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August 2026

the learning day

(three poems)

the learning day

it’s Monday
how many at this
we
might have
and pale
gray
how many of these

days
with this lack of color that for décor
might be all right
but
don’t we need the green and blue
and the myriad of flora and fauna
hues
and with the gray

and I suppose the panoply is
here
it’s only muted
maybe to tell us that some days
some hours
or
many moments we should
pad our expressions
instead
to listen

as we do better to receive
prudent and wise
when
the color like the noise we choose
learns and employs
quiet

ride
(leave out asterisks and asterisked if posting)

and
goodness
must there be a point*
and
could I let the beauty go
released
wildly
without the moralizing
yet still in beauty
of
the Earth and sky be
moral

sure
as in relax
and ride

like that moment in the ride
when the center
goes to gallop
still
boisterous the relationship
but smooth
to go
together

and let that be aesthetic
in blurred motion
and
delight
so fast it’s undefined

*(my way through graduate school)

the damage has a name

citing on
TV
the Ausin Toy Museum
old things in good shape
and
I’m hearing
and looking now and then
at what show
not
to hold the silence valueless
but to draw toward contemplation
while
the noise in my head painfully challenges
all
pacific activities and
notions inside

rather
my daily invitation to go crazy
and have
and fail
at background for distraction

c l couch

so I wrote a bunch of things and might post the later two, maybe three

they are overridden with first person, though maybe in the gaps (mind the gap) you shall fill in your own persona and experience (which I guess is how we read first person lines, anyway, as in Shall I compare thee to?)
a little hermeneutics for free (and belying the second post)

I left things as-is by the time of revision and a polish as a try for an edit—except line-spacing by WordPress, remains

photo by NIR HIMI on Unsplash
Iceland
(the ocean looks like Escher or the Escher looks like ocean)

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poor disguise

poor disguise

when you don’t get what you want
or what you need
does God still
listen
does God still
love

if so
then why did we not get what we need
some would say
because I didn’t make it and bank it
then it didn’t matter
some would say
because
God
does not love me or like me
or no longer listens to me
for
I must be bad
certainly asking for bad things
even those things might be
my parent’s health
my child’s health
health
in the world
my own

why are we wrong
why does God not like me
and
some would say
I know the answer
and if you follow me
you’ll
know

and this becomes a lion in a skin
Aslan-fakery
the spirit that is tested and it fails
and
still is followed

and there will be a hand
and
it might not be ours
but it will formulate and re-formulate
according to the truth reminded
that
hadn’t changed
and doesn’t
which is justice then
mercy
and the best notion of freedom we are going to have

and what happens to false prophets
sometimes they are whomped on
sometimes
they run away
and
it’s a better day for the retaining faithful

and as for pain
we might have to own it
or
go through it
for a while
and it
will hurt
and I’m uncertain why

and would not wish that for you

it doesn’t
teach us to appreciate the positive
but
it might
teach us
something hopeful
after
or even in the middle

c l couch

photo by Bret Lama on Unsplash

the lion (fake/real) story is in The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

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red hints on the land

red hints on the land
autumn wants arriving now
cool sky is needed

c l couch

photo by Nan Chen on Unsplash

0

the overwhelming

the overwhelming
of Nepal and Tibet

I’m lucky

I’ve gone
under
and come up again

not floods but enveloped
by
loss of breath and
danger to
recover

with scars and fears
yet
still here to learn and to offer
and take in

love
as has been directed by
the second great commandment

water
mud
current
overwhelming gravity
and
by the water
land
and force to still the muscle
take the breath

deliver death like
an angel
painting lintels on a certain
night in Egypt

only this
was from a glacier
that
maybe was
maybe was not supposed to break
and
send the killing ice to water
down
to overwhelm

the hundreds found with
hundreds missing more

to all
a hopeful rescue
or
arrivals
tentative to check
in morgues
for those we might have known

and to know or fear from
missing

so much destroyed and what
remains
and what
to do

and prayer has power

so does money
so
too
does presence
and all work together
present

c l couch

photo by Sanjay Hona on Unsplash

NBC News
August 28, 2026, 7:37 AM EDT
• At least 547 people are dead after catastrophic flash floods Wednesday along the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet region, authorities in Nepal said.
• Hundreds of foreign tourists are among those who remain missing in the area, which is popular with trekkers and pilgrims. Rescue operations have resumed in both China and Nepal after they were briefly suspended amid fears of renewed flooding.
• In China, where a mudslide hit a land crossing between Nepal and Tibet’s Gyirong county, authorities said five people were dead and 558 others were missing, including 260 foreigners.
• The State Department says 90 Americans are unaccounted for in Nepal and China, while three have been rescued in Nepal. It said it was not aware of any U.S. deaths.
• The deadly torrent followed a glacial collapse in the Himalayan region, which is home to many of the world’s highest peaks and a high concentration of glaciers.

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islands

islands

I was put off
by use
of the word “Whorehouse”
in
the title

what do I know

liked her work in
9 to 5
and Rhinestone
and better works whose
names
I can’t recall

her commanding pitch in songs
her marriage on Earth
of
59 years
her
foundation sponsoring
as
in making possible
literacy around the world
starting
I guess
in Tennessee

her love of the South
and then
everywhere
and everything to love
and
everyone

music
gone from Earth

music
in heaven

Dolly Parton

clc

drafting right after reading

my brother Paul worked with her in music, theatre production

Dolly Parton @DollyParton
Global icon and humanitarian, Dolly Parton, known to the world as a beloved singer, songwriter, philanthropist, actress, playwright, and author died peacefully today in Nashville, Tennessee. She was 80 years old.
. . .

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birthday in Hobbiton

birthday in Hobbiton

in one month
still get a hobbit charge
to give
and to receive
and wonder where the latest mathoms
are

a party
well
maybe for the young ones

I’d just as soon sit with friends
drink dark ale
hear some un-birthday music
and then
simple
conversation
about anything but me

c l couch

B’s and F’s is actually on the twenty-second

photo by Tim Zänkert on Unsplash
don’t do unless in Hobbiton, attended by a wizard

The Lord of the Rings, the inspired prompt for this work, is a series by J. R. R. Tolkien

(line-spacing without variations by WordPress, sigh)

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I think Jane wanted to do something

I think Jane wanted to do something

remember
or
why would we
except I
do
of
Dick and Jane
with Spot and Puff
and
I guess Mom and
Dad

and they wanted to do things
but had to be smart
about these
and most things worked out
well
I think

and it was maybe to cite
the Think and
Do
program
and franchise for each district

and I guess that was
all right
except that Dick and Jane were awfully white
or
graphically blank but if with Anglo
features

and were they Protestant
as
was expected by the WASPs
in charge

could they be
Jewish
or Muslim
or Catholic or
agnostic

and Nancy Drew
fought crime after church
first
church on Sundays

and these were mentors
I suppose
from school where I was frantic
or home after
the reading chair where and when there’d been
some peace
and
to
get by
acceptably with freedom
if to feel
in summers only

then the next grade to fear
and to endure
unless investing
in
indifference

you know
too cool for school
and
forgetting what I might have learned

fright
then
or ennui
and could we not do better
serving us

and
not
to say that family doesn’t matter
for the dog and cat
and the whole family
needing care

maybe
adding what’s added
anyway
in the world for
faith
and reconstructed families
with
all the colors and the shapes
that Peter Max
elicited
and all the variations in the world
allow and by which keep
teaching for
our
learning

where and
how
Dick and Jane and with all names
to learn

c l couch

photo by Tianlei Wu on Unsplash
“meet my boi”

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undeferred

undeferred

maybe the universe
is better noise
except for that half hour from heaven

otherwise
a harmony
of spheres

of cubes
planes on or off axis
axes
and
dimensions

better when we’re talking
even better when
we’re singing

that is
anything by way of music
mountains as instruments
moons as notes
on staffs of
interplanetary compositions

let dreaming become
utterance
instantly encouraged

no deferring here
or there
at first
at last

c l couch

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?

. . .

—Langston Hughes

photo by Benjamin Chambon on Unsplash

so far, the line-spacing remains uniform, no matter how I’d like to separate the elements on the page (and it seems I’m needing to reformat often, part or all, sigh)

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depth and breadth and height

depth and breadth and height
prompt by her Sonnet 43

why do you love us

you could count
the ways

you love our flaws

you love what’s good about us
too

you love what we are
and what we’re not
in
what we want
and parsing what we want
by
perfect virtue

who we are
by you
by us
even by how the world has shaped us

you love healing us
when wills align

and in the end
to
take us home
where you won’t love us less
but there will be more

c l couch

photo by Mohamed B. on Unsplash

the poetry format is still not working right by WordPress; I can load lines but not spaces between lines, sigh

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