Apropos of the day

[Jeremy Osner]

In my readings on this feast of Saint Valentine, I came across a really
good love poem:

To Say Before Going to Sleep

I would like to sing someone to sleep,
to sit beside someone and be there.
I would like to rock you and sing softly
and go with you to and from sleep.
I would like to be the one in the house
who knew: The night was cold.
And I would like to listen in and listen out
into you, into the world, into the woods.
The clocks shout to one another striking,
and one sees to the bottom of time.
And down below one last, strange man walks by
and rouses a strange dog.
And after that comes silence.
I have lais my eyes upon you wide;
and they hold you gently and let you go
when something stirs in the dark.

R.M. Rilke
tr. Edward Snow
from "The Book of Images"