Stage Fright
Goodness
What
Shall I say
Today
The day
Is even waning
In its
Hours
Like the fall
That is approaching
With
Its shorter days
But
These last days
Of summer
Though the holidays
Are done
For
School
And such
White things
Put away
I guess
Except
For sneakers
Well
My thoughts
Are consumed
With doctor
Visits
Supra-seasonal
I guess
One of which
Today
Resulted in some orders
I should follow
Into fall
With tests
And then prognosis
Into
The following steps
To take
And are you
Nervous over anything
You’d
Be entitled
And you should not deny
Your feeling when
It’s real
And isn’t fear
Real
My friend
As well as the faith
We’ve come to trust
And
Prayer for all
The easy things
Also the way
As belief
Is the
Way
Through
The difficult
What causes us
To fall
What reaches out
To lift us
Up
Again
C L Couch
Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash
Born in out of the USA
Labor Day
Holiday
For sales
Last gasp
Before
We must admit
School has begun
Last
Swim in the community pool
There might be fireworks
Tonight
Last flags out front
For a while
And should there be a last red
White
And blue
Parade
The turning
Of
The cultural
New year
This is my country
And I love it
C L Couch
Photo by Jennifer R. on Unsplash
2 patriot verses
Patriot Dreams
I love my country
Though sometimes
It’s hard
To recognize
For violence
Yes
Also disorder
In the halls of politics
And justice
It seems that we all
Lean
Maybe time
To say so
And admit we can do better
Be larger
Than one interest
So to legislate
Even to judge
I am this
And I am that
My group is this
But I can care
Bigger than
That
And must
To make intact
And keep intact
The nation
From the privilege of chaos
And the run of evil
Ripping through
Any sense
Of unity
Faltered
Flawed
We can do better
Larger
Though the irony must be
That patriot feeling
And intent
Be shown in smaller
Ways
The things of families
And of neighborhoods
Leave me alone
Should not be our working words
Not since
We thought
To work out something
‘Gainst an empire
Knowing that
Solitary items matter
As matter
Individuals
Remember
Though
That birthing seems
Separate
But by necessities
Is actually conjoined
That dying
For some choices might be
Shared as well
That we are in our skins
And inside
Our interests
But we do better
Not for
Groupthink
But when we work it
Healthily
Together
By “patriot dream”
(ethereally good)
We may try
(waking
hale)
Vision
Turned like
Named and unnamed blocks
Into
Democratic strategy
And our
Republic’s practice
God save America
All Americas
And both hemispheres
A planet
Nation
For with reason
Any people
In
The world
May
Build this
Choices in smaller things
The easy things
Be easy
While we also have the larger
And complex
Thus
Vote for
Service
For security
Love of nation
Love of home
Families reconstructed
In any number
Blood
And also water
Both safely
Required
We share
The nation’s business
While invested
In
Our own
The larger one
Be ours
Indifferently approached
Perhaps
(check voting
statistics
far as well as near)
But we live on the promise that
We make this
(large
and small)
Our own
Sustaining it in
Quotidian
As well as come-November ways
C L Couch
Photo by Sardar Faizan on Unsplash
New Season
I saw them
Being in the north
I saw them
First changing trees
Of autumn
Ferns
Can ferns be trees
But they were tall
Along the road
Telling me
With any passerby
That the new season
Is arriving
That as
Far as we’re concerned
Is here
C L Couch
Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
the way of all (smart, laughing, faithful) flesh
consequentially
anger
worry
fear
fear
worry
anger
they amass
and through which
we fight
each other
wisdom is not on
that list
or smarts
or joy
strategy might be applied
in fighting
but there might be something wild
like laughter
first
to apply
maybe
laughing
the kind you know
that's
with each other
laughing
we might have a chance
to diffuse
remember what we like
and for which
we hope
maybe we’ll come back
to a phantom table
(I doubt with
most folk
there’s a real table
though maybe in
more formal occasions
or ‘round
the kitchen table
or card table
of the home
and maybe we were talking
there)
maybe we’ll talk some
more
having risked some humor that
turns out
to be shared
then anger
or fear
the starting points
might mean the end
as well
with
wildest of all
the faith we might have in each other
restored
maybe the end
yet
without doubt
the new beginning
c l couch
photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
the song somewhere outside
it’s not as if
it’s the city
tall and dark with
tall-building shadow
and all that
but there is a bird
that sounds real
brave
somehow
to be singing
over the risk of traffic
and I wonder
what it challenges
in song
perhaps to say there’s hopefulness
in town today
and I will represent that
for you
while I may
c l couch
photo by Evaldas Grižas on Unsplash
Practice over Years
(makes imperfect)
Silly
Practice
Silly
Bear
Silly
And old
Bear
Retired on honey
To the house of Mister
Sanders
(second S
backward like
Z
or zed for
England)
And could I live there
With all the honey
And all
The company
I am
(after all)
Silly
And old
And have configured
Me
To be
A bear of very
Little brain
Which is
In
No way
The way that I was named
My mother being
Very smart
And who liked the stories
And so named me for
The keeper
So to say
Of
The bear
Rabbit
The owl
And without doubt
The Piglet
Silly
One
By one
No doubt
But we shall all have tea
And that
(without doubt)
Is smart
C(hristopher) L(eo, could be Robin) Couch
Photo by Luke Galloway on Unsplash
A Little Prophecy for Friday
(any day—and I hope it’s good for you)
When everyone had
Gathered
In whatever room
Maybe
A second-story place
When he appeared
The first thing Jesus said was
“Peace”
A signal for the resurrection
Maybe
That now a time of resolution is
At hand
That reconciliation is
The way of things
And that
of course
Is what has happened
In that
The way of Earth has changed
Or
Rather it is on its way toward
Being finished
And peace is the new order
Any victory
Through peace
Peaceful understanding
Peaceful
Action
We may announce
Maybe in a Pentecost-al way
(with red
balloons and
such
all environmentally
worked
out)
That a new order is at hand
That
Sorry
Isn’t new
(no merchandising
on it)
The joy that was in Genesis
Unending
Without flaw
Is at hand
And all for us
And God
And God with us
And if the cosmos has
Fallen
With us
Then
All material
And who knows
Maybe issues
Will have their first
Finality
As well
C L Couch
John 20:19
Photo by Ronald Cuyan on Unsplash
cool be cool
and it’s a lovely day
(to
love)
an irony
of gray
though we can remember blue
while we enjoy the cool
the low dewpoint
mid-August
while we’ve been keeping
record heat
until
today
and thank you
to
the God of gray
(to
love)
who brings
the clouds
and maybe spritzes of rain
to shine the leaves
that have
been looking up
and out
with us
for some relief
(to
love)
from all reliance
on machines
for cool
now
let’s
be cool
(to
love)
c l couch
photo by Fons Heijnsbroek on Unsplash
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