many and great
third light tonight
third candle lit
two days
ago
the parent and the child
traditions
illuminating
the brother of Isaac has
a place
as well
and will acknowledge the same father
when
it’s time
and then east of east
there
are traditions birthing meditation
and unity in
consciousness
while
west
of here
that admittedly was here
there is understanding of an Earth
that’s borderless
flown over by trickster
Raven
and higher
lower more
the Great Spirit
so
too
those with not tradition or
acknowledge none plus
the followings so many
more
on Earth
so many ways to count
measure
this day
not as the stars
though
as people here might be grouped
or
on one’s own develop
a philosophy
as well
ways to know the Earth and
Lord
of Earth
and
sky
and us for making
and for being there
c l couch
(writing from the eastern USA)
from the Dakota Hymn
Many and great, O God, are thy works,
Maker of earth and sky;
Thy hands have set the heavens with stars;
Thy fingers spread the mountains and plains.
(Joseph Renville)
photo by Roberto Shumski on Unsplash
ides of December
(3 poems)
north time
(5:42 a.m.)
still so dark
still
so dark
remembering that it’s blue
is
all
practicing memory of daytime as
it’s
taken away
creeps back with the solstice
yet
we believe it is brief time
with
victory enough
in
enduring days
again
again like these
to the north
to
the far south
prayer while frankly things are bad
(though regardless could be daily)
God
please
forgive me
help me
in
your timing
I know
though endurance with some endings
along the way
would
really serve
you know
and
of course
you do
you love
you know
you help
and if invisible while suffering
is real
and so there seems a differences
help me in this
to undeceive my senses
to
that the paradox of evidence unseen
and even
life by death
is
understood
and with embraces
here
nonetheless looking elsewhere
is it
forward or more directions
fully everywhere
at last
the past few days at Brown and in Sydney
(and the other places)
to have lost someone through murder
to have lost a child
a lover
or a friend
or to know there is an absence
a gap in what we knew
with health
was
a totality of presence
school of learners
place where faithful gather
any place that should
be easy to walk
through
where normal then became
punishing
insane
so much innocence
and
cowardice
not perfection in the victims
maybe worse for being any
one of
us
walking
breathing
now the smallest valley
sliced
in smooth land
where we had been walking even
if
absently yet
side by side
now only gone
and
in way that was horror and
now
how must we remaining
get on
because we must
we’re called
to
and we must call ourselves
and yet
to face all there is to face
to look within
then
at the world
in
what must be a teary way and then
once scoured
from
the empty place
c l couch
At about 4:20 p.m. on a cold Rhode Island Saturday, a message from Brown University flashed up on cellphones all over campus — everyone should run or take cover from an active shooter.
Hours later, horror erupted again, on the other side of the globe, as two gunmen sprayed bullets into a Hanukkah celebration on iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney.
At Brown, two students were killed and nine others were injured. At least 15 people died at Bondi Beach, and more than three dozen remain in the hospital.
. . .
(CNN)
photo by Nikola Johnny Mirkovic on Unsplash
Hanukkah by night
Hanukkah
by night
by days and nights
candles
prayers by song
and there are meals together
for
conversation
and there is play
it is the Temple miracle
eight lights
for
the time before supplies
arrived
and on their own
the lights
to sanctify
the space be sacrosanct
again
blue
silver
visits
dreidel
chocolate
and
a festive attitude
persisting all the week
and
why not
the love of God evident through
miracle
endowing the return
and
we could meet in Jerusalem
next year
c l couch
Photo by Katie Rainbow 🏳️🌈 on Unsplash--“A colorful nine-branched Hanukkah menorah, also known as a ‘Hanukkiah’. Handmade out of colored paper.”
names
Our Lady has a day
Juan Diego anglo named
she gave him roses
(12 December, Our Lady of Guadalupe)
I am Christopher
bearer of Christ and walking
hundred-acre woods
your name is your name
assigned you for a reason
there is a story
c l couch
(a series, I suppose, though I think each poem stands on its own)
there are good stories [a line while drafting that I thought I’d let stay on the page]
photo by Aida Batres on Unsplash
newly
I’ve been drafting for hours
and keep coming
back
to something like this
the Earth tilts
as it tilts
and we may claim distinction
of
the days
this
season counted
for example
is the new year for the church
having
started some days
ago
other years have begun
and others will begin
with
the world’s big one
or big night for
it
coming
in some
weeks
sip
of champagne at midnight
all I need
(sorry)
all
these beginnings
and often
we’re glad
maybe relieved
to close what has gone on before
behind
locked
what our psychologies
might need
but this is time
and
our inventions
and they’re interesting
(time
and
inventions)
anthropologies for an Anthropocene
age
and as we have new starts
what shall we count
anew
and could it be
unusual
as in
say
feeding the whole world as it can
be fed
by all of us
say
if most of the Earth’s children
might not have to go to bed
when hungry
and
the world might have safe water
and actively believe
in
the elimination
of
diseases
maybe we could say
like beginning at a crossroads
as at railroad Xes
(if
trite)
to stop
look
and listen
then when all clear move along
and
having stopped to get
to know
to hear
we might go in clarity as well as
specificity to help
roofs for homes for
all
some real
open moves toward peace
that don’t involve threatening
so
much
or
even victory
then there’s the chance
to learn
secured for all
maybe
at any are
and
I keep drafting about new years
and seasons
and
keep returning to the theme
of need and meeting
need
which is its thesis
too
and could be our own
a direction
an action plan
what have you
for
counting
uncounting new years
and
all the seasons
all of this the time
to help
I guess that’s all
except
to say
yes
we’ll make mistakes
but we’ll be
building
rather than hoarding or tearing
down
c l couch
photo by Ravi Kumar on Unsplash
allowance
I think God should be allowed
more so
frankly
than through wind and trees
to appear
or to be evidenced
by
faith and any form of love beheld
the good word
the good message
said
by some of us
to more of us
to convey the meaning of the unseen
evidence
and to convict on lack of
concrete grounds
except
to hear a story and then if a stirring
should come before
or
after
and should Scrooge way a bit of gravy of
some
mustard
but
then Marley should scream and then
Scrooge react
overwhelmed with belief
and should God scream
at us
and so concrete belief
or
leave it up to us
a question
that could go unasked
though there is that stirring
mustard notwithstanding
(I like
mustard)
something of truth
inside
to indicate
if
not at first beyond a feeling that
there’s something to believe in
more than
ourselves that
nonetheless should make
ourselves complete
even
an abundance
the promise that is perfectly kept if
the world should prevaricate
well
deceive
for an agenda
and
we must wait a while for
our own perfection
assigned
later
and all of us
unevidenced
do all
our best
even imperfectly
for now
rising
falling
leaving
then
the coming back
c l couch
image by Achim Scholty from Pixabay
'round
I have to leave today
if only
for a while
like
his mother leaving for a walk
around the Hundred Acre Wood
and he asking before
would you like
me
to go with you with her replying
no
but when I return
greet me as if
I had been away
a long time
no mother or
another
to whom to say
that
to
or hear that from
though
needing to leave
also
to return
in a later hour
of this day
having gone around
c(hristopher robin) l couch
Christopher Milne tells the story of the walk and the question in The Enchanted Places. This Christopher better known as Christopher Robin. (And I nearly forgot mentioning that his name was how I got my own. Christopher, not Robin but for him, anyway, my mom really liking the stories.)
photograph by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash
gray time
it’s gray
as if the lightest fog in front
so
light’s ironic
without evidence
but
knowing that it’s time
Earth knows
while
it’s whole around the sun
fractured
since making and
in time
shall have the splinters going through
the core
and
all of us
gray like these days
shall hopefully have left
gone
to
another world that has
tectonically
so far to go
c l couch
photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
those who ever said I could have
if I had been
better
meaning better
in talent
sure
there’s also the spirit
not in
if God let
me
but if God had kept this from happening
the thing
or
things that limited
worse that
might
have required me
to sin
or
to choose virtue
sometimes either’s
limiting
sin
circumstance
situation ethics
or
lack of worldly repentance
on Earth
or in ourselves
I coulda’been
but
aren’t we all
contenders
c l couch
photo by Moo on Unsplash
clcouch123 
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