Tolkien

There and Back and There Again


There and Back and There Again
(22 September)

It’s Sunday
It’s fall

And the light of the full moon
(should there be)
On Durin’s Day
(should it be)
Might illuminate the secret parts
Of maps
For our adventures

But it’s the hobbits’ birthday
For our attention
Now
Of two hobbits
Born on the same date

With the first fellow
Visited by
Dwarves
Who called for
Cake
And what is
A seedcake
Anyway

There was music first
And then a plan
To find a realm
To find a base
To find the horde
Inside the mountain where
The throne resided
Too
And
By the way
A dragon
In the way

Then was the second one
Years later
Who took his uncle’s ring
To a deadened land
With a volcano
Into which
To throw the ring

You see
The ring was more than magic

It was power
The kind that Acton said
Corrupts
Entirely
And Frodo
And his friend
Samwise
With allies
Several
At first
Quested through corruption
To get there
To this mountain
To destroy the thing

That
Took the easier story
(tell Bilbo’s buttons)
Into
Perforce
An epic situation

And all the armies of the Earth
Came
Or didn’t come
To Pelennor
Then to the northern gate
Of Mordor

Great battle
Great losses
Final victories

Though it was the hobbits
Who saved everything
At last
Wounded
And wounded again
With the assist
Of an eldritch creature
Half-hobbit
Perhaps
Who fell with the ring
Into the fire

Rescued by giant Eagles
And wouldn’t that
Be something

Then Frodo
And his friend
Could not stay in Middle-Earth
Though they lived there
For
A while longer but
Finally
Set sail
With other heroes
Toward a land of blessing
Land of healing
Over the sea
Like Avalon
To Valinor

We live there
Where the hobbits
With the others
Trod
And where hobbit-peers
Might be hiding behind trees
Out of
The classic
Corners of our eyes

For
Middle-Earth
Is our Earth
And us

So
Happy Birthday
Bilbo
Frodo
Regards of a thankful
Planet
That now
Would like to party
For you

Still wondering
What a seedcake
Might be
(okay
I can look it up
and
well
the Victorians
liked it
and there are
recipes
and other lands
and times
where I’m sure
we like it
too)

C L Couch


Photo by Lucas Gruwez on Unsplash
(as I recall, the house of Samwise has a yellow door)

September 22, 2024 0

Piglet and Samwise

(x = space)

Piglet and Samwise

Piglet and Samwise

Would that

We could

Only think on them

To be them

Or to appreciate

Steadfast

Companions

And companionship

So close to us

They’re smart

Don’t miss that

They’re clever

Too

Sometimes they carry

So much

And are capacious

To take on our burdens

Too

They trim the verge

They stir the honey

In the pot

For consistency

Well

Of verge

And pot

Or rather

What’s inside

They have their homes

But leave them gladly

To find us

And then to journey

With us

When

They reach us

And we tell them

Or somehow we know

We’re moving on

You’re leaving

Then

We’re going with you

To the other side of the wood

Or through

Minas Morgul

Into Mordor

Like grace

They will go far with us

Wishing to go

The entirety

Of the calling

To adventure

And maybe they will

Or maybe there’s a part

We’ll have to go on

All our own

And then

To meet them later

(with success)

Someday to consider

Final matters

(then)

And in the mean time

There are parties

And there is

Conversation

On paths

Off the paths

On bridges

Inside when there are storms

Outside

After

Christopher Robin once

Said about his mother

Than when she left their home

To wander round

(that is, around)

The hundred-acre wood

Christopher had asked

Would she like him

To go with her?

She said no

But when I return

Greet me as if

I had been gone

A long

Long

Time

Maybe we always have

Such friends

As heroes or companions

Recalling

We are both

To each other

C L Couch

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”

― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

(cited at or by GoodReads)

Piglet, as you know, is the companion to Winnie the Pooh. Samwise (Gamgee) is the gardener and companion to Frodo Baggins, the bearer of the ring in The Lord of the Rings. Each separately or both together was or were mentioned in a sermon that I heard today. I’m sorry I don’t remember why. Jesus had companions, too, though that was not the pastor’s point (or they were not his points).

The story of Christopher Robin and his mother is told in The Enchanted Places, an autobiography.

Photo by Arwin Neil Baichoo on Unsplash

August 6, 2023 1

Sleeper Awake

(x = space)

Sleeper Awake

It’s 69 degrees

(Fahrenheit)

At (twelve-oh-five, we say)

12:05

Fall arrives

And hobbits,

The birthdays

Of the Bagginses

New season

With an equinox

Autumnal

To complement

The vernal

By a half,

Half a year,

Half a world

We tilt into another

And existentially

A new one

We have not had

Today

Or this changing

Of the Earth

Around 11

Post-meridian

Here is the same season

As a new one,

New seconds

Newly breathed

Into hours

And an age

Collectively

Spring to the south,

Autumn

To the north where

Where there

Might be dragons

In their lairs.

Then

We bring in cold air

And awaken them

We think fall

Might be the readiness

For freezing,

Sleeping winter;

And yet

(like new school years

for young ones

and for teachers)

Here and now

The adventure,

The quest

Might begin

C L Couch

Photo by Hans Isaacson on Unsplash

September 22, 2022 1

Time and Again

(x = space)

Time and Again

(for J. R. R. T. in the birthday month)

Sometimes

We know it’s happening

Far away

By powerful people

National leaders

Soldiers with weapons firing

A catastrophe

That has not befallen us

Specifically

And like parades

We know they and these are passing by

Sometimes it’s here

Still not for us

Our role might be

To observe

Or like the chorus

Comment on events

But this is not our stage

We are not the players

Not the principles,

At least

When there is news

We will know more

Sometimes it is our time

The light might be on us

Maybe not

But it is our time

The actions

And the consequences

Our place in the world

To secure

Perhaps I mean

The deaths of kings

(inclusive)

Then a fire in another part

Of town

Then maybe no more than

A birthday celebration

To have with grace

And thanks

Or maybe our time

Is more important

However to us

It seems

To the people

To the planet

To the cosmos

Believe me or not,

It could happen

It happened to the hobbit

Most of us are hobbits

Even without the provenance

Or wealth

(before the treasure is acquired)

Of Bagginses

C L Couch

Photo by Look Up Look Down Photography on Unsplash

Hobbiton, Mata Mata, New Zealand

September 10, 2022 4

Empathic

(x = space)

Empathic

How pleasant

To talk like Gollum

Without the throat-call

But to say eggses

And even Baggins,

We hates it

Forever

It don’t know,

It is a menace

And a villain

But all the buzzing

All the hissing

Like bees and snakes

They fuss

They sting

There is a threat

To suffocate and kill

They are all villains

Without sympathy

And yet they call for sympathy

The sounds

The creature

Of their origin

And all origins

Of s sounds

Of sympathy

And of pain

C L Couch

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wrote in a room in their house. At his feet, there was an electric heater, the kind with a plastic face that looks like flames. He loved languages (I hope) and with his words created the epic Lord of the Rings.

I [threw a] rock into [the] lake with [the] intent of photographing the ripple effect and with the thought of how when we are kind to others [it] grows out in ripples to others who in turn spread kindness to others.

Photo by John Peters on Unsplash

Whistle Lake, United States

November 20, 2021 0