Saturday, February 14, 2009

She told me to choose my valentine. I looked at the stack sitting on our coffee table. How could I pick? I simply took the first one off the top, scanned it briefly and knew that it was very good. She enclosed it in an envelope with the strict instructions that I was not to open it until 
V-D! Before work this morning I finally opened and read it entirely-- I had chosen a great one. Later when I thanked her for it, she told me that my poem was one of her favorites. I'd love to read the whole piece; Jenny included an excerpt:

... That day--that day you picked the first sweet-pea,--
And brought it in to show me! I recall
With terrible distinctness how the smell
Of your cool gardens drifted in with you.
I know, you held it up for me to see
And flushed because I looked not at the flower,
But at your face; and when behind my look
You saw such unmistakable intent 
You laughed and brushed your flower against my lips.
(You were the fairest thing God ever made,
I think.) And then your hands above my heart 
Drew down its stem into a fastening,
And while your head was bent I kissed your hair...

                  From "Interim," Edna St. Vincent Millay

No comments: