Desert Tale

Number 2, Volume 5


The Laughter of Love and the Love of Laughter


I once was a guest romance author on a Florida radio show for Valentine’s Day. Listeners would call in and ask questions about what they should buy their sweetheart for Valentine’s Day, or could I give them advice about a difficult candidate to catch, and where did I get my inspiration to write poetry, and what did I think about a certain color for a wedding motif, and so on. It was great fun with a lot of laughs because the disc jockeys kept playing romantic songs and poking fun at the really syrupy words.

In my anthology of poetry: Poetic Petals, there is a photo of a white rose with a spider on it, and they insisted on telling spider stories which almost veered into a spooky Halloween theme, which I quickly had to revert back into romantic sentiments. But with two crazy guys on the air, I took their teasing in stride. They were not about to cave in to schmaltziness and show weakness. However, the listeners seemed to enjoy the show, and I had to think fast on my feet on a thirty-minute radio show when I didn’t know what questions were coming. Now I know how politicians feel, and how they develop their polished patina for political correctness.

This Valentine’s Day, I copied a poem by Anne Peterson, entitled: “I’d Marry You Again,” on notebook paper and left it near the coffee pot. My husband of forty years got up at 5:00 A.M., half asleep, without his morning coffee or his glasses on and read the first line: “With tiny tears that glistened…” and rushed to the garage to see if the car was still there. He thought I had left him! After gulping down some coffee and cleaning his glasses he continued reading apprehensively what I thought was a beautiful poem about marriage and “the ups and downs,” and finally realized it was a Valentine’s Day sentiment I was expressing to him.

When he woke me up with a cup of coffee, as he does every morning around six, and handed me a bouquet of flowers he had hidden in the refrigerator in the garage, and told me what he felt I started laughing thinking, why is every Valentine’s Day so funny? Isn’t it supposed to be romantic? And then I thought – that is probably why we have been married for so long: we laugh a lot. And if you can keep a sense of humor, you can get through anything.

Life is so short — so live, laugh and love. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Alinka Zyrmont