LOVE: 14 Valentine's Day Poems, Quotes & Tips (2024)

“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves- alone we find it with another.” Thomas Merton

LOVE: Valentine’s Day and more… ✿♡✿Happy Valentine’s Day!✿♡✿ February is a month choc-a-bloc with important events and celebrations that bring people together in so many ways; there is Valentine’s Day, Chinese Lunar New Year (Year of the Golden Ox), Health Health Month, Black History Month, and Presidents’ Day. Each of them commemorates a special cultural tie that reminds us of our heritage, relationships, and values. The current pandemic has put a dent in the usual plans we typically have and so it will be wise to consider alternative ideas that could become new and improved takes on our yearly rituals. Take this time to kick back a bit and reflect on what matters to you and your loved ones and how to achieve it safely and legally. Below, I have shared poems, quotes, and tips to help us celebrate all that love brings our way. Come back for the rest…

1) First and foremost, if you are single, Send yourself a Valentine’s Day card and a bouquet of your favorite flowers.
2) If you have a partner, send each other a special delivery of flowers and a favorite/cherished item
3) Surprise a few folks by sending secret Valentine’s Day cards, flowers, or chocolates to struggling friends and neighbors you know could use some hugs and love
4) Make a list of all the things you LOVE about YOU. Type it up and Frame it on your wall.
5) Make a donation to your local Foodbank, favorite Charity, and friend/neighbor in need.
READ: Happy Valentine’s Day: A Haiku And Three Wishes
Motivation Mondays: Happy Valentine’s Day
On Love: Valentine’s Day Wishes…
Motivation Mondays: LOVE Is… #HappyValentinesDay

When you love someone all your saved-up wishes start coming out. Elizabeth Bowen
Love shall be our token; love be yours and love be mine. Christina Rossetti
Most people are slow to champion love because they fear the transformation it brings into their lives. And make no mistake about it: love does take over and transform the schemes and operations of our egos in a very mighty way. Aberjhani
Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. Robert Heinlein
If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you. A. A. Milne

A Great Need By Hafiz
Out
Of a great need
We are all holding hands
And climbing.
Not loving is a letting go.
Listen,
The terrain around here
Is
Far too
Dangerous
For
That.

It’s all I have to bring today By Emily Dickinson
It’s all I have to bring today—
This, and my heart beside—
This, and my heart, and all the fields—
And all the meadows wide—
Be sure you count—should I forget
Someone the sum could tell—
This, and my heart, and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.

Untitled By Rumi
I swear, since seeing Your face,
the whole world is fraud and fantasy
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf
or blossom. The distracted birds
can’t distinguish the birdseed from the snare.
A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon,
a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.

Close close all night By Elizabeth Bishop
Close, close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn together
in their sleep,
Close as two papers
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.
Each knows all
the other knows,
learnt by heart
from head to toes.

First Love by John Clare
I ne’er was struck before that hour
With love so sudden and so sweet,
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower
And stole my heart away complete.
My face turned pale as deadly pale,
My legs refused to walk away,
And when she looked, what could I ail?
My life and all seemed turned to clay.
And then my blood rushed to my face
And took my eyesight quite away,
The trees and bushes round the place
Seemed midnight at noonday.
I could not see a single thing,
Words from my eyes did start—
They spoke as chords do from the string,
And blood burnt round my heart.
Are flowers the winter’s choice?
Is love’s bed always snow?
She seemed to hear my silent voice,
Not love’s appeals to know.
I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before.
My heart has left its dwelling-place
And can return no more.

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”Rumi

What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? This is the mantra we will hear and repeat till the 14th comes and goes. For those of you who have great romantic plans with loved ones, I say go out and enjoy yourself. Carry that feeling over to the rest of the year and to others outside of your inner circle of family and friends. To those of you who don’t celebrate it, for whatever reason, I say bravo. I hope it means you have conquered the commercialization of this formidable emotion we call LOVE. I hope it means your loved ones know, implicitly, that you are the love god/goddess of your household; you don’t need one day of the year to prove it. On the other hand, if you aren’t celebrating because you don’t believe in love or you think it’s overrated, think again! Did you miss the memo on Self-Love? Love truly begins with us and how well we care fr ourselves.

6) Invite your closest friends on your favorite video conferencing platform to enjoy some virtual comfort foods and gift exchanges and call it a Just Because Of Our Love Party.
7) Treat yourself and your family to a special meal and have each person share at least one thing they love about everyone in the family.
8) Have each family member write down all the accolades and positive feedback they shared about each other, and use the information to create individualized Valentine’s Day cards for each family member.
9) Listen to your favorite love songs and create a song list on Spotify or Apple
10) Search for top Love and Romance Movies of the last decade and Have a Movie-watching-marathon
READ: Motivation Mondays: Beyond Valentine’s Day
Motivation 2020: Heart to Heart
Motivation Mondays: Valentine’s Day Tips
Reflections: What Really Matters…?

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. Blaise Pascal
A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others. Frank Morgan
Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever. Audre Lorde
The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it. You and you alone make me feel that I am alive. Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee, and thou art enough. George Edward Moore
I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street. W. H. Auden

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e.e. cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

The Privileged Lovers By Rumi
The moon has become a dancer
at this festival of love.
This dance of light,
This sacred blessing,
This divine love,
beckons us
to a world beyond
only lovers can see
with their eyes of fiery passion.
They are the chosen ones
who have surrendered.
Once they were particles of light
now they are the radiant sun.
They have left behind
the world of deceitful games.
They are the privileged lovers
who create a new world
with their eyes of fiery passion.

The Price By Henry Fielding
Can there on earth, my Celia, be
A price I would not pay for thee?
Yes, one dear precious tear of thine
Should not be shed to make thee mine.

In Former Days We’d Both Agree By Bhartṛhari
In former days we’d both agree
That you were me and I was you.
What has now happened to us two,
That you are you, and I am me?

The details for Motivation Mondays are below. Join in! The themes for JAN – FEB 2021 are:

JAN
01/01 – 01 New Years Day, 04 World Braille Day, 06 Epiphany
01/10 – 11 Human Trafficking Awareness Day, 14 Orthodox New Year, 16 Religious Freedom Day,
01/17 – 18 Martin Luther King Jr Day, 20 Inauguration Day, 21 National Hug Day, 22 National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 23 National Pie Day
01/24 – 24 International Day of Education, 27 Commemoration of Victims of the Holocaust, 28 Data Privacy Day,
01/31 – 31 National Hot Chocolate Day
National Mentoring Month, National Glaucoma Awareness, Cervical Health Awareness Month, National Blood Donor Month, Birth Defects Prevention Month

FEB
02/01 – 02, Groundhog Day, 04 World Cancer Day, 05, National Wear Red Day, 06, International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM.
02/07 – 07 Superbowl, 11 International Day of Women/Girls in Science, 11/12 Chinese Lunar New Year of the Ox begins, 13 Galentine Day
02/14 – 14 Valentine’s Day, 15 Presidents Day, 16 Mardi Gras, 17 AsH Wednesday, 20 NAACP Awards, 20 World Day of Social Justice
02/21 – 26 Purim starts
02/28 – 28 Golden Globes
Black History Month, American Heart Month

Continued Below

“Where there is great love, there are always wishes.” Willa Cather

Do you remember your first Valentine? Your memorable or saddest Valentine? Valentine’s Day can be a trigger for good memories and not so good ones of unrequited love, shattered dreams, and long gone lovers…All of these memories count for something and add to our bag of life stories we carry with us; sometimes tucked away as scars or as sacred events. What matters most is that we motivate ourselves to build healthier, positive, and fulfilling experiences and memories. While love can be exhilarating and enervating, it can heat us up and leave us cold and we must learn to move forward with life and not get stuck. We can take the experiences, bundle them up, tie them with a glorious bow, and offer them to the Gods; asking for a compassionate lover, a lasting companion, gratitude for loved ones, grace for future loves, and above all, blessings for fulfilling love. Happy Valentine’s Day!

11) Take a healthy walk and re-evaluate your daily routine to include time for reflection/prayer, exercise, creative endeavors, and other things you keep putting off.
12) Read uplifting articles like “Do You Love Yourself?” by inspirational author Louise Hay. In the article, she offered twelve important tools/tips on self-love
Stop All Criticism. Support Yourself.
Forgive Yourself. Do Mirror Work
Don’t Scare Yourself. Be Loving to Your Negatives.
Be Gentle and Kind and Patient. Love Yourself
Be Kind to Your Mind. Take Care of Your Body.
Praise Yourself. Do It Now.
13) Give thanks and gratitude for all the good in your life and share it with others
14) Practise Random Acts of Kindness for at least the next 14 days
READ:- Inspiration: Happy Valentine’s Day…
Happy Valentine’s Day: 12 Tips On Self Love…
Motivation Mondays: LOVE

The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along. Rumi
I won’t give up on us, even if the skies get rough. Jason Mraz
They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything. Bil Keane
A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. Ingrid Bergman
If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love. Maya Angelou

One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII By Pablo Neruda
I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

Valentine By Donald Hall
Chipmunks jump, and
Greensnakes slither.
Rather burst than
Not be with her.
Bluebirds fight, but
Bears are stronger.
We’ve got fifty
Years or longer.
Hoptoads hop,
but Hogs are fatter.
Nothing else but
Us can matter

Trifle By Georgia Douglas Johnson
Against the day of sorrow
Lay some trifling thing
A smile, a kiss, a flower
For sweet remembering
Then when the day is darkest
Without one rift of blue
Take out your little trifle
And dream your dream anew.

Unfortunate Coincidence By Dorothy Parker
By the time you swear you’re his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying –
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying.

She Walks in Beauty By Lord Byron (George Gordon)
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

Any Zen Antics stories via

Positive Motivation Tip: Valentine’s Day begins with a bit of self-love then sprinkled around to others

Motivation Mondays series is open to anyone who wishes to share a motivational quote, photo, personal challenge, or a post that encourages others to start the week on an upbeat note.
Basic Instructions: Each week, I will have a motivational word to help us create a response. (See listed words for the months above/below)
Email address: You may email or share your post as a comment and I will add it to the round-up of related posts. email it to: contact(@)mirthandmotivation(.)com
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Dedicated Page: There is a dedicated page for Motivation Mondays. It has the same instructions and will include other helpful tools and a link to the round-up
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Badge: – I created a fun badge using PicMonkey’s free photo editing tools. You can create your own, use WordPress’ integrated tool on your blog or you are welcome to use mine. (see dedicated page)
Tag: – Motivation Mondays
Hashtag: – #MotvnM

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PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos –Valentine’s Day photos from Pixabay and Pexels free Photos or via WIKIPEDIA
QUOTES and POEMS from- BrainyQuotes, SouthernLiving, Shutterfly,

Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet