Poetry: Serious. Not That Serious.

Valentine's Day EditionIn honor of Valentine's Day, I have curated some offbeat, surprising love poems for you, dear readers. There's a love poem to a nose, and a love poem to a sexy tattooed man, and everything in between, on this very heart-happy day!1. Love Poem To A Body Part You Used To Hate:  To My Big Nose  by Lucia PerilloThis poem, addressed to the speaker's nose, begins like so:Hard to believe there were actual yearswhen I planned to have you cut from my face—hard to imagine what the world would have looked likeif not seen through your pink shadow”¦And ends in a loving, coming-to-terms moment that acknowledges the speaker's imperfect nose as an inextricable part of her life's course—and perhaps even her life's true rudder:”¦and you are not so cruel, though you frightened men offall those years when I thought I was running the show,pale ghost who has led me like a knifecontinually slicing the future stepped into,oh rudder/wing flap/daggerboard, my whole lifeturning me this way and that.2. Love Poem That Uses Jesus To Get Its Point Across: I Want To Say Your Name: a love poem by Veronica PattersonThe poem begins like so, direct and with a passion so strong that it boasts of religious fervor:I want to say your namethe way Jesus said, “Mary,”at the unstopped tomb”¦And ends on a much dreamier, more personal, quite lovely, note:”¦I would say yours once, to sealwho you are, why I've stayed.“Mary,” he said (I would say your name)and the wind blew between the letters.Stars hung low over the peaks of the Mand in the a, a world orbited.3. Love Poem About Goodbye: In Back Of by Linda PastanIn back of “I love you”stands “goodbye.”In back of“goodbye”stands “it was lovelythere in the grass, drenchedin so much greentogether.”Words that waitare dark as shadowsin the back roomsof mirrors:when you raiseyour right handin greeting,they raise their leftin farewell.4. Love Poem That Takes Place In A Parallel Universe Where You Can Only Say 167 Words Per Day: The Quiet World by Jeffrey McDaniel... When the phone rings, I put it to my earwithout saying hello. In the restaurantI point at chicken noodle soup.I am adjusting well to the new way.Late at night, I call my long distance lover,proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.I saved the rest for you.When she doesn't respond,I know she's used up all her words,so I slowly whisper I love youthirty-two and a third times.After that, we just sit on the lineand listen to each other breathe.5. Love Poem With A Tattoo Motif: First Poem for You by Kim Addonizio”¦I love to kissthe pictures in your skin. They'll last untilyou're seared to ashes; whatever persistsor turns to pain between us, they will stillbe there. Such permanence is terrifying.So I touch them in the dark; but touch them, trying.HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, LADIES ”˜N' GENTS!