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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.

The Odd Couple (of Poems)

The Odd Couple (of Poems)

 

 

Me, a Business Teacher?

(there was an ad for this, and I’ve

taught in the discipline)

 

I could teach the business I’ve been in

I could teach how there is no support

For personal goals and idealism

That ethics is cut down by deals in

Secret corners

That all faith should be withdrawn to

Be cared for in other ways

 

Maybe I should teach

 

 

Zilch

 

A forgotten Marx brother

Like Zippo who sold lighters

Gumbo who was really into

Southern soup

 

Or Gumby who found other

Media work

 

And Zilch?  As you can

Imagine,

 

Zilch became nothing

 

just to show I’m not a spoil-sport about everything

oh, and the real Marx Brothers were Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo

2

The Last Insult

The Last Insult

 

A homeless man is shot down

It happened in L.A.

It happens anywhere

 

I say man until women are

Shot down, too

 

Having lost

Family, work, wardrobe

One’s own place to stay

Or say

Reliance on water and food

The basics long gone

 

Finally, a move in desperation

Imprudent, maybe

Criminal

But what’s left

 

And the last thing—there

Was one thing—is lost

 

Spirit ascends, offers an

Amish hope

Confidence mitigated

By designed ignorance of

Providence

 

Without doubt, nothing more

To lose here

2

Planet Iks

Planet Iks

 

It might have another

Name but for demotion of

A planetoid, and we really

Haven’t found it yet

 

But there’s good (knowing)

Guessing now that it is

There—

 

A globe ten times the size

Of Earth and more yet

Too far or too errant for

Our scopes to espy

 

Here’s a world in our solar

Home we didn’t know

 

A circle signaling that our

System of counting and

Of comprehending (in both

Ways)

 

Might be far itself from

Being done, even though we

Measure over ages

2

K is for Kalliope

K is for Kalliope

 

Transliterated from old Greek,

Eldest and leader of the Muse

Sisters, Muse of song and

Public articulation—in other

Words, speech-delivery

 

She had a son, an artful maker,

Too—he was killed; and his

Mother took his remains to

Enshrine them on Lesbos, an

Ancient isle, which we might

Visit today

 

Were she to sing in our

Parlance and with our take

On life’s matters:

 

I inspire your song and speech

And go unrecognized

 

Most no longer believe that

Mortal skills come from a sacred

Start

 

I might sing again, though first

Would be the labor in mourning

For all I have lost

 

My boy, who was murdered

For envy or rage (I care not

Which) and whose grave

Molders in an island pit bereft

Of laurel leaves

 

Orpheus, as well my son,

Whose sanctioned journey into

Hell yet lost him his wife in

Petty business of Hades and

The underworld’s rule (I

Respect them not)—his life was

Left to sorrow like mine

 

And your interest? Why would

Gods matter to you?  All

Divinity is mitigated in belief,

Mostly unexpressed, that you

Shall save yourselves—

 

Foolish

 

You will need us, still

 

 

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

6

Day 141

Day 141

 

Today is Day 141

In a one-hundred-eighty day

School year

 

Thirty-nine days to go

 

Thirty-nine?

What a drag!

 

Yes, daughter, but can

You not see what you have

Achieved?

 

Can you not feel progress?

How about some growth?

 

Try to find some joy in

Growing through the

Thirty-nine

 

You’re going anyway,

My dear

 

C L Couch

3

Good News Gone

Good News Gone

(a response not in kind but in

its way from A Reading Writer—

Thanks, Rosema!)

 

There is an old Christian

Song at Christmas time—I’m

Sure such songs arise from

Other roots at other times

That serve this way as well:

 

Near the start, a word is

Given then repeated

 

News!

 

Song goes, News! News!

Not good or bad, it’s simply

News

 

As it turns out, this news is

Pretty good (Mister Thurber,

You can look it up), though

The draw is simply crying

“News!”

 

When was the hawking of

An event simply unqualitied

As news? When did we hear

News! and come to buy the

Paper from the child who

Holds an overburdened

Bundle?

 

We buy, we read, and then

We know virtue of the

Experience: happy, tragic,

Valorous, vice-filled

 

We wait to find out,

Withholding judgment and

News-buying, anyway

 

If reason proves itself

Through evidence, then we

Have an answer here

 

Wait, don’t rush, don’t judge

‘Til learning more—in fact,

Don’t judge

 

For learning stops with

Judging,

 

Must I confess

 

(https://areadingwritr.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/newspapers-noise-a-neville/comment-page-1/#comment-13213)

14

J is for June-Song

J is for June-Song

 

Junebug

A tune for June

The moon, a spoon

A child, mild

A child, wild

Summer’s tressed

Please, child blessed

 

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

2

Book(Poem)-Spine Poem

Book(Poem)-Spine Poem

(inspired by so many of my blogging

peers-friends skillful in this)

 

All quiet on the Western front

A confederacy of dunces

The charge of the Light Brigade

The crying of Lot 49

Diving into the wreck

 

Hamlet

Dandelion wine

Something wicked this way comes

And then there were none

 

Ship of fools

On the beach

We

Brave New World

 

A is for alibi

Because I could not stop for death

The cry of the children

A sad heart at the supermarket

Goblin market

 

 

(Remarque, Toole, Tennyson, Pynchon, Rich, Shakespeare, Bradbury, Bradbury, Christie, Porter, Shute, Zamyatin from Cyrillic, Huxley, Grafton, Dickinson, Barret Browning, Jarrell, Rossetti)

6

Heart v Mind

Heart v Mind

a divorce decree

 

whereas

heart and mind

can’t get along

 

but must reside

next door one

the other

 

the body the

home must

remain neutral

 

ground in

cellular space

distinct unless

 

the distance

might be closed

under new

terms

 

maybe new

referring

certainty

 

new mutual

deference of

apprehension

natural and

reasonable law

 

that all is not

an eye (Saint

Paul) and

Qualities

Become quality

If two commit

To harmony

Diversity in

 

Self-diffusion

From synapse

Twined with

Capillary

Emotion

 

Whereas thus

And so

 

 

inspired by Rosema, A Reading Writer,

https://areadingwritr.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/heart-vs-mind-a-somonka/

11

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