Study the War
The wars go on
And I have studied wars
Lazy
Of the past
And so far past
Not
To affect my idle service
Much
(1-A did not prevail)
Or really
Much
If anything
Of a life post-war
I do know something
Of big
Heavy blocks
Of strategy
Simplified
Easy
To apprehend
In a chapter
Or an episode
And I can look at
(hear)
The numbers
Then guess how they feel
When a town was there
And now it’s gone
And so do I
Know anything
Of war
I can sing about it
But really
I don’t know
Anything
You know
And could have sung
Before I started
Reading
Ain’t gonna study the war no more
And never starting
C L Couch
Photo by Rafael Ishkhanyan on Unsplash
sorry loneliness won’t do
I haven’t said
the Lord today
though God
is in the everything
of thought
and as we say
our word
and
deed
and in which
we also say
(liturgically)
we live
and not merely live
but move
and have our being
proved
by moving
evidently
breathing’s good
and moving
proofs of life
though more so
elements of life
we get
to use
God having approved
by making
by investing spirit
inside cells
and going outward
toward the entire animal
whose skin
and muscle
we might note
admire
and use
to build ourselves a world
of us
and flora for survival
after fauna
an Earth of godly things
an Earth approved
at least for
six days
inside the hours of
the seventh day
in our image
so we work
expending energy
to make
if co-create
while curse
and flaws
get in the way
and nothing lasts
it seems
but prophecy
and that must be
interpreted
while the bias of each age
gets in the way
if biased toward
gravity
if gravity also an example
and indicator
of our lean
toward love
forces of attraction
of
literal energy
for investing
and for building
not a building
more so
an age
for discovery
of people
and keeping us together
for a legacy
so that the Earth might last
according to the order
of creation
as our
response
to the desire
and otherwise the loneliness
of everyone
in
everything
c l couch
photo by Daniel Angele on Unsplash
“Talented Street Musician in Lisbon”
(though with apologies I could call this A Study in Loneliness or A Study in Parallels)
God Love You like a Lizard
God love you like
A lizard
You know the
Small
The salamander kind
Green or red or brown
But made
Just right for all impulses so
To thrive
To move with halting grace
Through life
To dine upon whatever
Then to sleep among
Warm rocks and sheltering leaves
When its world
Is all right
Around it
Yes
Love and the
Lord
Like the eagle
Too
With expansive and majestic
Wings
And the beak that promises
To tear many things
Asunder
(yes
my dear
like lizard's flesh)
But don’t forget the lizard
(in its primacy)
With all its wonder
Small
Green
Or red or brown
Unassuming
Fit
With nature
And the cosmos
In its
Tiny
Tiny
Role
Inside creation
And via its (tiny) role
Above
C L Couch
the song somewhere outside
it’s not as if
it’s the city
tall and dark with
tall-building shadow
and all that
but there is a bird
that sounds real
brave
somehow
to be singing
over the risk of traffic
and I wonder
what it challenges
in song
perhaps to say there’s hopefulness
in town today
and I will represent that
for you
while I may
c l couch
photo by Evaldas Grižas on Unsplash
Practice over Years
(makes imperfect)
Silly
Practice
Silly
Bear
Silly
And old
Bear
Retired on honey
To the house of Mister
Sanders
(second S
backward like
Z
or zed for
England)
And could I live there
With all the honey
And all
The company
I am
(after all)
Silly
And old
And have configured
Me
To be
A bear of very
Little brain
Which is
In
No way
The way that I was named
My mother being
Very smart
And who liked the stories
And so named me for
The keeper
So to say
Of
The bear
Rabbit
The owl
And without doubt
The Piglet
Silly
One
By one
No doubt
But we shall all have tea
And that
(without doubt)
Is smart
C(hristopher) L(eo, could be Robin) Couch
Photo by Luke Galloway on Unsplash
A Little Prophecy for Friday
(any day—and I hope it’s good for you)
When everyone had
Gathered
In whatever room
Maybe
A second-story place
When he appeared
The first thing Jesus said was
“Peace”
A signal for the resurrection
Maybe
That now a time of resolution is
At hand
That reconciliation is
The way of things
And that
of course
Is what has happened
In that
The way of Earth has changed
Or
Rather it is on its way toward
Being finished
And peace is the new order
Any victory
Through peace
Peaceful understanding
Peaceful
Action
We may announce
Maybe in a Pentecost-al way
(with red
balloons and
such
all environmentally
worked
out)
That a new order is at hand
That
Sorry
Isn’t new
(no merchandising
on it)
The joy that was in Genesis
Unending
Without flaw
Is at hand
And all for us
And God
And God with us
And if the cosmos has
Fallen
With us
Then
All material
And who knows
Maybe issues
Will have their first
Finality
As well
C L Couch
John 20:19
Photo by Ronald Cuyan on Unsplash
cooking lessons
the patterns in
the sky
the stories
and the messages
Orion hunts
forever
while
the Pleiades escape
forever
that do not
change
that do
but we don’t notice
any more than
noticing
the hands upon the clock
on the wall
or by the bed
or in
the kitchen while
we cook
thinking on results
though maybe
all the stories
that
returns us here
this day
stories in the sky
we have to have them
even as
an anonymous umbrella
‘til we’re told
what this group is
and what
it means
though we have
parochial in
the mean time
what the family members
tell us
what the world
teaches us
somehow or
rather through
indifference
told with care
the stories
we might own
that even
heal
maybe with laughter
first
and then
the learning kind
reminding us
that family lore
might matter most
to have us
rising
working
cooking maybe
in the morning
come
the evening
then maybe going for
the holidays
feeding
even more
more
story time
c l couch
photo by Gaku Suyama on Unsplash
(one is looking up at
me
and-or to
the sky)
When the Lord Must Be Angry
And how does a loving God
Do this
Even
Separate us
From itself
(while the wrong people
hear this
heed the warning)
The anger of the Lord
So far as
Saul
In Endor
Is extreme
Saved for despots
Those who try to re-invent the world
Starting
With
Perspective
That is
Having left reality
A golden ball for acquisition
With
So many things upon it
We can move with
Impunity
To own
It isn’t real
None of it is real
And judgment will catch up
Before the end
Placing
Where
Even waiting
To get better might no longer be
Allowed
(I do not know
I’m not an agent
of
afterlife-
contracting)
As the surrender
Of humanity
Is understood
Here
And beyond the gates
With too much evidence
To miss
While
The rest leave
Dictatorship alone
In gross choices
We eschew
For the sake
(we must)
Of
Our own souls
So that
What is left
In the despotic head
(new
storied clothes over
the rest)
Is only at
Last
A devilish kind of loneliness
With a push
From the ghosts of futures
Into a dark and emptied place
Filled
Only with
The company
By the regretting
Perfect magistrate
Of
Condemnation
C L Couch
Photo by Dmitry Bukhantsov on Unsplash
cool be cool
and it’s a lovely day
(to
love)
an irony
of gray
though we can remember blue
while we enjoy the cool
the low dewpoint
mid-August
while we’ve been keeping
record heat
until
today
and thank you
to
the God of gray
(to
love)
who brings
the clouds
and maybe spritzes of rain
to shine the leaves
that have
been looking up
and out
with us
for some relief
(to
love)
from all reliance
on machines
for cool
now
let’s
be cool
(to
love)
c l couch
photo by Fons Heijnsbroek on Unsplash
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