Two poetry readings on Valentine's Day will attempt to answer the question, "How do I love thee?" as well as the more often asked questions, "WHY do I love thee?" and "What the hell IS love, anyway?"

The Lovesick Poetry Reading, next Thursday from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Student Union Cellar, will showcase readers whose reflections on Valentine's Day and the L-word range from the hopelessly whipped to the hopelessly cynical.

"The title of the reading is meant to be tongue-in-cheek," said Christina Palacio, University Activities Board arts chair and organizer of the event.

Palacio said that she is especially looking for readers who find the holiday to be a bit too much.

Sociology senior Brian Mock plans on doing a reading in which he draws an analogy between falling in love and winning the lottery.

"Falling in love is luck," he said. "There shouldn't be a day to celebrate luck."

Mock said that Valentine's Day trivializes and commercializes love.

"It seems like someone who is deeply in love with someone else doesn't need to celebrate with all this cheesy extravagance. They should be above that," he said.

Anyone who wants to read can sign up by contacting Christina at the U.A.B. at 621-0764.

The simultaneous desire for and fear of love will be the theme of a reading by UA assistant professor of English Alison Moore in the Modern Languages Auditorium at 8 p.m.

Moore will be reading one of her new short stories, "Snake Woman," about a Vietnam vet who falls in love with a woman who catches rattlesnakes for a living.

"What interests me are characters who have a difficult time loving one another, who have to overcome certain fears," she said.

"In this story, fear of snakes is more of a metaphor for fear of the things that we want the most."

Moore will also read a poem dealing with Eve and the Garden of Eden, which she said is "another kind of snake story."

The reading is a part of the Poetry Center's reading series which is free to the public and held on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. in the Modern Languages Auditorium.