December 2023

Babe

(x = space)

Babe

Advent 4

That sometimes falls on Christmas Eve

Smooshing our liturgies

Though sometimes it is Christmas day

For greater smooshing

We light four candles now

From sources

Matches

Friction inside brass cases

Long metal sticks with flames

Other candles

There is a fifth candle

Waiting

Which doesn’t stand for anything

No merging of symbols

Or guesses at tradition

It is Christ’s candle

It means Christ

Alone

The baby born at last

Who came to term

In Advent

And in that

A hurrying of the season

One month

While eight months somehow

Happened somewhere else

In ordinary time

Perhaps

A mother

Would know how to count

But Christ

Soon will be born

Another season

Lasting something like

Twelve days

Twelve days to celebrate

To sing like angels

With the fact they sing

Though nothing

Like their song

Their heavenly keys

Supernal rhythms

So this is the last

Before he comes

Anticipation’s nearly done

And (nearly) all our candles lit

We know

We are illumined

As much as we shall have

Before arrival

This final lesson

Only

In that

Christ arrives

Not only once a year

Though once

As a liturgical

Baby

There’s

Dedication

While the rest of the time

He’s pretty grown

With grown-up things to say

Though he elevates

Other children

In the notion that

Innocence

Unworldly honesty

Make the way to lead

As well as

How to live

So ask for blessings

On the child

For we might not know

Where God ends

And the human part begins

There might be surprise

And pain

To have come into the world

The way as all

Like us

Who arrive

And now to live here

With us

For us all

C L Couch

Photo by Anna Vander Stel on Unsplash

December 24, 2023 2

some poems for you today

(x = space)

some poems for you today

(some poems of the day)

night will come on

second full day of winter

a thoughtful day

perhaps

day before the night

before the day

still a blue or purple day

white or gold

in the offing

another yet another

gray day outside

to look at it

to feel it

too

there’s something of a chill

maybe it’s three ghosts

warming up

in an ethereal bullpen

before descending upon London

or wherever

whoever Scrooge

might try to sleep

inside posts of tarnished gold

having eaten

unappreciated food

and nothing for the child

Want or Ignorance

not yet

we can await

transition

transformation

of a night

in a great story

sometimes on Earth

the real Earth

to know

the allusion is, of course, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, often published with other Christmas stories

multiplicity

sigh

a great God

comes to Earth

having been here already

shooed us from the

garden

set an angel with a sword

to keep us out

should we find it

however accidently

once again

a God

who’s always here

already

thus begging a confusion

since we make a deal

of God arriving

though God is here

well

the ancients

didn’t have that problem

paradox in time

like characters

from Bible stories

costumed as one’s own

also

in Old English

for example

without a future tense

so that

every time is now

and the next thing

and the thing

that was

no worries

God is always here

always arriving

too

everything a kind of participle

or a gerund

the subject in or as

a tense

that is all timelines

all the time

confused mortality

perhaps

yet replicating

meter of a chaosed clock

that has numbers

that

for the sake of our philosophy

are movable

forgettable

in the exigencies

of moments’

having

and remembering

also anticipating

always the birth

always the apocalypse

as well

meaning that

time and meaning

have all seeds

and growth

and harvest

with all accounts

as with all stories

every gospel

all the same

with kairos room for change

here and now

and then

and what’s to come

all the same

here

and in a kind of ancient

(that means contemporary

too)

crazy and amenable

as now

was

will

as now

bless our ancients

for knowing something

the ways things magically

and really are

today

from yesterday

into divine best-guessing

for tomorrow

servile

what shall we say

that’s permanent

except that God is love

God is a spirit

plus all better metaphors

a rock

a lion

who has an investment

in every good

and reasoned thing

in need

for us to call it miracle

water from

desert stone

food in ravens’ mouths

that they abey

until

delivery

God strives

to keep the prophets

whole

for the rest of us to

hear

and to absorb

the entire

story

letting

the wisdom

and the warnings

to soak in

through all

our cells

supernal messages

easier metaphors

for meaning

no riddles

save for fun

sometimes erudition

(though the simple ones

are better

aren’t they

Bilbo)

no requirements

beyond a willing

and created nature

there being

no stars for gain

(there are no Sneetches

and there is no

McBean)

no refectories

with sainted machines

dispensing

when the answer

or indulgence

might be right

that is

Earthly correct

rather leave

our kitchens

for serving

real food

for need

and in a turn

for pleasure

since there’s no reason

service should not be

pleasant

as well as exigent

with even

seasons to remember

the life outside

inside

the gospel within

food

perhaps

though better

after

so that we might be

sated twice

with victuals

and nourishment

from stories

forgetting not

our own

the clock that smiles

tomorrow go to church

or last night

this evening

later the next day

until the sun

decides

to set

and an indulgent clock

must by the maker

say

it’s had enough

there is this morning

too

there is right now

and shall we worship

God

inside a heartbeat

savoring the next

secured

inside

the believing beat

of now

c l couch

photo by Dominic Tham on Unsplash

God bless

our in-between days

December 23, 2023 1

Exiled

(x = space)

Exiled

God

Shall we have

A good season

Together

The year has started

And now

Another season

Intentions

Overlap

You come into the world

And you are here

The Earth tilts

And always

Has

Far as we know

Turns

Like a top

A toy to such as you

Though you

Are not a giant god

That way

You play

But not with us as

Playthings

Upon the Earth

An unrolled

Plastic battlefield

We toy each other

Which is

An eldritch lesson

We came up with

On our own

Objectify

‘Til someone doesn’t matter

Like Cain

Like everyone in western Asia

Like anyone who’s different

Over here

We need a season

Need the time

But shall we be reborn

With remembrance

Of a real birth

To save the nations

Ransom

Captive Israel

Then all the rest

C L Couch

Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash

December 22, 2023 1

Released

(x = space)

Released

Winter starts tomorrow

Summer to the south

There is no snow forecasted

(in the north)

For a while

Another drier

Warmer

Winter time

Which is all right

For fear of snow

Blizzard and ice

That keep us in

With or without

The victuals we might need

(for all precautions)

But in terms of sleeping ground

The frozen seeds

The insects

Everything that hibernates

The warmth unseasonal

Won’t help

And we’ll awake to spring

Plus winter in the south

That isn’t right

That imbalances

That takes away the timing

That Earth needs

And all upon it

Yes

There’s climate change

And eldritch melting

At the poles

Interesting for observation

And for extracting mammoth bones

Maybe not so promising

For what else

Might be released

Into the air

C L Couch

Photo by yasin hemmati on Unsplash

December 21, 2023 2

Lean To

(x = space)

Lean To

Tomorrow is the solstice

Light a fire

At least inside

To illuminate

The difference should

We notice

The Earth

Starting to lean

The other way

Toward spring

But through the winter

First

At least in this

Our half the sphere

With summer

To the south

Where

Who might also wonder

What we’re doing

Upside-down

A fire

To light up

To redefine the shadows

Make them sharper

And more welcoming

For shadow-beings

And the

Shadow parts of us

The Earth should turn

All worlds should turn

Since

In turning

There is gravity

And life

And with so many

Moving

Lights

Boundaried by dark

So that both

May show the way

Through the seasons

Of the cosmos

Back to our minds

For reasoning

And imagining

Our place

Ringed inside everything

And the part

We cannot contain

Even inside ourselves

Because the abstract

Hook

Containers

With the infinite

For reason

And imagination

Rendering all borders

Malleable

If not changeable

The way the seasons

Change

Yet look

To stay the same

We are changeable

Unchangeable

Like Earth

And everything we lean on

While it leans

Like an invitation

To try something

Maybe straight

Like equinoxes

Maybe bent

Like the invitation

In the solstices

And all the life

Moving foundation

As it were

For the inventing

Co-creation

Inside

In between

All the round

Seasons

Leaned into

Also

Broken

Wondrously by

New days

C L Couch

Photo by Sarah Tona on Unsplash

December 20, 2023 2

Partly inspired by “There Will Come Soft Rains,” a chapter in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. This part of the story speaks to what is left of us. The chapter’s sad. Nonetheless I often think upon it.

Sci-Fied

Should the bombs fall

And I am atomized

And you

And the insects shall find

Nourishment

Not through flesh

(I’m atomized

so are you)

But through bits of trash

I had not the time

To take our back

And shall the Earth survive

To have another age

I remember

In the days of Strontium

We said we could

Destroy the planet’s crust

And so leave

The molten mass

The could heave

Or be

Settled down

Nostalgia

For a future guess

The Earth might have

Its own

As it once held us

There could be bees

And flowers for the bees

Or something

For pollen

So that something could

Pollenate

And there be land

With flora

Feeding

And softening

What’s left of our platforms

For another age

Of Earth

Arthropodic

Or could it be with feathers

Things that move

And have their being

Avoiding shadows

Form which

There used to be

Something in charge

Though now

The lesson’s different

This time

The arthropods

And feathered things

Have sentience

And speak gospel

While the Earth

In its own way

We never got

Though it was there

Shall smile

C L Couch

Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

December 19, 2023 0

the deep

(x = space)

the deep

and God

I know you’re here

you’re always here

thank goodness

the quiet

and noise

sometimes the shame

or simply the embarrassment

in doubt

in pride

in vanity

I learned

no height

or pit

no place

either

where you are

are not

you’ll find me

where I am

and as I am

not so much

because of me

but because

of who you are

the spirit

and the way

life

direction

comfort in the cold

shade in heat

clearness

when in doubt

identity

when everything

inside is lost

and no one knows

the goodness

in creation

or the facts

of the next day

you are there

you are here

we have a chance

and better

roll the dice

palm the token

‘round the neck

or in the pocket

they are not needed

but we like

our things

comfort in the cold

shade when it is hot

water

when it’s necessary

and all the rest

while

we are here

in dreams

or vanity of waking

no height

or depth

so far

we do not know you

or you don’t reach

to take us

anyway

c l couch

“There is no pit so deep God’s love is not deeper still.“

Betsie ten Boom to Corrie

photo by Eric Muhr on Unsplash

December 18, 2023 1

so much to bear

(x = space)

so much to bear

(Advent 3)

white candle lit among the read

where I attended

pink candle among the blue

or purple

elsewhere

or four white

or five

or whatever combination

serves

three candles now

four for Sundays

then the fifth pillar for

the birth of Christ

we love

our small flames

they are romantic

they bring us close to

see

to feel

small heat

grand symbols

the joy being close

Christ is born

to save the world

remembering verse seventeen

after sixteen

protested in the games

incarnate

incarnadine in poetry

and in fleshly Bethlehem

that might or might not be

accessible

because of war

who knows

issues regarding

ownership

the birth is also

inside

the spark of faith

breathing

as at birth

born again

we say

Eve restored

Adam

wandering

may cease

knowing who he is

at last

for there is another

showing the way

for masculine

and feminine

for fully human

taught with the help

fully divine

prophecy says so

but we carry

prophecy inside

as well

let everything

burn three times

in remembrance

in faith

renewed

extinguish

and turn out

take them with you

Angels we have heard on high

we have heard the angels

they are in the sky

no wonder

for the wonder

we should be afraid

and the first thing that they tell us is

don’t be afraid

don’t worry

we are here with good news

our assignment

telling Mary

telling Joseph

telling you

that the child is born

at last

for all the prophecy

so that both might grow

and everything

into completion

c l couch

(the third Advent candle for the third Sunday is often associated with joy; this candle is lit also to recognize the shepherds who heard the news from angels and journeyed, then, to Bethlehem)

photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

December 17, 2023 0