Sandusky Coffeehouse Reading

VALENTINES DAY It's beautiful country along the lake. Join us.

How to write love poems--

"I once responded to a girlfriend’s love poem by critiquing its imagery. That relationship didn’t last long...."

photo by GL

With Valentine's day coming up, the Poetry Foundation asks Adrian Blevins, Rebecca Hoogs, Cyrus Cassells, and Craig Arnold how to write love poems

• and don't forget, Valentine's day (Feb. 14 at noon) is Cleveland Public Poetry's "Poetry of Love" open mike

Cleveland Public Poetry continues (plus, Q&A with Ohio poet Khaty Xiong)

Photo by GL

With the start of a new year, Cleveland Public Library has begun another season of Cleveland Public Poetry, the open mic poetry reading series.  Since 2012, Cleveland Public Poetry (CPP) has presented some of Ohio’s most honored, established and emerging poets. A featured poet reader is presented quarterly, while every month, CPP offers an open mic to aspiring poets–and to anyone wanting to read their favorite poem aloud.  It’s a wonderfully creative outlet for those wanting to celebrate written and spoken word poetry. 
Please join us for our next open mic event: Cleveland Public Poetry, Poetry of Love, Wednesday, February 14, at 12:00 p.m. Come share an original or classic poem that celebrates the romantic tradition of Valentine’s Day. 
Cleveland Public Poetry is sponsored by the Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library.
Read more (and check out the question & answer with Ohio poet Khaty Xiong) here:

• Open Mic Series at Cleveland Public Library Celebrates Written & Spoken-Word Poetry
• Poetry of Love open mike Feb. 14 at noon

4 for Valentine's Day: Greenheart by Dianne Borsenik

Greenheart

"Birch Trees," David M. Landis, ca 1960

If it should rain
today, then walk
with me. We’ll shed
our clothes and slip
between the trees,
hand in hand and
skin to skin, lost
in a landscape
of pagan green,
where thunder beats
its bodhrán drum,
and silvered leaves
become a tambourine.

And if the sun
should shine today,
then dance with me.
We’ll bare our feet
and find the beat
within our hearts,
stand lip to lip
and speak in tongues,
two of a kind,
enraptured by
the blazing heat
that shapes our world,
our bodies intertwined.

And if the night
should start to fall
and stars appear,
then sleep with me.
We’ll wrap our arms
around the moon
and hug it close,
transcending time,
anointed by
the stuff of dreams,
the two of us
becoming one,
supernal where we lie.

--Dianne Borsenik

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4 for Valentine's Day:

• "Valentine Blues" by Marcus Bales
• "Firefly" by Mary Turzillo
• "Crash and Burn" by Geoffrey Landis
• "Greenheart" by Dianne Borsenik

4 for Valentine's Day: Crash and Burn by Geoffrey Landis

Crash and Burn

Love starts with kisses and ends with tears.
They know your secrets. And you know theirs.

I'm tired and sad of feeling tired and sad.
This song makes me miss you and what we had.

crash and burn,
live and learn.

And that's why you'll always be crying,
And I’m quite aware that we are dying.

It's late, and I want to talk to you so bad.
I'm so confused and frustrated, and a lot sad.

crash and burn,
live and learn.

And I am so depressed, again, I tried to call last night.
I’m blind in the darkness and can only see the light.

I'm tired and sad of feeling tired and sad.
This song makes me miss you and what we had.

crash and burn,
live and learn
crash and burn,
live and learn.

 --Geoffrey A. Landis & the internet

---

4 for Valentine's Day:

• "Valentine Blues" by Marcus Bales
• "Firefly" by Mary Turzillo
• "Crash and Burn" by Geoffrey Landis
• "Greenheart" by Dianne Borsenik

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Poet's note: 
This poem was abstracted from lines out of “the longest poem in the world”, a collection of tweets taken out of context from the twitter feed and paired by computer with other tweets into rhyming couplets.  Created by Andrei Gheorghe.

4 for Valentine's Day: Firefly by Mary Turzillo

"Fireflies at Night", Tsukioka Kogyo (1869-1927)

Flash of joy in our wild dark life
that look
a word
the time you wrote the firefly poem.

--Mary A. Turzillo 

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4 for Valentine's Day:

• "Valentine Blues" by Marcus Bales
• "Firefly" by Mary Turzillo
• "Crash and Burn" by Geoffrey Landis
• "Greenheart" by Dianne Borsenik

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4 for Valentine's Day: Valentine Blues by Marcus Bales

Valentine Blues

"Rose," Geoffrey A. Landis

I’ve read through every single card
In half a dozen stores;
They’ve got them by the cubic yard,
None good enough for yours.

They’ve got a big selection there
Of cards I refuse
Because I’ve got the Valentine blues.

There’s cards for spouses, cards for friends,
And cards for straights or gays,
There’s cards that want to make amends,
And cards that count the ways;

I hope you’ll understand the reason
I don’t enthuse
Because I’ve got the Valentine blues.

There’s cards for vegetarians --
Or anything you eat,
There’s cards for love’s centarians,
And those about to meet;

I hope that you’ll forgive me now
But I couldn’t choose
Because I’ve got the Valentine blues.

Then when Cupid darts you
And love or something starts you
To give the gift and card stores a cruise,
You’ll find the same clichés there
Not lovely words of praise there
For one you never want to leave or lose.

There’s cards with slots for cash or check
And cards that play a song
And edgy cards whose use of “heck”
Has shocked us for so long.

I know that I am rambling here
Like I’m full of booze,
But I have got the Valentine blues --
Those frilly-lacy, super-sap, emotion-heist Valentine blues;

St Valentine may authorize
The arrows to use,
But Cupid’s only brought me the blues --
Those crimson-hearted, chocolate-covered, over-priced Valentine blues.

--Marcus Bales 

 

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4 for Valentine's Day:

• "Valentine Blues" by Marcus Bales
• "Firefly" by Mary Turzillo
  
• "Crash and Burn" by Geoffrey Landis 
• "Greenheart" by Dianne Borsenik

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"Poetry of Love" Cleveland Public Poetry Reading - 2/11/2015

Click here for more info.

It's all I have to bring today--

It's all I have to bring today

It's all I have to bring today –

This, and my heart beside –

This, and my heart, and all the fields –

And all the meadows wide –

Be sure you count – should I forget

Some one the sum could tell –

This, and my heart, and all the Bees

Which in the Clover dwell.

--Emily Dickinson

Happy Valentine's Day, all.

• Love poems from poets. org