(x = space)
x
x
Beneath Us
x
If God looks down
Then God should look up
Through the ground
Through all the loose dirt
In the garden
Through mountaintops
Or valleys,
Through all the fractured
Places we have made
x
God looks up through
Everything
We’re planting
x
C L Couch
x
x
A mother teaching her child how to plant a tree.
#greenlegacyethiopia #pmgreenlegacychallenge
Photo by Eyoel Kahssay on Unsplash
@eyoel_kahssay_photographer
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(x = space)
x
x
The Gifter
x
Something brief and fragile
Like the low candle
Ready to touch the plate,
Run out of life
Of thread and wax to burn
x
Who says “brief candle,”
Hamlet or Macbeth?
x
Both ready for an end,
Relinquished from the missions
Set upon by ghosts and witches
Daggers and blood
And other apparitions
x
That like the dagger
Blood on hands
In fact, all apparitions
x
Might be of the mind,
Modern interpretation
Of medieval magic
x
A gift of time in time
The gifter having only one
For whom the limitations
Of one time can
Never, never, never, never, never
Be enough
x
C L Couch
x
x
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.
x
Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5
x
x
red light
Photo by Maeghan Smulders on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Half a Building Gone
(Surfside, Florida)
x
Half a building gone
It seems,
Unreal
x
I mean, how do we
Take it in?
x
High-rise exposure—the
Condos look
Like cells,
Like empty egg cartons
Many stories high
x
The back that stands
Looks brown;
The open part looks
Silver,
Though I imagine
The effect is the light
Of day
And camera resolution
x
How many died?
How many live?
x
Already a pack appears
Around a microphone,
Mouthing
Not enough details
Although with
Many assurances
x
Maybe that’s good
x
Maybe it symbolizes
There should not
Be panic
But that the best advice
Is to sit
Or stand around
x
While the recues
Work on,
Heroes
x
When the experts
Do their jobs
That they do well
x
Stand by
For more information,
More assurances
x
C L Couch
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x
Photo by Dan Russo on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Provision
(from Psalm 23)
x
Still waters
But not stagnant
There is movement
Of the Earth
And provision by
Earth’s Spirit
x
The saints
And other essences
Provide gentle
And fulfilling currents
And sponsor peace
Beneath, above
Where water moves
And air
And all good things
For that we might rest
Beside the water
And sometimes go in
For cleanliness
Or fun
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Mathias P.R. Reding on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Anything We Give Each Other
x
What shall I give of
Myself today?
Many skin cells,
Loose strands of hair,
Carbon dioxide
Naturally
x
Thoughts as I write
Or should I talk
With anyone;
Or will a few drop down
Onto the page
Made of cells
And electrons
From me
Or the machine?
x
And we will each give
Of each one
Exchange
Like inhale for exhale,
As close as
Sharing across
The boundaries
Allows inside the rings
Of a mortally fixed
Universe
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Pavel Neznanov on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Solstice Properties
x
Stonehenge is a solstice
Property,
As is Newgrange,
Machu Pichu,
And anywhere there is
A sacred pointer for
The movement
Of the sun
x
Earth will now start
To tip the other way,
Technically; we enter
The winter-half
Of the year
While officially (as we are
official to ourselves),
Summertime has only
Begun
x
I guess I’ve
Thought about this
Quandary for a while
And wondered about
Other people’s
Calendars—after all,
Shouldn’t this be the
Halfway point of
Summer? And do we not
In certain ways and places
Call these days
Midsummer? The mix
Of math and culture in me
Doesn’t understand
x
But it’s official,
And I hope this is a
Pleasant season for you;
We certainly need one
And the next season
Could be pleasant,
Too, for all our weariness,
For those who have
Persevered
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Adrien Aletti on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
If All Were a Leg
x
The pain is rising from
My foot and
Shooting through my leg,
Because my leg is trying
To replace my ankle
While
Doing its own job
x
Not working out so well
I think my ankle’s
Bored, and my leg doesn’t
Need a second job
So
Here’s hoping everything
Will have its own back
Soon,
Because healing has the overarching
Task of taking chaos due to injury:
x
To signal a
Rearranging necessary
For the moment, which is
Fragile,
Toward a time when the body will be
Less
Sore and
More sensible for managing
x
C L Couch
x
x
17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? . . . 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
1 Corinthians 12:17, 20-21
New Living Translation
x
Photo by Guilherme Stecanella on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Sunday Best
(for Juneteenth)
x
I celebrate from a distance,
Thinking of church
As an invitation
I received
Several years ago
In a Black church in Louisville,
Kentucky
x
I was there for meetings
And on
Sunday morning
We went to a church
Some of us
Had known about
x
Arms rose into the air
For hours, and the choir
Never seemed
To stop
x
And, I’m sorry,
I don’t remember the
Preaching
But remember the music
And the dancing in the air
Of arms and words
Carried up
By song
x
And if the Spirit could be
Smoke, we
We wouldn’t breathe
But as it’s air
We breathed in life
And exhaled
New visions
x
And we were welcomed,
Such was love
In the airy cloud
That prismed every color
With invitation
Courtesy
And movement
For outsiders
x
We were there for hours
Without knowing
This was Sunday best
At its best
I’ll be a part of it again
Someday
x
For there
There was freedom in the
Spirit
As there should be a day for it
Then every day
Every day a work
And play
For freedom
Numinous
And real
x
C L Couch
x
x
Spirituality
Photo by Thiago Barletta on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
3 poems about room
x
x
Waiting Room
x
Lately, I’ve been angry in my dreams
I’m not sure what that means
I’ve argued with my mother
I’ve argued with former coworkers
Then I’ve left each encounter
To find a peaceful place, all my own
x
x
Wanting Room
x
I’ve not argued with God
In my dreams
I’ve not argued with God
When awake
I don’t argue with God
x
Though I imagine
There was a time
When I must have argued,
When
Hurts were all
Too awful in the bearing
Of them,
And I didn’t want
To bear them
x
Wanting relief, instead
Or at least a reason—
No, a reason
Wouldn’t be enough
x
I wanted relief
From God
x
x
Room
x
I want room from the landlord*
Who makes me live
With paper-peeling walls
And ceiling and says he can do
Nothing
x
I want room from doctors who
Don’t respond
To their own tests,
To tell me how to deal with
Possibly a broken bone
And certainly with broken flesh
x
I want room
From people who don’t recognize
Me anyway
Because they don’t recognize
Anyone, anyway
x
Each is in a world of one
While the rest of us are landscape
Statues in performance,
Performing when invoked
With snapping fingers or something
x
I’ll take room
From that
From those,
Thank you
x
x
C L Couch
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x
Photo by Holy Maria Lala on Unsplash
x
*(room, landlord = pun, sorry)
x
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