Joan's Gift Valentine

I was brought up laughing
And always felt seen
I ate kindness for breakfast
And was never corrected
But always shown what to do
How to fix it
If I wanted to
I wanted for nothing slowly
But to be good as you
Fearless as evil but true
To something greater than myself
To learn what you always knew
How to be my own parent
And keep my childhood new

Defensive Valentine

I protect my sins
From all the harm
That might improve them
I don't want the truth to win
At first I push against it
Or else I cave immediately
With a sense of relief
And quiet disbelief
Whatever I take the truth to be
Is for me to know and you
To discover I defend my sins
To the last dregs of forever
But you always knew me
So at least one of us is free

Alone Valentine

I do not love you world enough
I feel you deserve more from me
As a measure of myself
And I'm often short-sheeting
The cut of your jib for coasting off
On centuries of tangents
But we must have talked for hours
And now I really have to go
I can't bear another word
Think world what if we couldn't
Leave you alone for a few hours
But had to sit up all night
Listening to you laugh and weep
And never get to dream or sleep

Shown Valentine

Water to red wine to living blood
You changed it all and poured it out
And stooped and wrote
In the mud of our minds
Your inconceivable name
And then you were gone again
You didn't conquer fear at all
You left that to each of us
And hatred you left standing
In the crowded square shouting
Its religion of doubt
You hadn't come to do it for us
But to show us how it's done
We would have to figure out the rest

Wondered Valentine

If on the seventh day they rested 
Who comes to finish up their work
They could only get so far before
Their idea had to carry on without them
Only once the pillars were in place
And the great doors swung open
Could they relax their singing
Could they stand back and look
Soberly at all the risks they took
And realize what was missing
And long for a new Monday to come
To lift Friday on its shoulders
And wonder waiting to see
What would become of their sun

Taken Valentine

Space is so indefinite
Time is so subtle
It's no mistake
We're so in trouble
Take your body
For my example
Made of ash
A beautiful chaos
Dissolved on the tongue
From which a new
Beginning comes
The taste of love
So harsh so kind
Not even trouble minds
or space or time

Called Valentine

You call to say you're craving
To be touched but all we have
Are voices trembling in the ether
You're well you say and go
For walks you send me pictures of
Beauties you come across
Trees blooming I've never seen before
Whose names you do not know
What does it matter to have seen
Them glow and watched in wonder
Colors fit to burst the mind
To rescue it from sorrow
But send me more and more
You whose name I love and know

Queen of the Night Valentine

Stumbling in the darkness of our day
We come upon the lady of the stars
Asleep among her jewels
Her stillness makes us shiver
As you pull the cover back
To find her beauty naked
Her flesh a shock of light
And we just stand there caught
Feeling lost for a long while
I remembered how we cried
Making love for the first time
But brushed the memory back
Here was some other kind of love
And we could hear the dragon rustling
Underneath her bed and see the crown
She would stand and place upon her head

Borrowed Valentine

That up starts a flower
And down falls a seed
Revives an eternal need
Each petal celebrates
Some elemental struggle
Each root some creed
Fastened to the ground
By some angelic power
That only lives a day
And never makes a sound
O that I could borrow
That courageous will
For just a half an hour
Who would I be tomorrow

His Valentine

Hobbled by grace
In an anxious place
I limp along
He who keeps me
Wobbling lives there
In the darkness
Of the dawn
What good was all
My study but another
Kind of worry
And yet he takes me
To his breast and often
I feel his arms about me
Putting me to rest

Annuciation Valentine

To the bats are given the moths at night
To the butterflies the breath of sunlight
To the mockingbird is given the whole morning
And to the dove her afternoon moaning
Even to the puddle is given the blessing
Of three sparrows bathing at once
But to me is given you
The caught breath and the bounced heart
When we collided and were born
Into another life together
Even to fate is given a second
Forgiveness one in a million chance
And to the wind is given
At last a new heart

Dreamed Valentine

Wandering into the forest of the dead
In search of my mother and father
I came upon an ancient cottage
Where an old man still lived
Who pitied me and gave me supper
Let me sleep by his small fire
And in the morning sent me off
Follow that dove who follows the crow
Until you come to the abandoned castle
Of your soul you'll know it by the fog
No I pleaded let me stay with you
For another life-time or two live on
But he'd have none of it
And pushed me toward the dawn

Unregretted Valentine

I admit it was how much
He didn't know about himself yet
That his uncertainties outnumbered
What he was still working on
His early smile and nervous strength
I doubted he had just one angel
It must have taken a hierarchy
To corral his wandering soul
And tame it into this body
I admit it was his wounds
That caught me matching my own
And convinced me it is love
That's buried in bodily matter
The mystery hidden in plain sight

A Bird At Every Corner of Space Valentine

There are no mockingbirds among the stars
Or nightingales or sparrows
There is a crow and a dove though
An eagle and a swan who swim
Together in the same reflection
I know because I went
Into your room and stared
At the star-map dusty on the wall
There is a winged horse
But no unicorn anywhere yet
Don't all these animals above
Look down on our menagerie
Amazed and curious to find
Their mountains and lost seas

Busted Valentine

I have taken the pedestal down
Where sat the bust of Thought
Busted thought with his
Angelic daydreaming gaze
And winged head when I finally
Bought him for my sixtieth
He'd only one wing left
Turning into a sphinx
You can't pick him up
By the wings anymore
But lift him by the base
And place him on a table
There's still something Grecian
About him it's obvious
He was among the first

Lost Valentine

In order to explain me to you
I'd have to go back to yesterday
For which I wrote down the wrong
Date and had to scratch it out
I was reading about bats and butterflies
And lost track with where I was
So absorbed in their different
Modes of flight I imagined an earth
Surrounded by butterflies and an
Earth surrounded by bats
The one in the sun and the other
In twilight the one who carries
Everything upward and the one
Pinned and blind to the earth

Yard Bird Valentine

I go for a jog with the snails
Several about on this cloudy morning
Promenading the red bricks
They know how to pull their weight
After a rain and leave a wake
I envy their trusty horns
So different from my clumsy feet
It's all about sliding into third
Cruising home out of the park
Athletes of an invincible patience
While I shuffle back and forth
Sometimes having to dance a little
To avoid that crackling sound
Of the end of the world

Storied Valentine

Of course while the plague rages outside
The lovers rage in their bed
Forming new replacements for the dead
And the moon that desiccated flower
Flashes brighter every hour as it rises
Dissolving in the sun
A victim and a hero come
And gone the same as always
The fifth season of disease
Is a movable feast but it's not
As if we haven't practiced dying before
It's the stories of our childhood
That give us the strength to live on
So tell me another one

Counter Measures Valentine

As far down into fear I can go
With most of the world awake
All night and shivering
Just that far can I feel
The opposite is real
How far down into matter
Can we go before it swings
The other way love
Doesn't conquer anything
Or need to be conquered
In times of great fear
It takes on a luminous quality
That can spread like a pandemic
If we let it go that far

Whatever Valentine

Whatever happens great beauties
I know you will be there
I know the exit is just around
The corner but I'm not sure we're
On friendly enough terms yet
I'd rather outlive everyone
I love and know so they
Won't have to suffer my defeat
If things were easier
On the other side I'd be
The first to let you go
But life goes on there
Much like here I think
Our love is everywhere

Bench Valentine

There's a bench behind Chartres
Where I am still sitting years later
Actually I was sitting and rising
At the same time it was like
I'd found a hidden line of force
Running down into the ground
And reaching far out into space
I felt exalted and cast down
By all the people who had come this way
The beautiful thinkers and the
Pilgrims who have lost their faith
But the one thing that holds us all together
Was holding me on that bench

Parable of My Tree Valentine

Three birds came to my tree
I'm just telling you the truth
The first one was so small
I couldn't see him though
He sang a jubilant song
But was soon gone
The next chirped harshly
With a scolding tone
The third I'm still waiting for
I imagine a pelican or a stork
Or the red-tailed hawk
Might rest in my little tree
I love them all equally

Warned Valentine

Overnight our priorities shifted
We could all smell the dragon
Looming in the air though
No one could tell where he was
We were back in the woods
In a fairy-tale of disaster
Told over and over
And new every night
Forgetting how it ends
And then remembering again
I should have loved you more
I should have broken through
And warned you not to go

Another Sighting Valentine

The red-tailed hawk is back
I caught her flying west
And then she returned
Heading east as though
She'd just gone to fetch something
Was it my gaze her eyes
Were seeking making sure
I knew she was there
I like to think we have
That kind of contact
When intelligence isn't enough
And the heart must assert
The privilege of her presence

Sought Valentine

If water seeks to equalize the earth
And air seeks the brotherhood of breath
And fire seeks the freedom of all things
Then the earth must be the place
They're bound to happen
On a particular rainy day
When each drop is respected
For the world it is
And the air is sweetened
With green wines
What are you seeking
Fire in my heart
Blood in my veins

Earth's Valentine

Why make a physical body
And go to all that pain and trouble
Of planning and redacting
If not to get something done
Why use emotions and will
And a few simple ideas
To develop organs and blood
Out of the empty marrow of bones
If not to realize something
Not otherwise conceivable
That our bodies are not our own
That we merely have the loan
Of these fine arms and eager legs
And leave to the earth their forms

Confident Valentine

Three contrail crosses in the sky
Are nature imitating culture
These red hibiscus flowers
Always remind me of cardinals at the farm
On the snowy branch of the future
Which always breaks out into three twigs
There's the long future of the past
The brief future of the present
And the endless future of the future
Rock scissors paper
The laughter of I'll see you later
But sooner or later never comes
Spring comes in its place
Still confident in life

Nirvana Valentine

She's learned to live peacefully
With the birds in the tree above her
She humbly chews the grass
Selecting carefully each stem
She knows it's a waste of time
Though she could leap into that tree
With a single amazing bound
But they would all have flown
As when they try to drive her off
She merely sleeps on curled
Fetally at the foot of the tree
As if she had conquered the world
With her slim victory of bliss
And would not be returning

Setting Out Valentine

On one of those bright spring days
When the sun and the breeze
Are at their best allegorical green
Envious to be everything
And four paths open to you
In the woods behind your house
One to a hole in a rock
One to an empty well
One to the thorny blackberry patch
But I've forgotten what
The fourth one takes me to
The one I keep taking
Back to you

Future Valentine

If I write my initials on the air
It's like a magic seal or sign
That flows out into the atmosphere
Attesting I was here once
And wanted to bless the earth
Though I'm no priest or angel
But so when I return
After that long passage
Through the stars I'll find
What I have left behind
Here in this place and time
A stirring of air and light
A garden where I sat
Waiting for you to come home

Earth's Valentine

Here on earth where we
Can do anything we want
Where birdsong and darkness can combine
To give us another day and night
Where we tend our flocks of trouble
In our little worlds and loves
Here on the only earth where we
Can become a human being
You'd think we could be happy
If not content or satisfied
To live and let live
To see out of all the possibilities
For life there is only this one
Earth to get it done

Niether Living Nor Dead Valentine

The souls in the other world
Which faces us askance
Do they look back at us
Feeling abandoned and forlorn
Compelled to remember everything
Without being able to change
Even a comma or penny spent
Dazed in a coma of regret
In a land without night or day
So patient with our neglect
Who were these actual people
Who carried us into this world
How can we know what we are
If we don't include us all

Lingering Valentine

Once a month you come closer to us
On the birthday of your death
Though you're always keeping
An eye out and listening
Never now not there
It's like peering down
Into the depths of the ocean
Or staring up at the stars
On a hill far from cities
Only in dream and memories
Or sudden appearances in the mind
Can we meet now always
While I linger in the flesh
With so much to be loved

Lord's Valentine

The body is long
But the soul is brief
The body and the soul
Are curious about everything
But the I is interested
In one thing only
'What does it mean'
It's curious the Lord says
Bring two or three with you
If you come alone
I may not show up
Just kidding he says
The Lord is such a kidder

Classic Valentine

I put on my repertoire of silence
And sit and stare at the world
Or get up and dance and sing
Just to know it's there
I have a few classic silences
I could drag out for you
But I've worn the records bare
Over a few quick years
You've probably heard them before
And our bodies are so fragile
They could easily switch places
Sometime during the dance
It would be all we could bear
If we could get to peace

Medicinal Valentine

Nothing will do
But we must go to the opera
It doesn't really matter
Which one the music
Will plummet into us
And if we're lucky contrive
Real tears and laughter
From the hardening corpses
We're becoming lately
The old wind will get dressed up
In the horns of love duets
And the sun will sweep across
The faces of instruments and singers
And we will finally
Get to our feet in praise

Whispered Valentine

The visible portion of reality
Where we mostly live and die
Turns out to be so small
Compared to what we do not see
The mirage of the sun in the sky
The empty desert of stars
All arranged so movingly
The passing and the permanent
Moments thrown together
So it's hard to know what's meant
But we have a little chance at freedom
Every third night I've noticed
The guards aren't watching
And soon we will escape

Poor Earth Valentine

Even the most materialist of Martians
And the loftiest of Venusians
Wants to return to the poor earth
To rescue it from itself
The council of the Cherubim
Are distressed to weeping
He who must be obeyed
Rustles his Exusiai
That Jupiter send out his thoughts
Through the galaxies and streets
Even our angels tremble
Struggling to comfort us
But the Lord just stands there
Ready to receive us
Whenever we're ready

Everyday Valentine

Now my time's my own
I tend to want to structure it
With centuries of silence
Between chores and news
I tell the stray cat to stay
And eat the food I leave
But even he doesn't believe me
And even the silence is too platonic
After a while so I wander outside
And try to create a small free space
In my thoughts where you
Finally appear and of course
I'm dazzled and write down
Everything you say O you

Forgone Valentine

I believe it's love
We're most afraid of
Which is the strangest thing
Of all the strange things in the world
That we could love one another
But chose not to for long
Stretches of time we live apart
The future is a suture healing
Over time the scar of love
But what will it take
To overcome our fear is love's
First proof of its existence
As if the end wasn't already
A foregone conclusion

Interdependent Valentine

Having broken all ten
Of the commandments
Except the sixth
And all seven of the rules
Of the road and even if
I can be an arrogant prick
Always taking the devil's side
Some angel's always floating
Witnessing the scene
Either the words command me
Or I command the words
Or something in between
Sooner or later I'll come
To what they mean

Healing Medicine Valentine

There must have been something
That has always existed
It's only reasonable to assume
Avicenna said Abu Sina back then
I love his idea of 'The Floating Man'
If we take away all sensation
Still something remains
A soul perceiving itself
It's only logical to presume
His book of medicine persisted
All the way up to the time
Paracelsus healed by magic means
About which he dictated many wise books
Tramping thanklessly through Europe
Which no one reads today

Gutteral Valentine

Now it's all in the gutters
That last big bout of rain
Like a renewed resignation
That still maintains
Its crystalline repetitions
Among the leaves and hills
That kind of cognitive rain
Working desperately into everything
Until the bricks turn green
And your skin grows mossy
And your hair falls white and thin
And you're old again with new life
Cantankerous and bossy

Far Valentine

You can tell it's getting colder
When the heater rumbles on
Or if it's getting darker
When the lights creep in
Having just imagined one morning
You're loath to give up all the rest
Though somehow you manage to
You can tell you're remembering it
When it seems completely real
You can see it's not the end
Of the world you can feel
You're just another soul
Who has gone too far
And further left to go

Murdered Valentine

No one wants a yellowed future
But it's the way the day is threaded
On the hook like a suture
Of light over a dark wound
'Of course he must be murdered'
The mystery resolves
But who murders who
It turns out is not perhaps
The determinative thing
Every day devises another clue
Which every night dissolves
What must have been the sequence
Of the motives of events
The sun was shining on the blood
And the sad earth was eating it

Yesterday's Valentine

On my knees I pray
For the weeds as I pull
Them away from around
My young lantana
For love of its already
Opening umbels of yellow
And red which remind me
Of raspberries we grew
And from around the blooming shrub
Whose name I've forgotten
Grayish leaves and flowers a blue
I've never seen before
A shade I can't decide if it borrows
From evening or morning more

Meditative Valentine

What is the point of meditation
If you don't believe in a spiritual world
At death or in bliss
Where did the Buddha go
He was not Krishna or Kali
He was just a man who slowly
Thought his way to the things
Behind things a philosopher
Of desire and Plato's
Other half whose hearts
Were open to instruction
Who learned at every moment
They were just recreating themselves
Out of an ever greater creation

Traveling Valentine

One day while traveling you recalled
With three angels in your car
One said let's tell our favorite jokes
How many angels she asked
Can fit inside a Toyota Camry
A pause of silence thinking
An infinity! she finally blurted out
And we all burst out laughing
They thought that was so funny
We laughed for miles and miles
Do we have a different angel
For each stage of our lives
Now older you said you were
On your third but wished
The second had stayed
She was a real wit and always
Made you laugh somehow

St. Valentine's Valentine

Carnations for reincarnation
And roses for rescue from the mundane
It's like a second Christmas
When the sign of love is trotted out
Santa now St. Valentine
But who would mock the heart
In whatever form it takes
It's like a mating call
Whether the friend is gone
Or just arriving
A silly gesture
To get the ball rolling
The bells tolling

Penny Valentine

One doesn't become one
Until there are two and then
There's always a third between them
Death must come first
If life will follow
Then thinking can begin
To subtract the cost
When everything is doubled
And the heart is hollowed
Not a penny to its name
One is always less than one
The way two is always
More than two
If love would follow

How Old Is Spring Valentine

The so-called weeds come first
The buttery dandelion
Melting on the tongue
The scotch thistle
Don't touch me there
The shy hepatica
Like a girl undone
It all just keeps getting drawn up
So gently so strongly
You hardly notice
You've been beguiled
Things have begun to flower
Though the hour is old
Come sit with me a while

Young Man's Valentine

So crumpled the pillow
It looks like it's still asleep
But the cover is thrown off
As if the sleeper fled
Naked into the night
Betrayer of his dream
Like that unknown young man
Who tried to intervene
Did he see what was to come
The murder of the sun
What could he do but run
And creep back to the scene of the crime
And let the mystery begin
Which no one would believe

Muscular Valentine

We pile the pressure on
To build up our strength
To see how much knowledge it takes
If we put another weight on the bar
If we go further into the ground
To pull up the last dregs of it
And further up into airlessness
Until we feel the stars
And the body becomes
As weightless as the soul
And it takes nothing to lift
Another thought from the ground
Against the safety of our limits
If we would get beyond

Tangerine Valentine

While I was falling asleep
I dreamt of the color orange
Can you see yourself surrounded
By an aura of orange
Which everyone feels
But no one sees
It's not a color you would wear
Like those tangerines you love
Like that 10 min. at the end of the day
When the whole atmosphere is veiled
In an ochre light
And whatever is frightened
Is calmed and deepened
As the fire goes out

Will You Valentine

If you think of history at all
As a personal responsibility
Its panorama miniaturized
Corporealized in each of us
If you take an intimate interest
In its moods and rhythms
Its geographies of light
And darkness warmth and cold
Will you come to the place
Where the sun entered the earth
And the fulcrum wobbled
And slowly very slowly
Everything started back
The other way

Always Valentine

If plants are the dreams of the soil
And animals the dreams of the plants
We must be the nightmares of the animals
Or at least what they often see of us
Before there were eyes searching
They were leaves stirring
What the light has made of us
And goes on making
Which means eventually
We must become the light
Invisible and yet it falls on things
So we know it's there
Always touching and moulding us
Out of thin air

Clear Valentine

Something slides in between
Me and the mirror
My body that eclipses
The real picture I am
A sense of myself
Which is more than I see
The three of us just happening
To look up leaving the room
At the full-length mirror
Adjusting our clothes a bit
After so many years together
Having gotten beyond love and hate
To a clearing in seeing

Finer Valentine

It takes a muddled man
To know he's muddled
'criminally' as Margaret said
The beauty of the natural world
The infant innocence it preserves
From the time before desire
The vulnerability we admire
And exploit for ourselves
Maybe the original couple
Weren't so much thrown out
As walked away from that garden
All that easy finished world
In search of something finer

Lunch Valentine

Over a bowl of Udon noodles
We caught up with time
And after all the words were said
And most of them laughed over
We walked to the park and sat
On a bench in silence
Watching the current of the river
Swifter than we remembered it
So this is the earth you finally said
This torn-up mess another body
Floating by I couldn't tell
If man or child and how
Despite it all you still
Loved me and the world

Lost Valentine

A man with ice in his veins they said
But it seems his conscience
Has burned him up a bit
To say he's had enough
Found the place where he's stuck
And can't abide this tyranny
Do we listen to our conscience
Too selectively too personally
If we have one and we do
I mean if true freedom
Can only follow the truth
And we say that's what we want
Why do we keep recreating
The same old story of its loss

This Body's Valentine

I'll be back in a flash
Don't go anywhere without me
A hundred years
Happens in a minute
And this happens every minute
I'm without you
Meanwhile I'm fine
And whatever I'm doing
It's all just filling time
Trying to be useful
In honor of you out there
This body you made up
Out of your dark stories
That can't go on without you

Promise Valentine

I said every day
I would say a prayer
For you I would close my eyes
As if I was sleeping for a moment
And I would remember you
Wherever I was or you were
Where are you now I would
Remember for a minute
I promised every day
I would write something down
I just recalled about you
Every day I would try to reach you
And every day you would be there
As if I was dreaming

Observation Valentine

When we get to the point
Where we can see
The other side of the mountain
Up this path I know
Which is a struggle I admit
So much beautiful around us
But if we keep following
The creek you'd say up
Here without a paddle
Avoiding the suicidal cliffs
And the increasing cold around us
And crouched by camp fires
Observe the eternal flame
I know we'll make it

Surviving Valentine

One looks like a dolphin cresting
One looks like a rabbit resting
One looks like a ring-necked quail
Running across dear life some trail
Now they're whispering together
Their secrets for survival
And think I cannot hear them
The dolphin listening while
The other two compare
The differences of earth and air
No idea they're just stones
I've carefully placed on my table
It was their tenderness when I held them
That made me take them home

Ultimate Valentine (for James)

A window into the world
That each one of us is
We would like to have
Ultimately an intimate knowledge
Of one another freely
Within the limitations
Of having to make a choice
And live with it for a while
In a mood of agitated gratitude
Ambitious for one another
Not to have to worry about a thing
To stretch out in your bed
As if on that first day
Open to everything

Painted Valentine

If I stand and look at my garden
As we all must full of stubble
Or hopefully you planted a tree
Just so against a sickle moon
A boat pushing from shore
These blue blobs are the waves
You must cross said a small boy
To me it just looks like my life
And there on the opposite shore
This is the castle a brown smudge
His stained finger pointed to
And looked up at me to see
If I was grasping his intent
And if I was ready to go

Rant in Heaven Valentine

When I get back to heaven
I'll only have one question
OK and your point was
What could you have possibly thought
Would have to happen
If you started thinking again
What was the exact moment
You drove us out into the cold
Abandoned us to our feeble brains
And then called it self-destruction
I suppose for you it was still a question
That lingered in your might
To step back and see I mean
What could possibly go right

Last Night's Valentine

In my dream you were a baby again
Our fat-cheeked Boobalina
When we lived in that little cottage
Pressed against the woods
Torn from some book of fables
To be a part of the creation
Of another distinct person
And watch the mystery unfold
The privilege of the power
To show you the beauty of the world
How could I do that if someone
Else hadn't shown me how
To give you all she gave me
Even the things my father forgot

Starry Valentine

With minimal effort
But to maximum effect
Or with maximum effort
To minimal effect
Until the effect recaptures
The effortlessness of the dance
Moving like visible air it's
The effect on the audience
Exhausted by their efforts
To make sense of their lives
Who come here to be healed
And put into a trance
By the pure movement of bodies
And the music of spheres

Apologetic Valentine

An apology is always reparative
Even if it's not accepted
Which is the greater sin
The refusal to be reconciled
When the chance is there
Bungled to see someone
Further and deeper
Who reaches out to you
Momentarily naked
You know you saw it
Before you denied it
And you know an apology
Is always in order
If there is any love at all

Fortunate Valentine

Someone who won a fortune
Had so much fun and satisfaction
Sharing it with others
He had nothing left for himself
Some thought this wise
Some thought it foolish
For him he felt it was just
The right thing to do
He said he had enough
For himself and hated to see
Anyone less fortunate
If he could do something about it
Anyway he planned to share the next one
As soon as it came his way

Each One Valentine

As long as those who had gotten ahead
Took care of those who had fallen behind
So no one was left entirely on his own
In that time of the shared importance
Of all things when we were
Just learning to stand and speak
When after the shattering
Little by little the soul
Sank down into the body
Like a feather or a stone
When the spirt of all
Lived in each one
For that short time
Do you still remember it

Personal Valentine

If you cognize we all
Must be born again
In different minds and bodies
If you go far enough out
On that inevitable limb
And wonder why it should be
This way why mother why
You must have an archangel's eyes
To take a drone's wide view
Of things and yet it changes everything
Whole histories fall into place
Chance and destiny make sense
The world impersonates us
As we impersonate the world

Entrance Valentine

The qualification for entrance today
Into a deeper awareness
Involves remembrance and remorse
There's always a cross somewhere
Whatever the prognosis
The qualification is loss
In the quest for a conscience
I mean if they take away your keys
And put you out on the street
All you can do is love
What you do and take
Some concern for the others
And cram for the final exam

The Sun My Muse Valentine

Is it anthropomorphic
Or ancestral that the gods
Look like us an immediate
Family resemblance
And then there's the child
Who doesn't echo either parent
An animal and an angel joined
Which is how we write the stars
With our hereditary numbers
Or the outlines of a person
Still being sketched in
By twelve immigrant artists
Staring at the sun

Mountain Valentine

Why would you roll a boulder
Up a mountain in the first place
When Moses went up to the mountain
He brought back two new boulders
It was the metaphorical thing to do
You can have a boulder
Resting on your heart and I
Have seen some perched
Above my head but they
Did not fall as it happens
Look I am still carting around
This boulder body
All I gained by falling

The Way Back Valentine

Maybe drugs are really a form
Of spiritual meditation
A true desire to leave the brain
And cross over into some bliss
The question if the thinking
Gets clearer and knows
Or loses itself on the way back
But isn't it our feeling for things
And whether we will learn to
That's constantly being fought over
It all comes down to a battle of wills
One ends on one's knees
To pray or to weep

But What Love Valentine

Some angels are windows  
Who live in the eyes
Of creatures and people
Some angels are doors
You'd rather not open
But sooner or later you must
Some angels abandon
The houses they're sent to
And sit outside in the tree
Some angels would rather not carry
Such bad news all the time
To neighbors and friends
But what love says they must

Kept Valentine

O my unhappy pomegranate tree
Whose fruits grow rotten
Before they ripen
But in May you glow like a bride
So I keep you around
For those few weeks
You can surround me
With your fragrant body
In bloom and fertile
And just standing there
Like innocence itself
Struck by your first desire
And shedding all your petals

What Do You Want Valentine

A rather large mourning dove
Or is it an eagle sitting there
At the very top of the tall palm tree
Or just the gray of a dead branch
Palms die from the top
I don't have my glasses on to see
But this one's just turned
And lifted a white wing
Not a leaf but a bird
It looks a little absurd
Too large for its perch
And it keeps turning and turning
Uncomfortable with its victory
Its restive incongruity

Of Course Valentine

Climbing the ladder of being
Is it better if you don't look down
Of course he had to look back
For love of her but to the gods
It felt like treachery a lack
Of trust in their strict commands
There was a certain way to do things
Without any certainty
Or investment in the outcome
They insisted on
Some rungs of the ladder
Are broken off or breaking
They said but go ahead
Let go I've got you

Invitation to a Fireplace Valentine

Come join me and I'm already there
It's just my body that's missing
But somehow our eyes are joined
When we stare at the same fire
Me at the picture you sent
You at the actual blaze
And yet it warms us both
My flames are bright and still
While yours burn on
Sizzling and dancing in our eyes
Until we become the flames we see
When you look across at me
The future is just a memory

Alchemical Valentine

Haven't you noticed not every recipe is equal
Some must be followed to the letter
While others require the addition
Of an experienced imagination
An invention from what's at hand
For which we're starving
A feast of only the necessary
Ingredients to keep life going
But what if you have no stove
Or spoon or bowl to plate
Your steaming masterpiece upon
While your glutton guests look on
The invisible dish of love
You rush to serve them

Valentine to Love

Don't worry
I'm not going anywhere
At least not quickly
Even at three a.m.
I'll be here
Listening to you breath
Watching your face
Decipher some dream
You might be having of us
Or having nothing to do with us
Even when you turn away from me
Into a deeper dreamless sleep
Where everything's forgotten
And we are gone

United Valentine

The united states of Europe
The united states of China
The united states of the Middle East
The united states of the Russias
The united states of the Americas
The united states of Antarctica
The united states of polar bears
The united states of egrets
Who lead solitary lives 
The united states of music
The united states of conscience
The united states of civil wars
Despite what Hammurabi wrote
Some of the best literature
The united states of bliss

Wind's Valentine

Way up the wind has carved
The delicate skeleton of a fish
The gods have eaten and thrown down
Earlier I watched an emerald cloud
Through which a sun was drifting
Only visible when I closed my eyes
A whole city of perceptions
Gathered in the naked tree
Of course I was only seeing things
The gods fishing for a compliment
The clouds baked like loaves
The mountain becoming transparent
And all of us just resting here
Waiting to be fed

Winged Valentine

The impression left by death
On the so-called living
Is the unanswered question
Of our age you can watch it
In the movies and the libraries
Piling up with possible solutions
Where death keeps interjecting itself
One's own just out of range
To miss temporary things
Like being touched
By another body
Pressing itself against you
Like wings touching down

Guilty Valentine

Working my way back to the earth
Through a long dream of being lost
And thwarted at every turn
By my own failure to follow directions
To trust the signs and symbols
Of a language I couldn't speak
Hurrying through the dark streets
Either empty or crowded
Some faces dead some living
Until you finally appeared
And gave me back my body
And said yes I could awake
Take up my bed and walk
And sin no more

Mineral Valentine (for D)

Now the three stones I stole
From a hidden beach I found
Must find their own connection
To one another where they
Stand in the photograph
Of a family just arrived
They could be three generations
Reunited after centuries
One is fat but graceful
The other all hard angles
Their daughter veiled in white
They could be the father the son
And the holy ghost

Another Valentine

It's this holy matter we produce
That gives rise to time and space
As if the earth were the first drop
Of paint to be placed
On a newly-stretched canvas
Of a woman holding a child
The drop that might become the eye
Of an angel crouching in the corner
Or part of her blue mantle
Always falling short of what
The artist had in mind
For his dark surface
Another masterpiece

New World Valentine

Secretly we long for the time
When the soul will be evident
In every face when a glance
will reveal its true intent
When there are no more secrets
What will we make of it
When the appearances are disclosed
To be better or worse than thought
When it will be impossible to lie
When what one sends out into the world
Will be immediately obvious
And to be faced inside
Where there is no where left to hide

Love Affair Valentine (for D.)

If a man sneezes seven times
In the middle of the night
In his own backyard
Does it make a sound
Even if no one hears it
It's become a kind of ritual
With him to go out and stare
At the stars his first response
Looking up is to sneeze
And wipe his eyes
He feels he owes the cosmos
At least ten minutes of his time
To call out you bitch
And turn and go back to bed

Body's Valentine

What are we doing to the body
This idea of the body carried around
Sketched out over time
All about prettiness and valor
Or is it just the holy grail
Childhood returns to recover
A vessel that could hold the world
In the right goldsmith's hands
Every body that has ever been
Piling up becoming the earth
Becoming everything around us
The body itself a resurrection underway
The tomb of a body
Toward which a woman is running

Whispered Valentine

When I see bright contrails
Heading north and south
I like to think of the young pilot
Staring at his radar screen
Or talking to the lives he carries
When he may be thinking
Of his breakfast this morning
The most important meal of the day
Which he missed because
Of too much love-making
Or kissing his children goodbye
For a few minutes he cannot
Remember where he's flying
Until I whisper it to him

Epiphany Valentine #3

I'm so vain and humble
I think I'm listening to myself 
When all along it was you
Speaking through me
It wasn't like I wasn't there
When all of this was going on
I was trying to speak and listen
Chew my words and not mumble
When I still thought I could be humble
But without my vanity
Where would I be
If you're not proud enough
To speak to me

Epiphany Valentine #2

It's all been cooked
And the soul has eaten
Just the dishes to put away
And bathe in the aftermath
Of glory living in the earth
How many Christmases
Growing dimmer and dimmer
And still the Messiah
Hasn't come or is he
Already here among us
And the seasons just the four
Stages of his memory after he's
Moved on from grief

Epiphany Valentine #1

What good can it do
To see you in heaven
If on earth I pass you by
What did it feel like
To abandon all the comforts
Of your home leave your father
To come to live alone
With your speechless mother
Such an impulsive thing
Don't you sometimes regret
The long work of your love
Breathing the final loneliness
Of the world under that dove

Still Valentine

The light is still carving our eyes
So we can begin to see its suffering
And its morning glory
Are interweaving themes
Spread across a wide panorama
So the eye can see the I
As if mirrored in each one
So diligent a sculptor light
So small a cup to hold it
The original idea of a nest
Or the hand of a leaf
Clinging to stones there
Where the sun sleeps

Dreamed Valentine

Death proves the body exists
As an assemblage of the soul
And though ephemeral
They must meet again
Somehow to resurrect it all
The passion and the pain
And be a solid object in the world
Three stones I took home
From the shore and glazed
Them with my tears amazed
The body is so delicate a thing
To hold so tightly to
That even after dying
It can sway and sing

New Year Valentine

All the ways death finds to deceive us
The sun penetrates and unravels
Every year there's a little more
Light in space though at times
We can hardly perceive it
A new kind of light that
Can't by nature be stopped
It is starting to come into our bodies
When we cross over into
Earth's night where
Physical things seem so real
So when we leave there's
Inevitably more a tiny
Illumination that is added