Search

clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

Open Search
Category

Liturgies

Dear Earth

(x = space)

x

x

Dear Earth

x

I don’t know what to say

One person can’t apologize

We destroy you

And we need you

We like you for you move

Unlike the decorations

On the ancient vase

You move

With beauty

And with truth

x

You have renewing skills

We won’t take them on

Or indeed respect them

We need pollution

Acid rain

Discarded plastic

Unsafe water

Trash as mountains

Outside cities,

All to justify

Our way of life

Our shiny, blindered way of life

That is so good

To look the other way

x

Toward the moon?

Toward Mars?

Is there a hope

A plan

We can leave you

When our destructive preferences

Have finished you?

I think we see the Earth as vast

And it is

You are

So we have time

To reach the corners,

So to say

x

Eventually,

Horizons shall meet

The burning and the melting

From each side

The drowning

The dissolving of safe ground

Between

And overwhelming water

Taking us away,

Which we can’t drink

Or with which to build

To clean

To take our oxygen

x

How shall we change?

How can we say we’re sorry?

We try to change

But we’ve set up our war in this

Anti-polluters fight polluters

With the great indifference

In between

x

Compartmentalized,

There are few agreements

x

Like broken bulkheads,

There is no more breathing

To share

Each box of us collapses

Into an airless deep

The ship of Earth

Of you

Founders and

Shall sink

into gravity, under magnetic waves

Of other worlds

Whose LaGrange we used to share

In orbital mediation

With satellites

Asteroids and meteoroids

Not always in place, admittedly

And comets

Farther off yet neighborly

The suns that also spun out worlds

Other life forms

After here

To try at wholeness

Integration

While there had been us

Who had a turn

And turned

x

Whose only hope

Might be in turning more

Turn again,

Which is repentance

x

C L Couch

x

x

A calving glacier. Witness to global warming.

Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

x

1

Remember the Sabbath

(x = space)

x

x

Remember the Sabbath

x

To keep it holy,

That is,

Set aside

For a spiritual purpose

Take ordinary things

Like the materials

For temple and for church

x

Like rest and relaxation

Contemplation

Talking about easy things

As well

Easy play

The pleasure of your company

Ordinary things

Set aside in honor of creation

And creator

That’s all we need to do

One commandment kept

x

We may interpret;

We’ve denied it

And the consequences

Having been directed

Over ages

x

Ordinary set aside

It should be a good day

On another day, when scheduling

Demands

I’ve said before, but I didn’t

Make these things

That go on being made:

A new set of six days follows

Then a seventh

A new chance

Almost absurdity

Of reason

ETs will ask,

And you didn’t take the free

Day that your God directed you

To take?

We’ll be leaving now

x

Have the sabbath day

It’s good, clean fun

Let’s hope we could manage that

Against ongoing, human depravity

The other days

It is the easiest of hopes

And means

A sabbath

For salvation

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash

x

1

We Deceive Ourselves

(x = space)

x

x

We Deceive Ourselves

x

And the truth is not in us

Self-deception

In the liturgy, because of

Self-righteousness

A belief that we are right and

Good in all things

And that sins committed

Must have been done

By someone else

Or misunderstood

x

But there’s another voice

A voice of conscience

The angel on the left shoulder

Pitted against the devil

On the right

(so go the cartoons)

Not subtle or complex

A voice that says

You’re wrong

Not like the critic’s voice

But prodding

In a way that

Doesn’t hurt so much

x

Comes in waves

Not the correcting

But the minding

Like the waves we hear

When holding the shell

Next to our ears

x

The truth is not in us

We deceive ourselves

x

Can we fix this?

Not forever ‘til forever

Though there are mortal measures

If you ever went to Sabbath school

Or heard about goodness

Have read something

Watched something on TV

Or on-line

Without sending anything

(without expectation)

x

Then you can write the next part

You may

(me, too)

Without deception

Or deception at a minimum

x

C L Couch

x

x

The cited part is from Christian Scripture (1 John 1:8) and the (Catholic, Protestant) service liturgy.

x

Photo by Bernd Dittrich on Unsplash

Louvre – Tuileries, Paris, Frankreich

x

1

When Worlds No Longer Can Collide

(x = space)

x

x

When Worlds No Longer Can Collide

x

This is not

What I want

I want the innocence

Without the naivete

x

I want

To like the colors

All of them

The rainbow

And the color wheel

x

I want

To enjoy

The softness of felt

From the playful

Learning boards

Of childhood

x

I want

To be both

Simple and profound

To have some shapes

Some textures

That have meaning

Day to day

x

That all of this

Is my philosophy

And if I wear a tie

Or shiny shoes,

No one should care

x

But me

And you

With whom I share

The pleasure in the day

In the life

And we have met

Should we meet

Choosing to sip coffee

At a café by the lake

In Switzerland

I have made up

x

(made up the café

and your company

not Switzerland that

has been around

for a while

and I’ve never been there)

x

I’d like anyone

To get this

For pursuits,

Philosophy

Share in it

In these

Make your own

To have

To offer

Where you imagine

We might meet next

x

C L Couch

x

x

When Worlds Collide is a novel by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie.  There is a sequel titled After Worlds Collide.  They are science fiction, and I recommend them.

x

Photo by Danny Lines on Unsplash

x

0

What Number Pain Today

(x = space)

x

x

What Number Pain Today

x

I don’t know

Or recall

Who came up with

Quiet desperation

Perhaps a modern poet

I hope you

Don’t have to live that way

Something inside

That found its way

A sidling kind of thing

That won’t let go

It could be memory

Or money

The potential for a  scandal

Or simply a lot of pain

Not the kind that

Inspires a statue

And who needs that?

x

Pain is a reaction

A response

Also a signal

Can keep in the inner workings

Working

It should have an end

Not simply a measure

But that’s what

Therapy

Or medication’s for

x

Or simply bearing

Old body pains

A place of wounding

In the spirit

We can keep

Except sometimes we can’t

Then the therapy

Or medication’s needed

Prayer

Companionship

Companionship in prayer

x

Aquarius bears water

The libation bearers, well,

Libation

As offerings

Atlas

Or the elephant

Bears the world

And there’s the story of Saint Christopher

Who carried Christ, not knowing

It was Christ, through water

And a storm

And the child’s weight increasing

Until the one who carried him must say

He bore the weight

Of the world

And did bear

x

Carry weights

And pains

And as pains are signals

Pay attention

Carry,

I mean carry,

Carry on

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

x

the phrase “quiet desperation” is by Thoreau in Walden

x

2

Genesism

(x = space)

x

x

Genesism

x

We were thrown out:

Don’t blame Eve,

I don’t;

The serpent could have

Just as easily

Caught Adam first

And both fall

After choosing to take bites

x

And if you believe

The woman had such power,

Go ahead—I

Wouldn’t stop you

x

Did they see the angel,

Looking back?

The orange or the yellow

Of a blade on fire?

Feel the heat?

Did they know for sure

They must go another way,

Not to return

For ages?

x

Well, they were given

Clothing,

They were given curses

Also callings,

They knew what they’d have to do

To live;

And so with their descendants,

So with us,

The myth goes on

For hunters and for music;

We build a tower

To do better than the curses

x

The tower falls;

We cannot speak to each other,

Anymore

x

So we build in separation;

Cities rise

And as must follow

Empire:

Strong people rule somehow

And we let their children rule

x

Was it worship

Or respect

Or indifference?

We had our farms to tend;

Soon there would be machines

x

We raised walls

To keep ourselves upon the plains,

Set outposts in the mountains,

Surrounded waterways,

x

And with food

And bright blades

Secured the promises

Of generations

x

Nation went to war

Against nations;

Many gods were worshipped,

Some directed

x

We have stone

And paper manuscripts

And ruins upon ruins

That are testimonies

x

And are we rising?

We hope so;

There are awful, lateral movements

And descensions—call

Them massacres,

Call slavery,

Call rule by one

With only one served,

One living well

x

Democracy is rising;

Call it something else;

We keep at it

x

How about

Soon we grow

Without anything but growth?

x

After-Eden flaws remain;

Maybe we’ll understand at last

Divinities approving

Of mortality,

Mortal accountancy

In meeting needs,

Accountability,

Repentance,

And renewal

x

Rockets go toward the moon,

Soon with people

Who will stay awhile

While we aim for Mars,

Send rockets to the rest;

We hope the Voyagers

Will find friends

x

We’re not perfect,

We’re not even better

x

If we keep our flaws,

And we own mortality

Then we’ll do all right

For legacy:

The joy in now

x

C L Couch

x

x

Water, Light, and Long Shutter Speeds

Photo by Ahmad Dirini on Unsplash

x

0

Gospel According to Today

(x = space)

x

x

Gospel According to Today

x

The gospel for today

Is pick something

Choose something like a star

Says Frost

Or enter through time’s wrinkle

Teaches L’Engle

Who taught us to type this way?

They have names

And objects as names

They are the first typewriter

Makers, manufacturers,

And agents

Not bad people

How would we have got this far?

x

Forget them all today

Go outside

And listen for good news

Type it on your minds

Let your tongues be pages

As you tell

Others

What is wonderful

And challenging

And terrible

And potential

In the day

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by alyssa teboda on Unsplash

x

2

transept

(x = space)

x

x

transept

x

and what presses in from outside

the church

the light of day

human noise

the natural world

the word of God

that says open the doors

and let me in

let those come too

under my arms

my coat or cloak or umbrella

those who are also

under my care

Ignorance and Want

and many others

ignorant of allegory

needing shelter and recognition

these are people

these are my creation too

let us in

then let us out

bearing what you may provide

what you have here

for their good

and mine

x

c l couch

x

x

photo by Bcny on Unsplash

x

2

The Valley of Weeping

(x = space)

x

x

The Valley of Weeping

(Psalm 84)

x

Loss

Patience with loss

Endurance

Not only keeping faith

But using it

While I might not know your suffering

God does

And God loves you for it

And will go with you through

Valleys of shadows

‘Til shadows encounter shade

A comfort in the desert,

An unknown place of suffering

Become familiar

Not in which to dwell

But through which

To cool our sight

Our sense

To know the way

To leave

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash

[story that came with photograph—I think it’s apropos]

We were looking to capture a foggy sunrise view of Half-Dome in Yosemite, but the weather wasn’t cooperating with us. The fog that did show up was low-lying and moving quickly through the trees like a ghostly river meandering through the canyon, swirling around the tallest trees in small eddies. Like too many forests, the valley is infested with borers, which has killed thousands of trees. The splash of golden trees mixed with the green is actually really beautiful, but a sad reminder of how fragile the forest is.

Yosemite Valley, United States

x

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑