The Heliconian: A few love poems for Valentine's Day

DAN KATZ '08 and the editors of THE HELICONIAN

Whether you hate it because of the potent odor of Hallmark and Hershey’s, or love its mushy and heartfelt messages, it is difficult to ignore the traditions of Valentine's Day. At the end of the day, everyone values the chocolate, the flowers, and the admiration. Such a day reminds us that showing love is not outdated or overdone. Cliché or not, Valentine's Day will always be etched on the calendars of hopeless romantics and cynics alike.

From a literary standpoint, Valentine's Day reminds us of the power of affection: both on the mind and the pen. We at The Heliconian always value a good love poem, and so for our first contribution to the Literary Corner, we thought we would share a few of our favorites.

----------------------------------------------------

Gage Hackford’s selection:

Variations on the World Sleep
by Margaret Atwood

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear
I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

----------------------------------------------------

Ms. Lipson’s selection

I Carry Your Heart with me
by EE Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

----------------------------------------------------

Dan Katz’s (my) selection:

A Simile for Her Smile
by Richard Wilbur

Your smiling, or the hope, the thought of it,
Makes in my mind such pause and abrupt ease
As when the highway bridgegates fall,
Balking the hasty traffic, which must sit
On each side massed and staring, while
Deliberately the drawbridge starts to rise:

Then horns are hushed, the oilsmoke rarefies,
Above the idling motors one can tell
The packet's smooth approach, the slip,
Slip of the silken river past the sides,
The ringing of clear bells, the dip
And slow cascading of the paddle wheel.

----------------------------------------------------

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."
-Ingrid Bergman

More from The Heliconian soon to come!