Dirt Gospel
I like earth
Don’t you?
Some might prefer concrete
I’ll take a covering of pine needles
To walk upon
Breathe air that’s evergreen
Then move out to an open
Space of grass and rock and dew
That takes us home
That would be a day
C L Couch
Photo by Gabriel Jimenez on Unsplash
Lamentation
God,
I glean the earth, it seems
Looking for seeds and other parts of plants
The farmers and the birds
Have missed
It is late autumn, and I
Wonder what is mine
What I deserve, if
Even these upon the ground
That two tries
Wouldn’t take
C L Couch
Photo by Dave Francis on Unsplash
Surprised by Grace
God
I love you
And I wish for
I don’t know
It’s not as if you’re in a lamp
Three wishes?
Not enough
So grant me what you think is best
The million tax-free dollars
Will wait
Unless
Unless
How about some love today
Unbidden, even without
Expectation?
Actually, it happened
Yesterday
Someone brought some
Food, not because
I was in trouble
But because of plenty
And of friendship
That’s love
For a story
Maybe for a
Thousandth night
C L Couch
Image by miniformat65 from Pixabay
The Golden Tree
There’s a golden tree outside
I’m not sure why
It isn’t autumn (late April),
No time for anything to turn
Maybe sunlight is passing
Through half-leaves left
From winter,
A batch that somehow clutched
Though the colder seasons
I don’t know, and in
A good way I don’t care
It is a patch of gold I see
First thing on looking through
The slats of mini-blinds
(don’t care for mini-blinds),
A gift of gold for no reason other than
I happen to look outside
First thing,
Catching rays through
Angles of the buildings,
Lighting up what otherwise has
Been a sullen street
C L Couch
Photo by Simon Harmer on Unsplash
There and There
(and back again)
The moon is blue
The sky beyond is bluer
I wish I knew a torchy song to sing
Something that might work
In a film noir
Or at the halfway point
In a musical revue
But in a time of hobbits and
Of elves, this night might
Be converted into singing,
Storytelling of another kind
With fires sparked
By magic and with other, eldritch lights,
With fire in the eyes
Of those who trill laments
Of epic heroes lost so long ago
But, sigh,
We are in the backyard
On some chairs,
Cast-off lumber from a project
In the pit
And there are sticks
For cooking marshmallows
And maybe we don’t sing
Except for little choruses, here and
There
With no lament except
Too soon we will have eaten,
The fire will have mostly
Died, our extinguishing the rest
The best next thing we’ll do
Is sleep
C L Couch
Photo by Holger Link on Unsplash
Fire Pit
The Dailies
God, you give me this day
Give us this day
Sounds strange, now I think on it,
To be saying it so late in church
Since we’ve already had the day
For a while—thank you
For giving us this some hours
Ago
I guess the gratitude’s still in it
And a God of kairos shouldn’t mind
But what is daily bread? Bread?
Food? Any food?
Water? Something else we drink?
Is it to have enough only for today
So we should pray again
Tomorrow?
The Israelites could not keep the manna
Miracle it was, falling from heaven
Like that
But it would not keep
They really had daily bread
And is that now for us?
Give us what we need today
Help us not to hoard against tomorrow
Give others daily bread as well
We know too many won’t have it
Maybe this is a trespass of the one
Who prays,
Who has bread for today
Who might have some to share
With those who might pray yet still go
Without bread
If so, it isn’t a trespass like the one
We should forgive
We should ask to be forgiven,
Then to share the daily bread
So that prayer and all things magical
Might have substance on Earth
Such that everyone may pray
For food and air and water
And then have it
How many Shakespeares would we save?
How many Achebes?
Which is not the point but
Could be a boon for all of us
Simply keeping someone else in
Bread, of all things
What we have every day
While others starve
And die
Then if a Morrison should thank us later
Or a Cervantes or Sun Tzu
A Dickinson come out the house,
Daily will have some status and memory
In inspiration
For the world
Or you and I will have bread
With a little more to share with someone
Else
To re-create it all tomorrow
C L Couch
Photo by Bank Phrom on Unsplash
Print Is Alive
Love in the Time of Corona
(I wonder, really, how the beer is doing)
It’s not a good time
To be sick with something else
Even though it is
I mean, the current, awful thing
Is still untreated (though
there are indications)
And a sinus infection can be
Treated
I talked with my p-a
Because we can’t visit face-to-face
It would have been a video chat
Except my sister whose machine
This was
Dislikes the video component of her
Work and so disable the parts
On this computer so that they cannot
Work again,
And I don’t blame her
So we talked, Emily the p-a and I
I got my usual scolding for not doing
Everything I should be doing
(I’m not brave as much as I’m poor),
And I agreed to be taking everything along with
The new thing
Getting some kind of cuff to track
My pressure and my pulse, which
Must be worse for everyone
Just now
Plus the reward of an antibiotic,
Which is how it feels to me even though she
Dangled nothing as a prize
So maybe by the end of day
I’ll be resupplied and newly supplied
The stress will be better, my eyes,
And the infection
(better for infection meaning gone)
Be as well as I can be with
Everything ongoing
C L Couch
with thanks and apologies to Gabriel García Márquez
Love in the Time of Cholera – Wikipedia
Love in the Time of Cholera (Spanish : El amor en los tiempos del cólera) is a novel by Colombian Nobel prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez. The novel was first published in Spanish in 1985. Alfred A. Knopf published an English translation in 1988, and an English-language movie adaptation was released in 2007.
Photo by Stéfano Girardelli on Unsplash
Native American guardian totem
Man of Lepanto
What matter wounds? Quixote cries
The cause is all
Chivalry
Fighting stone towers with moving arms
Craving to vanquish evil
Courtesy to prostitutes
Because a lady is a lady
Slipped, perhaps, but never fallen
Stabbed by shards in mirrors
Truth reveals the
Romance to be ruins,
Which should be all right—romantics
Are fond of inhabiting ruins
And they are all foundation
For a better way to live
Think you know how it is?
Better to know how it should be
This is maybe music more than literature
The show more than the novel
But sing as if were
Your best reason
An impossible star
C L Couch
Known for his bravery, Cervantes took part in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Stationed on the ship La Marquesa, he fought against the Ottoman Empire and sustained serious injuries in the conflict, suffering two chest wounds and the complete maiming of his left hand.
Miguel de Cervantes – Don Quixote, Books & Facts – Biography
Photo by Martin Jernberg on Unsplash
We were cold and tired but it was totally worth heading out in the dark for these shots! 🙂
Going into Woods
I’m not sure
Which way to turn
Or if the path is widening
Anywhere
A track would do
It needn’t be easy-going
Only a way that shows enough
Of this step and the next
Maybe it’s in a desert
Though I’d prefer a forest
With patches of sun and shade
On the ground
Rising to the sky
There could be a breeze to
Touch my face
With all the sounds around
Of everything that nature’s
Creatures call
To one another
But if a desert, so
And if a track I can barely see,
So be it
I haven’t mentioned company
Though I know of nothing bearing
That would say this journey
Must be taken alone
But the right companions
Well-humored, uncomplaining save
For the things we all complain
About with just enough good talk
To keep us going
With—this would be grace—long,
Deep listening when we stop
For night
Who knows where we’re going,
Some might have a quest
Others, questions
What I know is that we would be moving
I would be on the way
With them:
Nature, nature’s creatures,
Angel-guardians,
Acquaintances, siblings, parents,
Friends, all those
We know
And have yet to know
C L Couch
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