Valentine's for Lovers and for Friends

***

You Are My Heart, My Hope, My Help

You are my heart, my hope, my help,
The passion that is me,
The whole of which I am a part,
My peace, my ecstasy.

You are my future, present, past,
My ship, my sail, my ocean,
The wind that brings me home again,
The home for every motion.

You live within me, yet I am
Without you all alone.
With you I am full of light;
Without you I am stone.

Is this foolish? Yes, perhaps,
But also it is true.
I think of life as something I
Can spend with only you.

Ah, my love! Love longs for such
Sweet celebrants as this!
Love is a burden and a joy,
Slavery and bliss.

This day of love come love with me,
Come sing with me my song.
Come be my Valentine, and I
Will love you my life long, my love,
Will love you my life long.

***

Valentine Wishes!

If all the happiness I have ever known,
would be all that I would ever own~
It would be all right, it would be okay,
because happiness has been mine since you came my way...
For there is love and then there is love,
and the love you gave me came straight from heaven above,
Kisses like yours are the sweetest kind,
when I think of them, an angel comes to mind!

If suddenly my life came to an end,
and of good things there would be no more,
it would not matter, because of the best,
I have tasted and that's for sure~
Kisses sweet as the finest wine
were the kind that made my life so divine...
For in your warm arms, I found complete bliss,
you always saw that I had much happiness,
I could not look back and feel so bad,
you can't do that when you've got the best that can be had!

And with these wonderful thoughts in mind,
I just had to send you this romantic valentine~
To tell you that I loved you yesterday,
and today I do, and I will tomorrow too...
This card is not empty, it contains my heart full of love,
to let you know it's you I am thinking of,
And it is my fondest wish today,
to wish you a very wonderful and happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day To The One I Love!

***

Valentines Are People Who

Valentines are people who
Are willing to be flowers,
Letting us enjoy their beauty
Even if for hours.
No Valentine hides from the sun,
Though sometimes lost in light.
If you love them, they just open,
Not unhappy to be woken
Even in the night.

***

Valentine's a Day to Say, "I Love You"

Valentine's a day to say, "I love you,"
A ritual that stages something real,
Letting out the truth of what I feel
Even as I think it often of you.
Nor could I with such grace without this day
Tell you that I'm grateful that I have you,
Impress upon you just how much I need you,
Needing such a frame for what I say
Even as I would my heart reveal.

***

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day
Is a wonderful way
To make "I love you"
Easy to say.

***

Valentine's for Lovers and for Friends

Valentine's for lovers and for friends.
All my love goes out to you this day!
Love is something different from desire:
Even, silent, peaceful as the sky.
Nor is love interested in means or ends.
There are no selfish needs that it must weigh.
Instead, love's plenitude itself inspires,
Needing neither cause nor reason why.
Each day my thoughts enchanted with you lie.

***

Valentine's for Mothers, Too

Valentine's for mothers, too-
A time to celebrate
Love in all its symphony,
Each gift of fertile fate.
No pasture is more rich in grass;
The sea is not so full;
In heaven all the stars are not
Near so plentiful,
Each mother's heart to fill.

***

Value Me for What I Give You

Value me for what I give you;
All the rest hold in your heart.
Life does not fulfill our wishes;
Even lifelong lovers part.
Now let yourself be lulled by kisses,
Take from the moment all that's due;
Inter within what your heart misses,
Nor let what's false destroy what's true.
Enjoying love requires art.

Copyright: Nicholas Gordon

***

Very Little Love Is Lost in Living

Very little love is lost in living.
A star can fill a universe with light,
Lasting not one second less for giving
Each of us the gift of its delight.
Nor do we love ourselves the less for loving,
Taking others' pleasures for our own.
In love there is an ecstasy unmoving,
Neither more engaged nor less alone,
Eternal in its house of flesh and bone.

***

Will You Be My Valentine

Will you be my Valentine?
I know that I am yours.
You are like a tossing sea
And I am like your shores.

You are like an endless wave
And I your waiting sand.
And I will wait forever as
You come and smooth my hand.

I will wait forever, yet
You are a part of me.
I hold you in my arms, while you
Come to me endlessly.

Will you be my Valentine?
I know that I am yours.
I love you with a love that yearns
To be your golden shores.

***

Words Can Tell What Hearts Divine

Words can tell what hearts divine
This most romantic time of year:
So will you be my Valentine?

I'll be yours if you'll be mine
Till golden moon meets midnight drear.
For words can tell what hearts divine

When air's perfume and water's wine,
And cupids hover at one's ear:
So will you be my Valentine?

And do we feelings dare define
In phrases adamant and clear?
For words can tell what hearts divine,

And souls can step across a line
On days when angels wait to cheer:
So will you be my Valentine?

Ah, love! Let love this one day shine
On fancies lush and passions sheer!
For words can tell what hearts divine:
So will you be my Valentine?

***
The Passionate Shepherd To His Love

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold:

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

Christopher Marlowe

***

There's Richness in a Love for Life

There's richness in a love for life
Here among the valentines,
A king and queen as man and wife:
Not leaning towards what lust inclines;
Knowing well the needs of state
Yon regal grace alone attends,
On which the peace, both small and great,
Undone by doubt, alone depends.

***

This Day of Love I Take a Vow

This day of love I take a vow
To love you well through all the days
Of long and labyrinthine ways:
But I would love you anyhow.

These words bespeak my unbent will
To love despite the passing pain,
Anger, lust, fear, silence, shame:
But without words I'd love you still.

A vow of love's the final seal
Upon an edict fully writ,
Not altering the sense of it,
Nor adding to the love we feel;

Or like an oarsman worth his weight
Upon a current swift and strong
That bears the fragile boat along
To where it meets its cherished fate.

So why a vow on Valentine?
Like any vow, to bind me to
Whatever I am bound to do:
Words that ride the wordless wind.

***

This Valentine's I Wish that You Were with Me

This Valentine's I wish that you were with me.
It's lonelier than most days I'm alone,
Even though we'll manage on the phone
To touch with words the face we cannot see.
You away are far more dear to me
Than anyone who might remain at home.
My love is in the places that you roam,
Being with you where I cannot be.
We do not choose the objects of our passion,
But passively await the holy fire
That immolates our past and lights our fate,
Twisting through the alleys of desire.
So I am yours, and will contented wait,
Allowing love my life and will to fashion.

***

To Ask You to Be My Valentine

To ask you to be my Valentine
I'd have to talk to you,
Something that in all this time
I've managed not to do.

I'd have to get past "Hi!" somehow
To show you that I care,
But the right time is never now,
Especially when you're there.

It's as if a wall of fear,
Transparent yet profound,
Came hurtling up as you come near,
Cutting off all sound.

I fear I won't know what to say
And strike you as a fool,
Or you'll be glad to get away,
Polite not to be cruel.

Easier to dream than act,
To hope than to find out,
So fearful of the force of fact
I wait in fear-filled doubt.

But now the day of love has come,
And I must cross its line,
And so I ask you through this poem
To be my Valentine.

***

To My Valentine

If apples were pears,
And peaches were plums,
And if the rose had a different name -
If tigers were bears,
And fingers were thumbs
I'd love you just the same!

Happiness Is Not a Tended Rose

Happiness is not a tended rose
Amid the prescient beauty of a garden:
Perhaps one senses soon some gate may close;
Perhaps one senses soon the earth will harden.
Years come and go like waves upon a shore,
Violent or peaceful with the wind.
After one has given up on more,
Love waits within the heart, its passion thinned.
Even in a passage void of light,
Nether windings black with rage and grief,
There are waters sweet with lost delight
In which one finds a strong, serene belief.
No happiness can overcome life's pain
Except one love, and love give life again.

Copyright: Nicholas Gordon

***

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim of the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I being poor have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats

***

Here There Are Not Tears Enough to Tell You

Here there are not tears enough to tell you
All the love I have within my heart,
Plainly to proclaim my love before you,
Put with simple grace and little art.
Yet I must try, for love ought not be hidden,
Veiled for fear of nakedness if known,
Afraid to enter silences unbidden
Lest it should have to cross the stage alone.
Even so, love needs the wings of words:
No truth is not transfigured by expression.
The heart of love, like those of captured birds,
Interred too long succumbs to its depression.
Nor are words enough, for love is more
Elusive than a verbal net can hold,
Singing like a sea across my shore,
Dancing back, white fold on endless fold.
All I am and have I give to you,
Yet love is more, and more I cannot do.

***

Hope Is a Breeze Across an Open Field

Hope is a breeze across an open field.
Anger comes from pounding on a door,
Positive one wants the door to yield.
Perhaps from this one senses something more.
Yearning is a song to wake the dead.
Very few can yearn for what is theirs.
Although love waits half-naked on the bed,
Life can seem a maze of doors and stairs.
Each soul pursues the prey of its desire,
Not knowing that to have must mean to kill.
There is no deed that documents love's fire;
In lovers' hearts, one comes and goes at will.
Need is a wind that strips the landscape bare;
Eventually one turns, and love is there.

***

How do I love thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need; by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath.
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrnett Browning

***

How Little in Me Is Not Touched by You

How little in me is not touched by you!
A friendship is a light that fills the heart,
Painting with its gold each darkened hue,
Providing warmth to each sequestered part.
You are the mirror of my better self,
Verifier of the best in me,
A bridge across the unsuspected gulf
Lodged between what can and ought to be.
Expectations can be wings, not bars,
Necessary to sustain our flight.
The faith of friends in us is wholly ours,
Incoming to uplift us to its height.
No soul can see itself, but must depend,
Each on each, upon a trusted friend.

***

How Much Can One Person Love Another

How much can one person love another?
A universe exists in time and space,
Placed within the boundaries of one place,
Pressed into a point far from forever.
Yet love comes to us from some quite other,
Visiting our sorrow with its grace,
Answering our rage with its embrace,
Lending us the wisdom of its wonder.
Even as I say this, you are there,
Nestling in where need undoes the day,
Taking up your small infinity.
Inside my window, you are everywhere,
Nor could I tell how much such love might weigh,
Even were it salient as the sea.

***

How Simple to Be Happy Here in Heaven

How simple to be happy here in heaven!
After all, one doesn't want for much.
Passion finds its willing partner, ever
Pleased to please with a deft and tender touch.
Yearning is like walking through a valley
Veiled in the loveliness of flowers.
All the beauty of the earth can only
Lead us to the edge of what is ours.
Etched into our love there is a message,
Not of now but of all time and place,
Telling of a truth beyond the passage
In which we move from mystery to grace.
Nor are there signs that such content can be
Except my love for you, and yours for me.

***

I Know I Hardly Know You

I know I hardly know you,
But I think that I may love you.
You can see the way I look at you
And know.

I know you have a girlfriend,
But I think we can be happy,
So take the time to find out
If it's so.

I know we don't have much time,
But I think it's just enough;
If you'd like to take a chance on me,
Let's go!

***

I Miss You Terribly This Day of Love

I miss you terribly this day of love,
Miss you with a wound that stabs and aches.
I see the love around me, and it takes
So much strength simply just to move.
Soon, soon, my love, this waiting will be done.
You and I will have what we desire.
On days like this we'll sit beside the fire,
Undoing all the pain of days long gone.

***

I Wish You Were My Valentine

I wish you were my Valentine
Though I may not be yours,
And I may, in my ignorance,
Be speaking to closed doors.

I have no inkling of your heart,
No hint what you might say;
But when I think of you the sun
Will just not go away.

There is in you a loveliness
That makes my darkness shine,
And so I'll wait, if wait I must,
To be your Valentine.

***

If I could save time in a bottle

If I could save time in a bottle
the first thing that I'd like to do
is to save every day 'til eternity passes away
just to spend them with you

if I could make days last forever
if words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
again I would spend them with you

if I had a box just for wishes
and dreams that had never come true
the box would be empty except for the
memories of how they were answered by you

but there never seems
to be enough time to do the
things you want once you find them
I've looked around enough to know that
you're the one I want to go through time with

***

In My Thoughts...

I had no reason
to send you a card,
no great news to reveal.
But I wanted you to know
that you're in my thoughts
and in my heart as well.
And I'm sending you a
wish for a wonderful day.
I hope lots of sunshine
comes your way.

***

LOVE

In all earth's music, grand, or sweet, or strong,
To hear one name, as if 'twere set in song.

In all my poems, written 'neath the sun,
To find the praises, o'er and o'er, in one.

To feel thyself a lesser part of what
Hadst thou not found, the earth would be as naught.

To think all beauty, perfectness and grace,
As but the shadow of one worshiped face.

With that face's coming, to bask in warmth and light
And with its going to grope, as in the night.

To rather feel a dear hand's stinging blow
Than any caress another might bestow.

To rather sit in gloom, and hear one voice
Than, missing that, on mountain tops rejoice.

To lose all individual hope and aim,
And have no wish, but for another's fame.

To count grief naught, though great, if one is glad.
To feel no joy if that dear one is sad.

Do thy heart strings, responsive, answer this?
Then thou hast known true love in all its bliss.

***

My Love Is Both a Hunger and a Giving

My love is both a hunger and a giving,
A need to have and also to bestow,
A lavish lust for flesh and yet a yearning
For beauty as austere as polished stone.

I want more than my life your happiness,
And yet my happiness depends on you.
Like a child I linger in your shadow
While like a parent I take you in my arms.

I want to be the sun to fill your sky
While like a rose I open to your smile.
I want to be the air you breathe, your music,
While like the sand I wait upon your sea.

So like and unlike, my love is doubly bonded,
The joys of giving and receiving joined.
This day of love it is my gift to you,
A heart you can consume yet keep forever.
***

My Valentine

It's nice to have a friend like you.
I'll tell you what I'm going to do.
Because you make me feel so fine,
I'll take you for my valentine!

Frank Dally

***

No Love So Strong It Needs No Sign

No love so strong it needs no sign,
Nor feeling deep it needs no light:
So will you be my Valentine?

Love loves the days that loves define,
When words bring souls to silent sight.
No love so strong it needs no sign,

Nor can we our own souls divine
Without the music of delight:
So will you be my Valentine?

And will you let yourself be mine
As I am yours, of need and right?
No love so strong it needs no sign,

Nor is it wrong to draw a line
And need with hungry need requite:
So will you be my Valentine?

For love grows old like sun-drenched wine
That sweetness brings to evenings bright.
No love so strong it needs no sign:
So will you be my Valentine?

***

One Alone Cannot Make Two

One alone cannot make two,
But two alone can tally three.
If some find sums enough to do,
Some find some their ecstasy.

Yet do not add unless you love,
For greater sums require more,
And though in proof might pleasant prove,
In life might prove a lifelong chore.

Valentines ought best beware
Of multiplying much too soon.
While two might err, far more must bear
What didn't add up one afternoon.

***

The Day of Love Requires a Companion

The day of love requires a companion,
But I find myself at this time all alone.
Words of sweet affection fill the morning
Like bells outside the windows of my room.

I don't know why I don't have someone with me.
I've loved and been loved through the restless years.
The mysteries of love I hold within me
Are a darkness unrelieved by moon and stars.

And yet I feel more love than I have ever
Felt within the circle of a kiss.
Love need not be a passion or a fever,
Nor does it need a hand for its caress.

Love does not require a companion.
It doesn't need an object or a home.
It flies above the ecstasy of morning
And fills the universe inside my room.

When I think of love ...
I think of roses and red hearts ...
quiet walks ...
and very soft, tranquil music ...
I envision an eagle taking flight on a crisp fall morn ...
the first snowflake in the winter ...
and the sound of the first robin in the spring ...
I envision a glorious sunrise ...
a spectacular rainbow ...
and stars brightly shining on a summer night ...
But most of all, I envision you ...
your eyes radiating warmth, joy and vibrance ...
and the tender feelings in my heart
from your friendly smile.

***

What's in a name ? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called.

William Shakespeare

***

Valentine's Day is a day of love
Where love is as bright as the sun
We share kisses, and even a hug
With people we call our loved ones
Unrequited love is oh! so harsh
When the one you love doesn't love you
You feel you're left standing in the dark
Wishing this reality were untrue
Well that's why Valentine's Day is so great
It encourages you to show you care
It makes you just wanna say
I love you and will always be there
I once loved someone in this way
And I was encouraged on Valentine's
I went up to him, just to say
I would like you to be mine

***

Through all eternity to thee
A joyful song I'll raise,
For oh! Eternity is too short
To utter all thy praise.

Joseph Addison

***

The way you turn me on
Is like the switch of a light
Because when I see you
I think: What a sight!
You brighten things up
Throughout the whole day
And when you're about to leave
I say to myself: Please stay

Some day you might be my lover
Some day you might be my friend
Whichever one comes first
I hope will never end
Although I don't really know you
You mean a ton to me
A ton as big as heaven
Is what I want you to see.

Now I'm not sure you're single
You might be happily in love
Whomever he might be
He is very lucky
If there's no one to fulfill
That great big happiness
That brings such great a feeling
Of sweet and joy and bless
I would be the one
To bring that all to you
I'll always do you right
If you want me to.
A rose for you

***

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright,
Meet in the aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven and gaudy day denies.

Lord Byron

***

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet,
And so are you!

***

Ours love will pass all tests
It's too early fo the rest!
You and me, we both together
Will be glad for any weather!

***

O, my luve's like a red red rose
That's newly sprung in June
O my luve's like a melodie
That's sweetly played in tune

Robert Burns

***

Never so happily in one
Did heaven and earth combine;
And yet 'tis flesh and blood alone
That makes her so divine

Thomas D'Urfey

***
My heart to you is given
Oh do give yours to me
We'll lock them up together
And throw away the key

***

Love is sometimes denied
sometimes lost
sometimes unrecognized
but in the end
always found with no regrets
forever valued and treasured

***

Love doesn't make the world go round
Love is what makes the ride worthwhile

***

Let me give you my hand;
May it ever be there for you.
Let me give you my shoulder;
May it always comfort you.
Let me give you my arms;
May they only hold you.
Let me give you my heart;
May it only love you.

- by Anon.

***

It is almost here, that special time of year.
When hearts and flowers by the hours are
brought to all who seek; When kisses swirl
and words do peak into little tuffs of cotton
(candy) my sweet. So be my love and be my
own and call me on the telephone or send a
card, that is not hard, right to my waiting door,
and I'll be yours forevermore

***

Is it really love?
or is it just a passing feeling
am I not convinced?
a bit uncertain of the feeling

Is it the way you make me feel?
so warm with joy and laughter
or could it be the happiness
from moments spent together

The lasting bliss, the kiss I miss,
The sweetest thoughts without a touch
The heart that hurts and bears a scar
thinking how far away you are

You’re on my mind most of the day
And at night I go to bed and pray
An angel soft and gentle as you
Would make my sweetest dreams come true

Thinking about you alone or in class
Writing your name on my bathroom window glass
Wishing you were here
To love hold and care
Wishing I had you with me
To cherish and to stare

Into your soft and beautiful eyes
As we both travel to the skies
And mingle with the stars above
But is it really love?

***

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women you can
I prize thy love more than whole mines og Gold.
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold repay,
Then while we live, in love let's so persevere
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Ann Bradstreet

***

I think that I have found
Upon this wondrous ground
A friend for life, a love
Who is a touch above

Life's mediocrities
That blow in different seas
These special ones on earth
Who've been that way since birth

They touch lightly your heart
And never must you part,
For when you see their eyes
There can be no good-byes

So walk this way with me
Along this pathway free,
I shall not bind or tie
Our love or it would die

***

I love thee, I love thee,
'Tis all that I can say;
It is my vision in the night,
My dreaming in the day.

Thomas Hood

***

I hid you for a long time
the way a branch hides its
slowly ripening fruit among leaves,
and like a flower crystal of ice
on a winter window
you open in my mind.
In my heart I keep
the sparkle of your eyes
the tender warmth of your smile
the small tilt of your head
the delicate curves of your soft body
and I dream
dream of holding you close
caring for you, protecting you
and loving you always.

***

I am ready for solution
Give all kinds of contribution
To the ours strongest love,
You my pretty, You my dove!

***

Here's to the days of good will,
cold weather, and warm hearts.

***

Here is a valentine.
I made it just for you.
With paper and ribbons
And lots of Elmer's glue!
I cut it with my scissors
And designed it with my paint.
If I tell you that I love you,
Do you promise not to faint?

***

Good day to you, Valentine
Curl your locks as I do mine
Two before and three behind
Good day to you, Valentine

***

Deare, when I from thee am gone,
Gone are all my joyes at once;
I loved thee, and thee alone,
In those love I joyed once,
And although your sights I leave,
Sight wherein my joyes do lie,
Till that death do sense bereave,
Never shall affection die.

John Downland

***

Deare, when I from thee am gone,
Gone are all my joyes at once;
I loved thee, and thee alone,
In those love I joyed once,
And although your sights I leave,
Sight wherein my joyes do lie,
Till that death do sense bereave,
Never shall affection die.

John Downland

***

All love, at first, like generous wine,
Ferments and frets until 'tis fine,
But, when 'tis settled on the lee,
And from th' impurer matter free,
Becomes the richer still the older,
And Proves the pleasanter the colder

Samuel Butler

***

All love, at first, like generous wine,
Ferments and frets until 'tis fine,
But, when 'tis settled on the lee,
And from th' impurer matter free,
Becomes the richer still the older,
And Proves the pleasanter the colder

Samuel Butler

***

A VALENTINE

Gentle quiet of her eye,
To my asking deign reply;
By the impassioned day made bold,
Be thy hoarded secret told;
Or by trusting glance or fall
Of thy fluttering look from mine,
Dower my thought with hopes divine,
Hopes no coldness may recal;
Sweet betrayer, bid me see
If not in thy depths there be
Love thy coyness keeps from me.

Stainèd whiteness of her cheek
Quit thy fear and prithee speak,
All to-day should bid thee tell,
All that thou hast hid so well;
Through the day-dawn of a flush,
Dimpling ripple of a smile,
Oh, let watching love beguile
Thy sweet secret from its hush!
Give me, this sweet day, to know
If, thy rosy calm below,
Love lurk not, thou wilt not show.

Oh, thou music of her speech,
Leave thou meaner things and teach
Listening love the all he'd learn!
Give the enamoured air to burn
With thy sumless burdens; round,
Words half silence---many a tone
Caught by love's hushed ear alone,
Thoughts that tremble into sound,
Breathe!---Oh, utterance all divine,
Bid me know she would be mine---
That I am her valentine!

***

A Valentine For My Teacher

My teacher's very special
so I'm making her a heart,
a valentine that's sure to be
a proper work of art.

I've worked on it all morning
so it should be ready soon,
I'd like to slip it on her desk
before this afternoon.

It's colored in with crayons
and it's trimmed with paper lace,
it has flowers, hearts, and cupids--
I can't wait to see her face.

***
A Valentine Is Nothing Like

A Valentine is nothing like
A chocolate or a rose.
For in a week these shall be gone,
But Valentines remain.
If love were always sweet to tongue
Or fragrant to the nose,
Each day would be like Valentine's,
And we would go insane.

A Valentine just hangs around
Waiting to be kissed
Long after special days have passed
And every days are here.

So one is wise to choose one well
And chocolates to resist.
For in the midst of mania
It's nice to have one near.

***

Although Our Love Is Over, It Remains

Although our love is over, it remains
An unfrequented garden in my heart,
Its beauty quite inseparable from pain,
A wilderness where once was willful art.

I hope a little piece of you is still
Reserved for me, a place you may not go,
But where my room, untenanted, can fill
A moment with my music, sweet and slow.

There are no wishes like a former lover's
That from the dark, repentant night must shine.
And so though we have both moved on to others,
I send you from afar this Valentine.

***

Be My Valentine, for I

Be my Valentine, for I
Each day have thought of you.
My whole life couldn't manage what
Your ready smile can do,
Vanquishing my loneliness
As though all light were new.
Let me be your Valentine
Even as you're mine,
Needing what I have to give
That each might each define
In friendship and in harmony,
Now you, now I the melody,
Each helping each to shine.

***

Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean?

Be my Valentine: What does that mean?
Each of us must walk through life alone,
More deeply desolate than we have known,
Yearning for a truth we've never seen.
Valentines are from beyond that dream,
Are like a sunrise on a world of stone.
Little on this journey can we own
Except as miracles might intervene.
No way but through loving might we give
The freedom of our being to another.
In such a sacrifice we hope to live
No longer bound by dreams of flesh and bone,
Even as we bind our lives together.

***

Be with Us in the Circle of Our Love

Be with us in the circle of our love,
Even if by chance you are alone.
Our greetings we have hope your heart will move,
Uniting our good wishes with your own.
Remember there are those who think of you,
Vested in the will to be a friend.
As distant hills give depth to what we view,
Let these words some grace to your day lend.
Each life is lived behind a sheltering veil,
Not lifted but for love. Yet when we will,
There is a wind that shifts the rampart frail,
Invading with sweet scent the spirit still.
Now may we all enjoy this fragrance fine,
Each each other's secret Valentine.

***

Beautiful Eyes, Beautiful Face

Beautiful eyes, beautiful face,
I'm shy to talk to you.
You're the eagle I must watch
No matter what I do.

You're the beauty, wild and free,
The mistress of my eyes,
Rolling through exultant air,
Alone in pristine skies.

I would take you for my own
Could I but have your wings,
Could I but go where night begins
And frozen sunlight sings.

Could I but have you for my love,
How might we fly together!
But I must watch you from below
And long for you forever.
But I must be the one below
And long for you forever.

***

Before I Ask Y'all, Please Understand

Before I ask y'all, please understand,
Even as I come from way down South,
My heart is more loquacious than my mouth,
Yearning like a wave for your smooth sand.
Very few down here will show their hand,
Aching like a riverbed for rain,
Lying like a platitude in pain,
Each chili inside, outside baked beans bland.
Now here down South it ain't right to demand
The things you're dying for, but you real fine,
In a voice polite as preachers set to dine,
Nicely say, "Mind if I trouble you, Ma'am," -
Easy like - "to be my Valentine?"

***

Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

Before I knew you, I had always loved you,
Even as I dreamed of whom I'd love.
My inner picture was a portrait of you
Years before your heart my heart would move.
Vistas of enchantment are but rarely
As we find them in reality.
Love with you is what I dreamed, but really,
Eden as no dream could ever be.
Nor is this the magic of the moment,
The proper costume for the holiday.
In words like these one finds the winnowed ferment,
Not of the desire, but of the way,
Else lost amid the longings of the day.

***

Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

Before love, that jolting lilt
East of roses, in perturbed darkness,
Missing the eternal circumstance,
Yearning still, again, for that exploratory tilt …
Vainly would I fly into your heart
Afire, burning, consumed, expended.
Love is not an ending; nor does it end
Easily: becomes pith, becomes seed, starts
Needing, kneading, mid-desperation,
The long climb out of loneliness, turning
In hope, in anguish, in foolish expectation.
No two are joined except in painful learning:
Each frightened lesion closed for restoration.

Copyright: Nicholas Gordon

***

Carrie

Carrie is my Valentine,
A fantasy come true,
Reminding me that fortune can
Reenter what we do.
I said what words were in my heart,
Each far more than I knew.

***

Each Day Your Smile Becomes My Morning Star

Each day your smile becomes my morning star.
I look at you and then my feelings shine.
From you I learn far more than words or numbers:
You're the book that someday will be mine.

You're the one whose love my love of learning
Will one day trace in its ancestral line.
For all the ways you help me grow towards beauty,
I ask you please to be my Valentine.

***

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