A Valentine

A Valentinebreathes there a lad with heart so dead who never to himself hath said "that's the girl for me"?"Breathes There a man with soul so dead that in his heart has never said, This is my own, my native land ..."The foregoing is a garbled version of a piece of American writing I chanced upon 50 years ago at Emerson School in Fresno, and immediately loved for its simplicity, truth and warmth: loved so deeply that I found it impossible not to invent parodies of it, which ne...