I'm writing this to say, in a gentle way...

Although I don't connect to 'Valentine's Day' in and for itself, I always take the opportunity at this time to imagine the thoughts, feelings and emotions surrounding deep personal love
(or the lack thereof)

this year's posts (below):

a bit of singing and dancing / making the lover well / deliberately I chose the dry-as-dust / I'm writing this to say, in a gentle way, thank you but no... / there is something I wanted to tell you... / my favourite work of art

are added to those from previous years and can all be found

here

;o)] XXX

my favourite work of art

my funny valentine



"... your looks are laughable, un-photographable
yet you're my favourite work of art ..."



"... I see the world, it makes me puke,
but then I look at you
and know that somewhere
there's a someone, who can soothe me.
To me you are, a work of art,
and I would give you my heart
(that's if I had one) ..."

there is something I wanted to tell you...

the comforting company of Stephen Fry, Jude Law,
Oscar Wilde and Stephen Patrick Morrissey

I'm writing this to say, in a gentle way, thank you but no...

"...for whether you stay, or you stray
an in-built guilt
catches up with you.
And as it comes around to your place
at 5am, [it] wakes you up
but laughs in your face..."

(because even Morrissey needs a hug)

I walked around for hours, two ten-pence pieces in my hand

"I wish I had your scarf still, that once embraced
and kept me warm...



...I wish you could be with me, in these last days,
when I am still, hopelessly poor"

deliberately I chose the dry-as-dust

"...No one, not even Cambridge was to blame
(Blame if you like the human situation):
Heart-injured in North London, he became
The Latin Scholar of his generation.

Deliberately he chose the dry-as-dust,

Kept tears like dirty postcards in a drawer;
Food was his public love, his private lust
Something to do with violence and the poor.

In savage foot-notes on unjust editions
He timidly attacked the life he led,

And put the money of his feelings on

The uncritical relations of the dead,
Where only geographical divisions
Parted the coarse hanged soldier from the don..."

"A. E. Housman" by W. H. Auden

"...There are two worlds and you cannot belong to them both. If you belong to the second of these worlds [the world of the sensitive intellectual] you will be unhappy because you will always be in love with the first [the world of the athletic non-intellectual], while at the same time you will despise it. The first world on the other hand will not return your love because it is in its nature to love only itself. Socrates will always fall in love with Alcibiades; Alcibiades will only be a little flattered and rather puzzled..." - WHA on AEH in 1938

making the lover well

"...When the lad for longing sighs,
Mute and dull of cheer and pale,
If at death's own door he lies,
Maiden, you can heal his ail.

Lovers' ills are all to buy:
The wan look, the hollow tone,
The hung head, the sunken eye,
You can have them for your own.

Buy them, buy them: eve and morn
Lovers' ills are all to sell.
Then you can lie down forlorn;
But the lover will be well..."

Poem VI from 'A Shropshire Lad'
by A. E. Housman

"Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough" - Christopher Marlowe

'Chatterton' by Henry Wallis

a bit of singing and dancing

'A Bit Of Singing And Dancing' is a collection of short stories by Susan Hill. We read it at school. I still re-read two of the stories: 'Mr Proudham and Mr Sleight' and the one that gave the book it's title. 'A Bit Of Singing And Dancing' was dramatised in an hour-long television programme as part of the 'All For Love' series and can be watched in four parts:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

"... I always like a bit of singing and dancing, some variety.
It takes you out of yourself, singing and dancing..."