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Pledge Break

(x = space)

x

x

Pledge Break

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Goodness

It’s late

I haven’t really

Said anything

I’ve let the tyranny

Of memories and songs

Take over

Drafting elsewhere

x

Tyranny

That could be blessed

For pleasures recalled

And challenges

And to reconsider

Resolutions

x

Well

What is there to say?

Love God

Love each other

I’ll try to do better

Always better

Improve

Even invent

Devices and topoi

As devices

Not cleverness

(clearly)

But invitations

For the nonce

And later on

x

For that is the joy of words

Arranged

That they might be

Considered later on

x

Like words

I like your words

And almost everything they carry

I’m sorry

But for now

I must set aside the hate

Even for justice

‘Til mediation

Greater wisdom

So much greater than my own

Take over

x

We must talk

At least we should

And I can hope

We do

At that table

Where all words

Be shared and understood

And a new world built by them

From every session

Made

Into our mission

x

While most of us

Lead lives away

Improved

Steadier on the path

Cosmically designed

Determined

Our input welcomed

Now with grace

Re-made

From our negotiation

With each other

Willing to listen

By the end

Of sessions

And be changed in

And for

A universe

Always moving

Always changing

x

Together

There’s the wisdom

There has to be

Or else

Franky

We’ve earned oblivion

x

I say

We say

Enough

Let’s fill our cups

And serve each other

On our plates

Wise love

Via service

Receiving thus

Salvation

x

Poetically

And prosaically

Yours,

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

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4

Crusoe

(x = space)

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x

Crusoe

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It took me years

And years to come

To understand

The need

The requirement

To have a life

To have a life to offer

x

Then there is a story

Pages

Chapters

With an ending

That might satisfy

A larger world of woe

And grace

Even rescue,

Notwithstanding

x

What is left

Is little time

The gift grows smaller

Like some things

In other tales

But we have time

As is

On this side

And choices

That are not invisible

In fact,

Are rife with potency

x

The grace of God

Love and understanding

Growing up at last

The tragedy

The humor

The finality

Of wisdom

On this side

Then to another shore

An irony for Crusoe

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Jordan Steranka on Unsplash

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2

Wealth of Nations

(x = space)

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Wealth of Nations

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O God

For invocation

Oh, God

To plea

Our world groans

With war

And the imbalance

Of the greedy

Systems

x

Justice should be a system

Greed is not good

Unless you’re winning

For a while

While all our cells corrupted

May yet cry for mercy

x

The ears to hear

Might be

The last to go

x

God

Help us

And forgive us

The Earth is ours

And we forget

And leave it to a few

Who vote for nothing

But self-fattening

And a self-deceiving glimpse

Of real power

x

Let all rise

(the poorly-

agendaed, too)

To march

Or stand in place

To sing

As if

Accompanying Earth

With all the antiphons

The spheres above

Below

That glide

And when against each other

Glory in the sacred touch

The music

Of all order

And all chaos,

Arranged

As creation’s gift

x

And this is wealth

Not the other

Once we feed each other

And can stand or march

(or sit with age

or disability

and purpose)

To hear the strains

Of everything

And offer ours

x

Our gift

Unto the glory

Of Earth

And all-around’s,

Of God’s all

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash

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0

prosaically yours

x = space

x

x

prosaically yours

more so more likely than versically

x

i’m tired

second cup of coffee

tv for distraction

more senses involved

than music

i should pray

i don’t what to say

could god answer anyway

there’s omniscience

after all

x

my eyes are tired

computer screens don’t help

nor does the time

i couldn’t sleep

rose well

into remaining darkness

wrote for hours

tried to sleep

wrote some more

that would be now

x

so here is

honestly

and what shall happen

next

is up to me

but i must manage balance

between staying in

to raise awareness

or going out

not so far

to run

to drive

some errands

x

like kenny loggins at

pooh corner

there are things to do

that are exigent

prescriptions to retrieve

gasoline to get beforehand

x

you know

i don’t have an

electric car

though i grieve historically

the stanley steamer

while i’ve only

come across

two pumps for electricity

in my collection

of small towns

what is the

strategy

for everyone

only charge our cars

at home

x

there is trash to take out

as well

first or last

and more

you know

always more

x

it’s friday

i should take the weekend

to bear it somewhere

fine

and i want

to say however plainly that

i hope you’ll carry yours

to such a place

as well

x

i should say toward the conclusion

not parenthetically

that I mourn

i talked with my sister for

a while last night

we talked

about our loss

and everything that still needs doing

that she’s doing mostly

my part is to buoy

x

if i pull that off

i should be helpful

which

is an impulse

or an instinct

from which

except in what were

and still might be

extreme and selfish times

it seems

i will not be released

x

not to speak to heroes

for companionship but

as much to say

i come from dust

x

c l couch

x

x

if it’s not friday for you

or even daytime

fill in with your own day

of the week

the weekend comes

or has arrived

regardless

x

photo by félix prado on unsplash

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0

Ordinaryism

(x = space)

x

x

Ordinaryism

x

Well,

It’s less expensive

To take a table outside

A favorite place

Or to discover

Than to take a cruise

Or fly within

Something wide-bodied

Keeping the moving air

Of the fan

The air out of the nozzle

Going

x

Not that those things

Aren’t fine

They are

And we should like them

Should we have them

But if you have a friend at

Table anywhere

Maybe two friends

Maybe more

x

You are at

The high table in the great hall

Of monarchs

A gilded place

The café

Of your liking

Like the stories

And like Earth’s

And humankind’s

Storied luxuries

x

We have what we have

And let ambition call

And love each day

Find something

Change the quotidian,

If need be

Reach out

Get help

Maybe at that table

(try not

to apologize)

x

Or let the table simply be

An inexpensive place

And a gathering

Without agenda

Part of the joy

The easy joy

In having what the human world

Would say is not a game-show prize

But that you know

And your company

Is priceless

Because there is no price

Except for coffee

Maybe rolls or cake

Or whatever pleasure

The menu

And today

Afford

x

C L Couch

x

x

(I guess such a gathering might seem precious in the days of a pandemic, the reality and process, of learning how to wrap it in like SARS or H1N1 though of a worse disease—but I hope that one day easy meetings with our friends will happen once again; I’m sure the cafés hope so, too

yes, I know, we’re meeting now—I simply wish we’d work that out more safely)

x

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

x

1

Twilight Narrative

(x = space)

x

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Twilight Narrative

x

Long dream this morning

The kind when I wake

Then fall asleep again

About Bill

We took a trip together

Which we had never done

Some kind of blazing thing

A celebration of

The Midwest

Though we knew each other

In school

In the East

x

I got mad

And sad

Because I wanted to talk

With Bill about something

Happening to me

That I didn’t like my life

In Harrisburg

Wanting to say so

Wanting encouragement

Even advice

And he’d said nothing

x

I challenged him on that

A while later

(long dream)

And we got nowhere with it

We could perform

But we could not talk

Not for real

x

I woke up, realizing that

Bill would not go on another

Trip with me

And that was doubly frustrating

Mad

And sad

And then I remembered

That Bill

Had died

A brief while ago

x

My college roommate gone

With earthly friendship

Following

And I am sad

And sad

And sad

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

x

Bill liked root beer, Dad’s; root beer is brown and dreams are wavy

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5

devotional rant

(x = space)

x

x

devotional rant

x

i hear the cat upstairs

my brother dies from cancer

floods kill people

in the South

the Russian war goes on

and there are fires elsewhere

made by us

weapons

and-or

mania

x

there must be reasons for these

and there are

that might be the easy part

will

and stakes for will

this is not for training

this is real

i should say

i don’t know

how all this might apply

to what’s next

what’s coming

x

for now

the harder part

is having what we have

and turning victory

from unshapen shapes

of loss

the lathe of heaven

she writes,

refining all that’s here

x

and yet outside the story

(the story teaches)

we have

what we have

and must make do

and should do better

we should win

not over each other

but over demons

on the earth,

ones that are

ones we make

x

we know better

our skill is better

we can help each other

so much better

some do

the rest ought

to do

x

we have the instruments

play on

war on

peace on

x

c l couch

x

x

note

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

x

Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

x

1

Treading Dawn

(x = space)

x

x

Treading Dawn

x

First I think upon

The violet sail

Then the dragon’s head

That sees

Where we are going

But keeps its secrets

Then to notice that

The ship is moving

In the picture

Feel the air

Taste the air

It tastes of salt

Pure crystals from Narnia

Or a zone of it

Or the unbounded sea

x

It’s wet

I’m wet

And there it is

The last allowance

The rooms fills

We leave the world

To go to this one

However attached

Unattached

(its own)

To fall upon the deck

Or into the water

The kindly crew will help

Though there have

Been enemies

Fallen from outside

x

How might I prove

Intent?

Salute somehow?

That will not be enough

With the ship

We undulate

Upon the sea

While they make up their minds

My pockets empty

No weapons

(that might help)

I’ll sit here

On the melodious wooden deck

A while

While they decide

And should this be the start

Of another chapter

Either way

x

C L Couch

x

x

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, third chronicle of Narnia

x

Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

The frigate Shtandart in calm weather.

Rīga, Латвия

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2

Postcard at the Center

(x = space)

x

x

Postcard at the Center

(wishing you were here)

x

I am up early

The sun has yet

To shine

Or try through clouds

If that’s what happens

It’s going to be

A warmish winter day

Not that the climate’s warming

Or anything

x

The trees outside

Will look black against

The morning light behind them

The cars will pass by

Below,

Somehow magically muffled

By a Sunday morning

Eventually,

It will be time for church

For churchgoers

x

No comment

But some coffee

That was necessary

And gratified I had the fixings

For a gift

And for the time

x

That’s all

The card ran out of space

Above

I’m writing on the air beside

That might be sent

As well

Through something like the ether

If not cardboard

x

C L Couch

x

with gratitude for Carrie Fisher

x

x

Photo by Matt Hardy on Unsplash

Sydney Opera House

x

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