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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.

Equatorial Collapse

Equatorial Collapse

 

Not believing in

Im-providential bluster

 

Conspiracy only by

Nature tunneling

Through our

Understanding

 

Not ready to give in

That this is the end of

Our clay days

 

Number of who’s

Died in Ecuador

Adds more, one

Victim by one

 

Richter 7.8

 

So many, so much

Gone or fading into

Earth that all destroyed

Only invites a tomb

 

Ecuador

 

Queridos, tengan cuidado

 

Loved ones, literally

Have care, reach to

Possess

 

Seek it, hold it, share

 

Expect care’s arriving

With other, constructed

Parts of the world

 

La santidad en la vida

Anda con ustedes

Abajo del mundo

Y hasta a los cielos

2

O is for Ocarina

O is for Ocarina

 

I played one once

In school

I liked the sound it made

More than the flutophone

 

And then I saw the

Oscar Mayer truck

And it all jumbled in

My brain

 

Ocarina on wheels is what

The hot-dog-mobile

Looked like

Well, as long I don’t add

 

Mustard to the instrument

Whose true child-sound

I enjoy and wonder where

It got to

 

 

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

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

2

Little Life

Little Life

 

Now and then

When I’m stirring in the cream

 

Well, half-and-half from the grocery store

(I remember the milk man, though never met him)

 

Ivory-colored liquid circling in dark-brown

Like magic substance added to the witch’s cauldron

 

I know the coffee’s hot

For now—I tend to get distracted in drinking it

 

And it gets cold two hours later

Imagine that?

 

I think for no reason I can think of

Well, that’s probably a cheat

 

I see all the piles and surfaces

Unplanned textures in arranging

 

The morning sun diffuse without tarnish

I breathe normally and am tired just enough

 

To have the thought almost in passing

I like my little life

2

Psalms 32 and 33

Psalm 32

a song before repentance

 

I should be truer to you

And stay that way

Learning more about you

Fulfilling my awareness

Of how your love

The world

 

 

Psalm 33

a song of anxious supplication

 

Forgive me when I fail

Strengthen me

 

Take my hollow parts

To fill them with truth

And better cause

 

Love

Not so much for reward

As for peace

If peace comes with it

Finally, please

I’ll have

2

N is for None (Prayer)

N is for None (Prayer)

 

Antique for afternoon, partitioned prayer

Often over memory—petition, supplication

In none lines I pray for you, intercessory

Neighbors who are fighting, maybe more

Friends who are generous and persevere

Family that grows in number, challenges

 

You who take part here to have your days

Maybe none is for infinite, three by three

And on, asking-prayers, loving perpetually

 

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

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

2

East of Eden

East of Eden

 

Earthquakes split (6.4,

7.4), volcanoes feared

In a paradisal land that

Has such virtue in

Nature and humanity

 

Anger of nature, the

Patron’s rightful wrath

For it has been a place

Of crushing empire, too

 

Or is it in imitations of

The west, of surrendering

Ancient code, ritual, and

Ceremony to impose

New rule of the

Incorporated world

 

Residents sleeping inside

Comb-shaped cells like

Unfeeling bee-keeping

 

Perilous excesses in

Manufacturing and energy

Production, making Japan

Truly like the rest

 

In the wake of nature’s

Lightning crevassing the

Land in whatever form

Is invoked, attitudes

And disposition are not

Enough to take on

Now

 

Our neighbors need

And though we might

Cry that we’re not able

Or we are too far

No excuse is enough

 

Our neighbors need

6

MachinE

MachinE

 

form that serves itselF

like bureaucracy that’s lost its waY

calculation and summatioN

records of everythinG

charts everything but coursE

never showing us the waY

has credibility for the shape it iS

and because it works more efficiently than uS

 

We pioneer

We tear the paper edges even on waterproof paper

We feel the wind and rain

Spear through our layers of cotton, wool, and stronger new-made stuff

We are sturdy stuff

We try

We try again

 

the machine doesn’t threateN

but it is an alien thinG

We are not made of catalogued parts

Rather creator’s compass

It may know

To us it’s brave chaos

Risk in the unknown

 

machine doesn’t feaR

In wind that incites

We don’t fear

 

To us it is all vague before we explore

Shapeless and clock-incalculable

To which we’ll add

what gear-efficiency cannoT

 

Purpose enough

 

 

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

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

7

Lines

Lines

 

I tried to make a cursive h

(If we know what cursive is

 

I hear it’s no longer taught

In school)

 

Anyway (my rant set aside),

I failed to get it right and,

In my attempt to

Write it right,

 

I saw what makes the letter

 

A circle, more an oval

Straight line descending

At an angle, then upon

A simple arch

 

Those three shapes

Make this alphanumeric

Contribution

 

Such plain things make up

The world

 

Lines are bent or remain

Straight, all to recommend

How Earth might be

 

By keepers and expressers

Who delight with beauty in

Design

5

L is for Lyric

L is for Lyric

 

Will you sing with me?

If I start,

If you start,

Shall we sing together?

 

The earth spins off harmony,

A jubilance of sparks—

Fireworks

In the mind

 

Our words become song

And, while orbiting,

An invitation:

 

Into our creating cups,

Ambrosia-better,

Liquid inspiration

 

Not for drinking but for

Utterance,

Music becoming

Current  in the cosmos

 

 

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

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

7

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