by Michael Stonecipher

Created on: February 08, 2009

St.
Valentine's Day, since ancient times has been a gala event that represents a moment that, if true, can last forever. True Love is rare, and rarer still is the lover who cares more for the beating heart than the shining gem. The soul of the relationship is the soul itsef and not the sale. The touch, the kiss, the sweet embrace is earned by all true lovers, not because of a receipt of purchase, but because the receipt of the heart.

The Valentine spirit overcomes us and we seek to give some ultimately meaningful gift to those that keep our hearts beating day by day, night by night. Some of us buy fantastic material tokens of our affections. But a few of us, those with means, and those without, endeavor to create with their own heart and hands rather than window shop for that one thing that illustrates our feelings and fortifies our bonds. A hand knit sweater can mean more than a silk tie. A coffee cup of hand molded clay can hold an ocean of our Love. Those with vocal talent can sing a gift. Skilled carpenters can carve an angel headboard for the marriage bed, in every moment contemplating Love. Still others can deliver declarations with a hand made card, carefully cut, carefully colored, and passionately written.

Poetry is a wonderful and sincere way to express Love. Modern poetry is indeed beautiful, in its artistic anarchy; it follows no rules. Some beautiful poetry, however, rhymes, and has a measured rhythm count of beats called meter. Each line of verse is counted during and after writing. For example, Shakespeare, the old master, wrote in what's called Iambic Pentameter. Iambic means that in the line, words are paired, and every short, weak, or soft syllable is followed by a long, strong, and hard syllable:

one, TWO, three, FOUR, five, SIX, seven, EIGHT, nine, TEN

Five such pairs is called a penta (Greek for "five"). I write the weak syllables in lower case and the strong syllables in UPPER CASE to remind me which is which. I also move my finger or tap my foot to the beat of the line.

Therefore we could start a verse with a pure and heartfelt emotion, Love:

i LOVE you

This statement consists of one and a half beat pairs, iambs. "i LOVE" makes one and "you" starts another. Now, we need to match "you" with a rhythmic partner. Though rhythm pairs can split words, any one syllable word will work well. Like "more".

iLOVE youMORE

and we can make an effort, flow from there

iLOVE youMORE thanWORDS canSAY ,myDEAR. . . .

Then continue, using images from your imagination, or personal feelings you need to share, or your Valentine's favorite color, etc., keeping the rhythm by counting the beat, word strength, and rhyming the terminal syllable(the last sound). Rhythm and rhyme can vary as much as you want, but the poem flows better when at least every other line is a match for sound(rhyme) and time(rhythm) Therefore, we could have:

I love you more than words can say, my dear

beCAUSE you MAKE me FEEL like I'M a KING

i LOOK inTO your EYES, my DEAR, and PEER

inTO the SWEETer FUture THAT you BRING.

I hope this can be of some small help for any modern poets who'd like to try classical verse.

Good Luck and have a Happy Valentines!

Learn more about this author, Michael Stonecipher.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.