prelude in orange and black
so Hallowe’en
and if you have it
I hope
this is
a pleasant Hallowe’en for you
eve of All Saints the name
even thrilling for the children
thinking of
the rush of running through the cold night
looking through
and
breathing through a mask
bearing a burden
of which I could hardly
be
aware
and that was Hallowe’en for me
as a child
with
The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
intersticed with commercials
for Dolly Madison
doughnuts
and there were other things
I guess
cider
decorations here and there
bats and cats
and such
stories in school
or on TV
oh
pumpkin-carving and then
the lights inside
that signaled to whatever spirits
we were here
but
it was the running through the night
cold
the mask
sensations that I had no other night
or day
c l couch
photo by Zach Lisko on Unsplash
devastating
we share the peace
in churches where we share
the peace
and
do we mean it
I think so
in the moment
anyway
then move on
through other liturgical obligations
then
there’s the peace outside
or lack of it
as
we know through local violence
and through war
wherever
in the heart that hates
justified by someone
for
some cause
and
yes
causes are important
but not the hatred
hatred’s not important
even though it causes loss
and
yes
destruction
of homes
minds
and hearts
and spirits can go wounded for a while
a long while
and what’s the restitution
we can talk reparation
but
what’s needing fixing is not money
or material
as I think you know
but soul
that needs repairing
by God and angels
though
while we’re here
through our pardon and our love
love
as pardon
for each other
and who can speak love
along bombed streets
leaning houses
if
houses at all
or what if the rival has learned nothing
in fact
in a state
keeping the world’s profit
even adulation
after all
after all the sacrifice
all the tortuous existence while conflict knew
its own
and took our parts of us
that
might remain wounded
even gone
for the foreseeable time
and
what does love call for then
while revenge
is warm
while damage is assessed then funded
and fixed
as best as can be done
and then tried patience for
the rest
but
that we try
on the gray days
with
autumn colors fading
barren winter
still
to come
c l couch
from actually inspiring events in response to the KKK intrusion in the town
Mechanicsburg Residents Pack Town Hall in Response to KKK Recruitment at Halloween Parade
story by Alton Northup
• 12h • [noon, 10/30/2025]
WHTM Harrisburg
and while reading “The Peace” by the Hermit Poet
at Edge of Humanity Magazine
photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
a visit from Mister Poe
who knows
and
what if everyone should know
I’ve only confessed to God
and so might not bear
the forgiveness
from people
and should they bear scorn in their eyes
and
their subtle rejections
even as detectives
met
happily
while the perpetrator of the crime
heard his own heart
though was
certain it beat from his victim
within the floorboards
beneath them all
and could he not bear a moment longer
unopened in himself
and so cried
confessing
all by terror as the means
rather
than a priestly person
so the ghost of the one he killed
pressed on him
worse than a would-be pardoner’s
supplication
or the black
cat
who wailed behind the wall
in this case
supplanting by revealing
sin
and murder
and so these stories go
of exposure should
the sinner
try to hide
from the world whose implication
must
be to expose
c l couch
for Hallowe’en and other Gothic times
photo by Sonny Mauricio on Unsplash
abstract muscling
so now we know
that what’s material is important
but what is
unseen is important
too
why things were made this way
we may take up with our
creator
later
ideas
a belief in peace
love
visions
dreams
hope
and faith
and the presence of the Lord
as well as our
unspoken prayers
and
yes
these maybe prompt the material
the moving of solid matter
relying on
the coursing
blood
the muscles of our bodies
things come to mind
anyway
naturally enough
and
we may choose and guide their way
as well
of all the unbodied items that
move through
we
may also choose what
to choose
and then enflesh
meaning
then
to the apologist or
less formally
the friend
we may choose to think on God
to
have that count
as evidence unseen
(you
know)
and maybe to transfer like
any other abstract from
a real
if unsubstantial place
in us
through all dimensions of our being
vision
thought
and flesh
throughout the day
and
to the wonders we’re assured that
should
be following
as after fair winds
also hard
to see
apart from its effects
that can try
all our senses
c l couch
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1, KJV)
photo by Ben Gillam on Unsplash
the inside work that is our own
so God
and shall we believe
and
we don’t have to
that’s the reality
of
will
which we know from looking back
at choices we have made
all our own
as well as
looking in the now when we decide
what’s
coming now and most likely
into next
and this is different
from God-sense
in
things
we know but do not know
from what there is and what could be
I mean
we dream
we intuit
we use all sorts of abstract notions
from
abilities that don’t require muscle
but synapse
and yet we think God
too far from us
for
being not material
except for sometimes roses
in the faithful’s
coat
which becomes a story of
someone else’s meaning
which
we might
take to hear or
not
that’s up to us
as what the most important is
ideas
wishes
wills
not of the wisp but
of our souls
the more important unmaterial
part
c l couch
photo by Karl Raymund Catabas on Unsplash
fair children
(because I started Tuesday)
Mundy
like Grundy
and
that sad
poem
imposed on children
for
the learning of the days of the week
like the A text in the primer
with
the other letters
that
trends toward grim
and imposing
daunting
as it is doctrinal
and then what comes to mind
that seven-stages
speech
by Jaques in the play
that
is ironic
and I think so bitter
like
the speech on Yorick without
the humor
however darkly
to
receive
how often to be cynical
by art
how often
to be turned toward empty
cubicles of thinking
of
resistance unapplied toward
better thought
even
of joy
to be alive if
yes
I know it’s hard
from time to time
and
some of us
it seems
by style
so Monday’s child
fair of
face
and is there beauty on the Earth
and inside
and where is fair
but as we think and feel
and act
which all seems obvious
I know
like
great
truths we all have heard
and maybe
can recite
yet get our governments with
the governing
the
governed
in
each one by each one
then corporate
actual
to apply
and so give fairness of the Earth
all
children of the Earth
a chance
c l couch
(New England Primer, As You Like It, Hamlet)
photo by Yannis H on Unsplash
good and gay
born on Sunday
though
there are other sabbath
days
if
Sunday seems to be the thing
bonnie
pretty
blithe
with elastic goodness
promising to last
to lengthen throughout life
like
the toils of Saturday’s
child
good as in moral
as
in making choices
to delight the
faithful
and confound the worldly
gay
that has been joyful
and still
such a child
always
a child with the rest and so
to grow up with these qualities
yet
shall we say
only
a rhyme that indicates devices
learning days
or
and as
the qualities set
for
these and as the week is covered
for us all
to consider when we’re placed
and so how
we’ll
live
though the magic more so
remains in decisions
that is to say
and
as you
dear
know
in the will of each and every
c l couch
here’s the verse as I remember
Monday’s child is fair of face;
Tuesday’s child is full of grace;
Wednesday’s child is full of woe;
Thursday’s child has far to go;
Friday’s child is loving and giving;
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
but the child who’s born on the Sabbath day
is bonnie and blithe and good and gay.
(easier or more difficult for the Sabbath child?)
photo by Allec Gomes on Unsplash
Saturday’s child works
hard at jobs that never cease
could wage to a fault
c l couch
photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash
the day you were born
according to the calendar
and I’ve checked
it more
than once
I was a Thursday child
and so had far
to go
which is a mystery at
least
to me
for
don’t we all have far to go
to get somewhere
in life and maybe
afterlife
in face
that after this is done
does not the distance unfold
grandly
for each one
and
all
so what is far to go
maybe
far to go for satisfaction
for fullness
in breathing and work
(the
work of breathing)
or
maybe for
philosophy to gain and so to carry
through
the trials of thought and feeling
faced in the world
wondrous
fallen
virtuous
Calvinistically depraved
pursuit beyond a declaration
for a nation
or
to help secure it for others
affirm at least when
despotry breaks in
then
attempting to persist
so maybe it is
freedom
and the distance we all have to go
in
service to others
and ourselves
in that
somewhere is far to go
at any rate
metaphor for what’s ahead
and
an assurance that little will happen toward
instant completion
loving and giving
for
Friday’s child
so says
the rhyme
loving and giving as if
starting qualities and to
sustain through
live
and to go for everything that’s needed
to keep going in this way
through
all the time and all phenomena
that happen
requiring
a bounty
I should think of
faith
and confidence
to have the wherewithal for these
and to secure the job
that funds the giving
and
might fortify the loving
so
where should Friday be if not
in a good place and
with resources
all
the time
so who loves and gives in Ukraine
just now or
Gaza
or pick a torn-up
place where one is likely to lose all
and
have to flee
get wounds bound up
also
to deal with loss of health
and companionship
of
family
as well as neighborhood and one’s identity
not only of the circles as
they Venn
but of the single
self
that comes at the beginning and then
knows the joining with the rest
somehow
I think
Bonhoeffer
managed loving and giving through
the rise
the war
the horrors
and the sacrifice of
life
like the prayer of thanks
not
to be a guard
and more so for the pastor’s life
to give it
in the camp so that another
person
live
and so the living and the giving
the worst in the world
plus
the best in spirit
and so
in surfeit or in want
the capacities
for each to
live
as Friday
c l couch
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was imprisoned and killed in World War 2
photograph by Jon Tyson at Unsplash
VIA SACRA
clcouch123 
Recent Comments