Sleeper Awake

(x = space)

x

x

Sleeper Awake

x

It’s 69 degrees

(Fahrenheit)

At (twelve-oh-five, we say)

12:05

x

Fall arrives

And hobbits,

The birthdays

Of the Bagginses

x

New season

With an equinox

Autumnal

To complement

The vernal

By a half,

Half a year,

Half a world

x

We tilt into another

And existentially

A new one

x

We have not had

Today

Or this changing

Of the Earth

Around 11

Post-meridian

x

Here is the same season

As a new one,

New seconds

Newly breathed

Into hours

And an age

Collectively

x

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

x

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

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Hans Isaacson on Unsplash

x

Time and Again

(x = space)

x

x

Time and Again

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

x

Sometimes

We know it’s happening

Far away

By powerful people

National leaders

Soldiers with weapons firing

Or

A catastrophe

That has not befallen us

Specifically

And like parades

We know they and these are passing by

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

It happened to the hobbit

Most of us are hobbits

Even without the provenance

Or wealth

(before the treasure is acquired)

Of Bagginses

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Look Up Look Down Photography on Unsplash

Hobbiton, Mata Mata, New Zealand

x

Empathic

(x = space)

x

x

Empathic

x

How pleasant

To talk like Gollum

Without the throat-call

But to say eggses

And even Baggins,

We hates it

Forever

x

It don’t know,

It is a menace

And a villain

But all the buzzing

All the hissing

Like bees and snakes

x

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

x

C L Couch

x

x

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.

x

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

x

Leaf by Niggling

Leaf by Niggling

 

Within days, autumn arrives

My favorite time because

It is cool

I mean, it’s hip, I guess

Though mainly it’s cool

Not frigid

Not torrid

Afire (without heat) in

A gift of color

 

In the south of south,

Fall will be spring

The warmer path to summer

 

C L Couch

 

 

Leaf by Niggle by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Photo by Alex on Unsplash

 

Sarehole Mill

Sarehole Mill

 

The closest he would ever come

To loving a machine with anything

Near intimacy

He didn’t drive a car

He took the train (but did he

love the train, as many young

ones do?)

He was inclined to write by hand

Or so it seems

With all the inky manuscripting

And the drawing

I’m not sure he ever saw a movie

Courtesy of film-projector gears

 

But there was this mill

Still grinding corn

And did the Gaffer live there?

There were bricks and

Inside burnished metal

I wonder how it sounded

When coarse grain was pulled through

And did he ever try the product

 

There were trees close by,

There had to be

Or the feelings would have faltered,

I believe

How near to the heart of Hobbiton

It must have been moved, at last

Turned by water

Providing force enough

For humble profits,

All around

 

C L Couch

 

 

view of Sarehole Mill from the millpond, Birmingham, UK

Bs0u10e01 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66147691

 

Trees

Trees

(for an October prompt)

 

Tolkien liked trees

Robin Hood, too;

Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily,

I imagine,

Providing shelter

And playing fields

For lost boys

 

I like trees

 

Two of these peaked

High like towers from

The wide suburban plain

Of the backyard,

 

Splindly reaching toward

A clouded sky on

A Pittsburgh summer day

 

There was wind

At night, and upon the

Morning in the yard

One tree had fallen

 

Large across the lawn,

Tall on the ground

Sibling standing over

As if to demonstrate their

Name,

Weeping willow

 

For many days

I had climbed into the

Guard now dying,

Onto a lumbered platform

That my father built

 

That lay square among

Round branches

Inside uprooted, plodding

Blocks

Of grass

 

First time for me

With something monstrous

So close, so wrong

 

C L Couch

J. R. R. Reading Day (25 March)

J. R. R. Reading Day

25 March

 

(Not that there’s anything to

Mind, but)

How was this decided?

What happens in the story

To commemorate?

What’s in the lore?

 

Having a day made right

For reading about rings

Or the Silmarils

Or ships retiring west to

Middle-Earth’s Elysian

Shores—or imposing corsairs

Creasing through southern

Waters

 

All this is good

If a day to be celebratory

Even better

 

An excuse to wake up our

Hobbit aspects and have

Bilbo’s birthday party, after

Reading, under the great

Shire tree

 

Not having to wait

‘Til 22 September

 

When we can make the party

More fantasy

Officially

Again