the pursuit of (someone’s) happiness
how shall we
album all our finds
as in
what are the pages made of
nowadays
there’s something like the NFT
(as in
“choose something
like a star”
or an “obscurity
of cloud”)
somehow owning
electrons
in a pleasing form
worth paying for
there are or were
the pages made of paper
though we should remember trees
before what remains
is in memoriam
only
we could try metal
though we’d have to make that
too
from the finite things
of Earth
even though
it seems
we don’t mind making metal
anyway
I remember learning
(being shown)
headlines made by water
for a newspaper
a daily
meaning that
I guess
we change the water
with the stories
making
(as well)
the water a fair metaphor
for the transitory nature
of what means
something to us
for the day
also the nature of the substance
to take
the shape of its container
like the audience who
once bought
newspapers
but it is
a finite planet
its molecules
like its days
(to say)
are numbered
I guess the easy answer
is we need more
and so we mine the moon
(mere
rocks were not
enough)
then reach out
toward Ares
maybe taking Demos
and Phobos
with us
on the way
on the way
of exploitation
that is
we mean
exploration
then there are asteroids
of which
the heavens can afford
to lose a few
there being
so many
(how many)
after all
c l couch
an exploration coda
I think we are allowed
to use this
stuff
the stuff of Earth
and as we find what rings
within
the bands beyond
but there are rules
and there should
be rules
and they should tie us
there
to here
by radio
and ethics
both worked into
the speed
of light
and light
clc
photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
Frost
two poems of blessings
make me a world
the combination
old and new
forget the wineskins
(use them)
we’ll have inconsistency
in what we have
and use
old things for nostalgia
or because we say
some good left in them
then
something breaks
beyond repair
falling in with our national attitude of
disposability
moving the economy
and then
perforce
there’s new
or new because
and likely
we want something new
believing there is virtue
in a shininess
that someone else has made
that new-car smell
say
new food
certainly
from the garden that we know
so well
and count on
year by year
in the propriety
of seasons
so with age and youth
let something new
be built on
something old
and old foundation
like the Earth
itself
and there’s enough amelioration
treaty-making
for a day
having agreement that
again
bring in extremes
to love all forms
uneschewing norms averse
and plans
to build a city
or wherever
we might live in
with
and naturally
reasonably
needed diversity
the old
and new
for love
God bless and sing America
(which might mean north or south for jazz or all the rest)
I rhapsodize
without the blue
without the cool
of jazz
or jazzy notes
that Gershwin found
even
frenetically applied
so that we have
some music
for the nation
having co-invented gospel
then bringing home
with marching saints
New Orleans
then Memphis
and
Detroit
we need some music
for a country
as countries have
their own
and share
Olympically
also for normal moments
who should last a day
without some
music
and who should want
to
play on
having composed
and also improvised
then crazy-legs it
song and
dance
for all
outside with hats on ground
inside in
the ticketed way
but must be for democracy
music
free
and even
freedom-ringing
yet the gospel
emphasize
the freeing part
the part that plays
release
from tyranny
refrained
only
in freedom
composition’s
notes
we play on
c l couch
photo by Nathan Bingle on Unsplash
the tree
the tree of knowledge
was left there
in Eden
behind the angel
with the sword
now
does all this
seem fair
for what we paid
and all the consequences
promises
of pain
by the way
should we have access
to the tree
or given a seed
to take
to plant between the rivers
where we had to
grow the other things
to live
maybe we could have learned
more
with more servings
or at least
one more bite
if that’s all there was
(and if so
such punishments
for such a single
bite
two bites between our
mother
and our father)
does the tree
with Eden
stand there
still
is it like
the one we’ll meet
in
New Jerusalem
if here
it would be
the first and final
treasure
maybe a good thing
sigh
that as with the garden
in entirety
we don’t know what happened
where it
is
how we might have it
maybe enjoy it
later on
c l couch
Genesis 2:17
photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
a few poems for Sunday that for some—well, many—is a longer day not by the count of hours (minus seconds adding up toward Leap Year Day) but the clock that reckons with the strings of heart and mind and even metal, also pendula inside
A Monk Still in the Suburbs
Were there bells
I would not know when
They first struck
An hour
So ignorant am I of
The schedule of
A Book of Hours
Matins
Vespers
The in-betweens
And all-arounds
I have books
I can consult
But I don’t have the instinct
Bred by a lifetime
Even a part
Of a lifetime of devotion
I pray
But it’s my words
I read the Bible
When it suits
When I’m needing to find something
Or researching generally
Out of admittedly
A long life of following
And interest
But I can’t leave my cot
Lift up an over-
Robe (a cowl?) to don it
Over me
Place the hood on the right side
Of my head
So I may see
Then scoot myself in
Silence once again
Toward the chapel where we assemble
(peers and I) for
The first readings
The first rhythms of the day
Much worse
Were I a hermit
With accountability
Beyond a bedside clock
Perhaps
Next to which
A psalter gathers dust
But not the novels
Let’s face it
An anchorite I’m not
Nor a peer
For any monastery
I am brother me
At best
And sister me
As well
And if I have a robe
It’s for the shower
Or I might find for fun
Something Jedi=like
You know
For Hallowe’en
But I believe
And I reflect
I study and I read
(with eyes I have)
And pray nearly
All day long
In dialogue
Simply not according to
The holy schedule
Time Amok
And have we
(have I
yes
though sometimes
I tire of I
maybe you understand)
Thought so much
Of the world
Today
A water main has broken
In the town
And we (locally)
Must worry over
Boiling advisories as well as
Promises
Of timetables
And yet in Gaza
A place was hit
A school turned to a shelter
And some sixty people
Inside
Perished
And there’s a push at the border
Of Ukraine and Russia
With no doubt
A pushing back
While Iran wants to attack
Israel
Over the death of one
Of its own
While Israel
Closes in on itself
While keeping allies somewhere
Too
And in how many parts
Of the planet
‘Sides our own
Is there great flooding
With the consequences
And quake
And fire
Enough inside our cycles
Should we add them up
We could compose
New lists
Of plagues
For letting people go
Which is to say
It’s quite a world we live in
A planet we live on
And we have technology
To follow
More than ever
Better
(stronger
faster
Colonel Austin)
And
Hey
The Olympics close up soon
With all the claims for bragging rights
Displayed
And soon the second set
Will start
Impressive
Being second
(they try harder
as I think
Hertz or Avis
used to do)
Goodness
All the filaments
To make a globe into a lightbulb
Illuminating
All that may be seen
Unobfuscated
By agendas that go hiding
Certainly
I mean more than eyes
And also ears to hear
Or counting each one
All our limbs
For those for whom the count
Uniquely
Goes
(as these next Olympic exercises
show)
With what we have
And haven’t
Se may sense
And we may suss
Adding all we might receive
And so
Abstractly make
A world
To fill in with all the physical we know
And thus have
(from inside out)
What in school is called
A worldview
Our sense
(using sense)
Of how things are
And are perceived
And how we are
With these
Weather
Conflict permitting
Maybe we should each
Take a walk
A little ways
Today
To think
To feel
To probe on this
Like sonar
Radar
Laser
Microwaves
To find the Earth
That’s ours
Where we left it
Or where we pick it up
Anew
As if
Regardless of our age
But trying
Anyway
For the first
Time
Speaking for Joel Chandler Harris and Well Me
I don’t know how correct
Br’er Rabbit is
I mean
I read the Wren’s Nest
And I see the photographs
More so
I want to get
The colors right
That Uncle Remus lay
With Mister Harris
Behind
But it’s
You see
A memory
On records
(those flat black round things
we used to play
that have come back)
And we would hear for hours
About Br’er Bear
Br’er Fox
Br’er Rabbit
And also of the Tar Baby
Black
But what do you want for tar
Which is to say
I want someone more
Expedient and also longer than I am
To tell me
What’s all right
Down South
And in the Yankee land
To keep ol’ Remus in my head
Which by the way
He won’t be leaving
Anyway
Though I’ll hush up about it
If I should
C L Couch
Photo by Hans Eiskonen on Unsplash
break/dance
in other words
(and
do I mean
at base
at heart)
please
allow
sit
still in
need
be quiet
when alone
then
talk with other
or others
who might be there
who come along
or might be asked
by you
or yet another to
join
then get up
and get on
with the day
we have
as gift
even
smally
domestically
and
don’t worry
the universal wonder
and the joy
are
coming
too
if later when
we don’t know
(and how about
we don’t merchandize
on this)
day
gift
alone
together
break
dance
c l couch
photo by Isabel Galvez on Unsplash
Bread and Un-Circuses
(respecting actual circuses)
Please don’t let them
Tell you
They own these
Or manage them
As on
Great stools
In circuses
(for ticket prices)
Grace and miracle
In miracle
There’s grace
In grace
There’s miracle
And they are free
And should go
Wild-seeming
As they may
Go
Outside
Our doctrine
Though we try to capture them
Ring them
As it were
With naming
Precepting
And merchandising
These better
Things
They happen
In the timing of the Lord
Salvation being instant
And grace
Cooperatively
Then the rest
(of grace)
And miracle
As if wild
Breathing and galloping
Over a health of possibilities
Exigence outside
Called in
By kairotic
Signals
And ugently
Once given
Salvation
Grace
And miracle
Let go by God
And without cost
Or a doctrine of control
But
Freely through
The cost
Divinely paid
Against
The worst of human means
Free of us
They turn around
And turn us around
(they turned from assigned or
unassigned
location
while us turned
by repentance
that means
turn)
To come in from the wondrousness
Of wilderness
To ordered Earth
Breaking through the ordered
Or the chaosed
To save us
So then
These
Beyond subscription
So we might do no better
Than
Simply
Marvelly
Even irascibly
Turn from the other intrusions
Rather
To open
Ourselves
Freely
To accept
Freely
Twice as much
To receive
Then
Feely
Twice as much
To give
C L Couch
(the song with “freely, freely” as I’m recalling is a hymn of forgiveness and salvation, composed by Carol Sue Owens)
Photo by Dannie Jing on Unsplash
A Psalm of Species Complaint
Up high
Down low
We
Freeze
We burn
Our efforts
Rise
And useless
Fall
Or stay down
To
Begin with
An idea
On the table
That might be forthright
But politics
As we
Know
Politics
Destroys
Where is the comfort
Cooling
Warming
Fit for seasons
Which
In time
Or place
On
Earth
Inspires
There is
Something about
Grass
Withering
Though really
It is us
Our synapses
Our growth
Our
Faith inside
And for each other
To give a world
A chance
An opening
Into
The crying needs
The cosmos
Can take in
(when we hear)
And
Why not
Us
Forgive
Inspire
Fund
Allow
Take part
In what comes after
Consider
Now
Of whom
To ask all
This
C L Couch
Isaiah 40:8
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Loss Is Great
(a fantasy)
1
Loss is great
So in loss
Like a song
I wander
And
I wonder
I’m sure the loss in heaven
Was felt greatly
More so
Maybe
Than the war that followed
That goes on
Still
Perhaps
What do we know
Of time and strategy
Among
Timeless
(and all-strategic)
Beings
Will it be over
When
Revelation says so
And how much is this war
Our war
It seems
For lack of orders
We do not fight
In this
And yet
Something like effects
Are always with us in
Mortality
That is
Temptation
Even falls
Great falls
Some of us
Take
And how much influence
How much willfulness
Decided
How much
Or all
Of it
Person or demon
Devil
Behind it all
Deceiving
That seems to be its job
So is the war all
Around us
Because
I don’t think we’re training
For it
I don’t think we’re supposed to be
Fighting
In it
Meaning
I mean
How could we
2
Orders
Above
Has me thinking
Order
Then orderly
(the noun more than
the adverb)
And might I serve as
An orderly
Behind
The line
Fixing
(helping to fix)
Wounded angels
Why
That would be
Wonderful service
Yes
The wonder
In the angels
But the wonder in
The service
For I could not fight for lack
Of wings
Or blades
Or
You know
An unlimited kind of strength
Yet
I could serve this way
To fix the angels
Then with trench-deep regret
Know
They return
And should a demon
Hurt
Come to the table
Then we fix it
Too
Because in love
There can be no other
Craft
No other option
To apply
Though
When repaired
It
Too
Returns
Maybe tries to hurt us
As it begins
I don’t know what protections
Might be
Afforded orderlies
From Earth
(or moon or Mars
depending on the length
of battle)
Maybe no succor
Whatsoever
Since
Triage
Would be for
Celestial soldiers
Of all orders
First
And there’s the word
Orders again
And maybe I wake up
To hear the cry
Or is it
Near my ear
The mourning dove
Through
Glass
And I wake
To mortal pain’s
Return
C L Couch
(one allusion is to “I Wander as I Wonder,” a song by John Jacob Niles)
Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
alternative adventures
in dreams
and in
daylight
they fought by
dancing
the border dispute was handled
through baseball
I’ve heard
about
chess diplomacy
as well
does anything get settled by a war
with metal missiles
packed with gelatinous
geared
closed-circuit
destruction
is anything accomplished
save
assurance of another
war
staving off the final one
when afterward
all creatures
all things on Earth
are rendered atomized
and silent
in that way
peace without dimensions for
a grave
and so the horrors of these
stalling actions
for a war
having gone through the world twice
and happening
in
victimizing places
now
c l couch
photo by Laura Fuhrman on Unsplash
clcouch123 
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