[NON BLOG] Meditations on Valentine's Day

Today is the 14th of February, Valentine's Day.

This is somewhat worrying for me, and not because of any plans to partake in a mass suicide.

No, I am worried because this Valentine's Day in 2005 is the first Valentine's Day I've experienced in the context of a dating relationship. One thing I've noticed so far is that dating, and intimate relationships, make extensive use of rhetoric. More, dating requires a very precise deployment of rhetoric: one must say what one means, and one must try and make sure that the other party understands what one means to say. If only the error-checking codes of the Voyager space probes could be transferred to human speech.

Valentine's Day is iconic. On iconic days, one must do iconic things. My particular problem is that I'm not sure what sort of iconic things I'm supposed to be doing. Perusing The Advocate on Friday, for instance, I noticed with some initial relief that said newsmagazine listed recommended gifts, of media (a magazine, a book, a CD) after six weeks, and of sweets of some kind after two months. This passed, of course, once I realized that the article also conveniently listed ways in which the intentions behind these gifts could be misinterpreted.

I've given up. We'll be going to the Royal Ontario Museum. Hopefully too many misinterpretations can't come from that.

[NON BLOG] A Poem for Valentine's Day

e.e. cummings, "i like my body when it is with your"
i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric furr, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh....And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you so quite new

- Originally published in "Sonnets Actualities XXIV," & (New York: privately printed, 1925): 116. First publication date: 14 February 1925.