Washington Post reporter Joe Heim is right (see “Anti-Valentine Play List,” Feb. 12, 2006) :
“The world is divided into two groups on Valentine’s Day: Lovers and Others. For the former, life is sweet and the sound of music sweeter. But for the Others, certain songs cut straight to the heart — to the bone, even.”
Heim gives a sample of 14 songs, in the categories of Rage, Regret, and Revenge, and gives you the chance to vote on your Anti-Valentine Favorite.
Meanwhile, here are the only Valentine Quickies I’ve got this year:
A year ago, we spotlighted author Emma Forrest, after reading her quote: “Love is so delicate, you can’t afford to risk it on a fake holiday.” (AP/ Nashua Telegraph, “British author had no need for Valentine’s Day rubbish,” Feb. 20, 2005; also pub. at CNN.com as “I don’t like Valentine’s Day,” (Feb. 11, 2005) We at fka agree with the author of namedropper, and “Cherries in the Snow” that the romantic gestures that really count aren’t those coerced through commercially-motivated promotions. It’s the everyday demonstration of attention, appreciation and respect that has real meaning (sort of like haiku):
Heimliched out of me
pink candy heart
wordless now
…………… by Randy Brooks from School’s Out
Who would have believed (except my brother) that 40 years later, I’d be singing the same lonely-lover’s lament in the shower that I sang in high school — the 1962 song “Everybody’s Got a Ya-Ya,” by the UK’s (Three) Viscounts. You can Listen to the song, which has the chorus:
All the kids are couples,
I’m as lonely as can be
Everybody’s got a ya-ya
Everybody but me
Well, I have to run out for an EMG. Maybe I’ll have some romantic Valentine notions while the electricity is running up and down my arms. So, you all come back later (I have no dinner plans).
bingo boards empty–
another widow intercepts
the old man’s wink
snap of her bra . . .
the baby stops crying
to open his mouth
………………………… by Randy Brooks, from School’s Out (Press Here, 1999)
Valentine’s Day –
I forget to get
the garbage out
……………. by Tom Clausen – Upstate Dim Sum (2005/II)
Click for more Haiku for Valentine’s Day, from the Global Haiku Tradition Kukai 2 (Millikin University, February 14, 2001); you’ll find 30 haiku selected by Prof. Randy Brooks..
it’s sealed —
the Valentine card
she never sent
……………….. by dagosan: