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

For Your Birthday Valentine

Those who bring the new day into being

How could it ever happen on its own

Those who push the light up right on time

Like gold extracted from the shafts of night

Giving each day its own character and will

Each one aimed to change the world

Or move it forward an inch or two

Though every night loads it up with grief

So some come stumbling and fall apart

And never make it to the afternoon

Those who labor and sacrifice

Confident even in their graves

Know they come from an endless source

And tomorrow will be brave

That Call Valentine

Is it the long-postponed perception

That something profound is missing

From our lives something we keep

Trying to repress or hide in full sight

Like how long others can know us

Before we have any awareness of ourselves

But maybe it's more a certain sadness

About how our thoughts and feelings

Can only carry us so far until we hit

A wall we sense is only an illusion

This world of beautiful appearances

Innumerable spirits have left behind

But how long must that call

Hang suspended in mid-air

Before we humans hear it

Something Valentine

There's something hateful about the cold

Something fearful about the heat

It's only in the spring or fall

That we feel equal to it all

The earth in winter

Deep in thought

Brings our hearts to a full stop

While summer blithely hurls our souls

Far out beyond the stars 

But earnest fall and lithesome spring

Are preternatural beings

Who bring the divine back down 

To earth to see what human life 

And death can truly be

Once Valentine

I dreamed I backed you up

Against a wall could feel

Your breath on mine

I dreamed you let me take

Possession of your mind

Since you had pillaged mine

And felt my body break

While bleak desire raged

Silent pacing in its cage

I dreamed our legs entwined

Our youthful legs and arms

Now dwindled to old age

I who was once thine

You who were never mine

Back To Before Valentine

Into these cold sunny days

A great gray storm is coming

Enough snow to bury the city

And blur the mountain peaks

Each snowflake like the cell

Of an accumulating body

Slowly falling asleep

And in the morning the mind

Of quiet it kept in store for us

Will be a genius in the sun

The earth's sinless soul spread out

As it was in the beginning

Before it ever heard of spring

Homeward Valentine

Withered it looks in winter

Holding a few hard fruit

Every fall losing another limb

Every spring a few less blooms

I fear it will all be firewood soon

And this garden lose its focal point

The thing that lifts us weeds

And flowers when we all look up

Great grandfather pomegranate tree

Who had a poetry and a purpose

When it left its native land

Prepares to leave that all behind

And take up residence here

In my eternal mind

Epiphany Valentine

Sleeping in fear waking in shame

But suddenly now I see

We will not be damned

A blue rosemary in ecstasy

Blooming to beat the band

A blue I never knew

Could ever come again

Now in cold January when

Everything else is dead

A bubbling spring tumbling down

Enough blue to heal us all

And if I get up close

The spray of it on my face

The very scent of hope

I taste and am born again

My Tiger's Valentine

My tiger wants to touch

My cheek with its claw

Its arms embracing me

Its belly on my belly

As if it wants to enter me

It clings so close our bodies

Resting while our souls mingle

In the throes of its desire

Just a touch upon the cheek

To say it could consume

Or tame me it hasn't quite

Made up its mind

Any more than lovers know

That love can be unkind

Taken Valentine

Just about to fall asleep

Strange noises last night

Right outside the window

An electric hissing and the rattle

Of small stones hitting the wall

Then I felt the world swirling

Around the house and the house

Go airborne in eerie silence

Lifting me at the calm center

Of a great unfurling storm

Hurling me toward a starry field 

I could see off in the distance

Somehow I thought I was taking

The whole world with me

Or was it the world taking me

But I was sure it was no dream

Rubber Tramp Rendezvous Valentine

I'm heading down to the RTR

At Quartzite and wonder if I can

Stop to visit on my way

Maybe we can have lunch

And catch up while I'm there

It's been a while and maybe

I could get a shower at your place

It won't be long the dogs

Can stay in the van and if

It's not too much I could have

A package sent to your address

To pick up on the way

A rice-cooker to make my life

More comfortable on my travels

I do long to see your face again

X Marks The Spot Valentine

This morning a huge X

From contrails over the town

Can the blue sky have an opinion

If it closes heaven down

Can clouds be ominous and fluffy

And by afternoon be gone

And life impervious go on

That X turning into a burning cross

To carry equally a thief or a god

Archangels mighty and dreadful

Their arms spread out in a gesture

Full of welcoming mercy and calm

Freely received freely ignored

Nothing saving nothing lost

Schiller's Crowd Valentine

Do you mind their human lives

Lived behind the divine art

They left behind their at times

Pettiness and envious quarrels

When they weren't being sublime

They knew what it's like to be so good

At what you did it surprised

Even them what it felt like

To collaborate with the thin air

And let the spirit through

They kept their loves at the center

Of their lives for everyone to see

They weren't afraid of human things

Seed and grist for the divine

Arriving Valentine

When you notice those other worlds out there

And the enormous will power it takes

To bring a kind of order to their movements

When  you imagine each one's history

How each one takes a further step

Toward the singularity of our earth

Their last stop on the way to the sun

Struggling to blend together and embody

All their desires and warring dreams

Into one colossal human being

Laid in the manger of the stars

Or standing in a river naked

Then it's possible to see arrayed

The missing link of love

Arriving to build a home