a Tuesday to try to be with God
(sorry while it’s long)
so about you
Lord
and may I call you
Lord
though you are nameless
or all names
somehow
and how do I know you unseen
evidence
unseen
the mystics knew
I guess
and Doctors of the Church
or
anyone who wrote enough or was
recorded
so they say
and
so we know
and
does this work
of
sayings
little flowers
to
go through entire books
and maybe so
maybe
we know you through these pages
or could it
be
unworded
leaves in forests
because nature
may testify as well
yet
by disaster
we might ask as well
the punishments
of fire
or of quakes or magma from
eruptions
how or what
what might we might learn
of you
and your intentions on this Earth
that
you have made
and yet
if we kept our distance
measured well
and
kept our visits seasonal
I don’t know
I guess
we’d still have problems
and to wonder
over
cynicism learned
or is
there hope on Earth and by
catastrophes
we
learn readiness and response
Earthly
for each other
all sides of gospel then
like sides
of nature whispering
or
shouting
yet
all this
not enough to know
you
and why bother through our limitations
limitations over
you about
your
nature and your presence
and yet we love you
and we think
go as far as to testify
that you
love us
and
maybe have a plan for each
though needing elasticity
as we respond
this way or
that
by choices
since
we understand
that will and freedom should
be ours
and maybe that is
so
that is
your flexible designs so we may select for
real
somehow and yet by you
we decide and
you
affirm ahead of
time
and ready to receive us
as you are God
yet you are God
why bother
waiting for us
but
then why have us
anyway
why make us when creation seemed
so perfect in the story
and then we get here
and we go too far by will
into war and other violence
much of it
close to home
ask Tamar
in the house of David
we are so easy moved by greed
also
pretense to power
since power is from you
and lent
as lent
for a time
all the things we do
we build
and then let fall
our egos drive
we develop false philosophies
movements that bring others down
with us
and may I ask
of our bodies
Lord
yes
groups
and I mean each actual
physical
skin and muscles around bones
organs
within
as they are
so strong
and so fragile
sigh
too much or too little
but there is
love
and faith
and if wisdom must allay itself before
fullness
and
perfection
well
so it is
like many things that are
and we don’t know them while
we have them
two
aspects of creation
even
of two parts of wonder
with aspects
like facets
while you are God
and I happen
to be I
and all of us
be
all of us
with
enough totality while we may wonder
in our ways
over
all the rest
until all the rest revealed
and
still might need interpretation
until you speak through angels
loud
(maybe not so loud)
and clear
c l couch
photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash
Zion
(sorry, heard the word from the TV)
Zion is a mountain
also an -ism
for
who loves Israel
but everyone
and
there’s possession and
there’s peace
and who shall have each
and by
what means
and who would rather live in peace
and who must have
the victory
or
would we relent
if
all relent
not resignation but
the affirmation
that
the Earth is good and all of us deserve
in our making
and co-making so to live
here as
us
and so
peace and good to all
c l couch
photo by 🐣 Luca Iaconelli 🦊 on Unsplash
today while there are blossoms and other parts of songs
okay
what do I want
to say today
that God
is love
of course
and we should believe in God
and so believe
in
love
and so based on God
you know
then love ourselves and each other
equally
(there is a code on
that)
maybe try
in small ways to love to begin
(or go
on)
since that
is
probably how
we will finish
c l couch
“Today” is a song by Randy Sparks
photo by Gowtham AGM on Unsplash
Saturday haiku
(senses applied to what’s outside; maybe each verse stands alone; maybe they all have to go together)
the skitterers wait
leaves falling then branches cleared
skittering delight
what is there to hear
surprised or unsurprised sound
to like or endure
out front I smell town
cars and bricks and street work there
out back trees and leaves
unconvincing taste
air that’s all mixed together
good and bad to breathe
touching the splinters
old drying frame of window
trees too far away
c l couch
photo by LR HULTS on Unsplash
smells and whatever from outside
(not named for Ralph but look below)
like
sometimes when
not so bad
but
takes a dog
I used to like the smell of my wet dog
I suppose because I knew
I’d
dry him off
first thing
yet while wet
he'd smell ike him
and
also like
affectionthen
then
he’d jump on the bed
and we might be sleeping if
only his
and then a new day to get wet
which sometimes
if a creek
a dog loves to do
c l couch
photo by Arūnas Naujokas on Unsplash
thank you, photographer--photo looks like Ralph who had not spots but the bigger patches, black and white, and same shape overall; of course, your preference is for your dog, as it should be
particulates
what’s in the air
beside air
beside oxygen and nitrogen
argon
and the rest that has been there
for ages
with additions of smoke
in time
and then smog
radioactivity
changing art appreciation
and
the health of lungs
and such
other chemicals by now
plus plastic
parts
parts per million I suppose to measure
we breathe in bad things by us
belying the cartoon
version
of
artificial respiration
out with the bad air
in with the good
now
out with the bad air
in with badder
why we pollute ourselves
should be
a global conundrum
of
some
well
great urgency
we breathe through filters
helped by machines and when it’s worse
through
masks
we drink water from our plastic
metal bottles
we think we are immune
I guess
some of us
I guess
while failing to track for everyone
since
everyone’s affected
the work of all
societies
that measure and by measure
warn
the rates of cancer
c l couch
photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash
“Los Angeles, CA, USA”
(another preachy poem, and I could be sorry, but this one came to mind and word by my experience)
the final Earthly war
perhaps
the final war
waged
now
shall be
tyranny versus democracy
and
who’s to win
should be sure
and
maybe isn’t
not
because war must be exciting
fighting the eldritch side
like
Darth Vader should
be fun
like a matinee
rather
because the sides aren’t equal
and the wrong side
material
become insubstantial
yet with what real weapons
real fighters
shall go
down
until the proper victory is called
the villains skitter
off
toward hell
the winners build a present and a future
by
and for us all
and this is the abstract
of the visceral
truth
of it
c l couch
photo by Sebastian Schuster on Unsplash
“diverging motorway from underneath”
two poems about me, all of us
a story for me
(and you)
let’s
see what I recall
she asked me
do you know what your name
means
and
I said
yes
it means cross-bearer
to which she then asked
do you
know the story
and I didn’t
there was a wide river
and a man who
for a living
carried people to the other side
one day then
a child
came to the man
the child requesting
to
be carried across the water
and
so he took the child on his shoulders
and proceeded
and as they moved
it seemed
the child got heavier to bear
and then
heavier
the current of the river and the distance
made
everything more difficult
though it was the weight of the child
that mattered
most
so that the man
said to the child
I feel as if
I’m carrying the weight of the world
to which the child replied
you are
and that’s the story of the saint
named Christopher
and
I’ve kept that story from
my teacher
when in school and to
this day
so
I know there’s much to write about
about
earthquake and war
fire
flood and strikes
and such
and not
to dismiss
anything in the world with which I often
feel
uncomfortable
and yet
must love so much
but
sometimes it is me
as it is you
and we are one by one
as well
as
together
and each one matters
as
togetherness matters
and sometimes
you know
there is the day and only one soul
then
another
and what happens from inside to
the outside
through one and then another
to
the world
eventually
is what we have
one
two
together
more
the world
forever
c(hristopher) l couch
photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
“long exposure image of a river flowing in the forest”
the better college time
Sunday afternoon
was
followed by the evening
in the chapel
and
we would in the choir sing and then
haul ourselves down
front
for the sermon
and
then would sing again
everyone
we all
took part
and there was a song
we sung
while the church organ vibed beneath
and the song
was
telling us
that some things like this day were
done
and out into the air
back to
our dorms
as
quickly to forget
and worry like wool being
our worries
we tried nonetheless to work for
Monday
if
unprepared
and should come regardless
yet the better words
than
stress alone
now
the day is over
night is drawing
nigh
shadows of the evening steal
across the sky
I’m sorry you can’t hear the tune
until you can
but
there are words
and grammared nicely
if
and as reordered
above
and
(yet)
reading these even just now
might
take you into night
its and our assurance
of
the night
c l couch
photo by Daniil Silantev on Unsplash
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