Valentine’s Day Poem Mark 3.0

Author's Starting Note

Fellow Vocal content creator Jaye Ruggiero-Cash recently shared a long-running piece "Single And Bitter On V-Day" discussing her consternation with the upcoming holiday that is Valentine's Day. I credit it with reminding me of my own way I used to push back on the holiday: through poetry.

Specifically, poetry I would print and hand out to my co-workers at the office, completed with the autograph of a published poet (me), while they handed out traditional cards and candy. However, rather than discussing the obvious topic of love between two or more people, my poems offered alternatives takes on the holiday, from escapism to cynicism to this, the third annual rendition, which focused on self-love and self-realization.

One year, I realized it was February 14th halfway through eating a burrito and proceeded to crank out verses on my trusty legal pad before my lunch break concluded. For all our sakes, I won't share that one (I rhyme "moan" and "poem" at one point).

Instead, I'm sharing what I consider the best of the three, one I actually put quite a lot of thought into, starting with hand drafting it in the journal where I keep all my "serious" poetry.

A seriousness that is likely undercut by it rhyming, but that was the precedent the prior two years had set. It also made the decision to self-publish it here fairly easy, since no literary journal seems to take rhyming poetry these days. And I will admit, rhyming verse doesn't always translate to deep or dark subjects, something I've seen first-hand in other projects.

So here it is, the poem that graced my coworkers' desks one February 14th four years ago:

Valentine’s Day Poem Mark 3.0

Each year, it comes without fail.

A day to celebrate and commiserate

everyone’s rosy lover’s tale

– or for those alone to lament their fate.

.

Every year, it, too, arrives,

a poem, freshly written, right to your desk.

Full of this author’s diatribes

against displays insincere and grotesque.

.

Yes, it’s easy to hide behind commercialism

and its willing accomplice cynicism.

But this year, I thought I’d examine individualism

and deliver some new witticisms.

.

Much too often

in this hyper-connected society,

the emphasis is on the taken

and not on the self, the “me.”

.

Yes, relationships are important,

and their benefits can range far.

But all the more potent

is finding peace with that which you are.

.

This inner calm, this center,

requires great fortitude to find

for you must be willing to enter

the deepest recesses of the mind.

.

A greater trial will come:

what you uncover, you must accept.

Otherwise, you gain no wisdom,

and only denial will you have kept.

.

Your triumphs will be easiest to swallow,

times when will and values succeeded.

In your failures, you may wallow,

but this coming to terms is needed.

.

Amid the good and bad, you near the core,

the scale on which your actions are decided.

Understand this, and you know all the more

why certain memories are invited

and others derided.

.

So this Valentine’s Day

I invite those who are alone

to consider what I have to say

and look inward to that great unknown.

.

Ignore the envy and doubt hurled

your way, for in life, only two constants exist:

the mystery of this world

and the self that navigates through it.

.

With utmost professional sentiment,

[This is where I would have signed the printed out poem]

.

.

.

Finally, February 14, 2020 falls on a Friday, which I consider a much more worthwhile point of celebration than anything to do with Valentine’s Day.

• Interested in the lyrical style of this work? You can find similar writings in ArtAscent (December 2016 issue) and Gardy Loo (Fall 2015 issue) by searching this author’s name.
• Disinterested by the lyrical style of this work? Think that message shouldn’t be constricted by form and rhyme? After the amount of time this poem took to compose, I’m inclined to agree. I’ve also got plenty of modern free verse to peruse in ArtAscent (February 2018 and December 2019 issues).
• Don’t like poetry at all? I have short stories, too, though not in print (yet). Inquire for more.

Author's Ending Note

Since the OG version was printed out, I didn't include hyperlinks in the end section because it's a bit tough to click them with human hands. I decided against including them here 1) for authenticity and 2) because poetry has been completely overtaken by fiction in my writing world.

Indeed, back in February 2020, I had yet to place a short story with a publisher. I started to wonder if poetry was the only place for me. That would change before the year was out, on top of that whole global pandemic bit and my knees going to absolute pieces. Ever since then, those injuries have dogged me just like coronavirus has refused to die out, but I've also got nearly two dozen short story credits to my name.

As I write this, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel that is my chronic knee injuries. Which begs the question: if my knees fully heal, will my short story streak dry up? Is it one or the other? Is the universe really that cruel?

Only one way to find out.