(x = space)
x
x
monday protest
x
get up
listen to the noise
and go
and this is how it starts
x
a day
in the modern world
x
no,
thank you
iI’ll stay here
in the drab place
and time
x
of dark and cold
of sleep
and safety
well
x
i won’t grow up
not i
x
if you must leave
i’ll stay
x
c l couch
x
photo by eduardo mallmann on unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
to pray
x
not wishful thinking
not wishes
maybe wishes
maybe where your wants
and mine
and ours
might come together as if this were
how a point of light
in the sky at night
were made
x
we might accomplish this
our wishes changed
our wants intersect
so that
there is something like justice
and like mercy
x
both humility
and confidence
in faith
amen
x
c l couch
x
x
Photo by Tyler Jamieson Moulton on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Don’t Remove This Label
x
I don’t want to reason
Only secularly
But I look where I am
And listen
x
In a long room
Whose beauty is beneath
Because the skin and other features
Are so poorly cared for
x
Which is to say
It’s old and could be good
But isn’t good
x
The noise of the world
Breaks in from above
And neither rule
Nor rent
Is cared about
x
Outside is a cold and pleasant day
At least to see
I see too much
And need to invoke
The other senses so much more
x
Drivers misbehave outside
Sometimes pedestrians
Though the thing about the outside noise
Is that it moves on
x
And I know
There are fires
That burn acreage
In a wild and awful way
And those who fight these flames
Are often hurt
And much is lost
Famously
In fires
x
And there is war I do not understand
And thank you I don’t want to
I’m sorry
But a bomb
Blasting away everything I know
And cuts away at me
By foes’ intent
I would be crazed
In every way
And to know the agency was human
Without randomness
For an agenda
x
And I know that states are falling
While brave people
Stand against
The evil reasons
And the power that, created good,
Is now corrupted
And maybe has been
For a while
But in a den bares now
Its blooded teeth
Behind a guard
That operates somehow
To keep the good ones from approaching
x
And I say it thus
With distance
Not that local evil
Hasn’t worked its way
Maybe the world
Learning of democracy
Is ruled by princes
After all
x
I simply want a quiet day
And promise of another
I want boredom
To be my awful challenge
And in this way I’ll try
To address the rest
I really will
From here
And now
x
You may decide what I am or
Most of you
Ignore me
And why not
Ignoring what
We need
To keep our naïve brand
In place
Like the labels on the furnishings
We do not tear off
Even though I doubt
The wars
Should care
x
I care
Not about that
But decades into this
I care
You might care as well
And more than me
Knowing better what to protest
What to fight for
x
Not to mention
I would rather be
Which makes everything more difficult
With you
Attached
Rather than against you
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Thomas Dumortier on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Future Perfect
x
What is that, Father?
The child asks,
Pointing
Like accusation
x
That is a gun, the
Father says
x
Over the mantel
Perched
By law
x
But, observes the child,
It’s falling apart;
I can barely tell the shape
Of it
x
Yes,
Father replies,
And that is the way
Of all guns now,
Now that we’ve grown
To take
Care of each other
And put the guns
Aside
And, as we have,
Reminders
x
Later in the day,
Mother enters
And has news
From work:
x
The assembly made the choice
At last
To take them down,
To put up other tokens,
Totems, symbols,
What have you
What have us
Instead
x
And so
The gun is taken down,
Parts swept off the mantel
And
For a while
The peaceful emptiness there
Pervades
While the family
Talks
About what to put there next
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Patrick Metzdorf on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
a day like no other
(16 March)
x
we had our Ides
tomorrow is Saint Patrick’s
famous days
while
this day is ordinary
formless
without expectation
to do with what
we will
thank goodness
x
it is a Lenten day
for seasons
and liturgic calculation
and it’s important
as a day in forty days
for thinking
and for faith
for faithful thinking
x
but otherwise
it is alone
between two famous days
so different
that we cannot call today
a bridge
it simply is as is
x
and ready
for whatever
we might
unfamously do
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Adli Wahid on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Sometimes Agnostically Yours
x
God, what shall I pray
To you?
I’m sorry for my sins
And I mean that
I ask for forgiveness that
Frankly
I struggle in receiving
x
I ask for daily bread
That might be
Bread
Or
Something else
I need
Pretty much right now
x
And I shall wait
Probably
Pretty badly
While I wait
x
Since need often
Feels punished
And faith
Is much
From an invisible God
To wait for
x
And yet
Stones for bread
Is inhumane
And undivine
And so
I’ll try to anticipate
Exactly the right thing
Provided
x
Sorry
Thank you
Amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Matthew 6:9
x
Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Tricks
x
Silly rabbit
Bear of little brain
Ferdinand
Under the cork tree
Where
There are
Redolent flowers
Where Ferdinand
Redoles
x
Dog flying plane
On doghouse
Cat invested
In lasagna
The animals know
We craft
Their knowing
Franciscan-relegated
Wisdom
Preaching to birds
Who listen
x
The cardinals who
Live red
The ravens who laugh
Black
x
To all the lower
Creatures
Who act better
x
One virtue
Per species,
Each an exemplar
x
While we have
Way too many
Too complex a menagerie
Made
Of excuses
x
The stolid thing
We offer
Maybe we imagine
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Marco Biondi on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
I am going away for a few days. My family is having a wake to remember my older brother who died recently from prostate cancer (detected way too late). I’m not sure how hotel wi-fi works or if it works or if I work with it, so I’m not sure about being in touch here while I am gone.
x
x
Believing God
x
Immortal, Invisible
How much sense
To believe in such a thing?
Like a ghost
We cannot exorcise,
Like love
We never want
To go away
x
In something that made everything
And we weren’t there
That guides us if we want
But has an overarching will
At work
Regardless
x
Intimate and inside
Glorious in nature
Even when
Nature is terrible
And thus
Capable of fright for a response
x
We go there
And shall it come here?
A word
A choice
And we are outcast
Another word
And we are home
In a place with many mansions
x
Source of fiction
And nonfiction
Belief on trial
But so go justice
And mercy
As ideas
x
Is it everything that’s good
Compelling faith
And then the action?
And is God
The best of all?
The maker, sponsor
Source of everything
That lasts
That’s worth the lasting
x
Life
Loss
The spark that’s there
And holding the spark
When it goes out
x
Something everyone
Can get and have
Like good stories
Told well
And, well,
This is the best story
We can have
And is alive
All the time
Forever
Gladly for aye
And amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Lucas Hoang on Unsplash
x
certain hymns and verses in John are sources for allusions
x
(x = space)
x
x
Everywhere
(IWD 2023)
x
It’s International Women’s Day
While in some parts of the world
It’s nearly over
And it’s over
I wonder what happened?
What nations adopted
Legislation
That affirms,
Almost absurdly,
The humanhood of women?
x
What programs might have taken place
By groups who want
To announce
Or better yet
To shake the world
With a civil earthquake
To bring tectonic change
Into culture
x
What artists and art groups gave us new ways
To see and hear
And touch the way
To change?
And what God waits
To intervene
When the threats increase and wholeness
Is defined
Only in part
For some?
Better yet, let’s intervene ourselves
x
Let’s push on tyrannies
Until pushed over
And things are built
New places
And new institutions,
A world that’s femininely organized,
Which is to say
The most human
Of all worlds
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
Salha Khan, a Kurdish hero. Statue in Erbil. سالحە خان ١٩٣٢ – ٢٠٠١ لە هەولێر #kurdistanregion #erbil #هەولێر
x
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