A Count of Days

(x = space)

x

x

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

We’re 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

x

C L Couch

9th of Kislev (after sundown), 5783

x

x

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

x

Modranicht

(x = space)

x

x

Modranicht

x

Maybe I need a break

Go somewhere

Look at lights that others

Have put up

Phantom merrymaking

On my part

No, wait, they were put up

For me and others like me

To go by

To gaze at from afar

Appreciate the rainbow lights

Against the snow,

If snow,

Against the dark

Of night

Of loneliness

Of season’s night

Of season’s loneliness

That say, we’re here

And some of us

Are here for you

x

C L Couch

x

x

Modranicht, Night of the Mothers (a Yule celebration, now Christmas Eve)

x

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

Ilkley, United Kingdom

x

Advent 2

(x = space)

x

x

Advent 2

x

Shall we light

Two lights from

One light

To move the meaning out

A little

To say this is a season, now

x

As the light is shared

So should we share

Our hopes

And dream

Intentions

For more light

Of our own making

For mercy

And a thoughtfulness

Toward love

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Carson Arias on Unsplash

x

Christmas in July

(for the editor of a local newspaper)

 

I think it was largely a retail invention

I think it still is

There was a movement

For a while this year

To display Christmas

Or holiday lights,

But I don’t think it took on

Maybe was subsumed

By a trenchant desire

To be normal,

Which evidently has to be

A retrograde feeling

Too bad, since lights on houses

In July would be cool without,

You know, being cold

At least in these parts

I’d be up for Aussies and

Kiwis joining the movement,

Too

Lights and music

Maybe a sensation or two

We wouldn’t have to call it

Christmas—how much does the

Birth of Christ resonate, anyway?

We could be respecting of

All the good traditions

(there are many)

Frankly, nodding toward

Colors, maybe music

Gift-giving could take a pass

Let’s use what we already

Have

For fun, adding a toy penguin,

Maybe a dinosaur (also

stuffed, not stuffing us)

Or two

Not to make it chaos

But, to borrow from another

Celebration, a cornucopia

Inclusive, somewhat organized

Revelry without the stress

The other days have had

A campaign, then,

For all the senses in community

Unseasonal holidays in July

 

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Sandra Grünewald on Unsplash

 

The Best Is Yet to Come

The Best Is Yet to Come

 

The best is yet to come and, babe, won’t it be fine?

 

Dancing, crooning

Love songs

Ties and gowns or overalls and pinafores,

Doesn’t matter

There is glitter in the air

The lights of romance

There’s music from a combo

Ain’t it all fine?

 

There has to be more of this

Not an increase

Or exaggeration

But ongoing

The laughing, dancing, crooning combo

Always at hand

To have and have again

Not a party without end

But reasons to

Celebrate that last

 

The kind of work

(exertion of energy)

That heals

The smiles from musicians, which

Can say

We are free at last

And we love you

And an audience

In equal measure grateful

Taking part

Tomorrow there will be other things

And there will be tomorrow

For now,

There’s confidence

In this place of music

Fancy lights

(not the kind that blind)

Hands clasping on the dancing floor

 

Maybe we’ll go outside

Not because nature is tame

But because

It tames us

With its own lights of night

And gift of rock

For a dancing floor

 

This is a vision

Of necessity

Because the flesh that hears,

Touches, and responds

Should go on in some way

Call it paradise

The life renewed

That hasn’t lost a note or a step

 

C L Couch

 

 

“The Best Is Yet to Come”

written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh

Frank Sinatra and Count Basie performed and recorded for the album It Might as Well Be Swing (1964) and performed and recorded by many others.

 

photo by Manuel Inglez on Unsplash

Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais, Sintra, Portugal

 

Dialogue

Dialogue

 

Atlantis at night must be beautiful:

Lights once-Greek quietly

Illuminate the shores and other surfaces

And textures

Gold outside, silver-lit within;

We make it up, naturally,

Because we need to

Because

We want to wake up tomorrow on

An unknown shore that has

The best of what we are.

 

C L Couch