naked in her bed

Love buried in human light

Body that no mortal made

Uprising Valentine

A window a mirror and a mire

Meet up on a star in my mind

Thinking can do that to you sometimes

Where I stand apart from them

Now and then and stare back

Watching the world-I go by

Like a mother with her children

By noon the heat of the sun

Has come down far enough

To meet the uprising trees and grass

To have lunch together in the park

It must be March if memory reaches

Out for the flowers of the future

Tearing pieces from the sun

So thinking can go on

Some Valentine

Some cannot grow anymore

Some can grow but cannot speak

Some can grow and speak

But cannot think

Some can grow speak and think

But cannot tame their thoughts

Until we come to the shining ones

And the great dark beasts

Of day and night we see

Who struggle back and forth

Rolling the world in their minds

Wondering and turning it to decide

What they might make of it

Keep it or set it free

Hanging Or Hovering Valentine

A web of a single strand

When the light catches the wind

A loose trapeze from one

World to another now you

See it now you don't

A world made up of one line

Of delicate light flashing from here

To there my neighbor's roof

Hanging by a thread

A heart's width from mine

A spider's web that holds

Us all together and apart

Each in our cocoon of light

One's Valentine

The nose of a spiritual dog

Sniffing out knotty insights

Going way out on the ice

Of logic and then swimming off

Into the light that must be there

A dog toward a swan shot down

What true hunter doesn't have a dog

Or a trained guide to follow 

Or else the wilderness will eat us

Choose a path his dog said

And follow it to the capture

Of the living idea of a deer

You fight with and let win

To expiate one's sins

Early Days Valentine

When the spirit took up with the soul

They quarreled at first over the body

Like new parents who would hold him

Know how to console him better

But losing touch over the years

The three of them fell apart

While the spirit lived on in the same town

Occasionally catching sight

Of his old love soul

Hurrying out at first light

A morning person still

One who gets up in pitch darkness

As in the old days

To light the body of the sun

How To Be Me Valentine

O that's how you do that

Now I see how it's done

How to tie my own shoelaces

Or hold a pen to its words

How to lose a whole lifetime

Scribbling to get things right

How to distinguish O from oh

Wonder from disappointment

Warmth from cold 

Dark from light

I have lost the instructions

With their curious illustrations

One of the sea before I drowned

One of the shore where I'll be found

This World Valentine

Fallen from heaven this world

Is like those rental shacks

Or abandoned farm houses

We recognize along the coast

Driven out of heaven this world

Became its shadow half

The other side of the sun

Out of its mother the moon

Escaping from heaven this world

Became a fugitive an explorer

A betrayer a fisherman on the shore

Of some other world

All to know that freedom

Heaven could never bestow

Down On The Farm Valentine

Plowing the family fields one morning

He came upon a head-sized rock

With his great-great-grandfather's face

Carved by nature on it

However deeply it was worked on

As it rose up through the earth

Its gaze settling in his hands

He stood amazed at the accuracy

Of its resemblance to his own

So he kept it and carried it home

How could a face be impressed in stone

Without a sculptor's skill

He pondered day and night

And started seeing faces everywhere

We're All In Flight Valentine

Why should I not have the power

Or the nerve of an airplane

To lift itself off the ground

I'm still not sure how that works

And really would rather leave it

One of the mysteries of the world

An unsolved quadratic equation

My ten year old self is still

Not losing any sleep over

I much prefer the sedentary

Travel of an honest book

While the planes fly by

Content to let the ground

Go over my head in the sky

How Young Are You Valentine

Whatever comes out of your mouth

After you're fifty you'd better

Be ready to believe it the kinds

Of things you say to yourself

Which it takes to sixty to understand

How to let go of them somewhat

What happens to those

Who miss out on their seventies

When forgiveness comes at last

Not least to those who accept it

Only those who make it to ninety

Have a clue what's going on

All the ones I've met are like newborns

Fragile as babies with that

Same heaven in their eyes

Valentine's Valentine

Love is only great

When it is given 

To something greater

Than itself when

It wills to be 

Extinguished that

Something greater come

What else is this pile

Of lives who walk freely

Into the fire of this world

Every day and night

Love shows up in thin air

Brave stars braver flowers

Let us celebrate and dare

Vigil of Valentine's Day Valentine

Everyone wants to be someone else

Their future self or their former self

You know I secretly want to be you

Except for some parts we can negotiate

My mind misses you trying to be me

When you get back from being you

I find you differently arranged

And have to straighten your sleeve

Or brush your cheek

Or try to explain to you

For the hundredth time 

It wasn't me who made you see

The rose I placed before you

It was the rose itself

Putin's Valentine

People like you dear sir

Murdered their poets

But did you read them in your youth

What disgusts you so

About them now you

Have children who

Secretly love them

Imperial usurper of the soul

Of your people but there are

Still so many new poets coming

Seething now in their graves

To take you disordered boy

Sweetly in their arms

As your mother did

Real Estate Valentine

It's not location

But availability

That sells the soul

How many is it now

It's not association

Of thoughts but your thoughts

Driven before you

It's not the shepherd

But the dog who gets

Them to the pasture

Can you feel my will

In these words linking up

With yours as you read them

As we come to a grassy field

It could be the first spring days

When thoughts are creeks and flowers

This will that carries us along

Sad Riches Valentine

How do you receive the Christ

These normalized violent days

I mean do you really see him

Wandering the streets or rushing

Home to the ones he loves

Give all you have to the poor

For the poor you have

Always with you

I wish we could just start there

Maybe we'd be able to recognize

Him again worry-less returning

At the end of the day

Proud that all his children

Have been fed as his Father said

Thinking Of You Valentine

The shadow of wings sweeps over the wall

Of a bird I cannot see

The hawk or the dove

Who follows me

Heaven's spies

Who hide in the sky

When I look back

Feeling something there

Creatures too shy to be seen

Who then furtively appear

I was just thinking of you

Invisible ones flying alone

As if it were heaven

My mind your sky

Trusting Valentine

Am I seeing things because

There are several white clouds

Painted on the sandy-colored wall

That weren't there before

Is my brain a receptacle

Or a generator when my eyes

Lie to me and I believe them

I get to choose from a schedule

Of realities which one to take

Some departing some arriving

But am I seeing you

Trusting in your many disguises

That I may not stray

Too far from your eyes

The News Today Valentine

A dog barked at the sun

So we all got down on all-fours

And started barking back

An ant got into an epic of trouble

And wrote a beautiful bestseller about it

And then turned it into a rap opera

Three letters came to the box

But only one got opened

A sale on the trapeze I wanted

The galleries were barely full

Of heavy clouds come to see

The Eucharist carried in again

A single figure crossing the street

Which any of us could have been

Catching the last of the sun

The Promise Of The Gods Valentine

Clearly the darkness is the light's last color

Where it all gets broken down

All the colors rushing in

From the periphery to blind night's

Bestrewn darkness

Where it's raining

On half the earth

And on the other half

Sunlight pours in

Where the colors take their places

Having suffered enough for one day

Floating a bridge across the abyss

Hurry or you'll miss it

Who Does That Valentine

The rain's playlist grows long today

Kicking off with winds and white noise

A pianissimo of scattering birds

A threat a promise of dire

Consequences still in the tympani

We tremble at the music to come

This composer known

For his sweeping revelations

His out-of-body reaching

For the furthest note

The final finest drop

On which the river hangs

A blessing and a curse

The fallen music of these spheres

We bring upon ourselves

What's Really Going On Valentine

I do try not to be

Too philosophical about

The world to overcome

My innate tendency 

To take it all too seriously

I wonder about what the world

Works so hard to hide from us

The Fathers called 'The Great Seducer'

In all the stories of the world

Senses nerves and blood in us

Are sun moon and stars in them

The angels of mercy who come

Crashing through the veil of the world

Arrayed in glory from time to time

A True Report of the Clouds Today Valentine

One that formed an enormous oak tree

Its head in other clouds or it could be

A mushroom become an enormous forearm

With seven fingers and a newborn lamb

Peering out between them

One was just a cross-hatched sketch

Of lines meeting in space

Tossed off on a napkin

Of course there are the usual faces

Of monsters and the easterly wind's

Round mouth as on the old maps

But don't follow them too closely

It's like looking in the mirror

Of the whole world's memories

And after a while you melt away

New Valentine

In the Church of the First Appearance

Of the Apparition of the Ladders

One Ascending and One Descending

Where you were sprinkled with water

On the Feast of the Revelation

Of the Hidden Frescoes At Yuma

Which St. Excelsior happened on

For which we kept missing the turn-off

Rushing to get you home

Your sanctified fingers

Your exquisite toenails

Our little offering to the sun

Our strange new religion

Candlemas Valentine

The children write about the virtues:

Gratitude includes returning the gift.

Ignorance means you need more love.

Courage never doubts itself.

A good idea is a virtue.

Strange to me are the virtues.

Do you mean when I'm good at fighting

Shoving pushing wanting my way?

Patience is a friend you haven't met yet,

or someone you already know.

I think the best virtue must be

appreciation because it

always makes you feel better.

That Rose Valentine

That wild rose you saw

Conjured in the air

The one from which

All the others come

Which amazed you

That it appeared to you

Like some angelic being

While I kept trying

To get you into bed

Which hardly ever happened

Heaven consorting with hell

In that little room we rented

That rose was the turning-point

I still find it in your face

Market Advice Valentine

What I've got for you today

Says the tall vegetable man

Is a few crisp apples the pears

From Anjou should arrive tomorrow

The asparagus is good but

At one moment it's fresh

And the next it's limp and dead

I wouldn't wait till tomorrow

But smell this thyme brought in

This morning from the mountains

Infuse he says a few sprigs

In a good olive oil

And rub it on your arms

It quickens the will for tomorrow

At The Abbey Valentine

I assume your world

As you must assume mine

We are all caught

In some glorious assumption

About to happen as soon

As we get ourselves out of the way

Take a breath it could be mine

Breathing my life into yours

I assume the greatness

Of your world

As you must assume

All the gratitude in mine

If we are ever to be lifted

Slowly calmly off the ground

In Dreams Begin Reality Valentine

In realms of REMs

Where the eternal records are kept

Those acres of storage rooms

Parked at the edge of the cosmos

Waiting for their owners to return

Who have forgotten all about them 

Or who periodically come back

To sort through dead treasures

Who knows what to do

With the past but ask

Its blessing and forgiveness

Humbled by the courage it took

I say to myself just to get you here

At the threshold of a realer world

Eternal Valentine

The little fence of time

We stretch out

To surround eternity

With a passing thought

The thought of eternity itself

Surrounded as we seem with temporary

Ideas of material things

Hedged in by bodies

Eternity seems foolish

And anyway a long way off

Except for the evidence of dreams

We don't know what to do with

And the debris of wars

We don't know how to end

And all this while

We keep eternity waiting

Unheard Valentine

Sometimes in the symphony of a week

Monday lifts its baton

And nothing happens

It's like the music

Hasn't arrived yet

The audience is getting restless

Waiting a whole night

For Tuesday to show up

With a list of announcements

The music can't make it

Till Thursday and maybe not then

It's saving itself for Sunday

And some child's voice to sing it

That music that was always there

Who Valentine

Is it venial of him

Coming upon that naked body

Sleeping in the bed

To steal a glance

It felt like a mortal blow

All the world can offer

Is it menial of him

To insist upon the soul's

Prerogative to bow to beauty

Wherever it is found

Not made only of stone

But of flesh and blood

To be what she is dreaming

Who she'll love when she awakes

How It's Done Valentine

Even though our bodies

Are the oldest part of us

They're still relatively young

In the overall scheme of things

But the more we materialize ourselves

The more we fade away

A trick of the spirit to reclaim us

Still our bodies give us an intimate look

At its most inner workings

So we can see how it's done

How to stir some dirt and spit together

In the palm of your hand

And breath into it all of your life

Practicing with body after body

To make and re-make a soul

Have They Ever Left Us Valentine

On this chilly promising morning

I'm taking a few short-cuts through

Friedrich Schelling's thinking

I mean what am I doing in the late 18th

Century mythologizing this late

But first he clears up all the false

Conjectures about the origin

Of the gods cross-culturally

To perceive conclusively their 

Pre-existence leaving me hanging

About what all this implies

That the gods must still be with us

Walking among us their faces

Hidden behind our faces

As if we'd forgotten them

Damascus Bound Valentine

Our parents who are joined in heaven

Struggled to love one another on earth

Better apart but then bereft

Finding the best could be the worst

Flummoxed by it their souls

Torn apart by their bodies

Mirrored by a world of wars

Up to this today we call ours

And then there are the happy couples

Who upon arriving in heaven

Embrace and go their separate ways

Knowing they are never apart

Having planted us here on earth

Trusting we'll be back to get them

Send In The Gods Valentine

Ours is the situation of the snail

Who ventured out too far in the rain

From the grass onto the concrete

Who the cat kicked around

But finding nothing edible

Or metaphysical moved on

To some more interesting thing

Leaving the snail transfixed

Considering its options

Did you know snails can sing

Those shells are little horns

That echo an ancient sea

Laying there motionless

Gazing back at me

Being Held Valentine

I try not to feel sorry for the world

Which is to say myself it does no good

Being my own strange world 

Where we all know you're all

Locked up inside me my neighbor

Diagnosed with terminal kindness

My neighbor with a target on his back

That says 'Mother' in red letters

And that's just the outside world 

Which I suppose to be like a father

On the inside who is always

Shouting for attention or applause

I try to stand right there between them

And let them hold me tight

Movie Memory Valentine

What does it matter when

She takes him to the places

Where she fell in love with the man

She's married to right now

Of course to become a writer

She had to leave home and family

But because she always strived

To keep the child in her alive

She kept in touch with them

And stays close with her mother

But what does it mean when she goes home

And her husband tells her they

Never visited those places

When they were falling in love

All that goes on happening in another life

The Perfect Slam Valentine

I strive for a certain wackiness

Sensing the insanity in all things

You have to be a bit unbalanced

To find that elusive point

Of things going by in a moment

If it's not too slow

It's too quick so the seesaw

You just noticed you're standing on

Slams to the ground

On one side or the other

In fact you go from slam

To slam except for a few seconds

Somewhere in the middle

Just to experience perfection

Hairy Valentine

There's a hair in my nose

That tickles me on and off

But I can never find it

Do you have something like that

You refuse to let oppress you

So you pluck it out like an eye

But it just keeps growing back

Until you become a gardener

Of weeds springing out of your nose

Seeing they were always there

But now you can really see them

Until you wind up living

In a house of hair

Forever brushing and combing

Just like everyone else

No Other Word For It Valentine

The hidden thrill of words

Is to bring some order to the world

Out of the murky sea of feelings

Dragging themselves still dripping

Up onto the rocky shore of what

We call thinking becoming 

Our so-called speaking

In how many different mouths

Each word a tongue of fire

Or a kiss of the gods

If you think about all

Of the sculpting and shaping

They've done and still searching

For the right one

I Love January Valentine

These cold days in the sun

I get to call upon the dead

What else do they have to do

But sit and chat with someone

I find they have so much more

Of a perspective on worldly things

Though it can be annoying

At times always trying

To get me to do things like

Maybe take a shower or a walk

Sometimes they pull me

Right out of my body

And show me all the things

We've still to do when

We get up from these chairs

Free Valentine

Is the dancer just the visible reflection

Of the music or is there a conversation

Carried on between them

Not always in agreement

The music always wanting its own way

But not always what the dancer

Wants to hear tonight perhaps

In the wings taking a breath

Just the same old dum-ta-dum

But a third thing we can make together

So when you soar I rush onstage

Neither you nor me but merged

If you hold your fingers just like this

Both of us get free

Reunion Valentine

How far back do you have to go

Before the trail runs cold

Before you start to detect a pattern

In the lives of the dead you follow

Shocked to find yourself

Both slave and master

Both Adam and Eve still

Blaming one another for the loss

Hardly a gasp between them and us

And if I imagine a grand reunion

Of all of us in a well-lit room

Could we then together discern

A common sense of gratitude

For each spent life passed down

One I Valentine

Reading the sage philosophers each night

Explain how the myth of the I came to be

A reality of its own making

The most alone of things

Each in its own private world

Free to be nothing or everything

Swinging between the two

Puts me to sleep to see

I am not an I but a we

At least for a little while

I dream myself awake in you

Wonder of wonders behold

There can only be one I

Which all the others enfold

Small World Valentine

In the geography of my narrow yard

Lies no country I haven't explored

Or should I say exploited tricked

A few blue Grecian flowers

In a democracy of weeds

Over there sleeping in the east

A shiny Spanish honeysuckle

Where the sun stays most

Clipped to climb an iron trellis

And lure the hummingbirds

To war over their daily nectar

And my prize desert rose

I can barely keep alive

In the Iceland of my eyes

Far Out Valentine

I had to rub the sand

Out of my eyes which took

Till noon enough for a whole

Beach where I could walk

The dogs of my reflections

Side-long glances at a still-

Emerging dream rushing to catch up

Sniffing the sea-wrack and the tide-pools

Of my remaining nights and days

My sunny shore of empty shells

Who have nothing to do but sing

Myself awake-awake-awake

Far out on the sea of waking