Psalm 21
song for a gift
Lord, thank you for this
time in which I may
wander without engagement
calendar in hand
I am engaged
without assistance
learning in a deeper and
kairotic way
about these things
whose making we call
Earthly life and time
Ovine Titanosaur
A lost sheep led a farmer
toward discovery: broken
through terrestrial skin,
a thigh bone of Earth’s once-
roaming, largest dinosaur
Titanosaur
(there is only one
rank above the Titan)
There is precedence in
looking for the lost,
lone sheep
Stored wisdom and
insight add to the
task and treasure while
reconstructing ages
So, too, does one grower
looking for one charge—
one smaller creature, seeking
green, having turned away,
now only wanting home
(Thanks to The Guardian
for posting this story)
On a Monday Holiday
On a Monday holiday
Outside my window there
Is special quiet
I live on Main Street
Which, here, is
A main street
Much traffic in the
Town goes by and
Emergency vehicles
Yet all action by
Wise or by a fool
Sounds blanketed today
Even the helicopter
I hear now shudders
Through a more silent
Sky—yes, there is an
Air-push on its way
With a storm behind
But humidity rising
While the barometer
Descends does not
Evince, I think, the silence
Outside my window now
Now, where there’s
Muted sunlight, too
Where, fuzzily or not,
Thought is knocking on
The pane, asking for
An invite in—well, why
Not on this kind of day
“Adversity, Misfortune”
(written with all urgency)
Is what it means
Malheur (thanks to
Collins), and there is
A certain story about
That (Mister Thurber,
You can look it up)
But the story that is
Written now can
Only add to the
First meaning
Set fire? No
Imprison any longer?
No
Militia? We have
The National Guard
(I know, national)
Grace, which translates
Closely all around,
Needs abounding here
Not perched in a
Distant tree, an
Observation pillar,
Waiting to return
To normal life
Not to blame the bird
The bird is natural,
Even as a metaphor
Grace is better
It takes “mal-heur”
To render it “bon-temps”
(Sorry if I slaughter French
A language I enjoy)
I am of Northwest
I am in Oregon (check
The names)
My grandfather built
Refuges like
Malheur (though I’d
Like to think he’d have
Checked the name)
All are right in this
All are wrong
Everyone back up
And change the stakes
Then everyone not further
Newly charged (please, no)
In need-corrected wrong
Everyone
Go
And be home
C L Couch
January 2016
MLK(J)
More than letters,
Though there were
Amazing ones, is
Love that suffuses
Not to claim
Perfection–I
Could not I do that
For myself
But gentle, numbered
Overwhelming
Victory
Is for those who
Outlast imperfection,
Even as they with
Finality close trap-
Jaws of persecution
Marching persistence
Realizing still, always in
Grace, wondrous change
Ishi
she is the last
one in her family
a hermit in Siberia
rescued recently
they were religious
they fled the Soviets
(one could name another
group when it oppresses
or suppresses) and
she is the last
when she is gone
from earth
only her story will remain
another ghost of Ishi for
she is the last
Civilizing Shoes
I’ve been wearing slippers now
As I’ve trod through my place
In part, because of the season
In part, because it is a more
Civilized way to live
When I think of wearing shoes,
I think of Huckleberry Finn
Who, when made to lace- or
Buckle-up the things, felt
The fastenings had trapped
Him in a binding and controlling
World and, eventually, he
Must, you know, light out for
The territories
(USA doesn’t have official
Territories anymore, at least in
The lower forty-eight; I guess
Huck would have to go to
Northern Canada, nowadays)
It is the smaller of things
For the rest of my life remains
Unplanned, in piles, and
Unscheduled—it’s still wild
In there
And, for all I know, when summer
Returns to the US Northeast, I
Might simply have to abandon
The slippers again
To live again more Huckleberry-like
More hobbit-like
And, most likely, more like me
Something
If I don’t do something
I shall do nothing,
So I try
To do this much
What is this much?
Not my writing it
But your reading it
And our responding through;
Anything that might come
During or after
Means I am doing something
(For) we are doing something
clcouch123 
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