haiku plus announcement
yellow brown blue white
and there must be green for spring
gospel of out there
As I’ve mentioned, I find haiku a challenging craft. Maybe if I knew Japanese, though I’d have to know Japan as well (more than I know now). Nonetheless some haiku of mine—five in all (each one invited to send five)—will be published in an upcoming collection by Literary Revelations (https://literaryrevelations.com/). I’m keenly grateful to the publishing house for accepting my work to share with others. More specifically, I'm grateful to Gabriela Marie Milton who invited and received submissions. (If I understand the process.)
More details as I have them. Thank you for reading and thus encouraging my work.
photo by Xuan Nguyen on Unsplash
2 poems about the new season (more or less)
Bouncy
God
It’s yellow Friday
With blue and brown
On deck
It’s
Spring and time
Not for the metaphor this
Time but
To really
Play some ball
Training
Then the opening
We each can do this
Batter
You know
Up
And I’ve switched audience
Though aren’t you
Always there
(for
an excuse)
Forgive me
And allow me to say
Maybe
To everyone
About
Gospel of play
And did you plays as you ringed
And then rounded
Creation
Maybe
Keep us
Safe
In this new season
Knowing that our choices
Make the difference
Even if
And when
We could turn our will
Toward yours
A wheel
And a wheel within a wheel
But I was thinking baseball
Pitches
Running
And then
The coming home
Green
Workaday
And extraordinary-day
New
Season to you
And to you
Amen
Freedom Ring
The Liberty Bell is cracked
And there were more
Bells
At the time
Ringing freedom
While now we have
The broken bell
For show
And there is wisdom
In admiring the broken
Toward
Kintsugi perhaps
Or to leave in
Pieces
Sometimes for further lack of use
Except in small beholding
Or
When a sizable
Cast bell
To dream on ringing
To dream really large
Sometimes
C L Couch
Photo by Joe Richmond on Unsplash
3 poems about things turning such as certain times of year
hurry up
hurry up
let’s get me out of here
not
to the grave
despite my age that is closing in
on the classic threescore
and ten
but more peace
as I keep asking
which means I’ll need the wherewithal
to get there
which I think means
money
and assistance
more assistance in the way
of people
who are stronger than my heart-disease-ridden
body
can manage anymore
though
I’ve always needed help to move
who doesn’t
though now the urgency
is different
I believe
one more place this time
perhaps
one last place
in which to live
and
you know
hope
to live
please
which goes for a plea
I guess
I mean beyond the wordplay
in that we plea
yet
add a couple letters for more courtesy
with which
to ask
plea
as in deal
as in crime
plea
as in asking because it’s not only desired
but also it is urgent
what we want
or need
or offer in an intercessory
way
a petition
as it were from you
through me
and not that that should make so much
a difference that it’s me
but asking
anyway
on your behalf
of God
or the spirits of the world behind
under
perhaps
even
to add in some miracle
by magic
which isn’t doctrinal
I suppose
but how close the miracle and magic
maybe in the timing
at least
as in
was the miracle the parting of the sea
since by those who
know
purportedly
not an unusual occasion
though parting in the time
to save
the Israelites
and even close upon the enemy
with hurried wheels
following
with many deadly points from spears
and arrows
and yet
whatever passed for armor could not save
but they were
saved
the refugees
those who would become the desert-dwellers
as if to earn the promise of
new land
but
to bring it forward
there are needs
there are miracles
and
(arguably)
of magic
and I wish
not that it’s a lamp
inside a cave
I pray
(more earnestly)
that
what you need you have
possession
or direction
or some healing
as only the one who provides
may provide
knowing
what and how to time
miracle
magic
and everything
my friend
it’s time
another ashy day
goodness
we’ve had a few
days
right
for Lent
I guess
we can wear these days
upon our foreheads
should we wish
late is wan
but shows some color
after all
light gold
a kind of uneasy glaze upon
it all
not that the day is
bad
that’s up to us
and it isn’t hard to look at
but I think the day should have more green
and I’d think you would
too
not only for the sake of light
but the beginning of
you know
that verdant time
note
hurry up
please
it’s time
(titular frame based on a repeating part of “The Wasteland” by T. S. Eliot)
Shantih
photo by Anton Luk on Unsplash
Pale Day
Pale blue
Pretty
I imagine there are
Even piquant clouds somewhere
Bouncing
Even though they’re still
Or moving slowly
To see them
Actually
Adding extra movement
To the elements
Because it’s probably happening
Out there
Up there
Down there
Anyway
And we take movement
All too seriously
As if to be still
Even to rest
Were tantamount to some kind of death
Before
The actual
And is that the antipathy
Toward rest
That it’s too close to resting
Mortally
Forever
I don’t know
It’s a pretty blue day outside
And I’ll think on all these things
And maybe you shall
Too
Blue is for rest
As well
And if it is
Or can be
Some kind of sabbath for you
When it’s time or
You decide
It’s time
Then my wish is for a day of blue
For you
C L Couch
Photo by Oliver Cole on Unsplash
All the Green Hours
It’s the witch hour
The day after Saint Pat’s
Though
The ministry of saints goes on
Brigid might be busy
Too
Being the saint
And also something of
Imbolc
The supernal spirit of the land
C L Couch
(for Saint Patrick’s Day late)
Photo by Greg Willson on Unsplash
two fresh-baked works from ridiculous to personally at least sort-of maybe/maybe not sublime
Ides of March Eve
(or Pie with a Protractor)
3.14
Forget the year
Pi Day
Have some pie
A tasty metaphor
The circumference of
Which
Requires pi
To be determined
All our work in circles
Determined by a number
A function
That’s unsolvable
And yet
We build our arches
We have all our round things
The math might be frustrated
And sorry to
Computers
But our stone tools
Might have worked just fine
Without it
Without pi
Though it’s Pi Day
So let’s have a slice
That has a
Radius
With somehow
A part
Of the arc around
And maybe not get started
On the spheric calculation
Of
Each blueberry
The Morning Rush
Somedays
I wake
And try to make everything
Fit
Starting in my head
Into a style
If not a way
Simply
A few things to like
Some
Favorite flavors
A few items of clothing
Shoes
That fit easily
A car that might need work
No doubt from
Time
To time
But that gets around
From here to there and back
Again
While I may listen to my books
While on the road
A place to live
That’s quiet enough
Normal noise
Allowed
Even preferred
To gravestone silence
A thought
To work
That I can do
Beyond the blogging
Or maybe learn
A dollar
Two dollars
More
From the daily work
With any decent accomplishment
From the crafting and the
Posting
Though I don’t know
It seems skittish on many glassy surfaces
Inside
To consider
More exercise
Less weight
The national pastime that isn’t
Baseball
And with more study
And some interaction with
Like-
Minded people
Too
A church that I might stand
And might stand me
A life with God
That’s
Wel
Not palpable
For now
But authentically affirmed
And stretched out through the hours
Like
Taffy
Or an impossible balloon
Something with taste
(even savor)
Something to enjoy
Even remarkably
And
You know
It will not happen
There’s not enough allowance
Or belief
From the world
Not simply to help
But to permit
Because our life
Force
Is worked on by so many propositions
That become
Well
Impositions
What
To buy
How to vote
What
To believe as coded by
The pundits some of whom
Get elected
And
I’ll keep my faith
Of course
My discomfit with the world
Hoping for a purer
Uncultish Earth
Fitzgerald
This
Side of paradise
Sigh
Keep waking
And keep dreaming after
Waking
C L Couch
Photo by Kura Tregenza on Unsplash
Outlook
It’s
Sun
And yellow on brown
For trees
While the sky is an ashy blue behind
I know it’s Lent
And maybe this is a somber
Spring day
Maybe a calling to
Remember this is what happens
After
Winter
After March’s lion
March’s lamb
Straightforward observations
With ingredients of
Folklore
Added
Even to the speaking of the sun
The day
To us
Unusual
After all
Like a little revolution
A little anthropomorphizing
Is a good thing
Which we’re gonna do
Anyway
Thinking of a sun that smiles
Looking for
The face
In the moon
Tonight
C L Couch
“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing . . .”—Thomas Jefferson
Photo by JOSHUA COLEMAN on Unsplash
Shall I Compare Thee to a Winter’s Day?
Shall I compare thee to a winter’s day?
Cold wind must have its way on us:
But thou art cooler than with ice to play
Through season’s layers in response to fuss;
We play outside then warm ourselves inside
Where should thou offer play ourselves a game;
And I am thankful for hot chocolate’s tide,
Though I fall prey to local champion’s fame;
And thou shall treat me when I am of need
If know thou might give over certain flaws,
And let me help thee with an even speed
And yet excel according to love’s laws;
And I must give according to my own
And yet if thou should have thy way made clear,
My own mistakes too sharp as snow is blown,
Then winter’s day know only thawed hearts here;
Fair face’s features with expressive eyes,
Thy bounding love unbounded by the world;
Grace in thy form as only our God buys—
Thy words and insights found like treasure pearl’d;
And should I ask and knowing I must wait
Might we so heat above the frost, our fate.
C L Couch
Photo by Tarryn Grignet on Unsplash
[haiku]
winter skimming late
mysteries in melting ice
slush punctuates
c l couch
photo by Matthew Fassnacht on Unsplash
clcouch123 
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