a poem for a prayer, a poem of a real story with (by me) a made-up lyric


first light

God
I ask again
for steps out of the pit
for evil to be vanquished
(the
antique word)
if only enough for
daylight enough when a
last step is taken
and
even gray daylight
for a shadowed kind of existence
might
be reached

good
enough
evil down enough
to raise me up
with all good comrades
here

(good perhaps another antique
word)

enough

if once street-level
we might
if
we may
talk with you some
more


the time when Seamus Heaney had to write something
(based on a story he told us)

she said
on arriving at the party
to find that
everyone had brought a gift

to the poet
well
go upstairs and write something

and then
I suppose he read
to us
what we had written
for the family
and in particular the baby

as in

you are born
and now you are named
you have been christened and so
liturgically
official

and we glad to know
what
to call you
for first your parents have decided
though
the law of nicknames might
apply

welcome
baby
from the mind of God
into the world
earthly and when things are allied
celestial


(Heaney visited the school, not yet a Nobel laureate)


c l couch


photo by Tony Litvyak on Unsplash