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The Lonely Makers

(x = space)

x

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The Lonely Makers

(an accounting for geneses)

x

There is God

There is the Spirit

There has been Christ

As we have the story

There is Christ

Before Sarah

In fact

To speak to bring the world

Ex nihilo

Into something

x

The world was made in six days

Each day therein

An age

Such as the day of the dinosaur

Or the days of Camelot

Count twenty-four

God could do it

But there was void at first

Then light and dark

How shall one count

In that

Before the world of clocks

x

Christ speaks

And all is made

The Spirit moves

Behested to breathe life

After the first

Breath

Into the sky

Over the water

x

Abstracts are done

And then

The species

Of the Earth

Come forth

x

Creatures

With small spirits

Even

Our own

x

Breathed out of dust

To live

To make our way

To make

Our own

Shares in creativity

By will

Because later on

We ask for this

Alone

And alone

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Christine Kozak on Unsplash

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The Garden of Scheherazade

(x = space)

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x

The Garden of Scheherazade

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Imagine

An Arabian portico

A ceiling to the side

Under which is

Furniture with pillows

It is day

Then it is night

And in another place

Deeper inside

She meets with the husband

She volunteered to take

Even though

He is a maniac

Who kills after one night

To secure fidelity

x

And so you tell a story

Recalling all the things you studied

Texts

Everything told you

By your father the vizier

By his advisors

Students

The servants of the house

And when allowed to wander

(covered up)

Making stories out of comments made

Along the streets

Of a desert country

With oases

And mountains

As well

x

Legends

Narratives from

Math and philosophy

The history of men

(mostly men

aware of audience)

Through the ages

Sinbad

Aladdin

Ali Baba

So many more

Nearly three years’ worth

x

Though it was the first night

That mattered

And the day that followed

Keeping life

By keeping the killer

Entertained

And then the second night

Made all the difference

And the third

x

While you stood

Or sat

Or walked

The garden outside

The blood-filled palace

Deciding

Crafting

Revising

Each narrative

For the night

Aiming for salvation

For another day

x

coda

x

I don’t know why I think of this

x

It

She

Came to me yesterday

Probably because

I was thinking about story

On its own

Not so much the content

But the abstract

And the purpose

The importance

The reality

A telling makes

x

Maybe not

To life and limb

Bur all the stories she got to tell

We got to hear

That were in context

So much fighting

For her life

x

C L Couch

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A Thousand and One Arabian Nights is a collection framed by the telling of stories by Scheherazade, the daughter of the vizier.  She volunteered against her father’s wish, naturally enough, to marry the king as a defensive measure for the women of the realm—and because the realm was losing all its women, at least those suitable for a king to marry.  Whatever suitable means, especially given the circumstances.  And as an overarching cause because the king whose first wife cheated on him and was summarily executed made in the king an attitude of mania regarding fidelity.  And so each day he would marry a virgin and then each night have her killed.  Scheherazade, who was not only skilled in storytelling but in story content, went to the king, married him, and entertained him on the first night with a story and then, because he wanted more, on the second night and so on.  The king found good stories more enticing than slaying wives, which I guess is some kind of virtue even in one we can’t overall admire.  Finally, the king’s madness broke or something like that happened; and he thought to keep Scheherazade as his one (and lasting) wife.

Well, it’s a story within stories.  Or I should say without. But it adds an edge in the telling and our hearing.  An added edge like that of a sword, perhaps that of an executioner.

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Photo by Arsalan Rad on Unsplash

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First Comes Love

(x = space)

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First Comes Love

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What shall we say

For real

But that God loves us

And would rather

Love us

Even more than judge us

Though there’s judgment, too

x

Remember the first one?

It was

That this is good

x

C L Couch

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4 God saw that the light was good, . . .

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Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash

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Dreaming the Mushroom Cloud

(x = space)

x

x

Dreaming the Mushroom Cloud

x

I suppose it’s because

I knew the movie

Would appear today

And got me thinking

Stirring something

Too

As a surprise

x

I dreamed I saw the cloud

The mushroom cloud

Rising above the horizon

Of the tress

Near the place where I was standing

And I knew

Inescapably

The effects would be upon us

x

I could be atomized

The irony of the name for the bomb

As a result

(in addition to the cause)

Or I could be set

In winter

The awful winter without food

Or safety

And were the people inside

In the building near me

(in the dream)

Ready for a new companionship

Survival from the blast

And all the blasts

And then I woke

x

It’s been a while

Since I had a dream like that

I don’t think

Since childhood

When I looked up on summer days

To wonder if a silver missile might

Arc out of the blue

And toward the ground

x

No matter what the season

Counting

It was the famous cold time

For a war

x

C L Couch

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(I think it’s today that the film Oppenheimer premieres)

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Photo by Alen Smola on Unsplash

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4

Long-Distance Rates

(x = space)

x

x

Long-Distance Rates

(for Susan)

x

I live long distance

So must you

What with

E-mails

Texts

DMs

Chat rooms

And now the added layer

Of A-I

Bumfustication

x

Where are you

Where am I

We’re here

In our respective heres

We own our molecules

And due

The air we breathe

The ideal cycle of

Good air goes in

Bad air goes out

Oxygen

To carbon dioxide

x

We live with plants

They love us

For our air

And they make food possible

For us

x

Which makes me wonder if

Distance is

Migratory

After all

Driven by seasons

And circumstances

Dodge the volcano here

Fly around the first fire

Stay high

Over the earthquake

x

Closeness might be relative

With our relatives

(hah)

Or when we convene

From Mars

It will only work that way

In the irony of distance

Safe with colleagues in

The interplanetary room

Then

Even the distance

To the moon

Will seem as close

As Artemis

Hunting

Dancing

With her followers

x

But back

To you and me

Where it starts

And where it counts

God inside

They say

We say

And we believe

And let spirits

Manage that

x

Flesh is something else

We know

We zoom

And those are electrons

We hurry

But that’s style

x

We touch in the same place

And anymore

That’s miracle

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Resource Database on Unsplash

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2

2 poems

(x = space)

x

x

2 poems

x

x

at the h. f. clinic

x

to the doctor’s well

a doctor type at

the clinic where my

heart failure’s diagnosed

and worked on

blood pressure’s up due

to medication or

some other cause

there’s all the weight from

fluid that is uncomfortable

to feel but since it tends

to kill people by

some kind of drowning I

guess then I should be

grateful and you

know I am

x

x

tawny punks

x

today is

someone’s day

or something’s

thanks to

greeting cards

or causes that simply

want a day

and get authority

to say okay

x

pizza day

beagle day

greeting card day

with greeting cards

for greeting cards

a day for me

is groundhog day

because there

are no cards

so you can cross

out christmas

or new year’s

or presaged a dismal

valentine’s

and write greetings

from

Punxsutawney

over that

and so practice

spelling

Punxsutawney

x

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by Ralph Katieb on Unsplash

Groundhog didn’t like the late April snow (she was in the middle of nest building when it hit).

[photographer’s caption]

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3

Faith and the General

(x = space)

x

x

Faith and the General

x

And did Moses

God as the ally

Part

The Red Sea

As a miracle

More importantly

As rescue

x

General Wallace

Wanted all of it

A story

For unlearned people

Awash in ignorance

Wanting

To stay that way

Away

Wet with lies

x

Red Sea

Or Sea of Reeds

The miracle diminished

By sponges

That is

Absorbents

Of reality

x

Or is the miracle

A normal thing

(the parting

of a sea

by wind

in certain

seasons)

Nonetheless

Miraculously timed

x

General Wallace wanted

All of it

A lie

At best an illusion

And delusion

Most of all

The notion that a God

Should want to be with us

Even through

A civil war

And send to us

Something

God and us

To save us

From the monstrous

The despicable

We make

And must be

x

And so what happened

(let the Red Sea

and the

Sea of Reeds

debate go on)

Well

He wrote Ben-Hur

As a fictive response

To how he had

Changed

x

And maybe

A divine hope

In and

For the rest of us

To marshal all the parts

And

Once assembled

Find out what there is

By

The revulsive

And the hopeful

For ourselves

For faith

x

C L Couch

x

x

After extensive studies of the Bible and the Holy Land, and well before he had completed the novel, Wallace became a believer in God and Christ.

Wikipedia (citing sources)

x

Photo by Evan Brockett on Unsplash

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0

A Certain Psalm

(x = space)

x

x

A Certain Psalm

x

Songs to God

Confess

Mourn

Celebrate

Some ask where the Lord

Even while addressing

The Lord

x

Which is the way of doubt

Spiced with pain

Salt and bitter herbs

For the wilderness

Inside

The heart a desert

Reason wandering

Where is God but here

But we must

Over hills

And under earth

Search as if

Not to find

Or find in a new way

That answers doubt for all

And always

On this side

Through what we know

Has been dark glass

x

Sing

With a single voice

Or ask an orchestra to play

By composing

All the parts

And a message from humanity

Over the ground

And to the sky

To say

If anything might bless the Lord

Then bless the Lord

If any offering

Might be good for many voices

And an intention

Of authenticity

Received

Then receive the large psalm

Attempting to be thunderous

From us

x

To recognize

To thank

To let everyone have voice

In song or silence

Whatever might senses allow

Or to participate

By turning pages

Or only

Dutifully

Showing up

x

Locusts are a host

The killer bees

We can be a host

Though our precedents

Are angels in the sky

Nonetheless a human host

To try

x

Presenting such a psalm to you

From many people

A human host

Before the court

Of the Lord

x

C L Couch

x

x

recollecting themes and purposes of ancient psalms for the here and now

x

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash

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0

A Jazz Singer

(x = space)

x

x

A Jazz Singer

(for Paul)

x

The jazz singer

Being Jewish in a

Family

x

Wanting to be famous

Have a talent

To be

Tested

And a wish to be excused

From doctrinaire

Behaviors

While accepted

For the seder

Or when showing up

As the schedule

In being famous

Might allow

x

A public

Served

Entertained

Inspired

Is that enough

Is that acceptable

Against

Acceptable

Through generations

x

And the ones

Unprodigal

Who keep it all

And might remember

Those

Who do return

x

Remember whom

The empty chair

Is for

And would

In turn

Be welcoming

From the prophet

Of the one

Who reconfigures things

To save

With pleasure

Inside notes and rhythms

For a larger

Needful

World

x

So keep the second chair

Upon

Returning

Leant against the wall

And ready

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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