Poets’ Corner: Rosemerry for Valentine’s Day

12 Feb Poets’ Corner: Rosemerry for Valentine’s Day

Before he was either a saint or a holiday, Valentine was a Christian priest martyred in the third century. Some legends say he was executed for defying an edict against conducting marriages for Roman soldiers whom the emperor believed would fight better without family ties. In one account, Valentine fell head over heels for his jailor’s daughter and wrote her a poignant goodbye letter signed “From Your Valentine.” It was not until the Middle Ages, however, that people adopted Valentine as the patron saint of love and romance, here honored by one of Telluride’s favorite poets, the lovely Word Woman, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Rosemerry’s veneration of  love would likely convert even the most cold-hearted Roman potentate. She loves simply in “One Impossibility” and “Sole”; metaphorically in “Unfinished Song”; beautifully and completely in all three.

One Impossibility, But Still I Try

telling you I love you—
trying to pour the ocean
into a thimble

Sole

Like a boot takes the shape
of the foot that wears it, I imagine
my hand might come to take the shape
of yours, your hand—something
I was made to hold, made to move with,
made to let go.

Unfinished Song

Tonight, I love you
the way the sky loves the moon,
the way trees
love their leaves,
the way loss
loves minor tunes.

Tonight, I love you
just as the sea loves the waves,
just as blooms
love their Junes,
just as a breeze
loves doorways.

Don’t you hear
there’s a question in the air
and it smells like rain,
the rain that’s yet to come.

Can’t you hear
there’s a humming in the air
and it smells like rain,
the rain that’s yet to come.

Tonight, I love you
the way the earth loves the rain,
the way jazz
loves pizzazz
the way mornings
love champagne.

Tonight, I need you
the way the rain needs the sky,
the way blue
needs light, too,
the way questions
need whys.

Don’t you hear
there’s a question in the air
and it smells like rain,
the rain that’s yet to come.

Can’t you hear
there’s a wonder in the air
and it smells like rain,
the rain that’s yet to come.