Valentine

Tis the season to reflect on matters of the heart, and the curious nature of Love.
"Love is my religion," said Keats, "I could die for that."
Although some think of Valentine's day as only relating to romantic love, I've always seen it as an opportunity to celebrate all forms of affection and connection.  You have your eros, sure-- that adrenaline (or more precisely  androgen and estrogen, dopamine and norepherine) fueled state.  But there's also attachment based love, which biochemically speaking is more driven by oxytocin, and it needs its nourishment as well.  Here's a few inspirational sources featuring the L word to drive your Love Train.  Not all are sweetness and light, but then, the course of true love never did run smooth, right?
Books
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, short stories by Raymond Carver
Love is a Dog from Hell, poems by Charles Bukowski
A Natural History of Love, by journalist/poet Diane Ackerman (nonfiction)
Love in the Ruins, Walker Percy's 1970s satire of American Culture
Twenty Poems of Love and A Song of Despair, poetry by Pablo Neruda
A General Theory of Love, by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lanin-- three psychiatrists look at love from a social and neurophysical perspective
Love is a Verb, by Gary Chapman-- a practical self-help book on bringing back gracious kindness to relationship
Music
Love Train, The O'Jays
Love Shack, The B52s
Love Potion Number Nine:  The Searchers
Poems too numerous to mention, but here are three good sources and one poem to seed you:
Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac
Joe Riley's Panhala.net
poets.org

i am so glad and very

merely my fourth will cure
the laziest self of weary
the hugest sea of shore

so far your nearness reaches
a lucky fifth of you
turns people into eachs
and cowards into grow

our can'ts were born to happen
our mosts have died in more
our twentieth will open
wide a wide open door

we are so both and oneful
night cannot be so sky
sky cannot be so sunful
i am through you so

--ee cummings

"it is better to break one's heart
than to do nothing with it," said writer margaret kennedy

"nothing exists that so fills the heart and binds it as love"
--umberto eco

"if you love others, you will be loved. perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in
a thousand years, but you will be loved. nature must pay off the
debt...it is a mathematical law, and all life is mathematics."
---gurdjieff
 
"love makes even asses dance."
--french proverb

And finally, this sweet video of All You Need is Love, which yes I have posted before--
 Happy Valentine's Day!