Valiant Time

The words, Valiant Time, are close to Valentine, and though not a synonym for the saint, make a good synonym for a day that celebrates the heart--that physical force and rhythm, that emotional and spiritual center, whose fuel is best explained by words not from English. It is no accident that courage and coeur share roots, as do corazón and coraje. It takes courage to have heart. It takes courage to love--to find it, express it, lose it, and rediscover it.

In honor of valiant hearts everywhere, here are some Haiku to celebrate Valentine's Day, el día del amor y de la amistad. The first two poems are mine. The last (one of the finest Haiku I have ever read!) is by Evans Lansing Smith, editor of the journal New Myth and author of Sacred Mysteries: Myths about Couples in Quest.

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Time has not yet taught

me how to leave off missing
you, gone now so long

To begin is swift.
To end brings slow uneven
pain. Dull, sharp ache--mine

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You said you still love

me, and hearing, my heart grew,
deepened into bloom

***

Pathways of the heart:

Inscrutable, arterial,
labyrinthine thresholds


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Text and images, copyright Ysabel de la Rosa.
Third Haiku poem by Dr. Evans Lansing Smith,
author of Sacred Mysteries: Myths about Couples in Quest
and other books.