reader response
blue to gray
sorry
it was a pleasant day
with winter weather in the fifties
to encourage going out
for
the day if
not
to ski
we’re in the East
sorry again
c l couch
(reader-response is a way to describe the process of getting into a book or anything with text; we read and then respond and how we respond by what we read and who we are is, well, important, ‘cause it is; here for a graduate-student lark, I’m applying the notion to reading the day and then responding, reader response to weather, as it were)
photo by Kourosh Qaffari on Unsplash
unbelieving Sunday best
I
think I should go
I have some coffee
to ready me
chemically
and maybe throw enough together
there is hot water
with some handsoap
nearby
and clothes
that should pass muster
one
more time
and so acceptably for an hour or so
then
back to exile
and the loneliness
but have had the hour
for faith and companionship
while keep
the faith
let go of the rest
as illusion
I
belong
enough to hope to find
other
than I the healthy
perfect you
and
if unbeknownst
you could leave with me
then
who knows
sometimes I could enter
faith and love
not needing to believe in these
or
that they are for you
yet also
me
coda
sip the coffee then
ten minutes to get ready
ten to get there
eight
and eight
c l couch
photo by Creab ThePolymath on Unsplash
Accra
it’s day though so dark
taking sun and then moonlight
need new ways to see
c l couch
photo by Josep Martins on Unsplash
more: https://gumroad.com/josepmartins [from the photographer]
Barcelona, Spain
photo prompt
I like this
it’s romantic
it’s a prompt for winter
romance
we could be in the transit
or the red lights to
the side
could be
ours
on our car that we have started
so
we may go home
c l couch
photo by Georgi Kalaydzhiev on Unsplash
Sofia, Bulgaria
I had written something else—but while looking for an image, the one above got me
church and Venezuela
prayer
and a song for peace
and
how much more to say except
a war without
our Congress calling it
and certainly without invasion
first
so we’ll need to be praying
all around
in
mourning for the losses
frankly
against the greed
and
vanity involved
with something about more terms
in
office
deceptively in play
wartime culture to manipulate
while in the church we’ll pray
and serve for
cessation
by the forgiveness and repentance
of
a nation
c l couch
photo by Eduardo Juhyun Kim on Unsplash
Morrocoy, Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Falcón, Venezuela
Steve at 80
goodness
a new decade
and
as the math should complement
by ten
one for me as well
later on
but yours is the accomplishment
and
or course more so
what you’ve done with time
career
house
home
the family
with your best helper make
and increase
a litany of good things
and
even more of people
come into and go on to be affected
well
by you
and I’m sorry for the pains
though there are
rewards
tangible by rooms and other
assets
and what might better go uncounted
good people
and
good times
and in your time
you’ve sponsored these
with
your own knowing of your
self
and treats to come
this day
and days of growth
as well as simple pleasures
happy
birthday
to
begin
what is this moment and
what’s next
c l couch
photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash
Science Fiction Day
and
who decides
though it’s a good
day
to
note
regardless
all these worlds
crafted
and co-crafted
to use together
use
in peace
and shall we try new pages
remembering
the gold
and
thus inspired
c l couch
(with an illusion to Arthur C. Clarke’s opus of this the new century)
photo by Andrey Strizhkov on Unsplash
Sidewalk projection. Is this Earth?
[photographer’s caption]
Moscow, Russia
irony of happy
(1 January)
but there’s
the priest who from a sermon
said
leave one Christmas decoration out
it will drive your
neighbors
crazy
and so for those who think all
lights must come down
a happy
and
decorous new year to you
c l couch
to all
photo by Benoit Roy on Unsplash
Fake Plastic Santas
[Santa choir]
more than Camelot
(31 December)
I tend to think
at
this moment
the long moment of the final day
of
Tennyson
(yes
Tennyson)
who has the last of Camelot
fallen
surrendered by Excalibur
the end of the year
with
the last
knight on the last steed
without a castle
or
a realm
riding into what is timed as the first day
of the new year
meaning
a new age
perforce
Tennyson’s own age
perhaps
our own
modern age
in which we must live
with machines
ending relationships
empire without nobility
but
greed to drive itself
and we are left
without
romance except nostalgia
of a time
we cannot know
and
so
happy new year
and that’s
all
and isn’t all
we are driven by sensation
cast in ego and in
vanity
it’s true
but
that’s nowhere near
the all that is
since we can do better
choose better
and
that’s it
that’s all if by capacity
somewhat relative
we decide how
we will be
and could we do better than
the phenomenon of resolutions
interesting to voice
and
then inevitable to fail
by
forgetting
and who knows might be forgettable
rather than making calls
for the day
for today
for now
and we could
through better means
re-understand sensation
ego
vanity
as good and even needul things
parts
of us
and choices
too
though except in urgent moments
consider
safe
consider health
consider love
and
yes
in taking such stands
consider what we stand against
the machines of vaingloriousness
that
influence
and keep a bodyguard of lies
enforcing
working inside-out
the cause that cannot last
the hypocrisies
that
will be exposed as crimes
or simple folly
to have followed
we can do better
should
do better
consider what is small
free
to do
say
in deciding love
then go from there
into the year
c l couch
(started with Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
photo by Godz1 on Unsplash
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