Four Poems for Valentine's Day, 2 1/2 by me.

This is for your own works!!!
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Manna
Posts: 1998
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:51 am
Location: Where clouds go to die

Four Poems for Valentine's Day, 2 1/2 by me.

Post by Manna »

I send my husband poems for Valentines Day. Sometimes I write them, sometimes I use others' works that appeal to me, sometimes I start with a poem by someone else I like and edit it to my own purposes. Semi-plagiarized. Here are the poems I'm sending this year:

Einstein’s Happiest Moment
by Richard M. Berlin

Einstein’s happiest moment
occurred when he realized
a falling man falling
beside a falling apple
could also be described
as an apple and a man at rest
while the world falls around them.

And my happiest moment
occurred when I realized
you were falling for me,
right down to the core, and the rest,
relatively speaking, has flown past
faster than the speed of light.




i. Dinner and Coyotes
by Philip Levine and me

I bought seventeen dollars’ worth of small red meat pieces,
took them home, sautéed them with some vegetables
and served them for dinner with a complex wine sauce.
Near the middle of January, light seeps more slowly
from the windowpanes, stays red a bit longer
between the branches of those old ash trees.
Later I played some banjo with you -
the music we love for bringing us together
and we sounded so good and true.
We heard the coyotes sing their primal laughter.
The woman who sold me the meat looked
like my great grandmother did in my childhood,
her loose, crinkled cheeks swinging beneath her glasses,
framing her smile. When I get that old…
Well, some things you know all your life.

A true thing
that can be placed beside the salt shaker,
the glass of wine, while the light stays
a little longer at the window.
It is, and it belongs where it is,
whether spoken or simply felt, known.
This truth that grew out of music, movies, foot massages,
and fancy Saturday evening dinners. Can you taste
this thing I'm saying? Is it fresh thyme, a touch
of salt, a deep red wine, the warmth of melting butter?
Sometimes it stays in my throat. A truth
I don’t utter because we don’t need to state the obvious.
When I do say it, it feels as red as the coyotes’ song.


Levine's original if you're interested:http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-simple-truth




ii. A Bomb, Really
by me

..............I found an old poem I’d written for you
............about a time when you had struck a match
...........and I had used it to set off a tiny red bomb.
..............................A poem
..............................for me,
...............................really,
...................... ......about you.
.............................us, really.

And here we are now, still in love. still doing love. both really.





This one (by me) he'll get on V-day with the red garnet rock. He is a rock-hound.

iii. The things I find that remind me of you –
This red garnet rock, for instance,
So sure of itself.
If this solid, organic mass
Were to break
It would be the same
True primal red all the way through.
But I cannot imagine it broken.
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Hydrogal
Posts: 140
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:06 pm
Location: Florida, USA

Re: Four Poems for Valentine's Day, 2 1/2 by me.

Post by Hydrogal »

I love all of these poems! I am going to use your theme of 'things I find that remind me of you' for my own V-day poem for my husband!


Barbara
Barbara
we are so lightly here
it is in love that we are born--in love we disappear

Verona 2012, Paris 2012, Detroit 2012, Boston 2012, Miami 2013, New Orleans 2013
imaginary friend
Posts: 1371
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:09 am
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Re: Four Poems for Valentine's Day, 2 1/2 by me.

Post by imaginary friend »

Hi Manna,

I like your thread of red – apples, meat, wine and the rock (though you didn't mention the colour of the apple)... what lovely Valentine's gifts.
Cate
Posts: 3464
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 4:27 am

Re: Four Poems for Valentine's Day, 2 1/2 by me.

Post by Cate »

What a great tradition.

I liked all 4 as well, my favourite was 'A Bomb, Really',
I love how the detail of setting off this little bomb
leads us to such an intimate/loving connection.
Manna
Posts: 1998
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:51 am
Location: Where clouds go to die

Re: Four Poems for Valentine's Day, 2 1/2 by me.

Post by Manna »

Thanks, everyone. He liked Dinner & Coyotes the best, and I do too.
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