Search

clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

Open Search
Month

February 2016

Cry

Cry

Such painful beauty here.
It rains with truthly tear.

 

The Essence, created by Emily Romano, is a short, structured form of two-lines, six syllables each with an end rhyme and internal rhyme. (From the definition Annie cites.)

https://whatthewomanwrote.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/forlorn/?c=4644#comment-4644

Annie at What the Woman Wrote crafted with this poetic form: her work, “Forlorn.”  (The link is just above.)  I responded in kind.  She, then, kindly shared her expectation that I would post my response in my blog.  So I’ve posted, here.

What can I say?  She’s influential.

Annie posts wonderful images to complement her written work.  I’m not nearly so skillful.  So I’m afraid that “here” is going to have to be a reference to anytime in life itself, as can be imagined or recalled.  Readers may fill in with a time from your experience.  Or take it that mortal life is often this way, when we must, you know, cry.

5

Ashen Wednesday

Ashen Wednesday
(liturgical need)

You have dirt on your
Forehead, the student says

I wanted you to know so you
Don’t walk around all day
That way

But I had just come from
Church (an early mass), and
Wearing the dirt (the ash)
All day would be our routine

If I had to guess, I’d say the
Room is mostly learner-
Populated with evangelicals
With maybe an honest
Agnostic or two,

In which (for all) formal
Understanding, knowing of
Old church practices would
Not be prominent among or

Within

But any church that survives
In turn gains its own
Orthodoxy,

And we spend time after
Noticing the dirt, talking
About spiritual habits plus
Other rituals

My church is trying this,
Someone observes

Yeah, my church, too, another
Notes

And so together in discovery

It appears—newer evangelical,
Independent communities
Reviving treasured actions
Of the first church,

The one ablaze at Pentecost

Reviving in the church is good:
There is great precedence for
That

And for all of us on this new

Day, we find new ways into
(To share outside)

A faithful, ancient season

4

Twenty-Seven Syllables

Twenty-Seven Syllables

This is crepuscular diatribe
In quotidian confrontation
Meaning I’m scared of the coming night

 

(three lines of nine for no particular reason; maybe because I was born on the twenty-seventh day of the month; maybe because I want to try out the dictionary word-of-the-day; maybe because sometimes encroaching night puts me off—sometimes encroaching dawn as well)

8

Gross Tuesday, Then We Fast

Gross Tuesday, Then We Fast

In USA (and elsewhere, though
The images I see are from my
Own), it is the time of Mardi Gras

Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday
(Shriving meaning to divest), or
Fast Nacht—a fluid season before

The dryness of Lent, a day of excess
Substance before lean Lenten days
Commence, if only in perspective

Here in Pennsylvania, we have snow;
But in the deep South, look out:

A French and Creole, native, Caribbean
Mélange of festival—a celebration that
In winter shouts, We are still here

And, except for the crime, why not

5

Love of Pi

Love of Pi

pi it is
point
beyond
safe, solvable numbers in
equations
this would go on, transcendence
merging grammar and calculation, design of bridges, and love-
songs ellipses
all our science and art that
we can rely on become
something like God
random in beauty without end

(3.14159265359 and on)

 
with thanks for inspiration from What the Woman Wrote—Annie
herself responding to a number-sequenced poem-prompt

https://whatthewomanwrote.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/consumed/
https://whatthewomanwrote.wordpress.com/

12

Taiwan Earthquake

Taiwan Earthquake

Earthquake in Taiwan
Souls are trapped
In falling buildings
Still falling

I might not last
Through rescue tries,
For my soul must be
In open space

And that’s simply personal

Not rising yet to singe the skin
The surrender of
So many lives

And living the rest:
Not any victim’s future
Understanding that
Life has
Security

World, respond

Save and stay to help,
Rebuilding human sanctity

2

Gender Mutilation

Gender Mutilation
(against FGM)

If justly turned around
Pleasure will be erased
In the journey of
Humanity

Men, awake

Not because men are
Called to save the
Lady in tower

But are signaled
To remain below
To lift from the mire

Of earth an ownership
Of villainy

C L Couch
(http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/06/ban-ki-moon-end-female-genital-mutilation-fgm-guardian-campaign?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Version+CB+header&utm_term=155343&subid=16706344&CMP=ema_565b)

3

Meanings

(from a photo-prompt of cows; photo by Annie Spratt)

 

Meanings
(nebby is evidently a Pittsburgh expression,
a compressing of neighborly and nosey)

definition of a cow: trying to be a horse
of a dog: doesn’t understand the diplomacy of cats
of a cat: one who perceives dogs as pointless

definition of a child: not a miniature adult
of a parent: nervous the length of child-life
a soldier: serving with all there is

definition of democracy: each one matters
of an earth: that without which we do not live
of God: maker; providentially nebby

3

Journaling at the Start of 5 February

Journaling at the Start of 5 February

Added coffee to the canister. Drank from a
Mouthwash bottle nearly empty with a full one
Beside. Same with toothpaste, when it’s time.
These small abundances matter much.

It’s a bunch of days. So the television tells me.
Something to do with weather, with a kind of
Food, and with the heart. Maybe something pre-
Valentine’s. I slept five or six hours, which is not
Enough. I slept under a throw, which is not enough
Though better than a blanket making me too hot.

Too hot in winter. (In a cold-winter clime.) That
Should be a blessing.

4

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑