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Valentine's Day is almost upon us. Whether you like the idea of a day devoted to Love, or you think it's just a conspiracy between the candy makers, the florists, and the card companies, it's the time of year when Love, especially Romantic and True Love, is on many people's minds.
So here are some poems that aren't too long. They may inspire you to say something lovely to someone who is already very special in your life, or to a person you'd really like to be your special someone. Or if you're in recovery from love gone bad, perhaps a bit of hope for the next time.
______________________________________________
Flirtation
. . .
by Rita Dove
. . .
After all, there’s no need
to say anything
. . .
at first. An orange, peeled
and quartered, flares
. . .
like a tulip on a wedgewood plate
Anything can happen.
. . .
Outside the sun
has rolled up her rugs
. . .
and night strewn salt
across the sky. My heart
. . .
is humming a tune
I haven’t heard in years!
. . .
Quiet’s cool flesh—
let’s sniff and eat it.
. . .
There are ways
to make of the moment
. . .
a topiary
so the pleasure’s in
. . .
walking through.
. . .
“Flirtation” from Museum, © 1983 by Rita Dove
– Carnegie Mellon University Press
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The next two poems are from http://www.onesentencepoems.com/osp/,
a website devoted to — one sentence poems.
Broken Lamp
. . .
by Steve Klepetar
. . .
Last night
we broke
the lamp
. . .
but when
I woke
you were
still asleep
. . .
your lovely
face in
shadow, so
. . .
I watched
a while,
marveling at
your quiet
. . .
breaths, the
streaming of
your hair.
. . .
There is no video of Steve Klepetar dancing in college.
________________________________________
Song for Sex
. . .
by Angeline Schellenberg
. . .
Oh, mashup of poetry and friction,
all here-ness and bungle,
here’s to years of trust, flashes of huzzah,
the grudging forgiveness,
and the halleluiah.
. . .
Angeline Schellenberg, author of Tell Them It Was Mozart (Brick Books, 2016), lives in Winnipeg, Canada, with her husband, two teenagers, and a German Shepherd-Corgi.
________________________________________
Sometimes the reasons we love someone are not obvious to other people.
Bird-Understander
. . .
by Craig Arnold
. . .
Of many reasons I love you here is one
. . .
the way you write me from the gate at the airport
so I can tell you everything will be alright
. . .
so you can tell me there is a bird
trapped in the terminal all the people
ignoring it because they do not know
what to do with it except to leave it alone
until it scares itself to death
. . .
it makes you terribly terribly sad
. . .
You wish you could take the bird outside
and set it free or (failing that)
call a bird-understander
to come help the bird
. . .
All you can do is notice the bird
and feel for the bird and write
to tell me how language feels
impossibly useless
. . .
but you are wrong
. . .
You are a bird-understander
better than I could ever be
who make so many noises
and call them song
. . .
These are your own words
your way of noticing
and saying plainly
of not turning away
from hurt
. . .
you have offered them
to me I am only
giving them back
. . .
if only I could show you
how very useless
they are not
. . .
"Bird-Understander." Copyright 2009 by Craig Arnold
________________________________________
[love is more thicker than forget]
. . .
by e. e. cummings
. . .
love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
. . .
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
. . .
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
. . .
it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
. . .
[love is more thicker than forget] from Complete Poems 1904-1962, © 1926, 1954, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust – Liveright
________________________________________
Love doesn't always go well.
. . .
. . .
Grows tart.
. . .
Won’t.
. . .
. . .
Stays shut.
. . .
When Love does go right, it's worth everything it took to find it.
and 24 seconds . . .
. . . 25 . . . 26 . . . . . .
It seems shorter.
sipping our bitter hours at his leisure.
It seems longer.
halo edges . . .
May it always be so.