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clcouch123

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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.

Blue Ice (photo by James Barkman)

Blue Ice

(realized)

 

Two words I’ve wanted

To put together,

 

Never thought I

Could

 

With real substance

In back of

The metaphor (though

Metaphor, I know, is

Power enough

 

Then I see the

Photograph,

The image

Of it resting on

The water

 

In a frozen

Clime where all my warm

Impressions of Earth

Are turned over,

Thankfully

 

There lies blue ice

 

Finally, something imagined

In my shuttered

Part

Of the solar garden

Has been released

 

A gift of surprise

And gratitude

For Edenic wonders

 

C L Couch

 

jamesbarkman

Last post from Iceland.

Glacial ice floating in the Jökulsárlón Lagoon. Showing up at this zone with nobody around and watching the 4 hr sunrise was definitely one of the highlights. No matter how blown up these spots are, photos will never do them justice.

Shot on Portra160NC. Always so fascinating to see how different film stocks capture different colors

 

5

Saruman Brings Down Trees

Saruman Brings Down Trees

 

A duel is established between

The organic and the mechanical

 

It doesn’t have to be this way,

Only a demon-ridden wizard must

See it so:

 

The world exists in duality with

Room enough to have everything,

Mutuality in a multiverse

6

Listen to Earth

Listen to Earth

(Sarah Doughty)

 

Listen to earth:

For

She will tell you much

 

Of love on the ground

And underneath

And in the branches

Of the trees,

Sometimes even launched

From there;

 

From the garden, truth—

Wild and perennial,

Knowing no

Cultivation

But the seasons;

 

Tendril-scent of romance

Glides onto the sky

Over water,

Upended in the course

Each time—

 

Thus approving

The cycle

Of immortal love

 

That touches stellar rings

With which Earth sings

 

C L Couch

 

https://thesarahdoughty.wordpress.com/

5

The Ashburn Old School

The Ashburn Old School “on the edge”

of Washington, D.C., Vandalized Last

Night

 

Might I apologize for an entire color?

I can’t—I didn’t make it, nor do I feel

intense affiliation.  But whites (I figure

whites) have defaced an old school on

the cusp of finished restoration.  An

old school that had been inhabited by

black students and, I guess, an all-black

staff.  The problem in apologizing for

criminals is that I don’t know them.  I

don’t know that kind of ugliness in hate.

I don’t get the relish manifest through

stupid, destructive action.  I am sorry

though in a general, human way.  I

apologize for all of us who are blind

when we can only see one color.  I can

praise and thank you who are of color,

as all are, and who make strides by reaching

in and lifting up learning and the story,

however dismal certain chapters must

become.  Learning is triumphant and,

we know, shall overcome.

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/03/racist-graffiti-historic-black-school-virginia?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+morning+briefing+2016&utm_term=193179&subid=16706344&CMP=ema_a-morning-briefing_b-morning-briefing_c-US_d-1

4

Lysistrata Vote

Lysistrata Vote

(USA, elsewhere)

 

A comedy by Aristophanes

 

And a Spanish film

From 2002

(Thanks, Wiki-P)

 

The Lysistrata woman

Wages sex against men who

Rather

Want to go to war

 

She wins, averting

Armageddon

Between Sparta and Athens

 

And, as in all good comedies

(Classic, say),

The community is better,

Stronger for it

 

For her

 

Now

 

For all shes who must be obeyed,

Time for another laugh like this?

The Banshee Cries

The Banshee Cries

 

I split the night, I know

I want to

Further chaos into silent

Human sleep

 

I have neither quiet

Nor rest

Why should you?

 

And when my piercing

Work is done

And I’ve coursed through

Your family

 

I’ll come for you

You won’t see though

You will hear

And maybe at last

Listen

 

Too late to fix your

Prophecy

 

That’s done:

 

And you will come with me

To a place

Where hellish noise is

All you know

 

You,

Betraying man

Who spoke

Curses in love

9

The Selkie Charmed

The Selkie Charmed

 

We offered love

And you took sex

 

We were wondrously

Outfitted, loving

Shapes and colors to

Show the world

My feeling

 

You removed every

Thing to get to flesh

And to the bones

Underneath:

 

Did you think this was

Affection?

 

It was abduction,

And we never again

Felt rescued or

Recovered

 

We left home

You took us instead

Into a somber place,

And in the way

That matters most

We are still locked

Away

8

The Lesson of Saint Francis

The Lesson of Saint Francis

 

We are all animals in

Beauty, here:

 

And we need guide each

Other to

A pilgrim path

In walking with the saints

Who would eschew

The capital s

 

Service is ennobled

(As are all better things)

When we love

To give away

What we have

 

To share with

All other creatures of

The Earth—

 

The sky, what’s

Under the water,

And what dances upon

The surface

 

In the measures and the

Rhythms

Of creation

4

Saint Francis and the Animals

Saint Francis and the Animals

(4 October)

 

Eight hundred years

Ago in the

Middle part of Italy,

 

A person walked and others

Walked with him

 

But when he tried to preach

No one would hear;

So he spoke his message

Unto the birds

The raccoons (in my telling)

And all things that crept

Or flew through the air

 

He would return to people:

He visited the pope

He met with the sultan of

The Muslim warriors who

Fought in Jerusalem,

 

Because he hoped

That peace as a cause

Might overwhelm

The rest

That keeps

Getting in our way

5

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