Valentine's Day Haiku

(well anyway, one-liners trying to be haiku)


rain falls on your long absence I don't forget

heat-wave my ardour increases

that café we used to like closes – cloudy day

the sun in the photo shines on your face – forever

you offer your heart – the taste of chocolate

remembering our first time you brought roses






Written for NaHaiWriMo 2017

Linking to Tuesday Platform 21 Feb 2017 at 'imaginary garden with real toads'

My New Sparkler

It wasn't my favourite ghost
who gave me this ring.

Yes, he does come with me shopping
(invisibly) saying, 'Get yourself roses,’
or, ‘That’d look good on you.’

This time I went on my own
deliberately; browsed, chose,
and bought me
a self-love token.

Written for Quadrille #26: ghost at dVerse.
Also linked to Tuesday Platform 14 Feb 2017 at 'imaginary garden with real toads'
and to Midweek Motif: Love at Poets United.

14 Words for Love 2015

I've participated once again in this little exercise of writing separate 14-word pieces on love in the lead-up to Valentine's Day. Below is my collection. See others at the website. I am submitting this series to the Tuesday Platform at 'imaginary garden with real toads'

Not your death pains me

but your pain before that.

It’s my love hurts.

******

Our shipboard romance

long ago becalmed

still floats sweetly in memory

which is kind.

******

Though you leave, you stay

forever in mind and heart

which never leave you.

******

I remember your eyes

the blue-green of the sea …

I drowned in your eyes.

22/1/15

Pretty in pink,

my dear old Aunty

in her photo.

I recall her warmth.

******

My friend's voice on the phone.

At once I breathe in,

relax and smile.

******

Across miles of air and ocean

I reach to you,

grasp your virtual hand.

******

Will you ever return?

Look for me in memory,

wait for me in dream.

******

In soft morning light

your head next to mine.

Your eyes open, you smile.

28/1/15


The birthday you had

this last lifetime

arrives again.

I toast you

in coffee.

******

Last thing at night,

thoughts of you.

First thing on waking,

thoughts of you.

First thing on waking

thoughts of you,

last thing at night

thoughts of you.

*****

It’s Lughnasad here.

What a harvest I reap
from our season together,

Bright One!

4/2/15

Because your face is yours,

I find it beautiful --

or, your beauty finds me.

******

A glimpse.

Someone who looks like you.

But after all

no-one

looks  like you.

5/2/15

Between kisses

we laughed together.

That was in

another lifetime.

Now I cry alone.

******

Unrequited love

is also sad

for the one

who cannot requite,

and must hurt.

6/2/15

Old friendship long cooled —

but when we met

in last night's dream,

we kissed.

7/2/15

My Answer 
(14x2)

'What direction shall I go now?'

I ask the oracle stones

I made myself.

Scrabbling deep,

ha! — I pull out the one

on which I drew a heart.

7/2/15

Such tenderness I feel,

seeing the back of a head

that might be yours.

******

Thought I'd lost you

but memory retains all your details;

that loss is impossible.

8/2/15

A handwritten letter

sharing your day,

and I am with you

in quiet delight.

10/2/15

The smile in your eyes

when you look at me

is reflected in mine.

******

Love is also

being glad you’re gone

away from discomfort

and this trying weather.

11/2/15

Valentine’s Day. I wave

to my three old husbands

(and sundry lovers)

in Heaven.

14/2/15

The friends who hold your heart

may warm it a long time,

outlasting lovers.

15/2/15

LOVE is not a Greeting Card

How cross you were

on our first Valentine’s Day,

when I gave you a card.

You felt, you said, manipulated,

as if you were then required

to go out and buy one for me.

I understand now

you felt guilty: you were trying

to shift the blame.

The next year, of course

I didn’t mark the occasion.

You, of course, did!

You brought me roses.

You often brought me roses

on any occasion, or none.

We had twenty years together.

Now you’ve been gone

not much longer than two.

Yet I simply can’t remember, now,

whether or not we observed it again

in all those loving years.

Probably not … or maybe …

How little it mattered! Love

permeated our days. 

I remember many other things …

the love that didn’t need a greeting card.

(Though greeting cards sometimes happened.)

Written for Poets United's Midweek Motif: LOVE is not a Greeting Card

Valentine to My Levi

My gorgeous lad, my best bloke,

your eyes are bright, your hair is dark.

You are the one I love to cuddle;

come over here, let's have a snuggle.

Your body hair is thick and furry,

your loving voice is low and purry.

You are mine and I am yours;

I'm wrapped around your flexing paws.

They say you're a killer; I'll ignore that.

You are my darling, the cat of my heart.

At dVerse, the prompt is to wind down from Valentine's Day by writing a short love poem to something other than a person, almost but not quite in gooey, greeting-card language. (Oh, I think I misunderstood and we were supposed to get away from that kind of language. Instead, I've attempted to turn it humorous.)

14 Words for Love

(Valentine's Day Poems)

I came across this lovely idea on facebook, then was led to the main website. 

Here are my contributions to the collection.

My angel, since you died

where shall I find you?

Look in your heart.

11/2/14

I smile at your photo

and your steadfast eyes 

gaze back at me, shining.

***

We never kept

Valentine's Day.

All our days were full

of love and roses.

***

'Get yourself some roses'

you'd say, when you

no longer could.

I still do.

***

'His eyes follow you,'

said his son. 'I hope

I someday find

such love.'

***

Attracted 

to tall, dark, handsome

I marry short and fair --

our love is beautiful.

***

Horizon-gazing

after you, 

I see enormous sky. 

What do you see,

looking back? 

***

Your black cat and I

wait in this garden for you.

Many memories come.

12/2/14

Though I go to bed alone

you are with me 

in memory and dream.

***

Even now, when you're no longer here,

I can't stop having conversations with you.

13/2/14

Valentine's Day

I'll go to town

and choose red roses

as if they came from him.

***

Ghost

I feel a kiss 

light on my hair,

as if you still had breath.

***

Anti-Valentine

You think of me that way? 

How sweet! But I

don't want your love.

(This is an odd one out, addressed to 

a different person from the rest.)

***

February 14

I spend this day

writing poems for you —

sweet as chocolate,

fragrant as roses.

14/2/14

Also submitted for Poets United's Midweek Motif ~ Heart