silver

Blessings of Lights in Darkness

(x = space)

Blessings of Lights in Darkness

(appreciation of a Gentile toward the Jewish family)

Somewhere in Advent

Hanukkah begins

Sundown tomorrow,

I believe

Eight nights of blue

With silver lights

That dedicate

The temple

From our enemies

They’re gone:

We don’t have to think

About them

Now, there’s chocolate

And treats

In games

And gifts,

Small delights

And big ones for the heart

Anticipation

Practice

Family

My ignorance

Like ignorance

Has walls;

I’d rather be inside

The spirit of redemption

And occasion,

The community

The relief in having realized

Somber times

The pleasure now,

The fun

Of shalom

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

The one who saves is blessed

And offers blessing

And is the one

As one

Who provides seriously

And playfully as well

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

Next year in Jerusalem

Then

And now with family

From the source of blessing,

Bless

And

Keep you, friends

C L Couch

Call of the Light

Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash

December 17, 2022 0

Let Me Tell You about My Day

(x = space)

Let Me Tell You about My Day

(first hour or so)

Pre-dawn

Blue

And if you look into it,

A promise of silver

In a while,

The mourning doves might call

Take over for the cardinals

And the robins

Who might be louder elsewhere

The doves

Sing us into green

Town noise might subsume

The outside sounds

(except the doves who

are right against the window)

Except that it is Sunday

So the morning

Should be

Relatively quiet

For nature’s sentineling

And mine

We’ll find out

As for other senses,

Touch and smell and taste

Should have their turns

You might

Guess at the prospects

There’s still a war

Two wars, three wats

Still a virus

Many viruses

People will die today

And people will be born into

Air-breathing life

I’m a little late

Proposing all of this

Because the coffee cup

Slipped from my hand

And all the coffee

Slid

Down the down the

Sides of everything,

Flat surfaces

And cushioned

(a play of surface tension

and of gravity),

To land upon the floor,

Most of it

Slight sweet

More creamy than sweet

An expensive brand

Though not a kind

More dear

So I took time to

Clean the mess:

To clear out things,

Take things

To the sink

Where I’ll deal with them,

Sponge and paper towels

And cleaner for

The rest, for the floor

Now things have to dry

Then to be

Cleaned again

And there’s more coffee

To take out from

Its machine

Sigh,

One of those days

And what does that mean?

I see

The blue

And sense a silver promise

Like new friends

In a scouters’ song

I reckon now

You’ll have a day to survey

Finally

Of many hours

I’ll look forward to any

Of that story that

Might come my way

C L Couch

Before Dawn

Photo by Tao Yuan on Unsplash

April 3, 2022 8

Memory of Father

(x = space)

Memory of Father

I have a memory

Not so long ago

So it might be true

Of visiting my father

They had let his hair grow

He looked like Gandalf

Or Saruman

Or Merlin

The silver hair was beautiful

We talked

I left

Next time I saw him

His short hair was back

He looked like Hemingway

A compliment of sorts

C L Couch

Photo by Joshua Brown on Unsplash

August 28, 2021 4

g is for gallop

g is for gallop

(verse at work)

galloping

I remember not directly the old radio show featuring the masked man Lone Ranger whose mask was made from the clothing of his dead brother a Texas Ranger ambushed in a gully by a criminal gang led by Butch Cavendish I think the companion for the Lone Ranger was Tonto an American Indian with many skills though doubtlessly not treated with the respect he was due I’m not sure who played the Ranger and Tonto on radio but certainly on television still before my time it was Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels respectively and isn’t that a great name for the Native American companion well Clayton Moore tended to live the part which wasn’t all that bad because in public he reinforced a message to children that justice was good and fair a win even if the winning went hard there was more silver than simply in the name of the actor for the Ranger shot silver bullets from two guns he had wrapped around his waist silver bullets shooting straighter and true so went the lore I think and his horse was named Silver too which led to the famous expression “Hi-ho, Silver!” that the Lone Ranger called usually while his horse reared on its two hind legs and that cry was followed by “Away!” and I swear in reruns and rebroadcasts I think it was maybe Tonto who shouted “Away!” though I suppose I’m only romanticizing to give him more stature when saluting their own show and Tonto’s horse was named Scout but after all the calling set in the saddles of their chargers you know what they did they galloped away from the warm radio brocade panel or the cathode-ray lit television screen and where did they gallop but into their next adventure and should not we do the same