You

For Valentine’s Day

If I could sing, I would sing you an ode. It would last for hours. Like one of the songs of old, when warriors would sit around fires and tell tales of adventure and love and maidens fair. It would tell of your beauty and how our love has endured through years and distance and children and sickness and loss and the trials and joys that makeup a lifetime together. It would be glorious. If only I could sing.

If I could paint, I would create a masterpiece of you. Oil on canvas, I think. I would empty my heart upon that canvas, so you could see the you that I see. The beauty that I gaze upon every day would pour forth from my brush in swirls of color and shading, and there it would be, illuminated for all to see. Breaths would be stolen from those fortunate enough to gaze upon it. It would be magnificent. If only I could paint.

If I could sculpt, I would form your likeness in clay. Every curve lovingly formed by the hands that have caressed you since we began, that held your hands as our children entered this world, that held you as you shook with grief and with jubilation, that have prayed with you, that held your face between them so I could get lost in those ridiculous eyes of yours. It would rival the masters. If only I could sculpt.

Alas, what meager gifts God has given me are wrapped in words. Better writers and poets than I have written of loves lost, loves won, love that has been fleeting, and love that has endured. What more can I add to that canon? Only to say this – we were once two, and now we are one, and you are the best of that one. You are what greets me in the morning, what sustains me through the day, and what lulls me to sleep at night. You make me strive for greatness, and when I fall short you remind me that faithfulness is what counts. You are my conscience, my teacher, my best friend, my lover, my confidant, my encourager, my muse. You, my love, are my everything.

P.A. Tennant – February, 2026

Soli Deo Gloria

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Photo: P.A. Tennant

Copyright 2026 Paul A. Tennant

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