On the Veneration of St. Valentine, Over Many Years

A Collection of Poems

Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash

For the last several years, I’ve noticed myself, right around Valentine’s Day, writing a poem about love.

That’s not entirely unique for a poet. In fact, it’s kind of our stchick. But this poem tends to be my “state of the union” on love, so to speak. Kind of an encapsulation of how I feel about love during that moment, a snapshot of how I’m feeling and, more often than not, how I’m hurting.

I thought it would be interesting to put these all together and see how my writing and my feelings have shifted over the years.

2015

i.
there is something in your skin
that moves me to morning, you are
stars brushed with flesh, a song
with substance, more than minor chords

you are an echo in my joints,
words and music bounce between
limbs, in unexpected moments
you are live in living color,
full-sized, film phantasm;

i clutch at my chest until the old reels pass.

ii.
i have pierced a calendar into my flesh
and track the divergent streams. i revel
in the…