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July 2019

Solace

Solace

 

It’s a kindness, really

To have a little something of my own

A pen, a pair of glasses

A pipe stand that belonged to my father

A photo of my mother, when she was a girl

Holding a little cat

 

It’s not remembrance

Or nostalgia

Mostly, it’s regret

For what they didn’t have

But should have had

 

A comfort only

That so much pain is gone

Absent from the Earth

Kept in the tears of God

And every now and then

When I press out my own

 

As if to keep them in a scrapbook

A book of scraps

The little bits that are my own

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by Anne-marie Ridderhof from Pixabay

 

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relative sky

relative sky

 

moonrise

Earthrise

sunrise, of course

stars rise

many in constellations

one extremity after

the other

sword point

cup rim

crown

the other rises, too

all the rest

stars that form in different names

elsewhere

 

fifty years

I saw the landing

and the steps

on a black-and-white TV

which I doubt made much difference

than for our neighbors who had color

maybe I missed the red and blue

in the stiff flag

that looked to wave when

the astronaut shook it

 

I wondered about Collins

all alone up there, still

seventy miles above

I trust they talked with him a lot

kept two conversations going

with the LEM and the command module

with Houston and the others

who took part

maybe one big talk

 

keep talking, everyone

whatever your horizon

for a time, at least

we’re all friends here

 

C L Couch

 

 

Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece

Patar knight – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7023940

 

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Gods and Heroes

Gods and Heroes

 

Today is one day in a heatwave

 

Some will suffer in silence

And might be found anyway

Some will reach out to ask for help

So many are so bad at that

 

And there are those who

Will reach out to give it

Class and qualifiers will not matter

 

For all the sagas

All the stories of the past

They matter

Sometimes they teach

If we will learn

 

But more important still are the

Rough-edged, awkward things

The good will do today

 

Jesus saves

There will be companionship today

 

C L Couch

 

 

fir0002flagstaffotos [at] gmail.comCanon 20D + Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 – Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=136199

 

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Twilight of the Gods

Twilight of the Gods

 

Last night we sat out

On the porch

The heat of day upon us

A little lessened

One cat on the rail

(screens on the other side)

One cat stretched out upon the

Teak dining table,

The center of a set purchased after

A fire burned half of the house

A year and more ago

 

We watched lightning in the distance

I tried to count the miles

But didn’t hear anything

The storm must have been far away

The lightning cracked again in silence

Split that part of night

So far away

 

I had been reading of the death of Baldur

And now could wonder if he might

Be falling through the sky to Earth

Where we could mourn him, too

With all the gods and, yes, the giants

All the seasons of the year

All trees and even metals

Other elements, so says the storyteller

 

But Baldur went to Hel and hell

As the Norse configure these

My version cannot last

Though it made me sad enough

To wish more beauty, even slain

To Earth

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Marc Clinton Labiano on Unsplash

 

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A London Bridge

A London Bridge

 

The world might fall down

Like ashes and posies and the rose

And I might still be here

Not in a privileged place

Heavens, no

But in my corner near

A wide and tall, empty room

Where I keep passionate discipline

That must sound odd

But I’m here every day, it seems

(hospitals notwithstanding)

More and more, no matter what

(we’ll find out about the hospitals)

I create

Or better (truer) co-create

Something

 

Something good? I hope so

I don’t know

I’ve earned not enough to have

It all alone

But as each day affords

(in every way)

I will be in my place

Where I need few things:

Air, moving air, windows, walls for

The windows, a writing machine

And, as Erasmus has been cited

About books,

With whatever left some food and drink

 

I’m here right now

Maybe I’ll be with you soon

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Harshil Gudka on Unsplash

 

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God Is, Briefly

God Is, Briefly

 

Something short and pithy

About God

(who asks for this)

God is love, we know

And we say

God is great

God is good

(part of a common blessing in

the USA)

If God weren’t good

We wouldn’t want God

To be great

Caprice of gods

Belongs elsewhere

I’m not sure where

God is good

God is great

God is love

On this column

Rests so much

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Ioan Sameli on Unsplash

 

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Life on Neptune

Life on Neptune

 

I selected Neptune

Because I’ve never read

Anything speculative about it

Most of the time, it looks blue

On a map

Like a blue piece

Of sea glass

I might have around somewhere

Life on Neptune would be

Hard

Poison for an atmosphere

Contrary gravity

So distant from our first home

More so from life-giving sun

How grace might provide a

Reason for the colony

 

We’d be that much closer to

Life among the stars

In company with everything far-flung

In our system and

Not to dissemble

Our own galaxy

We’d have to think that way, or else

The nearness of our labors

In such a lifeless place

Static resources notwithstanding

Should drive us mad

For having dared

Such faraway commitments

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by M W from Pixabay

 

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Sunday Matinee

Sunday Matinee

 

A deep sigh is a good thing

Unplanned

It takes regret

Folds it into wings and lets it go

Not that it will leave

For good but

Might fly out of grasp

Maybe out of mind before

It re-alights

And I have to take it back

 

Exhalation causes other things

To leave

Molecules we’d rather do without

Maybe some toxic atoms

Elements of life that will work better

Somewhere else

Lead and mercury

Irradiated particles that come from

Life too near a glowing factory

These days

 

It’s all right

Nothing much more dangerous than

When the smoke rolled out

From Pittsburgh to

Its suburbs

Generations’ mischief

Doesn’t seem to change

 

Like parents to campsites, we should leave

The world a better place for

Children

We gave up on that

I’m not sure why

 

C L Couch

 

 

“Paper Plane” by Xavier Ríos

La fabrica de nubes – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68404545

 

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Fantasia

Fantasia

 

1

I dreamed a dream last night

In which my jacket or some such

Kept getting caught in thorns

I’d get free and then right away, it seemed,

Get caught up again

I don’t know how many times this happened

I was helped at least once by someone

Else, and someone said

To be kind

That thorns are like that

Then the dream went

Where dreams go

 

2

I was looking through the porch screens

This morning to whatever was outside

Everything was still—I don’t think

It ever was so still

And then under a tree, while still on

The tree, I saw some branches moving

Everything above was quiet

But some branches below, as if to be mischievous

Were circling ‘round

I saw one branch was twirling

Maybe there were squirrels on the branches

Though I didn’t see them

The dancing carried on for a while

And didn’t actually stop

 

It was that the entire tree, many stories

High, was moving, too

I guess the wind picked up

And maybe on those branches there were squirrels

Chipmunks, grinnies maybe

(as I’ve heard someone call them)

I’m not sure an explanation lessens

Magic

And really all I was saw were leaves dancing as

If to a flute

With one branch twirling

 

 

3

 

I was driving into town and saw

A billboard I’d not seen before

Announcing something medical, maybe

An urgency for testing

 

I could see the word BLOOD in all-caps

And also see that that it had been torn off

At the bottom, many times

As if something were clawing

Or something offering a review

And rejection of the word

 

As if in protest

As if in need

 

Blood for blood

I’ve heard of it

I’m not stupid

I don’t know what it means

 

C L Couch

 

 

Akazienstachel (eventuell Robinia pseudoacacia?), Standort Nähe Waldfriedhof in Leverkusen-Schlebusch, Landschaftsschutzgebiet „Unteres Dhünntal“.

TipFox – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49029195

 

grinny – Urban Dictionary

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grinny

The Pennsylvania, Ohio, or West Virginia term for a chipmunk.

 

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