the Heaneys at a christening on realizing everyone else had brought a present
write something
she said
he went in
went up
and wrote something
c l couch
(a story he told at a reading)
photo by Leonardo Iribe on Unsplash
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
(x = space)
x
x
dedication holy
x
do we love these people?
yes, we do
each one
every one
you have made it this far
now let us go with you
in everything
all circumstances
light and shadow
as God is there
we commit
to be there, too
x
(add now
our prayers and meditations
from our
part of the family
new fam’ly
for the one)
x
amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Daniel Seßler on Unsplash
x
Well, Go Upstairs and Write Something
I hope it’s true, this story
We were told by the poet:
There was a christening,
All the family there
They arrived, and it was only
Upon entry that these two understood
That everyone had brought
A gift but, sigh, them
They had nothing but attendance,
Which maybe should have
Been enough
But she leaned into him
And said, Well, go upstairs
And write something!
He did, a lyric for a child just
Entering the world with a
Name and little else
But the gifts and now some
Brand-new words
C L Couch
(Seamus Heaney in a talk at school, given in the late eighties)
Picture of the Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney at the University College Dublin, February 11, 2009.
Sean O’Connor, cropped by Sabahrat – File:Seamus Heaney.jpg
clcouch123 
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