Francis and Me
(not unlike/not really like Ben and Me, book by Robert Lawson, film by Disney)
I’m too tired
Got up because
I was up
Got coffee for the ritual
And pleasure
From
The ritual
I’m writing
Though it’s gunk-like
Like old oil
That hasn’t yet been cleaned away
Nearly
Enough
From the machine
Replace the batteries
As well
Or something like
For charge
Get into it
But it’s a push
Against the hours I have lost
Again
Against pre-morning
Early-light
Fractal illumination
I ask
Of myself
As audience
While illumination
Of all kinds
Tries
To creep in
Over the factual sill
And the one
To
The mind
Over the parts
That sense
And I happen
Out of nerd-like interest (maybe)
Or a patriot’s dream
To think
About
Pre-dawn
Near a fort
On a ship
Neither so far away
(to ask)
How soon did he
How soon
Did Francis spy
The flag
Then write while on the ship
After uncertainty except
The fact of
(not a doorframe but)
A battle
Overnight
C L Couch
(starting at 4:30)
“The Fact of a Doorframe” is a poem by Adrienne Rich (title of book, too, “Selected Poems”)
Photo by Jamie Morrison on Unsplash
(x = space)
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Reading Lists
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Adrienne Rich
Wrote about Aunt Jennifer’s
Rings and tigers on screens
And diving into a wreck
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These were the poems
We interns were assigned
To read and teach,
And that was all right
x
But reading on one’s own
With no one’s rubric but
One’s own
Is so much better;
I’m sure we were supposed
To instill some kind of
Critical process regarding
Life and reading in it
x
But I’m not sure
How well that worked,
What kind of processes
We might have instilled,
What seeds grown,
What personal
Allegiances to one’s own
Mind and heart
x
So was a new generation of
New readers of poetry
Begun? Has it flourished?
Are they among the ones who
Turn to poetry when there’s
A tragedy?
x
(read up how we
took to verse after the
Towers fell)
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I like Rich, though that
Would not be enough
In that we were serving
A learning process
x
It was a small, state school;
I never heard from anyone
Again, though nothing and
No one is due me
x
A state away and many
Years, I wish us well
And to take up small books
Of miracles from time to time;
I do this, Mary Oliver’s
Most recently
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C L Couch
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Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash
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