Forty-two years and counting.




Quietly Celebrating the Occassion

 

My Valentine and I celebrate quietly,

Exactly as we are living our shared life.

Sweet gestures are always welcome,

But Hallmark will not profit by us today.

 

The only flowers we may share will be

Frost flowers heaving from the forest floor.

I will come in from my morning chores

While she is having her first cup of coffee.

 

We will hug, I will say, "I love you,"

She will say, "I love you," and we will

Proceed with our day, together, apart,

 

It doesn't matter which, because we know,

And have known for a long time, that 

We are each other's Valentine. Forever.

 

—

 

Life can be pretty fucked up.

It isn’t easy for anyone.

Days like this, when a sweet gesture

 

is culturally expected, slip by us

without much notice.

We are not unromantic, but we’ve been doing this

 

for a very long time. Flowers or gestures, though welcome, 

pale in comparison to our history.

The looks that fly between us, that explain

 

the happiness and nightmares of our shared experiences, 

make us valentines, not gestures. 

The one constant is love, has been since day one.

 

This is day fifteen thousand three-hundred and thirty-three.

Give or take. It is self-evident that we love each other. And will, forever.

 





Poetry by jim The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 102 times
Written on 2015-02-14 at 13:22

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Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Well done, Jim. The subject, treatment and writing are characteristically yours. They're why we wait to read you.
2015-02-15


Elle The PoetBay support member heart!
I have never believed that one day makes a love - love is much much more as you have so wonderfully written about - a card, yes it is nice but it is soon forgotten in a drawer somewhere - experience and life and shared moments

Thank you Jim for reminding all that valentine is just a day - love is a lifetime

Elle x
2015-02-14



Your poem is a strong statement of love. I also don't believe in commercial holidays made for people to spend money or to make those who are not in that situation feel bad. Too many people get depressed on these holidays. It's the perfect peom.
~Ashe
2015-02-14


countryfog
"the happiness and nightmares of our shared experiences,
make us valentines, not gestures".

That's a powerful truth, not of a day but a lifetime. My father was not a sentimental man, I don't recall him ever giving my mother flowers or a Valentine gesture . . . but they lived their love every day for forty-nine years. Not that I don't think of them often, but on this day you've made me remember them with even more tenderness.
2015-02-14



It's great that the two of you no longer need emblems to declare your devotion to each other. Congrats on 42 and 42 more.

I hear that some public schools are either banning Valentine's Day rituals or de-emphasizing them. Maybe that's good. I remember in high school that the attractive and popular people's desk were overflowing with cards and flowers while others looked on sadly.
2015-02-14