Seen Sometimes Valentine

A flicker lives in my head

And one in my blue-breaking tree

Easy for me to get them confused

The bright fierce bird outside

With the one that flickers inside

Two lights with a branch between

Seen sometimes flashing brainward

I think these two are mates

Alive in two adjoining cages

Longing to link together

And become one winged word

With a laddered back

And a hooked beak

That could eat your heart out

Paradise Eyes Valentine

They could see all of paradise at first

And of course they fell in love

But what were they closed to

That the beautiful garden snake

Could promise her he'd open

If she just ate this apple I mean

Are there two sets of eyes

That open on different worlds

Where they floated for a while

Resting on a leaf where they moulted

Casting off their invisible skin

It has been centuries settling in

Too long under this borrowed light

For our paradise eyes not to open again

He Was Beheaded Today Valentine

Now that we can hold our brains

In the palms of our hands

And peer into our crystal balls

And can dial up God or the gods

If we have something to learn

About ancient libraries

Or just need a plumber

To talk us down to earth

Distance means nothing

When water comes from the faucet

And we wear the same smile

All my angels are practical people

I earnestly depend upon

And just a text away

Do I Know You Valentine

On the long screened porch

At twilight of an old whaling

Captain's rambling house

I found you sitting by yourself

Watching the tide sweeping the light

Far out into the starry bay

It was the first time I saw you

As a real person in your own right

With your own inner struggles

Having nothing and everything

To do with me your curious son

But now years later I want

What I didn't want then

To go and sit beside you

And ask you all my questions

And answer all of yours

And then just sit in silence

Amazed and satisfied

Those Valentine (for Paul)

Those with whom you are merely familiar

(Familiarity breeds a family)

And those who you really embrace

And work for their respect

Those who may accompany you

Even over great distances

Losing touch out of time

Those you know who trust

Something more beautiful

Than themselves the first

Friendship lies with the self

But the template for it waits outside

With those who can be counted on

But a few fingers securely touching

Those we live for those we love

Thanks To Him Valentine

I know she's doing mostly well

In heaven because she was

So gregarious here on earth

People really interested her

But I worry about my dead father

A man I found hard to love

Though I was glad my brother

And sister could make him laugh

Which left me free to wander

The slums and galleries of Toronto

When I showed him one of my poems

Ashamed to ask for his approval

He passed it back to me with a grin

Son I have no idea what this means

And that laugh we shared together

Being Seen valentine

How to prepare to see them

And not just sense them there

The bodiless ones surrounding us

Who breath a more delicate air

Is it partly because we don't want

To see what they see

With their enormous gaze

Now they know the other side

Of who we are swallowing

All the distances between

Slowly like feeding newborn chicks

Some worms among the seeds

They are bringing us all along

For the purpose of some song

Empty Valentine

Turning the empty pages

Of the book of the moon

Like being back in school

Opening those first blank pages

Of our very own notebooks

As if the teacher had given

Each of us a little soul

Newly-printed a little stiff

To write our crooked letters in

Before they became words

Impatient to be spoken

That moment the moon remembers

That whiteness ruffled by the wind

That hush of joy in the room

Summer's End Valentine

Why are some butterflies

So frantic except when

They're so still the ones

With the smaller wings

Have to beat faster to carry

Their huge auras while

The swallowtails and monarchs

Can afford to float

And yet stay fragile

For a thousand miles

In a wet patch of grass

I found a Least Skipper

Would you believe she asked

Three generations every year

Rainbow Moon Valentine

What if the moon

Wore a different 

Color every month

A procession of moods

Moving through the spectrum

Each full moon etched

With a little image

An ethereal pictograph

Then tonight we'd see returning

A woman in a thalo blue robe

Bearing the child of fall

In her arms the cooling nights

The harrowed fields of light

Full of sorrow and expectation

Researching Valentine

The will has a will of its own

How often it gets in destiny's way

And even the most vigilant heart

Has been known to skip a beat

When you walk into the room

We say the mind's made up

As if it were an imaginary thing

And not the restless traveler it seems

Sometimes my soul feels drawn

And quartered by the world

What I want and feel and do

My will on Mars my head

On Venus and oh my heart

Still in love with the earth               

That Word Valentine

What love do I mean

When I say that word

When there seem to be so many

Different enthusiasms evoked

That qualify for its use

Does it feel like it loses

Some of its power and focus

When that's just not true

It's the only word we have

That's strong enough to grow

Into being applied eventually

To everything and everyone

Even all we fear and hate

Whether it comes soon or late

Half-way Valentine

Half-way home

I followed a hopper

Through the forest of grass

Who'd lost one

Of his leaping legs

So we had to limp along

Following the fading

Foot-prints of the rain

Over and over he tried

To explain why he couldn't

Take me in a whole brood

To feed and the wife

Off on another escapade

But if I valued my life he said

I'd keep going the grass

Would take care of the rest

Honeysuckle Valentine

Dark green in shadow

Yellowy-green in the sun

So it seems half-flourishing

Half-dead until the light

Leans to the left and they

Easily trade places green shadows

Flowing back into the yellow

While the other green fades

Passing the sun back and forth

Refusing life refusing death

As if there were something in between

Something less abstract

More personable and distinct

In the construction of a flower

Quarreling Valentine

A quarreling family

Of red finches

Is eating away 

My one hibiscus

That so far has bloomed

But once only a few

Red-throated golden

Chalices last summer

As soon as they see

A new bud like a little 

Lettuce-head their beaks

Are wedged to plunder

Until each branch

Thwarted starts to die

Until I cannot call you

My hibiscus anymore

Stark raving dead

How I dragged you

To the desert

So the finches

Would be fed

Second Chance Valentine

To find the place I was child

And see the house no longer there

Our wild grassy yard eaten up

By a suspicious toad-like two-flat

But the corner's still there looking

Down the hill where we would

Stand and holler 'We want war'

To the Grafton gang and run

Like hell to our hiding places

Cowards were we all but now

I'm back to settle the score

They are nowhere to be seen

I was wrong about the war

We meant to yell 'We want more'

Old As I Am Valentine

The first thing I want to do

When this oven summer cools a bit

Is cut out those three dead branches

From our old pomegranate tree

And trim the suckers from its trunk

So we can see its true stature

Come winter when its leaves are gone

A few shriveled fruit hanging on

While it plunges deeper into the ground

Eating its way to where I imagine

The secret of flowering is found

And carried back up to the sun

Staring back in our faces

Breathless as any newborn thing

So Far Valentine

What so far my soul

Has uncovered about itself

While living in and around

This amazing human body

Is the sense of some mysterious

Third part when I say I to myself

When my soul hears that word

It cowers with embarrassment 

Trying to hide its pride

My soul is guessing

There's another I behind mine

More resourceful more refined

Or how account that sometimes

Sometimes I can be

If not beautiful then kind

Invincible Valentine

Our freedom is a leaping thing

A cricket in long grass

Chasing one another around

If it's a god who punishes us

He'll have to get in line

And what now and then

If we are never caught

As you have caught and held me

Our freedom is a limping thing

Faith the first to falter

And hope that loudmouth

Gone but leaving the door ajar

And you just standing there

Invincible as love

Following Valentine

His excerpts are very brief

But let you know how to find

Where they fit in other worlds

If you want to follow them up

With further thinking on the matter

Digging deeper slowly constructing

A map of the events that must

Have preceded this rocky earth

All we have made

Out of nothing we sparks

Falling on dry grass

A fire came to our rescue

But the grass was always there

Driving Back Valentine

You say I am your sunflower

But I say you are my

Queen Anne's Lace

Is it because we both 

Love to look up

What speech flourishes inside

Before we can say a thing

These fields of waving whiteness

With a few blue chicory thrown in

Aren't we also words

On the verge of being spoken

No one could say you

Before you did and all

My stars were listening