Poetry Laurels: St. Valentine's Day

Showing posts with label St. Valentine's Day. Show all posts

Friday, February 14, 2020

Poems for Valentine's Day - Will You Walk By My Side?

The question on pink and red Valentine's Day cards and candies is: "Will you be mine?" I think that's the wrong question. The right one is: "Will you walk by my side?" You cannot own another person, that's slavery. But you can walk together, not in front of each other (leading), not behind (following), but together, side by side, on the path of life. To do that, we have to focus on what's truly important. As T.S.Eliot said, "the still point of the turning world" - Light, Love, Christ...

The Still Point

I like the way you look at me,

drinking me in

with quick, short glances,

as if it were too much

to see me whole

Very thirsty for love,

aren’t you?

You are the matter of a man

I’m the spirit of a woman,

we belong together

From all the possible futures

I pick the one

where you are with me

The space-time cone moves,

the options shift and shrink

every second

I place you at the still point

of my turning world

There are so many delightful, meaningful stories, endless truth hidden in fairy tales. I've always loved fairy-tales and folk-tales, and have a nice collection of international stories. Only Brothers Grimm are so truly grim... others have discoveries of the walking kind, for instance, the princess that walked the world for three years in iron shoes to find her beloved (Slovenian "Pigeon Prince" tale). Or the Prince Charming who climbed over ancient thorny hedges and walls to find his Sleeping Beauty and wake her up with the kiss. That's the kiss of Love and Light, of course, true union of their souls.

Up, Up, Up

With you, I’m a fairy-tale princess,

a Cinderella, perhaps, with her gold

spun-glass slipper on my nightstand

by the Polish Bible I use each day

to find out if I’ve been good.

I really do not know.

Sometimes, I’m a sleeping Beauty

with rosy cheeks, awakened

by the lightest touch of your lips.

Why are you my Prince Charming?

I really do not know. Why

did I have to cross the Great Plains

fly over oceans, wear out

three sets of iron boots, defeat

the Leviathan and the dark

Chameleon in my dreams?

Here I am – here we are

together. Step by step,

holding hands, we climb

the inaccessible heights of God’s

white mountain, its snowy peaks

dazzling with the brilliance

of the sky – song – light –

Heart

…petal by petal, the flower of our heart

~ Amy Lowell

drawing together

the vine of heart leaves

stroke by stroke

from darkness

into light

intertwined –

with the vine

of love

As love grows, its meaning deepens, beyond passion, beyond infatuation, towards endless delight and admiration, arising from the true clarity of a shared purpose, shared light... The more we know the profound beauty of the beloved, the mysteries within, the more love there is. Love is truly endless, the more we give, the more we have to give. It never stops, never dies.

Amber

Red gold of falling leaves

and amber, liquid amber

engulf me with the intensity

of our love for all seasons –

Even the invisible California winter

without snow, with bright sunshine

and birdsong each morning – in time

for Darjeeling tea, Columbian coffee

and naleśniki, flat Polish pancakes

with a touch of maple syrup from Vermont.

The whole world celebrates with us

for we know true meaning of attachment –

not the pink blush of infatuation –

not the wine-red rose of passion –

but this, only this – pure clarity

of azure skies – clear radiance of red gold

and amber – liquid amber

Forever - is made of "nows"- wrote Emily Dickinson in one of her timeless poems. Indeed, forever is nothing but a string of moments, each more precious than another, each shining with a warm light of love within.

Afterglow

you taste of sunlight

sweetness, soft swirls

of ice cream melting

on yellow rays of mango slices

the golden glow of honey

in your eyes

you surprise me

I turn my head and

there you are, looking at me

over your oil-smudged fingers,

engine parts –

smiling

you know what I think

you taste of sunlight

Lost and Found

… the sky of the sky of a tree called life

~ e.e. cummings

I found myself

in a perfect place

I laugh to tears

and I like what I see

after broken pieces

of Devil’s mirror were

washed away from my eyes

There’s no torment here,

no limits, only the infinite

glory of becoming One

with Universe, One with

the Divine, endlessly delighted

No anxiety, no desire –

I live right here, right now

Thank you for the key

that opened my door to Paradise –

Serene, fearless, I’m wholly

and whole made of Love –

Twin Flame Promise

to have, to hold, and to cherish

~ old English wedding vows

I take you to be my beloved

for today and tomorrow

for all days and nights

for a week and all weeks

for a month and all months

for a year and all years

for all eternity

wherever we are and will be

in rain and sunlight

in joy and happy togetherness

of our most holy marriage

our divine union

I promise you solemnly my love

faithfulness and honesty

and that I will not leave you until my death

I will be with you as long as I exist

I promise you the love of my heart

because you are my heart –

and the love of my body

because you are my body –

and the love of my eyes

because you are the light of my eyes –

and the love of my soul

because you are my soul mate

my being’s other half

my fulfillment now and forever

In God, our Divine Source, Way and Life

sharing our love for ever and ever

And so let it grow and last and be

my promise for you and yours for me

I Did Not Dare To Hope

Yet I know it is true.

This certainty is of a bubbly

sparkling kind – it floats up

like champagne in a tall flute

to welcome the New Year

of promises to keep, of bliss-filled

Love that never was, but always is –

always as in a country song of old

shining on pink rose petals

covered with diamond dew

in the morning, under

the periwinkle sky

“of endless possibilities

and our greatest dreams”

that we’ve known

and will know –

together.

Diamonds

In a seashell there is an ocean

There is Universe within my heart

A myriad galaxies dance in my mind

I’m a microcosm of Divine design

In a seashell there is an ocean

In dark coal mine bright diamonds grow

In your eyes I find ageless wisdom

The One Love that sustains us all

In your guilt I see my darkness

In your beauty – radiance and light

In your voice – the calling, the calling

Mountain air on a spring morning

Sparkling diamonds, radiant and pure –

For all forevers you enfold me in Love

So you look within, look inside the rose blossom, admire the infinite geometry of its petals? But what if you looked up? Towards the light-filled sapphire sky that all flowers stretch up to? Roses, magnolias, sunflowers - they all move to the light, and maybe the secret of love is to do as they do?

In the Valley of Yes

I wrote it out in a thousand words

again and again, affirming

the forgotten truth.

You opened your eyes, bewildered,

finally seeing what is to be seen,

saying what is to be said:

We have crossed over into the Soul

now merging into what’s before us.

That is you on the interior, lining

the depth of my heart. You are the center

of my Universe, as we are aligned

perfectly under the Sun.

A rarity found true. You and I.

As we climb the path of life alongside

each other, I am honored to walk with you.

Now, I am looking through the lens of Love

that opens into the landscape of you,

a wildflower that comes alive in me.

I found a slice of Heaven, in front of me.

It is you! I love you today,

tomorrow and

forever

Sapphire

My tiger orchid blooms again

for the third time already

It looks at me shyly

with topaz eyes

thinking, I’d remember

that night, that music

of togetherness –

Expand, expand, forever

expand – our hearts fill

with Cosmic Light of

a thousand Suns –

liquid and flowing

to heal and purify

We thank, we praise

the One Love

that blossoms

in emerald gardens

in sapphire flames

and bright tiger eyes

Sweet Nothings

We are the wings of a butterfly

Dancing in the vortex of time

Ascending to the heart of the galaxy

Flying higher and higher and higher

I love you. You love me.

We are love, love, love, love

One love.

We are the wings of the butterfly

Twirling with a flutter in the breeze of time

Carried by currents beyond what’s known

We swirl and rise up, together

I love you. You love me.

We are love.

What remains of the wings torn apart?

Is the pattern eternal? Does it stay

Once created and outlined in pure light,

embroidered on the fabric of reality

with a sparkling golden thread of memory?

Yes, I love you. You love me.

I love you. You love me.

We are love, love, love, love

True love.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Rose of Roses Photo Exhibition and Love Poetry for St. Valentine's Day 2017

St. Valentine’s Day

Evening of Poetry & Roses

at the “Rose of Roses” Exhibition

Hosted by Dr. Maja Trochimczyk

The Back Door Bakery and Café

8349 Foothill Blvd, Sunland, CA 91040

February 14, 2017 at 7:00 pm

I'm happy to present my second solo exhibition of photographs, "Rose of Roses" that I could subtitle "Rose Photos for the Month of Love." The title is a tribute to the Song of Songs, of course.

This exhibition is held in the Back Door Bakery and Cafe in Sunland (8349 Foothill Blvd.), on display for a month, from February 4th to March 4th, 2017. The Artist's Reception is on Sunday, February 26, 2017 at 7-9 p.m. after the Village Poets Monthly Reading at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. We will have live music, poetry readings and more...

Why is February the month of Roses? They are still dormant, without leaves or blossoms, cut down for an annual rest back in late December or early January. It seems that the association of Love and Roses cannot be ignored in a month divided into two halves by St. Valentine's Day (the 14th). This month sees an endless parade of heart-shaped chocolate boxes topped with red or pink silk roses at the beginning, and Easter bunnies, eggs, and pastels at the end.

The "Rose of Roses" exhibition features roses from my garden and from Descanso Gardens, as seen after rain, in the evening, in the morning, with sharply contrasted shadows, in the shade and in direct sunlight. I discovered an endless variety of patterns in their petals and decided to capture the blossoms for far longer than the five days they remain on the bushes. The result was my private collection of electronic rose photos, that I used on my website and on margins of poems. I also used them to illustrate my second book of poetry, Rose Always. It was fun.

After showing a couple of these photos at the River Rock Arts Colony show at the Back Door Gallery in 2016, and a selection of about 10 photos at the Scenic Drive Gallery in Monrovia (my first solo photography exhibit in 2013), I decided it would be great to display a wider selection at the Back Door Gallery. It is visited by everyone in our neighborhood, and February being the Month of Love, it is the perfect time for roses. The owners of Back Door, Reno and Debbie Goodale, are enthusiastic supporters of local artists and musicians, and this sweet and lovely exhibition is the result.

The motto for the exhibition comes from my poem, Rose Garland, seen below and posted on this blog a couple of years ago.

Rose Garland

I thought roses.
I thought rich, velvet blossoms.
I thought a red rainbow
from deep crimson to delicately pinkish.

The secret was underground
where the roots sustain
the multi-hued orgy of sensuous allure –
flowers opening to dazzle and fade.

The strength of the rose
is invisible – you see the blush
of seduction in each leaf and petal,

You admire their charms.
Yet, you care for what’s out of sight,
not for the obvious.

I thought your love.
I thought how you adore me.
I went deeper down to the source.

The rose, Sappho’s lightning
of beauty, breathes love,
laughs at the wind and wonders

how the mystic rosebush twirls,
crowned with the royal
garland of fire.

Published in Rose Always (Moonrise Press, 2011, withdrawn in 2018)

I previously wrote many stories and poems about both love and roses, and the title of the Rose Always is the proof of the importance of this connection to my concept of romantic poetry. I am so glad I am not an "academic" poet and can use the word "love" as often as I want, without being censored by politically correct and artistically crippled ultra-ambitious snobs. How liberating! It is so simple, not "precious" - but simple and basic , to be moved by the beauty of the rose, and to think, while admiring its petals of the beauty of a kiss...

[Untitled]

For you, I'm a pear
with persimmon flavor
bathed in vanilla milk,
my skin is smooth, electric
it tingles when you touch me
I sing -
Of all the gardens of the world,
all the orchards,
all the fruit-bearing trees,
all the roses,
I'm the richest.
my blossoms are most abundant,
my fragrance - the rarest,

beyond reach

From Rose Always (Moonrise Press, 2011, withdrawn in 2018)

Rose Window

I place you in the heart

of my rose, dark red one

with dew drops on its leaves.

Like a tricked-up baby

from Ann Geddes' postcard

you rest, snugly wrapped

in the comfort of my love.

"That too shall pass," they say,

"That too shall pass.

The rose will wither,

love will fade away."

Respectfully, I disagree.

I know the symmetry

of velvet petals

is but an opening

into a different universe,

a cosmic window,

timeless.

I see it in the shyness

of your smile. Yes.

You are that lucky.

In the morning

when the curtains of mist

open above silver hills

carved from time

like a Japanese woodcut,

you taste freedom.

You found your true self

under the detritus

of disordered life.

Isn't it strange

that you've been saved

by the perfection

of just one rose?

From Rose Always (Moonrise Press, 2011, withdrawn in 2018)

All lovers should be happy, even if their love is gone, dead, or lost in the mist of time. It is the supreme gift of having been able to feel what generations of poets have felt, from the divine Sappho until today... Many entries on this blog were dedicated to the topics of Valentine's Day and the various types of love, and its poetic expressions.

The heart has its own logic, its own math.... and a brain, too - as positive emotions create coherent rhythm and help us be healthy and happy... You can find a heart to love just about everywhere, and writing about love is not only NOT a vice, it is, indeed, a virtue... And that person you love is, well, entirely "Adorable..."

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/09/rose-poems-from-shadows-leaves-roses.html, with "Amor 6," "Desert Rose," "Rosa Incognita," "Ellenai 6" - with a link to the interview with Susan Dobay.

At the opening of my exhibit of photography and poetry at the Scenic Drive Gallery in September 2013, I read a selection of poems that were either unpublished or appeared in Miriam's Iris (the ones with numbers in titles), or Rose Always. ...

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/06/on-irony-and-love-songs-with-grapefruit.html
with "A Portrait in Bracket" and "A Lesson for My Daughter"
Some people… wrap themselves in a thick blanket of irony of sarcasm and greet every expression of sentiment or affection with a sneer. We’ve all seen our share of these tough guys and gals, who curse or ridicule every expression of what really matters. “How banal, how boring!” they say, when they hear a sweet love poem...

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-history-of-love-and-roses.html, with "The Smile of a Rose," "Rosier d'Amour," "The Rose Garland," and poems by Sappho and Robert Burns.
The association of roses with love goes back to the times of Sappho, an ancient Greek poet (or, rather as 19th century writers would say, poetess), whose fragments of love poems, have inspired countless poets with their vehement passion and colorful metaphors since her death more than two and a half thousand years ago. In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s translation, Sappho’s rose is “the eye of the flowers… the grace of the earth” and “the lightning of beauty that strikes through the bowers / On pale lovers that sit in the glow unaware.” Sappho’s rose “breathes of love” and its petals “laugh with the wind…”

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/05/roses-and-roses-without-end.html, with "Rose Garland" and "Ready to Wear".

The photo included here, of a "Chicago Peace" rose covered with raindrops (or, rather, as the case may be, drops of water from the sprinklers), looks like candied confection, a marzipan....

http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/02/timeless-after-desire-love-on.html, with "Love Defined," "A Chocolate Kiss," "Lauda," "A Secret," "Rose Window," and "Always"
Love is a topic of so many country songs, so many romantic sonnets, so many tales and novels. It gave rise to new genres of literature (romance, troubadour poetry) and in other arts (rom com, or romantic comedy in film; the comedy as a classic theatrical genre). After centuries of efforts to describe it, we still do not know what it is. The taxonomies and definitions that I cited in the previous essay are just one way of approaching this elusive topic.

Here's another whole blog issue dedicated to this topic. No wonder, my poetic friends called me The Dove of Love! http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-is-love-valentines-day-reflections.html

More on Love and Roses with links and comments may be found on the identically titled page of this blog. Let me finish this essay with another rose photo, this one featuring my Rooster Year Haiku, developed from my holiday wishes of a "feather-light heart" - quite appropriate for the Year of the Fire Rooster, with the fiery red rose. The "feather-light heart" of course, comes from ancient Egypt, the Judgment after death that includes comparing the weight of a heart to that of a feather. If it is lighted, the passage to the land of the Blessed is granted. This, in fact is the opposite to the Christian tradition, where the heart heavy with good deeds, is the one granted eternal happiness in Heaven.

Heaven or not, roses have been multiplied by their fans, the famous "rosarians" to thousands of thousands of varieties, and I found and portrayed just a few... This one for the Year of the Fire Rooster (in a couple of versions, the latter above, the earlier in the haiga):

a sunburst - a smile

a feather-light heart

the Rooster Year!

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Friday, February 14, 2020

Poems for Valentine's Day - Will You Walk By My Side?

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Rose of Roses Photo Exhibition and Love Poetry for St. Valentine's Day 2017

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