Happy Valentine’s Day!

Still recovering from the flu here, but thought I would share one of my favorite ever love poems. A great, great last line here, I think. And anyone who knows me well knows why this poem might be close to my heart. (Another favorite: e.e. cumming’s “somewhere I have never travelled.”)

Love Poem
By John Frederick Nims

My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,
At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,
Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen,
And have no cunning with any soft thing

Except all ill-at-ease fidgeting people:
The refugee uncertain at the door
You make at home; deftly you steady
The drunk clambering on his undulant floor.

Unpredictable dear, the taxi drivers’ terror,
Shrinking from far headlights pale as a dime
Yet leaping before apopleptic streetcars—
Misfit in any space. And never on time.

A wrench in clocks and the solar system.
Only with words and people and love you move at ease;
In traffic of wit expertly maneuver
And keep us, all devotion, at your knees.

Forgetting your coffee spreading on our flannel,
Your lipstick grinning on our coat,
So gaily in love’s unbreakable heaven
Our souls on glory of spilt bourbon float.

Be with me, darling, early and late.
Smash glasses—I will study wry music for your sake.
For should your hands drop white and empty
All the toys of the world would break.