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clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

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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.

T is for Tarantella

T is for Tarantella

 

It’s been set to music,

And I like the story

That goes

 

That if one dances

Fast enough with zest

And spirit and need,

 

The poison will

Withdraw from out

The spider’s bite

 

Perspiration, perhaps

Perhaps reward of

Tribute to Arachne

 

Who knows, maybe

To the mischief of

Ananzi, too

 

Now let’s make our

Own tale of such

Movement and lost

Consciousness in

Dance to take us

 

To a place where

Divinity gives

Healing

 

 

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

Bard’s Day

Bard’s Day

(23 April)

 

It’s a word that without

Context is simply one

Strange sound

 

Add a letter, the hair

On the bottom of his

Face has definition

 

Instead substitute

A letter, the word

And man (he was a

Man) take flight

 

Happy birthday, man

Of words that fly

S is for Science

S is for Science

 

Science is skill

Practice and progress

Discipline, consistent

Method and trial

 

So is poetry-making

Poeia in ancient Greek

(The process of

Making)

 

Both are spiritual acts

Dealing with creation

And miracle

 

Though scientists and

Poem-makers might

Not see the fabulous

Beyond amazing

Accomplishments of

People

 

In effect, the miracle

Being us

 

Well, so be it

 

I see the soul, and

That’s my science

 

Global, adhesive

Respect will keep our

World together

 

And so I will look

Forward to your way

 

And we may measure

And skillfully remake

The cosmos together

 

 

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

First Day

First Day

 

The first thing I do

Is scope the day

Maybe I suss out

How I’m feeling

 

Unconsciously, I think

Of God

 

S: How can you do

With any awareness

An unconscious thing?

 

How can I not

Look out the window

See the wide dark

Bend of branches

Reaching up toward

Undefined scenery

Behind

 

And not think about

Even in my fuzzied

State of waking up

 

Who made it all, the

Unclear parts, too

 

S: Well

 

Well, nothing—I

Think of God

 

And when the light

Gets bigger with

Some yellow, I’ll

Think better

Lyric about Leaving

Lyric about Leaving

(on, frankly, overhearing the first line

in conversation)

 

Don’t ever go away

But we go away, when we must

I don’t like it, either

 

If I move, it doesn’t mean

I feel your leaving less, your

Presence in my life leaving

Now

 

The only joy in leaving is

Return

 

I go to strangers, so why would

I want to stay

 

I’ll come back, and maybe

You’ll return to me, too

I know it can happen if in

Uncertain ways

 

I hope my will and yours are

Of one mind in which calm

Love takes over when together

From the day

 

From the day

R is for Rose

R is for Rose

(requiring parenthetic subtlety)

 

Cloak filled with roses

Emblems of a miracle

At Guadalupe (in

Spanish, the e would

Get some emphasis)

 

Roses are a metaphor

For, as Catholics call

Her. the Mother of

God, met by sainted

(Both ways) faithful

Cuauhtlatoatzin (in

Aztec—try it as it

Sounds) outside of

Town, not recognizing

 

Her but treating her

With all respect, as

Women (and good

Men) are due, before

She was revealed

 

Mary is a rose, so is

Solomon when

Speaking of his love

 

I am the rose of

Sharon, having more

To say of savor for

The lover’s taste

 

Passion is a rose,

Though shades can

Change things (red is

For, white is for,

Yellow and purple

Have their meanings,

Too

 

And if a pop-culture

Color is preferred,

There’s Abby-black)

 

So, G. Stein, a rose

May not be a rose,

For discretion might

Be required and

Context for the next

Trip to the florist

 

 

(at present in USA, an orange rose is symbol for healthy birth by Every Mother Counts, http://www.everymothercounts.org/)

 

 

 

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

Q is for Quing

(pronounced as the male monarch’s name)

Q is for Quing

 

Lately, I’ve been wondering

If women can’t be kings

Not that queen isn’t a good word

It’s fine

 

But for many, it rudely matters that

The queen is not the king

 

We’ve had women working as kings

King Elizabeth the First

King Victoria

And if Pope Joan’s and Nefertiti’s

Reigns are believed,

They ruled as kings in their

Respective cultures

 

If queens don’t want to be kings

I understand

After all, kings actual, though

Royal, too often do not take well

To scrutiny

 

But overall I’d like to say

Hail, King Elizabeth

Hail, King Zenobia

 

 

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

When we do it, it’s Worse

When we do it, it’s Worse

 

Death number climbs in

Ecuador, while the dead

Are counted in Japan, as the

Living are cared for

 

Because the earth cracked

Widely, terribly of its own

 

An explosion in Kabul

Kills many, destroys other

Things—homes, places of

Business, religious practice

Surfaces—and the death of

Hope

 

This destruction caused by

The Taliban that sees no

Wrong in murdering its own

 

Since, in this act, the

Perpetrator and the victim

Share the nation’s blood

 

Civil war or any like-tragedy

Inside of one people

 

We romanticize our war in

The USA

 

But I think, all said, we’d

Rather have the romance

Without the dead

 

If God can save Afghanistan

 

If it pleases within the

Parameters of will and

Allowance for humanity

 

I hope God rescues both life

And the liberty

 

For believers to submit

Themselves for what they’ve

Earned—mercy or God’s

Unqualified judgment

P is for Petrarchan Sonnet

P is for Petrarchan Sonnet

(Petrarch’s writing signaled the Renaissance)

 

So when I love with all I am alive

Then we are introduced as I and you

Therewith you ask me ever to be true

We press out feeling into a heart-hive

And thus you try to make it all survive

A mystery of evidence, a clue

To why you need me to pledge us anew

And wonder why we can’t in peace now thrive

 

It’s fear, I guess, and I can understand

When all is eye that cannot see around

That life before is ever in command

Until fear leaves in grace might love abound

So, love, let love become a golden band

A flex of give and strength to fright astound

 

 

[A] sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/petrarchan-sonnet

 

 

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

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