bitter
the herbs of Passover
or what
sin-eaters eat
when it’s more than salt
with bread
though
salt is pretty bitter
on its own
and then there’s the attitude toward
life
after
disappointment
even within
unscaled perspective
we don’t get what we want
so life is
bad
it’s wrong
it’s bitter
although what we may want is exactly
what is needed
so maybe what we want’s
the issue
what
for whom
and how
nothing new in this
in that
life goes this way or that
becomes
quite trite
in fact
(and pardon rhymes at
times)
and still we want life
I want mine
you should want yours
so hang on through
the bitter
please
self-determined or pushed
maybe dropped
on
heavily
by the world
there’s more
and it could be challenging
maybe with
a way to see
to bear
the bitter
and-or
who knows
a time in life
(life time)
could turn sweet
if
and most likely not
forever
yet
which is why we have and own the term
for terms
the times
the joined word that is
the lively paradox
of
bittersweet
c l couch
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Heat
(a kind of review)
Fire burns
Which means that for survival
Fire’s good
And yet fire destroys
The fuel we place
But
Everything that gets away
The flames that ruin homes
For animals
For us
And everyone
And everything
Of course
That burns
The spirit of the Lord
We equate with
Fire
And I don’t know what is means
By denotation
To fire as in to separate from
A job
Still
It is ubiquitous
It seems
Like “they”
And though its forms seem drastic
As in warming
As in cooking
So we live
And by heat often through the night
And yet
To take away survival
Too
There being the matter of its
Wildness
That is the problem
That makes the thing hideous to
Destroy
Without fixing as much
As only to build over for
Recourse
Yet there is God
Again
Whose spirit is not wise the way
We think is wise
And is not
Tame
The way we think only in formal matters
Should God
Be relegated
Rather
God is wild
Even in wildness
You know
The wilderness
Which we won’t like for lack
Of building
Compartmentable
Purchasable
Convenience
(and the promoting of a market)
And
Who knows how God might feel but
Uses such heaths and
Pagan places
Anyway
Tame and wild
Which shall we have
Of course
But both
Let God normalize
And let go
If lovingingly
Amok
Like fire
In a frame
And who sets the flame
(out of
lovingly flammable
inflammable materials)
But the tame
The comfort in
The very God while also dwelling
In the zealous flame that both
And must
Love
As well as
And often even as
The heat
And I guess we must mean
The heat of all kinds
C L Couch
Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash
“Bonfire Night”
my sympathies toward Sasquatch
we want
to find Bigfoot
but don’t really want
to meet
it
some take guns in
guns
with
needles
some with bullets
as if
it is the thing’s own fault
we push the encounter
I don’t get it
thinking
it’s like the Cold War game
in which
to win
is not
to play
c l couch
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What
(and why)
So what is love
But that we love each other
Undesiring
Maybe
But love regardless
Making mistakes
If minorly regarding timing
To being
And to keep going
And majorly
As in the trying of each faithfulness
Deserving faith
Yet
Facing
Letting go
Love does let go
In earthly jurisdiction
Though
Informally love begins
And should maintain itself
Love
As a family
After all
In all the shapes and
Sizes
Even states and nations might
Take on
Love is
Not weak
But is
Negotiation
Love once begun
As love
Should remain
And
Does remain
Though life must have its way as well
And there are
Separations
Finally
Through finally
Though imperfections
Imperturbable shall
Not last
But find their end
When all shall be renewed in
The right way
So love lasts
And its health must be allowed to us
While
We have here
Until
We hope
We’re there
To find the hale and lasting parts
Really do
Faithfully
Delightedly
Persist
Even as a new kind
Of forever
And we may wait in all this
Wait as in count
Also
Wait as in attend
Attend as in show up
Also
Attend to serve
(a good reason for
showing up)
So let love
Then
Be love
Let it mature
Like wine that should grow
Before delighted here
If once
And then forever
At the table where
Like Philemon’s pitcher
Shall be
Renewed
With better
For us at the table
(and may we all be there)
In that house
And at
That feast
On the other side
That love
Shall take us there
C L Couch
Photo by Haley Owens on Unsplash
the children
the children fight to change the world
and to save it
so that
when they’re fat
and old and
heavenbound they know
they fought
for
something and that something
was worthwhile
my bugbear was hazing
more so
and overall
the challenge to believe that
even
and especially when
grownups are
wrong
the spirit of survival and of growth
is in each
one of us however
young
even untried
against
cliques and
cabals
to find the better parts
of
change and what should
stay the same
inside
and in between
the truth in lore
in you
in me
and you know I’m going to say
in us
c l couch
photo by Maryn Brayfield on Unsplash
“Exploring”
visitationing
(there’s an answer to a riddle toward the end)
God behind the clouds
today
descending now and then
to look inside
the window
make sure that I am
still there
and I appreciate the feeling
though God could
come in
and we could sit
and God would ask
and I would
answer
though what I’d really like to do
is listen
to the Lord across
across
from
me
c l couch
photo by Ozgu Ozden on Unsplash
first question
and what of God today
and
dare I ask
in that
God is all in all
our totality
by
in creation
and salvation that we hope
to own
enough for admission
or is that confession
with our faith
maybe
(an Amish hope)
enough
for admission
to God’s heaven
as
the angels’
and in
part
perhaps our own
c l couch
photo by Jac Alexandru on Unsplash
lamb-like
(31 March)
today is a lamb-like
day
as it happens
where I am
whereas
you might be in a storm or counting
minutes ‘til one happens
or there could be
late-spring
or on a desert where the climate
seems
unchanging
though
if minutely
it is not
here
the sun is shining
as it
tries for spring
still somewhat winter-pale
here and there some detritus
from the frigid season
(or
the opposite
way south)
waiting to be washed away after
a widespread and
we may
hope
a natural sort of thaw
for anymore the Earth fool us
in that we fool
ourselves
in
how we grew
and now manipulate
(per se)
the climates of our planet
I mean
decades of abnormal
if not
aberrant
burning
poisoning of land and sky
and shall we mention water for
the nonce
in
all we’ve done
the state of pipes
e.g.
and each of us may now
take part
though most of us were not decision-makers
in the melting of
our
atmospheric health
while this is not an issue save as
breathing might be
one
it is not a choice in politics
whether or not
the Texas-sized hole in the ozone
exists
(which could be less regarding relative
in danger)
and I
was saying it’s
a lamb-ish kind of day
and here
it is
if pale
in the hope that with the season
all colors and movements
there
in climate
shall become robust
in
spite of things and
even as a cosmic
gift
to us
in most zones
if not them
all
by new-normal and by worn-plastic
rather literal
causes
c l couch
photo by Mitchell Orr on Unsplash
abduction
(a draft about salvation)
we were taken away
from Eden
with Edenic living
whose fault
we don’t know
maybe everyone’s
maybe not ours
so much
because we were not there
except in some spirit
time and space
possibility
now we are held captive
and there should be
a ransom
since kidnapping goes that way
some amount
some prize
according to abductors
who have caged us in deceit
to call it living
so who must pay
to whom
and how much
the price might be forever
be everything
anyone could have
and pay the price
the price paid
which was a final deception
a trip
in which the rescuer
now gone would leave the rescued
untenable
not fit for anything but fire
the infernal fire
which is to say fire upon fire to
the glee
of the one who thought
who planned
who entwined
and who
in fact
led the absconding or ourselves
and now in victory
having arranged the killing
of the only one to save
until
this moment
this moment when it
turned out
there was a reason for the death
and it was
to guarantee a life
one life
all
lives
together have the chance
now
to be saved
and what weeps and what
gnashes its teeth but a
planner
the abductor
who thought that killing it should mean the end
and it should now
but doesn’t
in that we may choose
faith in our own supernal return
the one returned
who offers the returning
to anyone
and as plus with anyone
becomes
an all
a following
angels and us
perhaps
in faith then
by grace
we return and then
even better yet move forward
to the gates of Eden now
angel-unassigned
shall become a new Eden and how about
gateway to new Earth
by new heaven
c l couch
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