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.

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.

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, with All My Love

To my Valentine, with all my love,
Of whom I cannot say enough in praise:
May my love for you sufficient prove,
Yearning to redeem your caustic days.
Vortices within may drag you down.
Anchor, then, in my serenity.
Love saves some who otherwise might drown,
Embarked alone upon their Galilee.
Nor should you deem your own love not enough
To be the chapel to which I retreat
In search of a pavilion for my pain.
No love is love unless it be a seat
Enchanted, where a stone might weep again

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.