No Pressure Valentine

I trust in the eternal fragments

Falling into my head like snow

Words I say falling asleep

I trust the darkness 

Will wind up comprehending

The light that wakes me

I think even in heaven

We need sleep no other

Way to dream this up

I trust you hear me

And already know

What's for supper

And have everything in hand

So it's all up to us 

Shoreward Valentine (for Dan)

Who hasn't succumbed yet

To something beautiful in their life

I mean completely taken with them 

Falling apart in a good way

Someone to behold 

Discarding our bearings

Prepared to risk it all

Who told you love

Isn't comical and frightening

Comical because you're in it

And frightening because

You sense its immensity

Swallowed and then coughed up

Over and over

Until you reach the shore 

By The Time Valentine

First you smell the rose

You try to take it all in

But it refuses to be summed up

Preferring to be painted

Then you turn away

And think about 

How it deals with time

The immense pressure

It's under to speak

Some comfort to us

Proof of what we once were

And promise of what

We promised to become

By the time the world is done 

What Did You Pay For It Valentine

On Antiques Roadshow

We saw the best watch

We have ever seen 

When you peer down 

Into its intimate workings

You can almost see

The cosmos whirling

The effect of the rubies

On the twenty-caret gold 

There are only a few of them

Left in existence

If we were to take it apart

To find out how it works

We would only destroy it

No matter how much you paid 

Held Valentine

If love is the true oxygen

By which we live and breath

As all our teachers say

Seems the only way

This can all make sense

There must be another world  

A door behind the mind

That opens on an abyss

Where life has a second life

Bodiless and keen with light

Vain philosophers like me

Just want to get it all down

To a simple equation

We can hold in our heads 

Paradise Garden Valentine

Unlike an herbaceous garden

With its winding blinding paths

The colors carrying you

A paradise garden

Reflecting heaven 

Is made of pools

Of shimmering water 

And the shade of trees

All of one species

Fierce granite lions

Guard the entrance

But the gate swings open

If you can stare them down

They only want to know

You're ready to be found 

 

On Your Assumption Valentine

Three rainbows appeared

 One in the lake one above

The mountains forming an eye

And one unnoticed at first

Just visible above us all

Except there is no one there

Unless you count the photographer

And the faces on the stones

Yellow along the shore

Would it be a sacrilege

To plunge into that water

To bathe in its colors

To disturb this peace 

With shouts of joy 

We Are All Atheists Now Valentine

There is joy in Joyce

And the dickens in Dickens

But I dream of atheists

Coming across the Bible

Overcome by the truth

Of its stories and styles

Overwhelming if true

We are all atheists now

Fierce for the truth we feel 

Better going it alone

As if we didn't 

Really need some god

To suffer for us

Caught in our denial

We will do it on our own 

Cain will be welcomed home 

What Life Wants Valentine

I think life at first

Is an equestrian sport

You're given a horse

To love and tame

Ride where it takes you

Round and round the track

Life makes us feel rebellious

Refusing to be ridden

It wants to take us back

When we want it to go on

But luckily death intervenes

To save us at the last moment

For a few moments

In another world 

Catching our breathe 

The Word Valentine

They say St. Francis

Kept a second Lent

From the night of the falling stars

To the feast of St. Michael

Every year they meet like this

To gaze out over the future

Francis loves to walk

And Michael can hardly

Keep up not saying a thing

Until wouldn't you notice

Snow of years is falling

A star is waiting to be followed

The great Now has come

Just as they said the word 

New Valentine

All the clocks in eternity

Go off at once 

But still the universe sleeps on

Dreaming of peace

Or peacefully dreaming

At least it feels that way

When I peer out into space

Who is not humbled

When the moon lays over

The sun a door opening

Then closing a key

Turned in the lock

A new era is entering

The atmosphere of the earth

It will take years to settle 

Summer Valentine

Why not expand out

Into the universe

Your secret self

After all it's summer

And we are called to witness

Showers of stars and see

They are as real 

As beauty gets

Light that is a being

Diving into the darkness

But this is all a set-up

For fall when the self

Can finally be left behind

That season where everything

Not forgotten is forgiven

You can see it in what leaves 

Book's Valentine

After all it was a book

That brought us together

Both searching for someone

Who had actually read it

To talk to about it

To humbly ask 

Can you explain it to me

I think I grasp it

But it slips away

So lost in allegory

I lose the thread

But look here's someone

Who understands it all

Or at least can share

My ignorance and awe 

No Stone Valentine

I follow my nose

Around the house

Playing cat and mouse

With myself we know

How that turns out

I seize on a few ideas

I tie myself in knots 

Then take a nap

The freedom of being old 

You can let go of time

Take long mental walks

Back and forth from childhood

And leave no stone unturned 

No day unwelcomed 

Angel's Valentine

Angel of the puddle

Left by the fountain

I am watching you evaporate

A matter of minutes

In this thirsty heat

Shrinking to a number

Of shapes a horse a dove

Now flown when

I wasn't looking

But I saw how you took up

Your invisibility again 

Hiding it in leaves 

Aiming to be a cloud

Or a stern blue one day 

Monsoon Valentine

The dust of despair

Is in the desert air 

Don't let me catch it

Except for a few seconds

Just to reassure myself

It leads us nowhere 

Hope is hope because

It's the only way through

To the other world

Where the explanations live

With their accompanying footnotes

A text you can finally read

Blowing off the dust 

Clouds and clouds 

Prayerful Valentine

Lord let me help myself today

To some ice cream for breakfast

And a stroll around my estates

Lord you have preserved me

Like a pickle in a jar

In the back of the frig

You have wrinkled me 

With worry I'm never enough 

Which keeps me fastened

To my body don't let me

Squander these last days

On a shoe-string budget 

Lord let me spend it all 

Elegaic Valentine

More a Platonist

Than I would plan

Less an Aristotelian

When I just want to sit

And talk with you

About totalitarianism

And the freedom of all beings

But in personal terms

To calm us down 

Only what passes between us

Is the really living thing

The few words I can speak

In honor of your passing

In honor of your arrival 

Higher Mathematics Valentine

Get it through your head

Two plus two equals five

The extra point the interest

Taken in retrospect 

But looking forward

We can see the dead

Coming to rescue us

With their proof of life

Their higher mathematics 

Which will clarify

What we're doing here

Still counting on our fingers

While a whole new world 

Rushes in to solve us 

My Loves Valentine

The torn nets of my brain

I cast out on the stream

Fishing for my true feelings

Out there somewhere

Drawn up from the depths

The beautiful trout of love

The salmon heart of love

Even the humble sunfish of love

I would catch and eat

I even rejoice in my

Empty nets knowing

They all got away

They all will be back

One wintry day