ninth day
we have completed Hanukkah
we prayed
we sung
we sung our prayers
while
gifting more light
to Earth
to match our own delivered
through a miracle
we dined
we played
we
lived in gifts by the divine
while
(or in)
gifting each other
and
no
that is not everything
and as must return
to the rest
nonetheless added to
or changed by
reminding
of the greatest good
that life
comingling Earth and pardoned
paradise
allow
c l couch
(an offering inspired and I hope not insensitive or simply wrong)
photograph by Levi Meir Clancy at 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 š³ļøāš on Unsplash--āA colorful nine-branched Hanukkah menorah, also known as a āHanukkiahā. Handmade out of colored paper.ā
(x = space)
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Hanukkah Blue
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Hanukkah
Blue
Blue of certain
Stars
Pretty blue
Thoughtful
Magic
Works its way inside
Protective shells
To say
This is right
This is good
Blue for the miracle
Blue for peace
That should be
No oneās miracle
For happening
For real
Everyone
Upon the Earth
In every season
Once achieved
That point
From
Now on
Blue for jazz
Blue for me
Blue for you
Blue on
Beauty
All the stars
Starting on one star
For
Seasonsā
Greetings
Blue on
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C L Couch
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Photo by Zhifei Zhou on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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In a Few Days
(Hanukkah)
x
Itās Friday
Lord
The start of
Sabbath
And in a few days
Hanukkah
x
Iāll be ready
āCause
It will happen
Anyway
x
Eight days
Of oil
Matching need
With miracle
Inside
The recleaned
Temple home
x
Where we are home
Once a week
Once a life
Next year in Jerusalem
x
We will have
Our meals
Our chocolates
And our gifts
x
We will be stressed
And yet
All shall go well
x
While we remember
Everything
It took
And takes
To have us here
x
Hard-fought
Hard-won
Keeping festivals
And seasons
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C L Couch
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Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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The Twenty-Sixth
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Now is the time
For peace on Earth
When there is no binding holiday
No slogan
No official reason
We must slosh inside the ordinary
Mind
Hope for the best
With hoping
Because there is a job to do
Gift wrap to amass
Maybe hope
For extended appreciation
Of the gift
x
Here itās cold
There is no snow
What is a child to do
Outside?
How is it where you are?
Well,
There are screens
And some controls
To occupy
Maybe made up of more
Than metal
And plastic
x
War goes on
Thatās literal
And horrible
I donāt think it paused
For the official reason
Yesterday
Aiming for infrastructure
Destroying daily need
Aiming for
The sanctity of home
And then the nation
x
I mean Ukraine
Of course
But ask around
Itās happening elsewhere
x
Maybe it canāt happen
I heard the bells on Christmas day
When the pastor had no hope
Except to write
x
But today
Is the twenty-sixth
Only ordinary reasons
Will compel
Though thatās the only kind of peace
That lasts
The kind beside the holiday,
Lacking cachet
Thatās global
Or across the street
x
Peace in normal living
Pericardial
Beneath the cranial sutures
Satisfying daily muscles, too
x
Yes, there is a Boxing Day
And turtles doves are due
And Hanukkah
The Festival of Lights
Completes
Its wonder
And bestows
x
And there are other dates
In other places
We donāt know
And they matter
With or without the nations
Knowing
Or the neighborhoods
x
What might be happening
Where you are
As your own
And annual thing?
x
But with all lack of ritual
We have
There were storms
Taking lives
In New York
And in the South
There is the danger in
Deep, freezing temperatures
x
And thatās here:
Whatās happening with you?
x
Lights are on in capital cities
Not lit for holidays
x
There is no peace on Earth
The pastor said
And then the bells were heard
Through winter windows
x
Bells can ring a lot
As angels can call
Inside desert skies
It doesnāt have to take a day
Or twelve days
Or their nights
x
Listen
In undesignated times
x
Through the daily and dark glass
We must
Practice
Belief in clarity
There is real peace
In store
Even after falling
(after Eden)
Perfection not required
No more than fancy dress
To come inside
To keep the outside, too
x
Letās have peace
Beyond the demons
Even the Skeksis
You might know
Thatās also black
And brown and gray
With splashes of
Bright colors
That mean promise
x
Inside our kitchens
And our resting places
x
Where we study
Where our children play
Where we have our jobs
For pay
x
Cessation
Then a waging peace
Everywhere thatās
Unextraordinary
x
We may claim a season still
Or simply have the one
We have
Without an ego calling
x
Ordinary peace, of course
Start with restraint
Then offer simply
Globally
On many worlds
With all groups
All numbers of inhabitants
x
The words of love
Then actions
That profit nothing
Like the world
But keep the world
x
Practices
That work in capitals
And under smaller domes
Homely contentment
In the happiness in others
Yes, that prosaic
x
Donāt worry
If you must worry
The effect
Without expectation
Cross lines
Or move in shapelessness
Of time and place
Over, inside the world
And on all worlds
Like the song
Great and small
x
C L Couch
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x
CNN
āI Heard the Bells on Christmas Dayā
The Dark Crystal
āAll Things Bright and Beautifulā
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Day before Tomorrow
x
Last day in Advent
Made it
Whew
Rain, snow
Overwhelming cold
We should be postal carriers
To endure
It all
Strange meeting place
This junction of
The Northeast, MidAtlantic
The weather comes
From north or south
Or east or west
Iām trying
To get used to that
Itās only taken
Twenty years so far
There are forecasts
But better to wait
To know what happens
Though encounter
x
How to plan a picnic
Must be an undertaking,
Strategy
Requiring options
(bring the ants)
Sometimes the living
Is absurd
If not cartoonish
But these are the days we have
And the environs
Those who stayed
Or passed back through
Appalachia
To stay
x
And all the world has
Its places
Its challenges
Its practices
x
And now (among
the practices)
Itās Christmas Eve
And there are days in Hanukkah
This year correlating
Come
To light our way
The world could breathe easier
Except in Ukraine
In Myanmar and Yemen,
Oppressive parts of China
And of Russia
And in the manipulative
Shadowed corners
Of the USA
All the places where we watch
For detonation
Also the human heart
The battlefield it remains
x
Sin and virtue
Pounding and pushing
Pulling circulation
Strain
(Sturm and Drang),
The devils on the inside
On the outside
Rendering Christmastide
So perilous
x
And yet we sing into
A night
We wish were silent
Save for childrenās cries
For all the reasons
Children cry
Among them to receive
First oxygen and hope
Into the world
x
Render the night
Impossible in virtue
Weāll sing it,
Anyway
Weāll kneel
Weāll try to light our way
Weāll quietly acknowledge
Neighbors
Some will party
And some will do nothing,
I suppose
Though the world is affected
By what we do this night
And for a thousand years
And in the time
Remember birth and
Death
And everything
That circulates a world
Keeps it moving
In the spirit
In the flesh
x
Though maybe for an hour
Let all mortal flesh
Keep silent
And in fear and trembling
Stand
To receive
To hope for blessing
In the night
x
Let fighter planes
Fly so carefully
Perforce keep watch
Like shepherds
Over continents
And there might be songs
At crowded borders
And the lines
Kept distant
From welcome
Because mines have barred the way
x
Peace on Earth
The ersatz wish
Some must believe
(yet some must believe),
Withholding war
The practice
That must be enough
For now
x
Into the world
The child comes
The children come
And everyone
And everything
Now have responsibilities
To keep it together,
To throw
And try to seal patches
The worn places
And to keep watch
For the tearing places
On the outside of Earth
And, you know,
On the inside
Heaven
And hell
The human heart
x
Anxieties may end
Because itās here
Our plans are done
And in place as they are
Out of necessity
Of time
As chronos
So might we have
Christmas
For a day
Twelve years
Perhaps a brief era
If only hours
x
A spiritual time
A cultural invention
Arms reach out for a change
Hand in hand
In brave hope
To sing a silent night
To sing in glory
Once the vigil is completed
And there is indeed
There really is
A dawn of hope
x
Glory and hope
Amazing
Because a child is born
That for a time
Affects the government
In minds
As well as capitals
Until when all time is done
And in a kairos of eternity
Itās Christmas day
And all the other graceful days
Together
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C L Couch
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Photo by Monisha Selvakumar on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
Blessings of Lights in Darkness
(appreciation of a Gentile toward the Jewish family)
x
Somewhere in Advent
Hanukkah begins
x
Sundown tomorrow,
I believe
x
Eight nights of blue
With silver lights
That dedicate
The temple
From our enemies
x
Theyāre gone:
We donāt have to think
About them
x
Now, thereās chocolate
And treats
In games
And gifts,
Small delights
And big ones for the heart
x
Anticipation
Practice
Family
x
My ignorance
Like ignorance
Has walls;
Iād rather be inside
The spirit of redemption
And occasion,
The community
x
The relief in having realized
Somber times
x
The pleasure now,
The fun
Of shalom
x
Eight days
Of miracle,
Of remembrance and the meaning that
Creation is in food
Also in candle lights
And in each of us
Singly
And specially together
Now
x
The one who saves is blessed
And offers blessing
And is the one
As one
Who provides seriously
And playfully as well
x
Is here
Beyond the count of days
And nights
But who is here
Inside these eight,
All the intimate hours
As we draw near to them
To have,
To share
x
Next year in Jerusalem
Then
And now with family
x
From the source of blessing,
Bless
And
Keep you, friends
x
C L Couch
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Call of the Light
Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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A Count of Days
x
The Sabbath comes
And in ten days
And counting more
Is Hanukkah
Lights and chocolate
Latkes and other gifts
Of earth
And from each other
x
Blue and silver
Days and nights
The nights show off the lights
That show the miracle
When we got our temple
Back
To find it desecrated
And no fuel for lamps
We lighted them anyway
And they burned eight days
For us
And for our faith
x
Weāre not perfect
We need to keep commandments,
After all
That remind us
And our neighbors
And the world
But we own miracles as well
As the menorah
And the gifts
And the food
And the blue nights
Shall show us
As the first time
The grace and love
And strength of God
For us
In faith
And you
In yours
If we may say,
Welcome to our festival
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C L Couch
9th of Kislev (after sundown), 5783
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Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Four Candles
(Hanukkah)
x
Four candles
In the evening
Halfway through
The miracle,
Each momentās
Marvel
x
Faith after
Occupying armies
Desecrated sacred space,
The focal point for
Freedom and
For worship
x
Manna
Or like water from a rock
The people had been given
Light when
Darkness by the rules
Should have returned
x
Praise the Lord
Who needs insufficient
Oil to light lamps,
Who can
Feed the hungry
Without what we count on
As real food,
Water by divining
(for being divine)
x
Who sponsors home
And time
And holy life
When and where there
Had been none for
So long, now all in safety
And in light
x
C L Couch
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The Star of David with blossoms on a fruit tree in spring.
Photo by David Holifield on Unsplash
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