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