Valentine Poems
Another Valentine
by Wendy Cope
Today we are obliged to be romantic
And think of yet another valentine.
We know the rules and we are both pedantic:
Today's the day we have to be romantic.
Our love is old and sure, not new and frantic.
You know I'm yours and I know you are mine.
And saying that has made me feel romantic,
My dearest love, my darling valentine.
Diaspora Women
by Anil Soneji
Like curbside urchins, litter strewn
Beneath bridges and Tramways of Wanchai
Tribal encampments of Filipino women
Potlatch "Valentine Romances", Religious
blather and soft secrets,
Played out each homeless Hong Kong Sunday. Across from the Ritz Carlton
They share their Eucharist
In plastic boxes with plastic spoons.
Six days of scullery work and breaking bread
Reward them a seventh of sad freedom. Jean-fondled hips caressing fingers
......
Ninth Inning
by David Lehman
He woke up in New York City on Valentine's Day,
Speeding. The body in the booth next to his was still warm,
Was gone. He had bought her a sweater, a box of chocolate
Said her life wasn't working he looked stricken she said
You're all bent out of shape, accusingly, and when he
She went from being an Ivy League professor of French
To an illustrator for a slick midtown magazine
They agreed it was his fault. But for now they needed
To sharpen to a point like a pencil the way
The Empire State Building does. What I really want to say
......
Unrequited Love Gone Too Far
by Jeffrey Pipes Guice
Valentine, Valentine,
Why do you refuse to be mine...
I send you expensive gifts
of red roses and fine wine...
I invite you to fancy restaurants,
And theatre and to the play...
You treat me with distain
And you tell me to ‘stay away’
......
July 10
by David Lehman
The sky was a midnight blue
velvet cloth draping
a birdcage and no moon
but the breeze was whistling
and the sound of a car
on Valentine Place was
the rush of a waterfall
on the phone in New York City
and that's when the muse
turned up with curly brown locks
......
Unrequited Love Gone Too Far
by Jeffrey Pipes Guice
Valentine, Valentine,
Why do you refuse to be mine...
I send you expensive gifts
of red roses and fine wine...
I invite you to fancy restaurants,
And theatre and to the play...
You treat me with distain
And you tell me to ‘stay away’
......
The Lighted Window
by Sara Teasdale
He said:
"In the winter dusk
When the pavements were gleaming with rain,
I walked thru a dingy street
Hurried, harassed,
Thinking of all my problems that never are solved.
Suddenly out of the mist, a flaring gas-jet
Shone from a huddled shop.
I saw thru the bleary window
......
A Valentine's Song
by Robert Louis Stevenson
MOTLEY I count the only wear
That suits, in this mixed world, the truly wise,
Who boldly smile upon despair
And shake their bells in Grandam Grundy's eyes.
Singers should sing with such a goodly cheer
That the bare listening should make strong like wine,
At this unruly time of year,
The Feast of Valentine.
We do not now parade our "oughts"
......
Hugh Selwyn Mauberly (Part I)
by Ezra Pound
"Vocat aestus in umbram"
Nemesianus Es. IV.
E. P. Ode pour l'élection de son sépulchre
For three years, out of key with his time,
He strove to resuscitate the dead art
Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"
In the old sense. Wrong from the start --
......
On The Lady Elizabeth, And Count Palatine Being Married On St. Valentine's Day
by John Donne
Hail Bishop Valentine, whose day this is,
All the air is thy Diocese,
And all the chirping choristers
And other birds are thy parishioners,
Thou marryest ever year
The lyric Lark, and the grave whispering Dove,
The Sparrow that neglects his life for love,
The household bird, with the red stomacher;
Thou maks't the black bird speed as soon,
As doth the Goldfinch, or the Halycon;
......
