Search

clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

Open Search
Author

clcouch123

In conversation, I prefer Christopher. My mom named me after Christopher Robin, after all. In writing, I use “C L Couch” (or, more simply, “c l couch”) because the form is genderless and also frankly easier to use. I have awful writer’s cramp. I am an educator more or less retired, more or less due to disability. At present, I live in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (USA). My writing here I mean to be occasional and also devotional. Either or both. The banner and profile photographs are by my friend and peer Debra Danielson. More of Debbie’s work to be enjoyed is at debradanielson.org. Thanks to each of you and both and all for coming to my blog.

dispersed

(x = space)

x

x

dispersed

(from the beginning of the book of James)

x

we were together, Mom and Dad

(physical or meaningful)

now we are spread far

we can always say

the Romans did this

but there is our own

polemics

stranding us

separated

in a world driven by

its own prince

that drove Jesus

in the wilderness

from one arid part to another

x

I’m sorry we are no longer

together

though we have letters

we are the legacy of David, still

we are a people

and, as always,

we are family

I hope you are well where you are

I hope that work and food

come easily

I fear, because I know

such things are never certain

we came away with what we had

some maybe had accounts

and interests along the Mediterranean,

generally

x

we live today

and in the Messianic time

and must take hope in that

God will return

God also waits for us

like the shepherd by the

clear stream,

both to beckon

x

and God is with us, now

with love

x

with love,

this note from your child

we all are children now

again

x

c l couch

x

x

James is a brief letter in the Christian New Testament; the pastor preached on James this morning at Covenant Evangelical Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana (USA)

x

photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

x

0

devotional rant

(x = space)

x

x

devotional rant

x

i hear the cat upstairs

my brother dies from cancer

floods kill people

in the South

the Russian war goes on

and there are fires elsewhere

made by us

weapons

and-or

mania

x

there must be reasons for these

and there are

that might be the easy part

will

and stakes for will

this is not for training

this is real

i should say

i don’t know

how all this might apply

to what’s next

what’s coming

x

for now

the harder part

is having what we have

and turning victory

from unshapen shapes

of loss

the lathe of heaven

she writes,

refining all that’s here

x

and yet outside the story

(the story teaches)

we have

what we have

and must make do

and should do better

we should win

not over each other

but over demons

on the earth,

ones that are

ones we make

x

we know better

our skill is better

we can help each other

so much better

some do

the rest ought

to do

x

we have the instruments

play on

war on

peace on

x

c l couch

x

x

note

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

x

Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

x

1

Triscuit Decks a Phobia

(x = space)

x

x

Triscuit Decks a Phobia

x

I keep forgetting

That when the first is on a Sunday

There will be a Friday

The thirteenth

I have to pay attention

Though I’m not afraid

I find it interesting

The day

The superstition

All our reactions

When we realize

x

There’s the Irish in me

Or you

Or the Italian or the Russian

The Kenyan

Or the Māori

Part of you

x

Loki

Raven

Anansi

All the mischief-makers

Plus phantom pronouncements

On the cracks

Under the ladders

With the black cats

Passing by

x

The weight of superstition

Better to wear it lightly

Over souls

Keep a thought

Let it drive you

Toward civility

With an interest in

What drives an utterance

Of the Scottish play

Inside the theatre

In another play’s production

x

Maybe ghosts will tell us

Why it matters

Since the ethereal

If not the numinous

Is attached

And coursing through

The old sources

And our own,

Both inventing things

For cautions

In our day

x

n. b.

x

Be nice to black cats

They are not superstition;

They could have stanched

The plague

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

x

2

The Holy Waiting

(x = space)

x

x

The Holy Waiting

x

Set apart

From regular life

The scheduled living

x

Try to hold

It’s hard

And often it slips through

x

God waits with us

I guess

I hope

There is no timely time

God’s good at that

We wonder

Should be try

Hospital food?

I mean, there are cafés

Maybe with better coffee

And no Jell-O

x

Should we eat?

Is it allowed?

Are we crass?

x

Pins and needles

Certainly, they’re here

And everywhere

Everywhere

We go

The familiar

That is strange now

We’ve never met

How are you?

x

Waiting means stopping

It also means serving

Those also serve

Who only stand and wait

Yeah,

That makes sense now

x

Understanding terminal

There is no

Understanding

Read a book

No, thanks

Climb a tree

Better

x

We stop

Until we move again

In steadiness

Or mysteries

Or steady

Or unsteady mysteries

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Chris Anderson on Unsplash

x

2

2 poems about power

(x = space)

x

x

2 poems about power

x

x

A Day without Power

x

The plug on the computer broke

Last night

I had what was left of

The battery’s charge

I thought about what to do

Without the use the computer

To get a part for the computer

x

I live in a small town

There aren’t big signs saying

Fix Your Computer Here

But I call a friend

And with real words we discussed

The problem

x

He knows more than I

And so helped me make a list

Of non-electronic possibilities

I moved on one of these

Using the car

(not a mouse)

Going to a place with walls

Not firewalls

Looking people in the face

And telling my brief story

x

We found something universal

That could fit

My machine

I purchased the new thing

That wasn’t cheap

But a day without

Going into two days

Was not desirable

x

In the world,

There are better needs

And bigger

I didn’t lose electricity

And I’m not in a war zone

I am poor

But there’s help to get me food

When need be

And sometimes other things

x

I am sick

And usually tired

But am ambulatory

And have lots of pills

That help

And there are side effects,

Which mostly thanks to taxes

And my age

I can afford

x

I tend to think your needs

Must be greater than mine,

More real

And more pressing

But in my larger story

There was one decent passage

I can share with you now,

Hopefully to hear

Your story, too

x

x

The Power of Friendship

x

We’ve been through COVID

Got our shots

More or less retired

From our jobs

We both believe

And sometime have

Good conversations about faith

We share books

We don’t shop

Or take trips together

We might cheer on different teams

He has a house

(mortgage paid off recently)

He is married

Has three children

I’m forever the third wheel

x

We give rides for each other

When needed

For tests or procedures

He’s gotten me to hospitals

When necessary

And sat through

Unovertly

Through many times of waiting

x

There’s power in this

Unplanned

We simply met through the department

And it’s been many years

Untypical perhaps

Too academic

I think we both

Like the mind

But there is more

As there is more to people

And a complex world

x

The future will provide

There is no prophecy

Apart

We have our issues

And our challenges

Together

What David and Jonathan

Might define

Or Gertrude and Alice

Something in the ether

And before the TV

Watching movies (us three)

On Friday

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Robert Linder on Unsplash

x

0

We Say, We Believe

(x = space)

x

x

We Say, We Believe

(maybe it’s Revelation 23)

x

God is love

The metaphor

Reality

So much better than

God is gold

Even

God is power

Though God is both

The metaphor

Reality

x

God made the gold, at least

And also power

Power lent

To us

And in the Earth

Inherent

x

Borrowing

And legacy

That’s not our own

No matter how many times

We name another name

x

We do not last

Not on our own

And everything on Earth

That was our own

Is naught

So that when everything’s renewed

There will no monuments

Except the living

In a city

Where the temple

Is a person

And water is provided

That’s life-giving

x

C L Couch

x

x

By Voky89 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72763611

This is a photo of a monument in Ukraine, number: 53-101-0501

x

2

Treading Dawn

(x = space)

x

x

Treading Dawn

x

First I think upon

The violet sail

Then the dragon’s head

That sees

Where we are going

But keeps its secrets

Then to notice that

The ship is moving

In the picture

Feel the air

Taste the air

It tastes of salt

Pure crystals from Narnia

Or a zone of it

Or the unbounded sea

x

It’s wet

I’m wet

And there it is

The last allowance

The rooms fills

We leave the world

To go to this one

However attached

Unattached

(its own)

To fall upon the deck

Or into the water

The kindly crew will help

Though there have

Been enemies

Fallen from outside

x

How might I prove

Intent?

Salute somehow?

That will not be enough

With the ship

We undulate

Upon the sea

While they make up their minds

My pockets empty

No weapons

(that might help)

I’ll sit here

On the melodious wooden deck

A while

While they decide

And should this be the start

Of another chapter

Either way

x

C L Couch

x

x

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, third chronicle of Narnia

x

Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

The frigate Shtandart in calm weather.

Rīga, Латвия

x

2

Postcard at the Center

(x = space)

x

x

Postcard at the Center

(wishing you were here)

x

I am up early

The sun has yet

To shine

Or try through clouds

If that’s what happens

It’s going to be

A warmish winter day

Not that the climate’s warming

Or anything

x

The trees outside

Will look black against

The morning light behind them

The cars will pass by

Below,

Somehow magically muffled

By a Sunday morning

Eventually,

It will be time for church

For churchgoers

x

No comment

But some coffee

That was necessary

And gratified I had the fixings

For a gift

And for the time

x

That’s all

The card ran out of space

Above

I’m writing on the air beside

That might be sent

As well

Through something like the ether

If not cardboard

x

C L Couch

x

with gratitude for Carrie Fisher

x

x

Photo by Matt Hardy on Unsplash

Sydney Opera House

x

1

2 poems about Epiphany

(x = space)

x

x

2 poems about Epiphany (small e, large E) or the epiphanous

Here are two poems about this date, religiously and globally.  It is Orthodox Christmas, however (and Happy Christmas!), with Orthodox Epiphany twelve days from today.

x

x

Epiphanies

(track the Es)

x

Merry Christmas

To the Orthodox

Though it is Epiphany

For the west

And west of east

Epiphany is day for

Discovery

In class we might be taught

That epiphany small-e

Denotes a moment when

Things come together

And we realize

Something grand

About life

And living

x

The catalyst isn’t something

Well-known

It’s not the wedding day

Or the trip to Disneyland

Not even

Hiking to the peak

It is washing dishes

Playing with children

(don’t let the moment

get you struck

with a game ball)

Beholding the postal carrier

Who knows

Something for

Each one of us

What we realize

Is that

Life is this

And shall not be the same

x

For an example

You might have missed

In school,

Stephen Daedalus

In Portrait

Espies a woman by the water

No one he knows

And will not see again

Yet he discovers

Realizes

How the world is

And his part to play

While she is not Arthurian

And Excalibur

Is not presented from the water

The scene is ordinary;

No one else could

Tell

And we know

Because we have the story

Only here

Not worthy in a ledger

Or a history

Or an age

Or of a people

x

It might be

That each of an

Arthur

Or a king

Between genders

All of us

And one by one

But that is an essay

To argue a metaphor

For an assignment

As Arthur learns a destiny

For Camelot

So we discover

What we have

In a realm of one

x

Could this be

A partnered thing?

Modernism

Would say no

But now that we are post-,

Why not?

x

Epiphany large-E

Means discovery

As the Magi come upon

The child Jesus,

Understanding all the prophecy

That hinted in a star

And in old narratives

That someone

Would be here

To change the world

x

There is another such

(same day)

Recalling Jesus with

His cousin John

And baptism by the Jordan

Jesus is grown now

And insists

His cousin dedicate

Jesus with water;

John demurs,

But Jesus shall have it in

No other way

And when the water pours

The sky opens

There is a dove descending

And a voice to hear

Announcing

And approving

Jesus to God

And back to Earth

This is the discovery

(large E)

For him

The prophet

And the human world

x

For us beholding

Realizing

Changing us

Perhaps

However evangelism

Falls

Like a descending dove

x

x

The Patrick’s Day Party

x

Today is the sixth

Of January,

A date that could live

In infamy

But won’t

The government is stable

Except for Republicans

And Democrats

Who decided that

Polemics is the better

Form

Of politics

Shall there be a conservative

Democrat?

Shall there be

A liberal Republican?

By no means

Not here

Not now

x

Perhaps it’s time

For other parties

Our parent founders

Did not have in mind

Only two

We could bring back Whigs

I don’t know

What Whigs are

I still imagine them

In wigs

Of a past design

The Know-Nothing party

Is too on-the-nose

For how things

Go today

The Federalists?

The Loyalists?

The New-Year’s-Eve?

x

I’d go for the

Saint Patrick’s Party

We could all wear green

To treat each other

And our planet green with

Sainthood

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Malcolm Lightbody on Unsplash

x

4

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑