storied redemption
speak comfort
to me
Jacob
I have none to give
the time for comfort’s learning
past
if there ever had been any
even encouragement
to grow
and I could be sorry
but your
redemption’s on the line
three ghosts
and all your ghosts
to name
or nameless live in childhood
the present
and
best guesses toward the future
have substance
psychological sharp edges
while
it’s the drama of the story to find out
and what
to do
upon discovery
and what if we’re not rich
to take the town to lunch
on
Christmas day
what if the miserly that’s opened
can only loosen a new attitude
resolution
without gold-backing
will
the family take us
and we hope
so to be
taken
giving and receiving what we may and
all around
whatever day to say
as
a Dickens Christmas day
c l couch
photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
some poems for you today
(some poems of the day)
x
x
night will come on
x
second full day of winter
a thoughtful day
perhaps
x
day before the night
before the day
still a blue or purple day
white or gold
in the offing
x
another yet another
gray day outside
to look at it
to feel it
too
there’s something of a chill
x
maybe it’s three ghosts
warming up
in an ethereal bullpen
before descending upon London
or wherever
whoever Scrooge
might try to sleep
inside posts of tarnished gold
having eaten
unappreciated food
and nothing for the child
Want or Ignorance
not yet
x
we can await
transition
transformation
of a night
in a great story
sometimes on Earth
the real Earth
to know
x
x
the allusion is, of course, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, often published with other Christmas stories
x
x
multiplicity
x
sigh
a great God
comes to Earth
having been here already
shooed us from the
garden
set an angel with a sword
to keep us out
should we find it
however accidently
once again
x
a God
who’s always here
already
thus begging a confusion
since we make a deal
of God arriving
though God is here
x
well
the ancients
didn’t have that problem
paradox in time
like characters
from Bible stories
costumed as one’s own
also
in Old English
for example
without a future tense
x
so that
every time is now
and the next thing
and the thing
that was
no worries
x
God is always here
always arriving
too
everything a kind of participle
or a gerund
the subject in or as
a tense
that is all timelines
all the time
x
confused mortality
perhaps
yet replicating
meter of a chaosed clock
that has numbers
that
for the sake of our philosophy
are movable
forgettable
in the exigencies
of moments’
having
and remembering
also anticipating
x
always the birth
always the apocalypse
as well
meaning that
time and meaning
have all seeds
and growth
and harvest
with all accounts
as with all stories
every gospel
all the same
with kairos room for change
here and now
and then
and what’s to come
all the same
here
and in a kind of ancient
(that means contemporary
too)
crazy and amenable
as now
x
was
is
will
as now
x
bless our ancients
for knowing something
of
the ways things magically
and really are
today
from yesterday
into divine best-guessing
for tomorrow
x
x
servile
x
what shall we say
that’s permanent
except that God is love
God is a spirit
plus all better metaphors
a rock
a lion
x
who has an investment
in every good
and reasoned thing
in need
for us to call it miracle
x
water from
desert stone
food in ravens’ mouths
that they abey
until
delivery
x
God strives
to keep the prophets
whole
for the rest of us to
hear
and to absorb
the entire
story
letting
the wisdom
and the warnings
to soak in
through all
our cells
supernal messages
easier metaphors
for meaning
x
no riddles
save for fun
sometimes erudition
(though the simple ones
are better
aren’t they
Bilbo)
no requirements
beyond a willing
and created nature
x
there being
no stars for gain
(there are no Sneetches
and there is no
McBean)
no refectories
with sainted machines
dispensing
when the answer
or indulgence
might be right
that is
Earthly correct
x
rather leave
our kitchens
for serving
real food
for need
and in a turn
for pleasure
since there’s no reason
service should not be
pleasant
as well as exigent
with even
seasons to remember
the life outside
inside
x
the gospel within
food
perhaps
though better
after
so that we might be
sated twice
with victuals
and nourishment
from stories
forgetting not
our own
x
x
the clock that smiles
x
tomorrow go to church
or last night
this evening
later the next day
until the sun
decides
to set
and an indulgent clock
must by the maker
say
it’s had enough
x
there is this morning
too
there is right now
and shall we worship
God
inside a heartbeat
savoring the next
secured
inside
the believing beat
of now
x
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by Dominic Tham on Unsplash
x
x
God bless
our in-between days
x
Many Times Sing a Christmas Carol
There are so many renderings
Of A Christmas Carol
I have my favorites, Sim’s and
Finney’s (he’s my favorite
Poirot, too)—not simply done many
Times but rewritten:
Scrooge as a woman (only two times
That I know of), Marley as the lead,
Ballet, opera, one-person
Show, and shows of many other
Kinds
It’s the happy ending, I suppose
Though it might be the theme
That is not Christmas (sorry) but
Redemption
Maybe in art as in life, we all
Want to be saved
Christmas, by the way, comes off a
Character, almost the protagonist—for
If not the hero of a savior being born,
How could there be the rest?
I do want God to bless you, everyone
C L Couch
Photo by Shaouraav Shreshtha on Unsplash
Wishes and Bells
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