courses
my abdomen
hurts
maybe from pressing on it
to be seated
maybe from gas
maybe
due to medication
maybe from stress of
maybe
something
existential
how is the day
and how’s the world
and how
much
should I care
and how shall my problems
go away
while this
side of
eternal matters
shall justice roll
my tiny stream
down to
a universal
sea
and shall that sea
move
indifference
to my causes
and
of course
it shall
it has its own concerns
with mortal storms
and all
and yet
the molecules of God
are with me
in mine
maybe a neutrino
or a quark
while the greater hand
might move with waves
to stir
or calm
that sea I think
cannot consider me
and the whole body
moved from forming Earth
into managing
the stars
as we say
in their courses
enforcing orbits
exacting
something like
cosmic obedience
though allowing for
the unpredictable
the errant comet
rascal
asteroid
as part of
divine predictability
contraries
embraced by
opposites uplifted
so that a little chaos
be allowable in
order
than back to you
and back to me
and how do we count
by God
and yet
we do
our bodies
on our bits of land
which is to say we
occupy
not own
and by the water
moving our concerns
toward that ocean
of collectiveness in which
it seems
impossibly
our matter
matters
too
everything we are
our cells
our abstract notions
with the uncounting qualities
of thinking
all emotions
of our loves
we may realize at any time
how remarkable
the small
however might be small
while larger things go
obviously from
that start of
things
day and night
Earth and all
and all in all
with each bit owned
if
maybe tallied
by beneficence
which is to say
God knows
and judges
and whose greater bias
as God
is to note all things
and love
all things
a refrain
the sea is so large
while
my boat so small
the merest of God’s breathing
for my sails
and shall I cross
and shall I transact
and then
shall I return
by the light that someone made for
home
(it would be proper if you thought of the Breton prayer upon reading what I'm calling "a refrain”)
C L Couch
Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash
Long Exhale Now and Then
Exhale
And then a little more
Get it out
Whatever it
Might
Be
More than
A pulmonary test
Or getting the bad air out
As
In a cartoon
Getting into meditation
Only if
There is
The time
Otherwise
Breathe out
As
You would have to do
Anyway
You know to
Keep on living
But let it out
A little more
Not as an exercise
As much
As to
Let a little more
Of the bad air
Out
The promise also
Taking of
A little more
Of the good air
In
By God
In a kind of sponsorship
And also of companionship
Two promises
Not if
But as
They happen
Irascible
Indelible
Perfection in divine reality
As well as perfection
In the offing for the rest of us
Maybe
Beneath the angels
(the war in heaven notwithstanding)
For the mortal
Rest of us
C L Couch
Photo by Laura Ohlman on Unsplash
What Do We Say and then What Shall We Do
I crashed my airplane
Through your roof
Near
But not on
But near enough
To the place where you reclined
Holding a sketch pad
And I could even see the thing
With which
You drew
I apologized
For crashing through your roof
And through the ceiling
In the room
You demurred
Citing lack of inspiration to draw
Anything
That moment
In fact
For the hour
Or that day
So far
At least
And I said
Strange
I had my notebook and my
Pencil with me
Though sometimes it is a pen
And I
Was stuck
Coming up with something
Of substance
You know
To set down
How strange
She replied
That we should both be at a point
So to say
Where nothing was forthcoming
You for words
And me for an illustration
Still
I’m supposing that is not
Why you crashed
Into my house
Indeed
No
I responded
I crashed because
I’m simply
Not really good
At flying
Ah
She said
And I got out
And we had tea
With all the authorities
Whom
Arrived
And so we had our stories
Words
And pictures
Even
A collaboration of long-standing
Over years
In fact
After I paid for
The construction of her house
That is
It’s easy
Isn’t it
To crash into something
Do some damage
After which
We should apologize
Then fix
What we have fallen into
One person
State
Or nation
C L Couch
Inspired by What Do You Say, Dear? by Joslin Sesyle, Maurice Sendak
Photo by Martin Robles on Unsplash
Whether Report
(3 November)
Early dusk
Because the hour changed
And did I have the hour
Last night
I couldn’t say
For lack of sleep
Regardless
An hour more
Of lack of sleep
That
Is falling back
The sky is pale
But then
I’m looking north
Little doubt
There’s yellow to the west
And lines of who knows what
More like autumn
Color
Maybe
It’s turning colder
We inside
Have been told
C L Couch
Photo by Mateusz Butkiewicz on Unsplash
Este Día y Esta Noche
All Souls
The family dining at
The gravesites of
Family
The veil even thinner
Than the evening
Before
That was
Hallowe'en
As
The three with
All Saints
Become
For us
Para nosotros
Its own kind
Of
An intimate
Triduum
C L Couch
Photo by Roger Ce on Unsplash
The aroma of marigolds specifically serves as a guide to bring los muertos to their families on All Souls Day (El Día de los Muertos).
Where We Live
(on 1 November)
Diwali
Illuminating light
Victorious
Over
Obfuscating darkness
All Saints
The living church that
Loves
And serves
In the here and now
The days
Are the same this year
And
I’m not sure how
But they should
Share
In that
There should be respect
All around
For what celebrates
The good
Even the godly
In our codes
Our
Healthy notions of winning
How about
Through service
And through love
Approaches
With respect
Then
Decisions
Considering human
Mutuality
Regarding wonderful
Uniquenesses
And then
Where we go
From here
C L Couch
Photo by Devang Punia on Unsplash
we are informed by all these lights
New Calling
(sci-fi)
She had quit the complex
A while ago
A lay sister
“Mother” to the order
And the last one
Left
She had found a robe
Left by someone
Who had doubted
And she took
It
Wrapped it around her frame
Tightened the rope from which
Knots dangled
Then
Began her wandering
She needed shelter
Now and then
Sometimes finding a cave
Or what was
Left
Of a town
Sometimes hunched behind
A piece of wall that stood
While around
Hot wind or cold wind
Depending on the mood of Earth
Blew by
There was food
Mostly she tried to find
In
Nature
But would go with preserved things
If she must
She was no
Diogenes
She had no lantern
Though now and then
There was
A flashlight
She could use while the charge
Held out
And then the tube was
Useless
Unless she should need an abnormal
Straw
Now and then
Which she didn’t
She could make fire
She wasn’t looking for
The honest man
Another
Woman
Maybe
Other sister
From an order like her own
Another refugee
From ancient sanctity
In modern
Costume
Though regarding habits
And pardoning the pun unto
Herself
She practiced
None
No daily prayer
No minding
Of the liturgies of the hours
That she had often
Missed
Anyway
Due to exigency while
Mothering
The abbey
And now
She chose to
Ignore such things become
Anachronistic in
A planetary
Moment
In terms of humans gone
Mostly
She blamed men
Women wouldn’t do this
She had concluded
She didn’t look for God
For God must be
Allowing
Having let the world
If the human part alone
Go so far as to
Ruin
Nearly everything
And remove all company
Meaning
Companionship
So far
C L Couch
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
notes
lay brothers and lay sisters could and can take over practical concerns within monastic communities, while maintaining faithful identities avowed of their own
“none” would be another pun, regarding prayers at hours
of course, this isn’t real and isn’t prophecy (the future-telling kind)—rather Happy Hallowe’en!
Sable Invitation
My niece marries tomorrow
In Memphis
Yes
At Graceland
And
Yes
It’s Hallowe’en
Not only by occasion
But by theme
Her dress
Is black
And might be fitting
For a movie from the forties
That has a
Draping scene
With Barbara Stanwick
Or
Bacall
Or even earlier
With
Garbo
All of which to say
The dress is dark
Elegance
A masque after
For a reception
And there
Should
Be
Costumes
Watch out
Anna
That there are not
Seven chambers
The last room
Red
Really
Though I should be wishing
And I do
Wish
Happy wedding
And happier days of
Marriage
From your uncle
Too sick to move these days
From near
To far
Except
Like Thoreau
Perhaps
To wander in the mind
Farther than
Concord
Though more important
I do
Wish
Happy wedding
Happier days
Of
Marriage
C L Couch
Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
(apologies to dogs—though my niece has a little dog, smaller than Toto, who’s named Éponine for the character in Les Misérables)
Kathy
I wrote a poem
For my sister-in-law
And then
Started to question everything
About it
That it had no heart
No real
Let alone deep
Humanity
That it didn’t address mourning
At all well
The reality
The need
The inevitability
Regardless of how we might
Believe we can reason
Things through
Not that reason has no place
But who can figure death
Each time
Or at any time
It’s a surprise
It shouldn’t happen
It always happens
This
Side of Enoch
Anyway
But we who do not walk with God
And are subsumed
At last
Must simply know that death
Is coming
Not as a person
As much as a failure
Of our systems
And it’s an actual person
Each time
Who had a life
Who had preferences
And
Dislikes
And those of us still here
Should feel for them
What we feel
Thinking
Too
Whatever we must think
Feel the loss
The pain of that
Take comfort
In the placement of heaven
After this
Or something next
However it might be described
Or named
Something is on the way
Though maybe
We mortals
Will have to rest a while
First
Our souls to be cared for
In that
Sleep restores
As we’ve known in our daily lives
In mortality
That is
In normalcy
Anyway
I’m sorry she is gone
I shall miss her
It’s not sibling pain
Perhaps
And yet
Bonds by marriage
Still hurts
To have her gone
to Beth about her sister Kathy
C L Couch
Photo by Javier Cañada on Unsplash
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