Intended Valentine

The invention of the material world

Was always a delicate operation

The great had to want to become

Smaller and smaller

Light squeezed into bodies

From the outset a painful

And yet exuberant process

Of dissolving and giving birth 

And frequently they must 

Have to stand back in wonder 

At what they're painting

With their brilliant colors seeing

If they're still on the right track

To the masterpiece they intended 

Inevitable Valentine

If there is only one consciousness

What is this purple flower doing here

This flesh and bones

Don't we have to imagine 

The mind that made it

Dissatisfied with being just air

Deciding to draw real leaves

A material flower

A body to be loved

And cast aside

Time devouring time

Consciousness opening its mouth

So wide it encompasses

Us all in one gulp 

Once Loved Valentine

The thought of you dropped into my head

And immediately a mockingbird

Landed right in front of me

Glanced at me and hurried off

Scratching in the grass then gone

But not before I recognized 

You'd heard me and sent this bird 

To show me one of the things 

You've become living on the other side 

That you are never far away

Even when I forget to think

How once loved there remains

An abiding connection

An immediate reply

Out of a blue sky 

My Teacher's Valentine

Assembling my unruly thoughts

The practical comes first 

I try to focus on the rhythm

Of their confusion like a classroom

Of raucous kids before the teacher

Walks in and they all rush

To take their places

Three Greek words

Are written on the board

But no hands go up

To say what they mean

And the teacher wrapped

Up in some poem is staring

Out the window again