"This day of love I take a vow
To love you well through all the days
Of long and labyrinthine ways:
But I would love you anyhow.
These words bespeak my unbent will
To love despite the passing pain,
Anger, lust, fear, silence, shame:
But without words I'd love you still.

A vow of love's the final seal
Upon an edict fully writ,
Not altering the sense of it,
Nor adding to the love we feel;

Or like an oarsman worth his weight
Upon a current swift and strong
That bears the fragile boat along
To where it meets its cherished fate.

So why a vow on Valentine?
Like any vow, to bind me to
Whatever I am bound to do:
Words that ride the wordless wind."

"My love is both a hunger and a giving,
A need to have and also to bestow,
A lavish lust for flesh and yet a yearning
For beauty as austere as polished stone.
I want more than my life your happiness,
And yet my happiness depends on you.
Like a child I linger in your shadow
While like a parent I take you in my arms.

I want to be the sun to fill your sky
While like a rose I open to your smile.
I want to be the air you breathe, your music,
While like the sand I wait upon your sea.

So like and unlike, my love is doubly bonded,
The joys of giving and receiving joined.
This day of love it is my gift to you,
A heart you can consume yet keep forever."

©Nicholas Gordon