Snow Moon Eve Valentine

I feel how you can also feel

How strong fragility can be

Carrying the beautiful bowl

Of your life through

The crowded streets 

A grown child

How it all depends on

The most delicate operations 

Bodies flowing through bodies

With the dexterity of stars

Each I in its orbit

I know how you also know

The loneliness of our companionship

Calling out to one another

Planning where to meet sometime 

And have a glass of wine 

And gaze out on the ocean 

More Valentine

The more I sit here

It seems the less I know

Pictures come and go

But nothing sticks 

My brain is the banging door

Of an abandoned farmhouse

Somewhere in the hills

Of Uruk or Slovenia 

The more I sit here

It seems the more I get

Taken out of myself

Piece by piece slowly

So close I come to letting

The world completely replace me

And I can finally stand

And let the sun embrace me

As only the sun can 

This Day Valentine

Between two round clouds

A large X in the sky

As if it would delete the day

Draw a line right through it

Before it even gets started

But by noon the sun

Leaves not a doubt

In the blue flying by 

That this day has come

To be what a day can be

When it pulls itself together 

Sweeping through mountains

Death-defying deserts

Coming to rest in your hands 

For Your Birthday Valentine

Old age is given

To remember our sins

The done and not done

To go down to where

The mothers prepare

To gather us in 

But not yet not yet

Old age grows greedier

For life than it has ever been

Let me have 

I pray each night

Just one more morning

As a body on the earth

Holding your body near 

Invited Valentine

At the gate

Two guards wait

But you have brought

Your invitation

Which they inspect

And mutter over

You can hear the music

Coming from the mansion

Behind the hill 

While you wait

To be weighed 

And found wanting

Sent back to sleep

Under the stairs

Or else received

Swept into the grand hall

One among that silent crowd

Waiting to receive the Lord 

 

On His Feast Day Valentine

The secret of St. Paul

Who revealed the secret 

Along with his flair for words

And the music of his speech

Was his willingness to travel

To wander the sea without a home

Think of the kind of thinking

He could do hunched in the prow

Of some ship searching the horizon

In calm and in storms

Asleep or in conversation

With the Lord his companion 

What he would write

When he got there

If it would be understood

I wonder how many of his letters

Went astray like the ones

He wrote to us still 

Arriving still unread 

 

Goodbye At The Vet's Valentine

She was the cat

That came to dinner

And stayed for breakfast

For fourteen years

So we fed her though

She never let us touch

Her claws always at the ready

What could we do

We were her prisoners

When it got colder we

Converted an ice chest

Into a heated cabin for her

Lined with old pajamas

At some point she became

A professor of humility

At the local university

At least that was her story

She just wanted to be loved

And still be wild and free

So we loved her as if

We ever had a choice 

Enclosed Valentine

Noted this morning

Every few seconds

A drop of water falls

From the corner of 

The roof my heaven

Distilled from the cold

Night meeting the sun-

Warmed air I suppose

Since there's been no rain

A few clear drops falling

But not so fast I can't

Catch my own true likeness

There for a moment enclosed

Staring back at me

Holding the sun as it falls 

One Heart Valentine

It only takes one human heart

To account for the whole world

Everything necessary is there

To explain how it all

Got started in the foundries 

Of the gods how to wrap

A flame in streams of iron

Folding and folding it over

Pounding and pounding it

Plunging it into the water

Until it sings on its own 

As the earth feeds our hearts

So our hearts feed the earth

We re-gift what we receive

I trade my heart for yours

Who knew these dying leaves

Were plotting another flower 

I Almost Make it Valentine

A child singing in the refrigerator

The sound of me trying to breath 

I almost make to the last notes 

Before the coughing craters the song

It's as if my lungs are rejecting

Earthly air for some stronger stuff

So the more I breath it in

The more it chokes me out

By the end of the week

I'm completely wrung out

Waiting for the medicine to kick in

Laying here listening to the wind 

Who knew you could make it back

On the music of passing birds 

Epiphany Valentine

Mostly sick through the Holy Nights

Barely able to stay awake 

I was given a series of dreams 

Called 'The Science of Manipulation'

Anecdotes and instructions on how

Even intelligent people can be

Used and played to some end

In personal and professional situations

Painful to watch go on so long

And always come to such sorrow

In the very last classes

You were tested on the strength

Of the cleverness of your lies 

And failed if you believed a single one  

New Year's Eve Valentine

Clearly we must find

What has real significance

What to hold onto

Before the year runs out

Time is not arbitrary

Except the way we count it

Centuries taking their places

Half-read histories on the shelf

We must sift through so much

To get to the good parts

But there they are

In all their glory

All involving you 

Assuring us a future 

Thanks To Him Valentine

I feel Joseph

Wordless always

In the background

Like the Father

Of us all never

Gets the gratitude

He deserves

For making it all

Possible in a practical

Way feeding the animals

Lighting a fire

At Mary's feet

Holding the child

While she sleeps 

Orbiting Valentine

I will not to will

I think not to think

But I want to feel 

Deeper and deeper

What can't be willed

What can't be thought

That heart pulsing

At the center of your words

Is what interests me most

Its entanglements

And lovely contradictions

I feel certain if I dive

Deeply enough into it

I too will come alive 

 

Coming Home Valentine

Where was I

I was going somewhere

Sitting in the middle 

Of a plane a young boy

In the back talking on and on

At the top of his voice 

Everyone else trying

To sleep and in the front

Seats somewhere a toddler

Screaming on and on

It was a performance

Of considerable power

I tried to read your book

About the decisions

We must make soon

I had to rally all my will

And concentration 

To endure your story 

Of innocence and murder

Endless talk on one side

Endless wailing on the other 

 

Never Valentine

A gray day

The muse away

Smug as a bug

With nothing to say 

Except this mute

Announcement that

Whatever you're having

I'll have that too

It's been a long day

And it's just started

Nothing and everything to do

Quietly and stealthily 

Staying openhearted

Never parted 

Just So You Know Valentine

Two crows way up

Pursing a hawk

In dizzy circles

We watched until

They melted away

The sun swam in

Whale-like and back

Up into the clouds 

It is Christmas today

Whenever you read this

Just as I was trying

To reach you and we both

Hung up at the same time

Laughing and calling back

What was that 

Oh there you are 

And We Valentine

I wonder if we don't see

Very far into the future

Because what we do see

We don't like and turn back

To the uncertain present

But the present task is always

To prepare the future

Imagination is useless

If it only serves the past 

Whose future we turned out to be

How can we now working together

With thoughtful hearts

Despite the crows

Yet make a human being 

Way Back Valentine

Never more carefree

Than when you're lost 

And don't know it yet

That mountain that shouldn't

Be there wakes you up

From the music blasting

Singing at the top of your lungs

Three hours the wrong way

To turn or not turn back

Push on to another life

Existence is so temporary

And your favorite sickle moon

Is just rising over there

The bright rim of a cup

Lifting the darkness to your lips

Rolling all the windows down 

Scourged Valentine

We have a flicker

Living with us now

These sunny winter days

Who comes and goes

Reading the riot act to us

With piercing shrieks

Finding us all so frustrating

Recalcitrant and lame

How many times do I have to

Startle you all awake

And you hunching over there

Don't think I don't see you

For a shirker and simpleton

Trying to get away with it

By writing it all down