Once and Future
Camelot has fallen
The last knight rides
Away
Into the sunrise
Of the first day of the year
So Tennyson decided
Maybe based on information
Or more by
Insight
That had moved the poet
Through
Construction
And destruction
The rising
And the falling
Raised by music
Like cathedrals
Or said the poet’s peers
By the command of
Merlin
While depicting in
What must have seemed
Indomitable stone
All ascent and descent
In
Human ages
By
The wizard’s art
At its command
Now fallen also
The unearthly being
Sealed away
For now
And we are left
To ride away with Bedivere
Into our uncertain year
As
A matter of courses
When this hearing is done
And in our case
Unready for the courts
Ideals
By betrayals
Story-slain
As if by Mordred
Also
Guinevere
And Lancelot
All exposed
As our
Baser impulses toward
Ruination
Wrecking the foundation
Into rubble
That can
Support nothing like
The comely towers
Anymore
What kind of year
Is this
Where is the refuge
For the refugees
Shall Camelot be rebuilt
If only by words
In songs
Until we have the might
For right
To try again
With mortar in
Our stanzas
For now
On this first day
The sounds of riding
Harsh
Like our discourse
Now concluded
‘Til we open up
The pages of our lives
Again
While in a distant place
Already to be set
In camouflage by nature
The final
Burning
Broken stones of the last battle
Settle into
What had been
A part of Earth
More glorious
Somehow
By us
C L Couch
. . .
Or thought he saw, the speck that bare the King,
Down that long water opening on the deep
Somewhere far off, pass on and on, and go
From less to less and vanish into light.
And the new sun rose bringing the new year.
from “The Passing of Arthur,” concluding Idylls of the King by Arthur, Lord Tennyson
Photo by Jigar Panchal on Unsplash
clcouch123 
January 1, 2024 at 3:47 pm
I really like this one. Camelot, eh? The days of John and Jackie are long over here. But it’s not Donald Trump responsible for it. The left has turned our country into a political hell hole, every aspect of life. How I see it is the left kept pushing the right slowly leftward. Ok, gay rights, makes sense, abortion (not so much), semi-national health care. But then they went insane. Deified a black drug addict for maybe police tactics that need tweaking, convicted the guy of all things, first degree murder when it should have been nothing more than negligent manslaughter (all for power). For decades they have been indoctrinating our youth in universities into critical race theory crap which is nothing more than racism after MLK had us making great headway. And icing on cake, censored the right, weaponized the justice dept., going after political opponents for the same things they do and did as a matter of routine politics. Jailed Jan. 6th people for next to nothing while letting out violent black offenders and/or encouraging them to riot (Harris). And then to put the cherry on top, they tried to normalize transgender crap, men competing with women, even beating them up in boxing matches (decision today), something gay people never tried to do because they aren’t insane. Cut parents out of this transgender insanity. Donald Trump just represented the moment we said nope. This establishment is corrupt and we aren’t being pushed anymore. They couldn’t have that. And there is nothing they won’t do to keep that power. Sorry for the lecture. Your poetry always hints at all this political stuff without making any moral judgments, even it seems, on late term abortion which is shear barbarism. Yet it’s clear you are spiritual. And don’t kid yourself, religion is on the chopping block. But I do like your poetry often. I’m glad you are having success. Happy New Year.