Poets’ Corner: Rosemerry for Valentine’s Day

11 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 worshipped full throat 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 wrote the poem back in 2000 when she and husband Eric were building their house. Enjoy as you think equally lovely thoughts in anticipation of  your Valentine’s Day.

Where the Heart Is

Another lover might build you a castle—

a temple of stone with long mirror-lined halls

and a cadre of candles adorning the walls

to light your way through windowless nights.

Maybe there’d be a sinewy moat

to protect you from the wicked world,

and a tall tower for watching summers pass.

Another lover might build you a mansion

filled with expensive vases and oversized chairs.

The high-ceilinged rooms would echo your voice,

and your lover would smile to hear you sing.

Tall doorways would frame you so strikingly,

and from each window long gardens would beckon you

to stroll amidst manicured rows.

But lover, I would build you a house in my heart

with a single story and an untamed yard. I’d make

a stone skirt using river rocks, each one smoothed by time.

The floors would be cherry, enduring, still alive

with the memory of sunshine and bloom. Every window

would open to let in the wind, every door would swing wide

to deliver you in. And in the center room, a place for fire.

My lover, I’d build you a home in my heart

on a fast-moving river with fortified banks.

And there I would raise high the roof beams of gladness,

and there, I would lower the ceiling of sighs.

And there, in the warmth of my heart’s kitchen

I would feed you and knead you and bake bread for you.

In the halls of my heart, I would welcome you home.