gifted



I’d like to give you each

a present

though I’m poor

and not the kind of poverty

that saints admire

for I have little

mystic understanding

and what I have

is tied

to nothing like

how much

how little

I have



I’d like to say

go slowly

as the Buddhists

say

especially

when parting



I’d like to say

remember all your loves

made up of

reason

practicality

and balance

not that passion

doesn’t count

	it does

but there should be a measure

in most things

of what is right

and what is easy

(like

Jack’s pieces

well

maybe not so much)



which is

(really)

to say

let all good things

have their place

and do not rearrange

from the heaven

of creation

and the philosophy

inside all things made



for there is

certainty

as well as confusion

the way this world works

and don’t deny

the sure things

that you

and others

who are smart

and might be trusted

might ally



I’d like to say

think God

(like another movie)

though I know

that’s not enough

or I could say

love

and let love

not frilly silly

(‘til the day)

but steady

and trustworthy

have its say

and guide

however trite it sounds

each day



I guess

some things are cliché

like the way we use

iconic

meaning not a symbol

but celebrity



believe

and love

so common

(a cliché)

and yet maybe

we can still ourselves

and our sophistications

to accept

that some things

important things

the most important things

are commonplace

no secrets

no requirements

but to accept

what is instilled

(installed

as it were)

within internal palaces

or offices

or bungalows

(I’ll take a wooded cabin)

in the mind

in what we call the heart

in what really is

the spirit



might be

an alliance of the spirits

one by one

within

between

our groups

our nations

for an errant world

on its quest

our quest

to grow

to acquire

and to save



good things

and we could have rituals

and easiness

(not mindlessness)

in what passes

from the Earth of now

into

the next

of now



c l couch





photo by Luca Pennacchioni on Unsplash