Although we feel love throughout the year, it’s the month of February that officially celebrates it, crowned mid-month on Valentine’s Day. For me, a celebration of love includes all of its beautiful forms. In addition to Valentines for our romantic partners, I believe in presenting them to family and friends—including pets who prefer edible ones!
My Valentine to you, this year, is a trio of poems, illustrating love for our mothers—written by the famous Victorian era poet, Christina Rossetti, our friends—written by the renowned American poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, and our romantic loves—a Valentine poem written and illustrated for me by the love of my life, my husband, William Ahearn.
Sonnets are full of love
by Christina Rossetti
Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come.
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honoured name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.
Steady Friend
by John Greenleaf Whittier
O one in sun and shade the same,
In weal and woe my steady friend,
Whatever by that holy name
The angels comprehend.
Not blind to faults and fetters, thou
Hast never failed the good to see.
Nor judged by one unseemly bough
The upward struggling tree.
Through all the shadows of my way
Thy smile hath fallen soft and clear —
And at the close of my life’s day
May it still seem as near.
Kathryn’s Valentine
by William Ahearn
(Note the little “Ks” and “Bs” among the leaves of the Valentine trees)
Thanks for stopping by. Y’all come back, now!
(And, remember, as the Beatles famously sang—All you need is love—)
Kathryn