i
It's Valentine's Day!
Valentine was, no doubt,
A god of antiquity,
Probably on Olympus, and
Probably in charge of
Truth and Light.
Why else
Would Valentine's Day be
A bright day of truth
When Spartans doffed
Their war gab
Dancing barefoot in the daisies
Like children.
Naked men
With long black
Happy beards.
ii
As I've been growing up
(And the process hasn't been easy)
I've been trying to figure out
What it means to be a man––
Or
How to be a man?
Does it mean being brave
In the face of anguish,
Having a stout heart (meaning courage),
Or being (in the marrow of the bones)
A warrior?
What does it mean to be
A good man?
To glow with muscular integrity
To be filled with honor
Like translucent crystal or
Brittle stone.
Or must a man
Be filled with poetry?
Creating kisses
Out of tear drops,
Sunny out of
Rainy days?
iii
But a man is not a man
Without a woman,
so I am not a man
Without you.
iv
Time is all we have
And it is nothing;
Like the blankness of
White canvas that we
Paint our lives upon.
We are artists of life--
We must paint our lives
Beautifully.
And if we are lovers,
We will paint our lives
In the colors
Of radiant paradise.
Time is all we have
And it is nothing
More than a chance
To gather sand into rocks,
Rocks into cities, and
Cities into empires
Of grandeur.
But more truly,
Time is all we have
And nothing more
Than the moments
We are ourselves--
Touching and silent
Laughing
Near the heart of
Our happiness.
To learn to love,
To feel, the seasons of our lives
Glowing within ourselves
As we begin, to grow
Beautifully
Together.