A General Theory of Spirituality Valentine

Things squared equal beings

Whose bodies we can see

But whose souls are visible

Only in their intentions

That there exist only beings

Of stunning variety everywhere

Who are always either fighting

Or supporting one another

And there are those who don't

Want us to see this life

Is a moral war fought

With material means

Who try to dazzle us with numbers

And temporary relative signs

We fighters for freedom

We beginners in love 

Come Morning Valentine

The world is done in oils

On a black background

But the sky is a watercolor

Mostly in blues and whites 

Pigments make for places

That settle in and harden 

Then get slowly painted over 

But the air is pure fantasy

A great artist's ongoing dream

Of sailing flowers and castle faces

Where everything looks like something else

How could the same hand

Paint them both and then 

Tear them into pieces every night

Only to start again come morning 

 

Our Bodies Valentine

Our bodies are like the working classes

To our wealthy ingrate souls

Who take up ownership

In our castle brains

Thinking how to forestall

The next assault

While the heart is left 

To fend for itself

What is the heart anyway

Still a mirage remembered

In a dream of our desire

Or still the most underrated force

Without which there can be

No body and no soul 

New Moon Valentine

The Sisyphean moon

Carries the Herculean sun

Up over the mountain of every day

One keeping time in mind

One holding space in its arms

The great teacher of the stars

Strolling through the earth 

Praising and lamenting

Without judgment or regret

Its brilliant scribe

Hurrying behind absorbing

And then forgetting all he taught

But gratefully he has a gift

For humor called tomorrow

Same old moon he makes it new 

Going Somewhere Valentine

From the inside to the outside

Or from the outside to the inside 

What difference where you look 

Like those two parallel trains

You can't tell which is slowly

Moving ahead which being passed

The outside seems to hold

Itself together but struggling

To whisper its secrets to us

While the inside seems divided

For and against itself not quite

Ready to take up responsibility

For all these things it sees

While slowly the trains

Are leaving the station

Your spirit-face in the window

You lift your hand to wave 

Reservation for Three Valentine

At the breakfast table

My angel and my double

Pour me another coffee

Pass me a piece of toast

One wants to have music

While we eat in silence

The other wants to hear the news

That the earth is still here

Strange how Bach pairs up

With flood reports and fires

Teaching them how to sing

I've learned to block them both

One keeps saying let me finish

The other don't interrupt

I think I'll let them fight it out

Pass me another piece of toast 

Just A Question Valentine

Can you look inside the soul

Of another person

With your mind's eye

If they stand still

Or you get close enough to go

Past the lines in their face

To where they originate

What struggles they've endured

Can you identify a friend 

Or a foe a brother or a sister

After so many years of not

Really entering one another

Not really penetrating

What's going on inside 

Days Of '25 Valentine

Longueurs of the lantana

Livid with candle flames

If the temperature doesn't get them

Our over-watering will 

But the Vinca surprised us

Blooming against the heat

We could barely tolerate 

And on their own some kind

Of purple flower spread

Over the places we never got to

We were given a strip of land 

And told to make a garden not a grave

But summer blasted through our yard

And not a flower we could save 

Openings In Heaven Valentine

After he died and was thoroughly vetted 

He was promoted to an intern position

In the great hall of hereditary records 

A thriving beehive of a place 

Moving at the speed of light

For the first several months

He could only follow at a distance

The great physicians on their rounds

As they stitched new lineages

Of brains and hearts together

How they would pause sometimes

Like careful jewelers and go back

Inserting a diamond here and there

Often at the most unlikely places

But eventually he'd age out

And be given a quiet room

Where he could harvest

All he'd learned of joy and pain

And how a body might be born

And sign the scrip of his return 

Flying Elsie and Ginger Beauty Valentine

You were just learning

How to smile and wiggle

Our garden's newest rose

Still wet with heaven's dew

A ginger fresh from some

Celestial fire when up rose

(Years later they will tell you this)

As if to show you how

Your plucky great grandma

Who never learned to swim 

Gliding over the hungry waves

In one of those contraptions

They had back then

But you just rolled over in your cot 

As if it was nothing you couldn't top 

At Anchor Valentine

Gray isn't much of a color

Just a shadow or layering

Of washed-out white

Thinning everything today

Thick clouds and a wind

That dissipates the heat

So let's go for a drive

Along heaven's coast

And welcome the new-born waves

There are coves where light

Is just making a landing

Stars in the rolling sand

And far out in the gray

The ship of the sun is waiting 

Morning Prayer Valentine

Thank you Father

For another beautiful day

No one can take it from us

Help me to make of it

Something worthy of your love

In all I do and say

Help me wash my eternal dishes

And straighten my temporary bed

Even as your light like water

Circles over my head

Let it not overwhelm me

Let me swim out to that island

Where all your plans are made

And bring back something hopeful

For all my friends Amen 

Don't Be Afraid To Look Valentine

Who are we talking to

When we talk to ourselves

It's clear there's someone there

Listening to everything we say

Reflecting on our reflections

The way a mirror listens

Confirming and disputing

Our existence so it's hard

To know which advice to take

Or which admonition to obey

But don't be afraid to look

At who we've become so far

And suffer a little scolding

While we stand and pull

Ourselves together again 

One and One Make One Valentine

This world that hides

While it reveals

This other world

Can't make up its mind

Whether to be a material

Or a wholly spiritual thing

Or something in the middle

It hovers here in the wind

Appreciative of dreams

Descending from moon or sun 

Tearing it apart or slowly

Putting it back together

It's still so young

Taking its sweet time

So much against it

And yet it swims on 

One arm over the other 

On Our Way Valentine

Don't forget we are all engaged

In the cooperative creation 

Of a comprehensive imagination

Of ourselves and the world

That we work consciously and 

Unconsciously with beings of all kinds

Those we call the dead and the gods 

Though we cannot see or touch them

Yet we know are living here

And just now beginning to accept

That the brain was once a heart

And on its way to being one again

Warmer sturdier for love and all 

Just as we can imagine it

 

For Valentine

Not feeling you're being loved enough 

Yet always doubting the love you're given  

You start to wonder what love is for

And if you're lovable at all  

Is there a right to be loved 

And a right kind of love

To be loved with 

Where is its source 

In us or is it a gift 

You're born with

A flare you have for it

Or else you wrestle

A whole life to let

It in let it accomplish

All it strives for  

Still There Valentine

If I'm not going back to the Middle Ages

I'm going back to ancient Greece 

Secretly behind my outward life 

I keep seeing flashes of those times

I love the old geography and weather

Where so many lived now bare and quiet

No stone in its rightful place 

That doesn't nag at me to remember

What I keep coming back to breath 

The arguments in the clear air

The first green thoughts emerging again

Where they built temples to them

And called them gods and saints

To find a part of me still there 

One More Valentine

Music is the slyest art

Seeding all we see around us

The very air who breathes us

Full of voices and violins 

Waiting for us to learn the words

Of rejection and joy and sing along

But who can believe this music

Feeble words give rise to

From an orchestra of unending love

Only reaching us in an echo

What it does once inside the brain

Is some powerful magic

Working its way with us

Just one more dance 

For the Feast of All Daughters Valentine (for Dan)

I'll pour you a glass

If you cut me a slice

Of that fresh-baked bread

The wine keeps but the bread stales

If we aren't quick on our feet 

Us two old men blessed

With daughters who love

Their fathers aren't all

Children strangers at first

Adventuring great distances

Their time come round

For our paths to cross again

Weaving who we're becoming

So let's toast to the miracles

It's you and me they found