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The People First

(x = space)

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x

The People First

(Indigenous Peoples Day)

x

Today on the

Convenience of a Monday,

We acknowledge

Indigenous Peoples Day

x

A day for dance

For songs whose lyrics

Most of us don’t know

x

Set before

Except for math in certain years

The arrival of Columbus

On a day

And on that day

First time

Complicit in

The Taino

Vanishing

x

We inveigled

Tricked

Overwhelmed

After learning to survive

Pushed the people

Pushed our teachers

And, yes, first adversaries

Onto arid land

At last

Unless a virtue be discovered there

Then moved farther on

xxxxxArtificial islands

xxxxxAre trending;

xxxxxThe people could build

xxxxxOnto the ocean

xxxxxUnless we wanted

xxxxxSomething under

x

What shall we do this day?

Not give anything back,

I’m sure

x

Feathers

Leathers

Colors

How to live with nature

When even nature’s scant

Colors of the earth

And of fauna

Movement, teaching of the seasons

Life with the Spirit,

The hand of God that pressed

The mountains

And the valleys

Plains between,

Ridges and runnels

Of the fingers

That should be

Filled with water

x

Truths of land and air,

Interesting add-ons for us

Supplements for mortal life

Maybe next year’s

Vacation

x

What is the hope

For a people pushed

And pushed off,

As if unwanted by the created world

Yet placed onto the world

First,

First people here?

x

Well, there is a day

I think better have the day

Than not

It offers balance

Maybe pain with recognition

Suffering with acknowledgement

Especially against

The time to come

In two days’ time

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Mike Newbry on Unsplash

Utah, USA

x

I could be sorry for the we-they attitude (and I am) except it’s what we (they) have. Hope for a day to come when we can mesh and moosh the pronouns because the better unifying has happened.

x

0

Nearing Full

(x = space)

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x

Nearing Full

x

The moon is yellow

The sky is blue

The clouds are silver

The stars are white

The branches have no color

Except the color

Of porch lights

x

It’s late again

The air is cool

Maybe in the fifties

Maybe forties,

Which is not so special

As a sign of autumn

In October

In these parts

But the days and nights

Have been too warm

Now the season

Is announced

x

We’ll have the chilly fall

And with the drop

To cold

At a propitious time

Beautiful leaf colors,

True

Autumn review

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Eleanor Brooke on Unsplash

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0

Rocking

(x = space)

x

x

Rocking

x

God is with me

As I tilt back and forth

Considering the day

The possibilities

Though first counting

What is real

In the atmosphere

In my awareness

As the spheres pass through

Vibrating oh, so slowly,

With the timing of creation

Slow with majesty

And an offer

To commune

And (much more) slowly get it

Then to rise

Into the day

And its new hour

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Syed Hussaini on Unsplash

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An Angel Visits Francis

(x = space)

x

x

An Angel Visits Francis

x

I speak to God today

God is quiet

Not uninvolved

With nothing noisy

To contribute

Beyond the rain outside

The singing tires

The occasional movement

Inside

From a neighbor

Or from me

x

I wonder when an angel

Visits Francis

How it goes

No, don’t get up

Relax the hand with the ring

No doubt you lift the office

With an instinct

Anymore

I’m here to rest with you

For a moment

To be still

You know the issues

And the crises in the world

One of us will tell you

When there are

Awful surprises

You are doing well

We are

I am

Sorry when you’re sick

The age and job

Do take it out of you

You could retire

Like your peer

Sometimes I think

He has the better part

But I don’t think you’ll give up

‘Til you have the sense

You’re done

Remember I am here

We are here

We fly around you

Dance with happiness

Or grief

You know we are not

The round things of the Renaissance

But are might beings

Wide in span

And awful

As in full of awe

To know us

And carry power

You know whose

And are ready

Should you wish us to defend

Evil forefend

Should you wish to rest with us around

And when you’re ready

To be escorted

Even carried

Home

x

We are will

And we love you

x

Back to me

And God is ready for your voice

When you wish to speak

Or keep it in your mind

The better things

Are in your heart

We’re told,

Which means your spirit

The spirit of the Lord

Is with you, too,

Waking or sleeping

Like the song

Agents of God

Angels and nature

Sing around you

Sometimes difficult

Impossible, it seems,

To hear

But singing nonetheless

The music of the spheres

The song that’s in your sphere

Of hope

And love

To resonate with good things

To navigate the bad

There is help

In that

In both

x

C L Couch

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Photo by gil on Unsplash

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2

Floods, Swords (two poems)

(x = space)

x

Floods, Swords (two poems)

could read the second of them while waiting on the first

x

x

Consider Extra Floods

x

Jackson

And Jacksonville

Puerto Rico

Cuba

Indonesia

Pakistan

Recently, in Europe

Maybe here on Friday

x

The Earth warms

The polar shelves

Send sheets of ice

Into the ocean

Water rises

x

Storms increase

Maybe we should

Appreciate complaint

From our own

Planet

From the core to the skies

And those of us

All of us

On middle ground

Between the hell and heaven

Spirituality

Counting its own cost

In faith and lives

Of our own globe

In a waiting cosmos

x

x

Consider Broken Swords

(Lord of the Rings)

x

Sting was never fixed,

Which would have been bad

For marketing

Though reminding

If not teaching

Us quite rightly

For the story

That the sharpest swords

Don’t have to win the day

And brokenness and heroes

Go together

x

The famous sword

The one that sang for Aragorn

Is fixed by Elven smiths

And ready for the final fights

In Rohan

Osgiliath

Minas Tirith

At the Black Gate

At last

These are the heroes whom we know

The king revealed

Wanderer and healer

The sword

That has a greater name

With supernal persona

Magic

In personality,

In character

As it were

x

But Sting

Is in a box

In Rivendell

Until it’s brought out

For a hobbit’s use

An unknown being

Anonymity its armor

(which had served the king

for a time)

They would sting another spider

Fill with poison

Topping off the stinging burden

Of an eldritch thing

And promises

Nothing healing

‘Til the mountainside

And going in

To face the fire

x

Goodness, there are heroes

There are lives

That serve the world

That sacrifice all pleasures

And promises

To take on one great evil

In front of armies

On one’s own

Inside mountains

At the gate

Of hell on Earth

Of hell on Middle-Earth

For all of us, between

x

The small sword

Is character as well

Four heroes, as it were,

Famous

On the surface

Or unfamous,

Inside holes for homes

Then mines and caves

Tunnels without songs

Until at home again

To rest

When things are done

Awaiting passage to

A healing land

x

Five heroes

Add two more

Then seven

Then many more

And villainous

And in-between corrupt

Great wars to settle things

The hobbits home at last

We close the books

So are we

x

x

C L Couch

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x

Photo by Octavian Dan on Unsplash

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0

Ow

(x = space)

x

x

Ow

x

I rock my back

My back says ow

My mouth forgets to say

x

I fell down some stairs

Last night

It’s still a curiosity

x

I didn’t have to sacrifice

The plate that I was holding

Ow, I’m learning

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Szabo Viktor on Unsplash

x

2

Banned Books Week

(x = space)

x

x

Banned Books Week

x

We put the titles

On a cup

And I see books I have enjoyed

And those I could have

Lived without,

Which means discretion

Not the better part of valor

The valor is in standing up for books

With earnest stories

And a style

And all of us

Won’t like all of them

And that’s all right

That is democracy

That I hear is a fine thing

For neighborhoods and nations

And a floating planet

Wanting the approval of gravity

In the cosmos

x

Banning books

Is a step

Not an easy step, I hope,

To burning books

And, you know, books of religion

Should they be read

Are the first ones to go

Books of the human spirit—well,

That might be all of them—go

Next

And we are left

Without touchstones,

The things that keep ideas for us

From slipping unanchored

Into a seastorm and the winds

Of every doctrine

x

If there is beauty in a book

We should preserve it

If there is truth as well,

That’s better

(Keats is on to something)

If it’s dull, it won’t matter

In the thought

And will ban itself

x

Children are not stupid

They’re not grown-up, either

There are grown-ups all around

Who must be wise

Keep matches from the books

Keep censoring away

Don’t throw everything

At everyone

Let children be children

Let them learn

Let them grow

Rethink the considerations of them

As a laborforce

For ideas

They are Cook

Without agenda

We are Endeavour

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash

x

1

Sleeper Awake

(x = space)

x

x

Sleeper Awake

x

It’s 69 degrees

(Fahrenheit)

At (twelve-oh-five, we say)

12:05

x

Fall arrives

And hobbits,

The birthdays

Of the Bagginses

x

New season

With an equinox

Autumnal

To complement

The vernal

By a half,

Half a year,

Half a world

x

We tilt into another

And existentially

A new one

x

We have not had

Today

Or this changing

Of the Earth

Around 11

Post-meridian

x

Here is the same season

As a new one,

New seconds

Newly breathed

Into hours

And an age

Collectively

x

Spring to the south,

Autumn

To the north where

Where there

Might be dragons

In their lairs.

Then

We bring in cold air

And awaken them

x

We think fall

Might be the readiness

For freezing,

Sleeping winter;

And yet

(like new school years

for young ones

and for teachers)

Here and now

The adventure,

The quest

Might begin

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Hans Isaacson on Unsplash

x

1

Abbey Road

(x = space)

x

x

Abbey Road

x

Tomorrow

A service

At Westminster

The building will serve

The people will be served

With liturgical goodbyes

x

I don’t know what she wrote for

Entry into Poets’ Corner

Maybe nothing

Maybe she’ll only visit there

From time to time

To listen

To the works

Or the squabbles

Among minds

(the laureates she knew

plus others)

x

We may salute her

For her military service

“Princess Auto Mechanic”

And she knew her work

Dear in wartime

x

Or try this—Your Majesty

Elizabeth

We hard knew ye

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by abdullah ali on Unsplash

x

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