Out There Valentine

In the first five stages of life

With two more reserved for later

If you persevering make it there

Love terror beauty grief

And finally getting over yourself

Having a self to get over

And for a few moments

You break free from defining time 

And enclosing space and float

Of course it's a dream

Which only makes it realer

Than the things around you shining

No use going out there if you

Don't bring something back 

Lines Valentine

I learned today

We have this line

That runs right through us

From the depths to the heights

And back again in time

Taking a few steps forward

So that another line appears

Passing through the heart and lungs

Thunder and lightening

On the horizon's shore

And if we stand still

We can almost hear

The hard battles of the gods

Going on inside us 

Up Valentine

This rainbow is either

An early sketch

Or a pending version

Of our staring minds

What we were

And must become

Even without the rain

It stays hanging in the air

Visible only to those

Who tilt their heads a little

Into the cloudless air

To see the sun rising

Through the dark earth

Waking all its rainbows up 

Working It Out Valentine

You'd think my vast ignorance

Would induce in me

A deep aghast of humility

At all the horrors and glories

We hide from ourselves one another

In this fairy-tale of my life

The trick is to give up

All my wishes when

The genie floats out of the bottle

Pretending to know 

The one thing worth knowing

Until we sit and work it out 

Me and my cagey double 

The Doves of Summer Valentine

The sounds they make

Don't look like they

Would come from

Such sleek bodies

Elegant and yet

Their wings creak

Taking off suspended 

As in the old paintings

More speech than song a sigh

Undeniably sorrowful

And yet comforting

To sit here listening

You who are they call

A warning and a lullaby 

Solstice Valentine

Make up your mind

Are you going forward

To the omega or backwards

To the alpha do you prefer

Origins or conclusions

When it comes to the same

One mind one heart 

Beating behind it all

The round earth is flat

In places that go on and on

Until you come to your mountains

Either way did you really think

You'd ever get out of here

Without having to climb them  

One Life Valentine

One life is enough

Some say especially

If it was a very hard one

It can take a long time

Before it makes a kind 

Of sense after you've rested

For another long time

But you wake up one morning

Finding you're still alive

And in the distance the moaning

Of the earth calling you back

A hundred unanswered messages

All saying the same thing

I love you I'm sorry

Take me back 

Everything Valentine

Grown old I find

I've won heaven's lottery

The prize of days gone back

To the worlds of birds and flowers 

Where it all begins 

Here in the scorching desert 

How do the doves survive

How long does it take to adapt

And enjoy it or not

Some bird who shall go nameless

Is actually singing in this furnace 

In a tree in my yard

The sun is losing ground 

But I have everything I need 

Look Valentine

I think the very rich

Are more afraid

Of dying than

The very poor sitting

At the same table

Served the same

Bread of life

Unconscionable

And yet persistent

If only a few survive

The wedding feast

But look here he comes

Bearing the best

Wine for last 

Moon-Eye Valentine

Gasping for words because

The experience isn't enough

Take this sunlight which seems

Always pulling the wool

Over our eager eyes 

So we don't notice that

Other light behind it

Except what the moon transmits

Sending down reinforcements

To besieged lovers and trees 

But if this light we see

Made these eyes to see it

That other light must also

Yield up its deeper sight

It may even come tonight 

Offering Valentine

Doesn't it help to dance a little

On the world's bouncing ball

A happy dance or a sad dance

If you can keep your balance

At the pivot of your soul

Finding yourself inside

The thought that's thinking you

Reaching out through darkness

We give words to everything here

So it's good to breath out

Into the endless nameless stars 

Once in a while and whirl

When your angel's hand is offered

And she has that look in her eyes 

Season's Valentine

When you begin to calculate

This beautiful natural world 

No matter how much we love it

Can only be half of the equation

We're searching for an equal's sign

On the other side of which

We can imagine all manner of forces

Working under its invisible cloak

And it becomes so clear how much 

Heaven needs the earth 

To unravel its own becoming

What else are the seasons for

What need would we have of flowers

Left to our own devices 

Sorted Valentine

On your shoulders rest

All you can't forget

Each morning a birthday

Each night a new grave

How what's going on

On the outside relates

To what's happening

On the inside or doesn't

Sorting through the perishable

And the imperishable parts

Of yourself spring cleaning

I wonder about the Egyptians

Who tried to take so many objects

With them for the journey

Isis weeping behind her veil 

By The Sea Valentine

Where I see a flourishing garden

You see a fiery war zone

Where I plant new flowers

You plant dead bodies

When I go out to lunch

It's because you have nothing to eat

And if by chance I catch you in the rubble

Of what we call the news today

The anguish in  your face

Helplessly I ask if you

Would meet me by the sea

These great waves of suffering

And joy we call the world

Sweeping heaven's shores 

Through Valentine

My worry card just maxed out

And I won't be getting an extension 

I tried to prioritize my purchases

But I wound up buying the whole world

And here it is in boxes at my door

Too many to ever open

Whole cities will have to be returned

Most of history refunded

Too many wars to have

Hanging on my wall

What was I thinking when I took 

The world for real

I was so embarrassed when I saw

Heartrendingly right through it all 

What Remains Valentine

What do I see

When I close my eyes

And the whole world disappears

A darkness tinged with the red 

Of distant fires at first

And then a black nothingness

As if drawn up from the depths

And me waiting for a single star

That must some day appear

Even if I only imagine it

Wandering invisible out there

Searching tirelessly for my sight

Craving my dim beholding

Of all its remaining light 

All Around Valentine

The body's along for the ride

On the soul's merry chase

But there's a hidden part of us

That watches from outside

We don't know what to call it

When at times it touches down

But feel it as a flowering

Something simple and profound

Or something that shouldn't happen

But does and stuns the soul

Some miraculous intervention 

The body returns from death

One more chance to fathom

What is living all around 

 

After Valentine

The day after a good rain

The world can begin again

The ever-hopeful sun

Hangs up its washed clouds

And everything green gets greener

Flapping in the breeze

Slowly the dashed peonies lift

Their sodden heads back up

Drying off from the dirt

Resuming the pleasure they take 

In giving themselves away 

Just put your face in one

You'll get heaven's drift

A small voice that pleads

What more could we have done

Waiting Valentine

Winding up in the desert

You can get a lot done

Waiting for the rain

Slowly the delusion

You are mortal gets burned away

By the meditative sun

Light and warmth that overwhelm

Erasing all the shadows

Even the soul evaporates

In the end lifting to the clouds

So when the rain does come

Like a war in heaven falling down

You feel your life come back to you

And the courage to go on