Making a Manifesto
I’ve been unfaithful
It’s too easy
To look the other way
Or ignore you altogether
With an attitude
And yet
Don’t I say thank you
When the good things happen
And help me
When things are awry
And aren’t you there
And don’t I know that
So maybe
It’s not so bad
I think of you quite often
I think about creation
In a treatise-sort of way
You are more
Than a proposition
An idea
Some kind of certifying
From an argument
Within a forum
You are you
The best
And one who made the best
Even the better parts
In me
And anyone
My friend
Or enemy
Maybe that’s the problem
Too many things being
Inimical
And I have to find my own way
Through
At least inside my head
And for my heart’s vibrations
Reason
And good feeling
I’m afraid both must be
Pursued
And satisfied
And I guess I’d say this
For the inner life
That is then realized
In attitude
Behavior
Anything by way of profession
Of anyone
Still
I could think of you more often
And believe
With a readiness
That is both abstract
And material
Belief and action
In the world
So forgive me
Please
I ask for the thousandth time
Today
(well, maybe a few days)
Help me with my system
Help me
In my actions
Help me to help
For I am not good
In any other way
But to be listening
And ready
Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
I’ll be gone for a few days. Depending on issues regarding connectivity (good issues, problematic), I might not be here, per se, in that time. If not, then I should be back soon. Thank you. Be good. Be safe.
—Christopher
Four Is the Magic Number
(here if not on the School House Rock)
Honestly
There’s God
And also me
And you
And Earth
And what is self
And what is other
Goes fluidly
In
And through
And between
All things
In all dimensions
And we are close
And we are far
Apart
And yet
Always the next best thing
Is you
And/or me
And Earth
It’s what we got
There might be
Nothing nearer
Or more
Joyful
Either
So relish in existence
Keep it simply
Joyful
In the four things
Four elements
Four essences
We have
With currents
Moving through
And ‘round
And in between
All four
Or if you have it
Fewer
Or more
C L Couch
Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash
The Glory in the Choir
Have you ever been
In the room
To sit
Almost to rest
To hear holy music
The singers
Other instruments
Our happening
Ticketed
Or happenstance
To Be there
As
A live performance
Shall we say
Have you ever got
To listen
In the room
For I have not
I have either been
Singing with
Them
Too
Or heard it
From the TV
Radio
Or disc
Oh
Dear
What I have missed
I mean
Being inside of it
Is grand
Where there is
A mingling
Of discipline and joy
Concern
For pitch
And complementing others
Trying to watch
The director
Not for approval
But a downbeat
So there is
That limitation
If to call it
Limitation
I don’t get to be out there
Simply
Not minding my place
For where I am
And who I am
Is challenged not
To matter
There simply
Is the pulse
Of the music for
A heart
No Tin Man
Should object
For here it is
We’ll stay
Our hearts are here
Listen
The notes are vessels
Sound is circulation
What we see
Can matter
Too
Shapes in the shadows
Unselfconscious
The light is dim
Here
While the light up there
That’s where it has to be
And really
Where
The glory is
For us
We can pretend
Maybe
In dim light
Or starker shadow
What we hear
That’s for the world
Might or must
Also be
For us
C L Couch
Photo by Dieter K on Unsplash
Sooners
Soon
And very soon
What a wonderful way
To say that
A promise
That we won’t have long to wait
Before the bad things
End
The good things
Might be realized
Unsullied
Snow
Without mud
Or slush
Beneath
And spring beside
Well
Whatever season
We might need
A place for each one
And whatever
Passes for meals
In there
And meetings
With a purpose
The only agenda
Love
A life
And such a life
Soon
And very soon
C L Couch
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3898658
is herein the shape of heaven?
though the soons I borrowed here are more from Andraé Crouch
Kneeling
I’m sorry
I’m tired
I’m sorry I’m tired
I should have given more
In better ways
To serve the Lord
The people of the Lord
The planet of
The Lord
And shall you forgive me
I think you shall
Because you’re perfect
At such things
And I am punishing myself
And you know that
And yet you love me
With a perfect love
Not to let me off the hook
Any more
Than to let me go
There’s color in repentance
Moving from
The black and white of sin
The stories in which
Color
Wondrously appears
As if we’d never known
Such a thing
Before
There’s texture
There are layers
In the Earth
They have colors
Too
Everything is better
We can hear
The colors
From within
And taste them on the surface
Through and through
We let
Everything improve
As health
After sickness
When we never thought
To feel
At all well
Again
C L Couch
Photo by mostafa meraji on Unsplash
the wanderer
(after losing everything)
winter arrives
there might be a storm
of ice and snow
in days
I’m not ready
but I’m never ready
not when I have so little
with which
to endure
I’d sell my soul
for food
and warmth
but God won’t let me
there is still the notion
of my soul
that is
assayed as worthless here
but might
be worth something
set on a scale
for heaven
so I shall
persist
until my spirit
has run dry
of blood
and will
and pray to God
that I’ll be taken easily
once warmed before I die
and only so much
before
having arrived
I’m washed in comfort
and apology
in paradise
c l couch
inspired by “The Wanderer,” a poem from a millennium ago at least, and by pressing issues now
photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash
In the Day of the Lord
Well
God
What shall you give
Today
There is the day
There will be daylight
Well-
Insinuated
In an hour or so
There will be more
Time
In hours
Time to choose
For those
Who may choose
Who aren’t
Conscripted otherwise
Drafting
Oneself
For cause
But then
The cause
Might be a wonder
How about family
About
The partner
Who works out
In
Intimacy
As well as
What is profound
When about one’s nation
Call it people
Call it country
Group
Tribe
State
Region
Everything that has a name
Maybe a living
Constitution
For a document
For walks
The simple
And sublime
Which faces our distraction
And decisions
All the time
And certainly
Today
And God
There is more than patriotism
There is the reason for it
And the rest
That is
Well
You
And what you say
You make
What you say and make
That is creation
Whose pages form
A scripture
Every day
And then the book itself
Shelved
We take down
Perhaps
We hear someone else
Reading
And from which
Some teaching
Though the hour
Is a sermon
Too
This hour
Then the next
Should we have the next
Odds say
We’ll have
Inside our complex bodies
Have a day that’s plain
Landing here or there
Pleine aire
Or chez lui
And should one
Ask oneself
About salvation
Or get the question
From another
Answer
We hope so
C L Couch
Photo by Alex Guillaume on Unsplash
[photographer’s caption] In New York, in a little shop, those watches where there, hanging in front of me!
(x = space)
x
x
having been incarnated
x
oh
God
we say
you’re born
you’ve slipped inside
the pacing
of the world
flesh cells
adapting
to our measure
to our growth
and our decay
three score and ten
how does it
feel
x
I guess you knew
what this was
and is the human part
surprised
by mortal beats
the skipping
of the heart
outside
the rhythm
as we say
of the spheres
x
and are you well
will you
catch cold
or get mumps
have influenza
as our children must
from time to time
it seems
x
and you
will endure
(you must)
though it won’t be
so comfortable
with chicken pox
x
and then
grown-up
to feel
all that we feel
and think inside the vacuum
the shell
of thoughts
inhabiting the skull
and not much further on
nothing like
the mindset
you must know
inside eternity
and Godhead
x
and there are feelings
in the chest
desire
for the nation
yes
and only
for your own
because you are
humanly
entitled
x
yet what shall you have
when your body
it turns out
is for a cause
even
perhaps part of a plan
to cheat mortality
like the stratagems
of Pharisees
or statues of
self-styled kings
or emperors
x
Rome and Judea
and there is Parthia
and Britain
way-off China
and there’s India
and there are first people
everywhere
who belong
where they have moved
and stopped
and finally
no place to move
with what they have
for moving
x
all the people
of the Earth
post-Alexander
and never having known
Alexandrian expansion
or Roman roads
connecting
a known world
x
yet
are you here
for these
everywhere
which means
you might be here for us
here and now
x
I suppose
the other two
of you
will out
while you alone
are limited
while you must live here
with only us
for easy company
and reaching out
like us
often alone
sometimes in groups
though only through the shell
as we must beseech
mortally
unto the Lord
with questions
asking of a will
we do not understand
yet we believe
is there
x
how frustrating to be human
welcome here
we wish you well
we really do
because should we encounter you
there are stories
about something special
from you
something even
we don’t know
rescuing
about you
even in the flesh
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash
x
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