She at the Harvest’s Edge
Women look to get it right
They appear to be on line in every way
They dig to find new truth
And ways to keep what’s hale of old
They don’t take from men
Though men should give it over
C L Couch
#GlobalGirlsAlliance
#morethancute
image by Virginia DeVinne
Watch Over Florida
(Michael at Category 4)
Please watch over the big bend in Florida
They are waiting now
Ships might be pounded first
Then those in moving sites
Once held in place
Maybe they remember Harvey
Or Maria
Some years ago, in the northeast there was Sandy
And going back, Agnes and Camille
We give them names
That’s a tradition
A way to morph indifference into personality,
Which somehow makes it better
Not only something to await
But someone
Another fighter in the ring
It has one eye
Like cyclops
And tends only to scream
Rain and wind come through its mouth,
Which is never sated
The thing moves on is all
And finally diminishes
I’m inland; that’s what I’ll get
Sometimes there are tornados, which is another
Time
Now is Michael
Not archangel
Not a demon
Something out of character
With benign creation
Our part in this
Maybe is an element
In elements
I should consider with you
All that is destroyed,
And we’ll tally later
The living in all persons and all things
Once the living’s gone
Taken away
But for now,
Our part in this is to survive
C L Couch
Dry Prophecy
There’s something dry in prophecy
Desert-cool
East of me
Asian
It’s alluring like a deep-blue night
Above the clean edge of dunes
Though I guess you can’t have a desert
Without scorpions
Fair enough
Prophecy stings, too
Ask Jezebel
Ask Ahab
The writing on the wall
(that’s Babylon
that’s Assyria)
In the hostage-taker’s home
Was done in perfect shape
Perfect color
Was a right warning
Though it needed interpretation
So desert prophecies go
Many are clear
Read the mothers
Many are understood in a hermit’s cell
A coracle against the world’s tide
And is only useful there
The rest might speak to us,
Eventually
Breaking from a timeless place
Into an houred day
C L Couch
https://lifeondoverbeach.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/amma-theodora-this-present-age-is-a-storm/
One Word
If I don’t say it often enough,
Then let me say it now
It is the reason for the rest
The first
The last
And most words in between
If you think and feel the same, that’s fine
In fact, fantastic
And amazing
As long as you don’t see this as a challenge
It’s not
I hesitate an invitation
And I’m not a gadfly
(not anymore)
Love
That’s it
In case there never is another word
C L Couch
http://wallpaperweb.org/wallpaper/development/urban-wall-crack_10984.htm
(I, You, We) Observe
It’s Columbus Day observed today,
a reason to have sales and
for many a day off as part of a
long weekend. Well and good.
The real day is Friday, the twelfth; I
wonder if they’ll make a deal of it in
Spain. I wonder if the Genovese
might care. The discovery of America
wrought many changes, many not
discussed in texts or class discussions.
I think the Taino people somehow
persist. If so, I’m glad. Semi-retired
(whatever that might mean), today
will be special mainly in the mind.
Only in this mind, it’s Friday I’m
anticipating. The traditional day for
reflecting on all sides, like turning a
lamp around a gemstone, and more
importantly my sister’s birthday.
There’s the holiday.
C L Couch
Image: El Concilio Taíno Guatú Ma Cú A Borikén. Photo (by) El Concilio Taíno.
https://npl.org/opening-reception-for-exhibition-we-are-still-here-taino-survival-and-identity/
A Tale of the River People
I made a hole in my neighbor’s water
So that I could build a palace,
But the hole sucked my own water away
So I built a dam
Then I had my water, but it would not move;
It became still, and disease broke out
Along the shores that were unburied
When I made the dam
So I made a spillway and balanced just right
The movement of the water;
But my neighbor had no certainty of water now,
And while I was quarrying
And dam- and spillway-building,
My neighbor was amassing an army
And it attacked:
My palace was destroyed
And now along the water, a mass of rapids
And still pools, all in chaos,
There are two holes where once my neighbor lived
And with the scarred place I am left
C L Couch
By rheins, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56242794
Stranger Rings
So many things turn
Wishful thinking
To reality
Crime into justice
Hope into whatever happens
Next
I hope for you the rings are true
And bring you something good
I don’t know about deserving
I try not to care
Judgement is not my job
And spiritual punishment
Not so much for our consideration
Let’s wish each other well
In the turning of the days
And the running of
Our mercies
C L Couch
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA01486
Mission: Voyager
Stranger Things, a melodramatic series on Netflix, created by the Duffer Brothers
a novel (novelization) will be out next year
Weeping in Ramah
Indonesia
At Sulawesi
In Palu
Hundreds have been carried away
Souls from bodies
The living weep
They bury who can be recovered
They mourn
Might we change the pronoun,
Might we mourn?
They are our sibling hearts
The family
That lost too many children
To vicissitudes
In nature’s anger
Our indifference
Rachel weeps in Ramah
Because Babylon has taken
Her children away
Our children
C L Couch
Rescuers evacuate an earthquake survivor by a damaged house following earthquakes and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sunday. AP PHOTO
Hundreds Die in Indonesia Quake, Tsunami
https://www.recorder.com/Over-800-dead-in-Indonesia-quake-and-tsunami-toll-may-rise-20559009
Odd Gratitude
The weight is in my eyes
Just over my lungs
Inside the muscles
Pressing on the bones
Everything moves, anyway
Fingers, hands
Knees stretch
I blink, swallow, turn my neck
To see what’s what
The day’s ahead, and I’m
Thankful
Surprised? Shouldn’t be
Life is nearly always worth it
And always, really
There’s torture in the world,
Which must challenge the price
To pay
But this is being tired
Really tired
And there’s pain
Though not enough
To wreck the odds
Of there being maybe many
Good things ahead
C L Couch
Gratitude Stones
https://www.firefliesandmudpies.com/gratitude-stones/
http://www.yessafechoices.org/parents/character-education-corner/gratitude
clcouch123 
Recent Comments