January 2016

Muslim Tribulation

(drafted before an officer was shot
many times in Philadelphia, the
shooter claiming the cause was Islam)

Muslim Tribulation

We live to follow God,
to know the will of God
and continuously prepare
our lives so that we might
follow that sacred purpose
and intent.

There are religious
destroyers everywhere
in every tradition. But those of
us in unreasoned extremes—
these are sadly, specially alight
in the world just now.

We want peace. We believe
most do.

We want to be neighbors and
to welcome those into our
homes. But our hospitality is
challenged now of its
authenticity.

Do you want to be defined by
The remnant cause of woe?
Certainly, you don’t.
And neither do we.

We want our lives of faith
to delight our friends and
all those near us. Please
remember this.

We want to think
and believe
the best as well.

January 10, 2016 0

The Farm Show

(what we celebrate)

The Farm Show

The Farm Show is happening
in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
the state capital. If you’ve
ever shopped, looked at the
markings on a package of food,
and seen (you may say penna-
dept) “Penna. Dept. of
Agriculture,” that’s us.
That’s Pennsylvania. With
standards so high for food
that theirs is an approving
agency relied on
‘round the world.

Not local mythology (not
yet), this state (my state
for now) is important for
food—and the annual
Farm Show is a celebration
of this.

Is there anything better
to recognize than organic
eatable or otherwise livable
selection? I know there’s
a classically brutal aspect
to farming of most kinds.
Animals are raised to
die, lands are turned under
losing ancient undergrowth
and artifact, and now
there’s the tension of
losing farm land itself to
other development. But
for now and anyway, we
celebrate what we need
to eat.

Sheep-to-shawl (alpaca-
to-shawl) and field-
to-shelf, the process of
feeding, clothing, and
sheltering America and
the world is exhibited. Yes,
there are statues made
of butter. Enjoy! (A PA
celebrity famous for saying
that, although he said it
twice.) And there are
auctions for animals.
Many shows of the rodeo
kind abound, and many
buy the food there as well,
which I’m afraid refers to
some snacks better-suited
for carnivals. Though baked
potatoes don’t sound so bad.
Even loaded. Even chased
with a Pennsylvania dairy-
made milk shake. (Sorry, Mister
Weldon Johnson, but for these
Bits of cooperative creation:
That’s good!)

These festivals take place
elsewhere, certainly. And
so might we agree that
raising up the cause of
(say viddles) victuals is
worthy for all? (To borrow
again:) That’s good!

Missive. Truly yours,
from Harrisburg’s
(one-hundredth)
Farm Show.

C L Couch

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
January 2016

January 9, 2016 3

Second-Storey Moor

Second-Storey Moor

On a misty-morning
Winter January day,
I look out the window

All I see is fog and
Lack of definition
Except for one tree
Of bare branches

Reaching black into
My windowed sky

I didn’t expect the
Art and science of
This: skillful, narrow
Firm and slender
Branches reaching

With a clarity that
Startles a black vision
Against smoky
Pervasive mist

Grey behind each
Branch, rendering
All else vague

What is familiar
Now is mystery
And invitation

January 9, 2016 4

Us Icarus (inspired by Jacki Kellum)

Us Icarus

Oops Icarus,
An all-too-fine conviction
Of the troubled ones who
Try too high to fly
And those of us who
Thus fall

I wonder if it helps
That the parent in the
Mythic flight is older
And designer
Of the task ahead

If we learn to fly
Study something of
The design and
Making
Of the wings

Might our take-off
End in a landing that
Makes our flying
Success as well as
Joy

C L Couch
(inspired by Jacki Kellum’s compelling thoughts on balance, https://jackikellum.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/a-case-for-balance-recalling-the-myth-of-icarus-and-daedalus/)

January 8, 2016 5

What I Feared

(North Korea wants an H-bomb–why, I do not know)

What I Feared

What I feared was
Looking up into the sky
Where the blue became white

And out of parallel lines
That could be clouds or
Contrails, something silver
Falls

And everything becomes white
And I am gone with everyone
And everything I know.

Or, worse, that I live
To face oncoming nuclear winter.

My fears, while a child living
In an early nuclear age in a
War that was too cold.

January 8, 2016 4

Not No Guns

Not No Guns

Why not make it harder
As in better
To get guns?

Harder meaning safer
Better checks
Shared accountability

If you are a crazy person
Then I apologize
But you should not have a gun

You need better aid
Than that
Guns will not be your help

January 6, 2016 3

Epiphany (prose poem)

Epiphany

Epiphany. Twelfth Night. The magi come upon the infant Jesus at his family’s home. They are amazed. They give gifts. A tribute.

Epiphany means discovery. An ordinary act that brings new insight to life. The magi, I imagine, were not ordinary people, though what they did was hardly unusual. Many traveled land to land and town to town back when. The caravans were living roads to make trade and civilization possible.

They are not the only ones who had read and studied the stars to find alternative direction. Astrology, astronomy. They were blurred pursuits in this region of the past. There was meaning in the sky. The seasons brought us learning there. We looked for all these.

But when these magic persons, in their learn(ed) wisdom of the world, travel west at last to find this child at home, sameness leaves their lives and all the worlds’. Forever.

What did they discover? What was realized? They beheld a person who meant change.

How so? Two thousand years and some, we still ask.

January 6, 2016 2

Receipts

Receipts

I’ll keep these for a time
Since they mark and note
The trip I took not so far
Away or so long ago

Pay slips from the turnpike
To represent my drives
Out and back, a map of
A town back home I found
At a station kiosk—sometimes
These are surprise-filled
Documents, even for a
Place I know

Coffee receipts out, those
For sandwiches on the
Way back in

Business card for a city
Place, the kind of which
We do not have in my
Small town, but at which
I had lunch with my family

Saint Vincent de Paul, whose
Thrift store I visited with my
Sister, where I bought a small
Piece of clear-black glass

An olive oil store—a
Festive, promising
New niche place—I
Got a narrow bottle of
Honey-serrano vinegar
For my brother-in-law
Who cooks a lot

Purchase record for a
Calendar I bought
On sale and then the

Best—a paper testimony
From a local bookstore

How I wish there were
More like this! I had gift
Card, it had the books

There are other neighbor
Places to support—those
Selling food and clothing and
Art-expression pieces from
Those makers starting out
Close by

But these books will do
They were my part in
My going, my time away, and
My returning afterward

My small trip—for
Now, a small-documented
Odyssey

January 5, 2016 11

Who Are You?—a Challenge from the Invisible World

Who Are You?

Megan’s Challenge from the Invisible World

https://invisibleworldd.wordpress.com/

https://invisibleworldd.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/challenge-who-are-you/

First, here are the rules. (From Megan, the boss.)
While I’m being bossy, here are the rules.
1. Answer the questions listed below.
2. Leave a link to your post in the comments so I can read about how fabulous you are. I’ll also make sure to leave a comment. (What? I can’t miss the opportunity to let my opinion be known. I am an oldest AND an Aries. Dang…don’t mess with me. Just kidding. I’ll be nice. *angelic smile*)
3. Have fun!
And so you don’t have to go back through the entire post, here is the…

List of Questions

What is your Myers Briggs personality type?
What is your zodiac sign?
What Hogwarts house would you be in?
What are your learning styles?
Are you more of a left-brain or a right brain kind of person?
What is your blood type?
What career are you meant to be in?
Which divergent fraction do you belong in?
What is your birth order?

If you accept this challenge, you can use this old-school chalkboard in your post. (You don’t have to if you are allergic to chalk dust.)

And here are my responses. (I’d like to use a chalkboard. My favorite medium in the classroom besides discussion. Is there a chalk-and-board technology I’m missing?) I refer to links for quizzes and such. These links are at Megan’s challenge post, the second post I give, above.

One. The answers are below.

Two. If I post a link to all my responses, that link will be at Megan’s blog. I could try posting everything to Megan’s blog, but that seems imposing. Even if she is Aries and oldest child. Or maybe because of that.

Three. I’m having fun (*emoji blowing New-Year’s-Eve horn*).

(responses to the list of questions, now)

The last time I took Meyers-Briggs, the results were ENFP. The E is a weak E. The N is a strong N. (E is extrovert. N is intuitive.)

My zodiac sign (in the more oft-used astrological calendar) is Libra. Balanced. Judicious. Yay.

I took the Hogwarts house-quiz and was selected for Gryffindor. Slytherin is the baddies’ house. I’m not sure what happens in the other houses.

I’ve worked as an educator for a while. I became aware of learning styles and have relied on them when teaching and gauging learner response. I’m satisfied learning through reading and through writing. I realize, Megan, this is a minority presence on the learning grid. Also like you, I like to learn through kinesthetic—that is, through holistically doing stuff.

I once attended a day-long workshop on learning styles. The program started with a simple exercise that I could not do. We were given five seconds to put something written on the board by the leader into order on a piece of paper. Everyone was writing. I was lost. After five seconds and with pens down, the leader asked the group who arranged things in a certain way. Several persons’ hands went up. Then we were asked if we arranged things in another way, and everyone else’s hands were raised. Except mine. I was still lost and feeling rather stupid, especially for doing something wrong right at the start of the day. Then the leader asked if anyone could not write anything at all. Feeling outcast enough, I did not raise my hand. Then we were told, “Come on, in a group this size there should be at least one of you confused.” So I eased my hand skyward. “Good,” the leader said. “If you can’t do this exercise, it means the hemispheres of your brain work in balance, together.”

My blood type is A-positive. A pretty common type, I understand, for which I’m thankful, especially when I think I underwent a transfusion this past June (I wasn’t conscious at the time). But now, let’s see, what this type means according to the scale linked in the challenge . . . . Hmm, Britney Spears. Interesting company. Yay. Again. Presence of mind, coherent, stubborn—yes, all that fits. Good planner, yes, though then I wait for the plan to fall apart. And maybe I judiciously (that Libra aspect, again) share opinions, thoughts, and feelings. Though I do share. Why, I’m sharing here.

My career had better have something to do with learning, writing, literature, and spirituality. Other than people, these are the things I care about most. . . . . Well, I got Writer. And a nifty photo of someone typing and smoking a pipe. I’m sure both look better on Megan ‘cause she got writer, too. So I’m in good company there.

Divergent faction. If this is based on the series, I’ve only seen the first two films. I haven’t read the stories. The Giver, yes; The Maze Runner, yes. The Forest of Hands and Teeth. But the quiz will give me a result, anyway, right? . . . . I got Candor. Don’t know what that means as a faction. Then right away the screen dissolved into one offering me a free trial of Marie Claire. Don’t know what that means, either.–Wait! I thought these were factions. They are “fractions”?

I am the middle of five siblings. Made to be one person at one time—an older—or the other at another time—the younger. Maybe I’m supposed to be in charge. Maybe I’m supposed to be the underling of another boss. Hence never knowing where I really belong. (Break.) Now I’ve looked at the linked descriptions, and I must say they’re pretty good. Flexible, independent, generous, rebellious. Lots of opposite qualities co-existing in the list. For myself, I’d say feeling out of place—how it is with or without the list—is what fits most for me in the middle.

Okay, that’s it. Megan’s responses are at her blog (link at the top of this post). You should read them. Megan’s funny. Intentionally.

January 5, 2016 13