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Proximate

(x = space)

Proximate

Shall we travel to the sun

Turn left,

Pass over Mercury

Wave toward our opposites

And move toward

Truly unknown

Unguessed worlds

Planets X

In other systems,

We embrace Goldilocks

We relish watery worlds

Turning around

Maybe blue suns

Maybe green

With what resources

Might we land

And explore

None for now

Except our senses at

Light years of distance

Through optimistic telescopes

And bright machines

With energy in cells

Plus and finally

Inertia,

Which will get there first

Meaning to say hello

Hello

We keep our guns

And other interests

Home for now

We hope you understand

While we offer

This agenda

We hope you signal back

With whatever math

Might pass for your hello

C L Couch

Photo by Diana Deaver on Unsplash

Gradual

September 3, 2022 0

We Prayed Today

(x = space)

We Prayed Today

“Today is a privilege” she said she’d

Embroider on a pillow

And on the other side, “I’m still

Breathing”

Because for all the despondence,

The despair we take to prayer

In our group,

There is beauty and joy

And so much to love

In fact, it’s what we love that turns

That often

Leads us to prayer

Compels us

We pray for the good things, too,

Wanting the goodness

We pray over cherishing the messed-up

World we have

And the messed-up lives we care for

And our own

We say amen

Knowing it’s never

The end

And we say thank you

With intention

We mean it

We are grateful

C L Couch

Photo by KARTIK GADA on Unsplash

August 28, 2022 0

In My Father’s Now-and-Then Kitchen

(x = space)

In My Father’s Now-and-Then Kitchen

(and backyard)

My father could cook many things

Well, six things

The rest were disasters

Like shipwrecks on rocks

On waiting shores

He could make—combine,

Stir, apply, bake—apple pie

He taught me how to have

Cheddar cheese with that

He could make blackberry cobbler

Blackberries, maybe, because of

Growing up

In Olympia

Where there were

Berry trees and bushes in abundance

Real crust (back to the cobbler)

Made from many ingredients

The right amount of sweet and salt

To savor

He could make bean soup

Ham and bone kept from another meal

Beans soaked for days

It seems

He might have made the cornbread

That came with it

Maybe my mom made that

Have I got to six?

Well, he could grill adept

If maybe nothing challenging

The usual suburban fare

Meat and vegetables

I’m a plebe

I like hamburgers

I was satisfied

My mother cooked everything else

Too bad you can’t taste

Her corned beef with cabbage

Carrots and potatoes

With the cornbread

(Southern)

That she made

I can’t taste it anymore

For many years

Except to remember

I’ve found nothing close to hers

In waking time,

Since

Sigh

What else my father cooked

Was awful

(shapeless shapes

on plates)

He was the only one

To eat those things

He made

C L Couch

Photo by Daniel Gamez on Unsplash

August 27, 2022 1

Contemplatives Are Due on Maple Street

(x = space)

Contemplatives Are Due on Maple Street

God speaks to me each day, though

I must admit

II don’t know what that means

I mean

Sometimes I hear the words

Sometimes it’s a nudge

I suppose a shove would be too much

I’d lose the love in that

And think it

Something else with chagrin

(and from the gravel)

I’d like to be an everyday sort of mystic

The kind a hobbit might accept

Have food,

A glass of wine,

Smoke a pipe

Then listen for the words that the

Spirit dictates

And hope I’m not sent to Mordor

On assignment

A contemplative with wide windows

Sunlight, nighttime

Time for clouds

All through which to contemplate

World enough and time

As the saying goes

From Andrew Marvell’s poem

This would do for a style

It would keep me in the suburbs

Or small towns,

In cities or on farms or

Or in other places near

Or far away

C L Couch

Photo by Ali Inay on Unsplash

August 16, 2022 0

After Rain

(x = space)

After Rain

I don’t what to say

There are so many things

I do not know

Movements and people

The inside health of the world

Or the root of evil

I could depict a scene

Go to a local park

Or look outside

It’s cooler now, less hazy

A clarity of all the scenes in town

For good or ill

Maybe I want

To say something more

Without pedantry

Though to moralize is human

I can only hope for reason

And some fairness to all sides

To win out

In me

You

Them

Well, it’s the weekend

The heatwave has receded for a while

I have nothing planned

Maybe I’ll take a drive to nowhere

And come back

Richer in at least one way

Than when I left

I should walk

And you should have your time

I hope it’s good

You need something good

And are so worthwhile

And so deserving

There, moralizing after all

But I’m on your side

A fan

Larger (wider),

An advocate for peace

(smart, not stupid)

Planetwide

For us

Understanding venial

Praying for mortal

Maybe there’s something

Pursuable,

What is reasonable

With an ingredient of wonderful

C L Couch

Forest ↟

Photo by Filip Zrnzević on Unsplash

Goč, Serbia

August 12, 2022 1

Good Medicine

(x = space)

Good Medicine

Ukraine

Gaza

Indifferent use of the Fifth Amendment

Shots fired

People pushed in subways

Toward the tracks

Pollution

Bhopal

Valdez

Sins of the fathers

And the mothers

Greed

Envy

Sloth

Get someone else to do

The awful work

We’ll get high

Easy to drug

Our lives away

Bestsellers

Out of certain patent-medicine truths

Snake oil so to say

Sorry, snakes

We use you for good medicine

After all

There’s hope in this,

Good medicine

(though we can go easy on the snakes)

Finding it

Making it right

In all its forms

For all the ills

This is hard

Hard hope

We’ll take it

C L Couch

By Przemek P – https://szarada.net/okreslenie-z-krzyzowki/np-waz-eskulapa/, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71246119

August 10, 2022 0

A Simple Love then Complicates in Fear

(x = space)

A Simple Love then Complicates in Fear

A simple love then complicates in fear

A lust begins a hot surrendering

We think we have it all when love is near

T’ward deeper feeling’s ember tendering

And we believe a faithful person true

We’re human, after all, possessing flaws

And may decide what is for fondness due

Those fails incumbent not unto our laws

The question is what flaws will each abide?

We fear to change, though poems say we must

‘Cause perfect love won’t find us on this side

Thus alter will or no or aging just

New and anew, decide for you and me

Then we shall be and Hamlet’s not not be

C L Couch

Photo by Leo Fosdal on Unsplash

August 9, 2022 0

Astronaut Comes Home

(x = space)

Astronaut Comes Home

(for Scott Kelly, Christa McAuliffe)

Hello, Earth

I had stronger bones

When I left

And now I’m taller

I’ve been watching you

Listening to your song

I’ve also turned the other way

To take in Diana

Hunting without impedance

In the night

We’ve also ticked off satellites

Trying to keep count,

Keep track

Delivered into orbit

The ones that work

The ones that don’t

Spare parts into small,

Perilous payloads

All the detritus

In between

If I could apologize for

An entire planet,

Well, I would

I’m sorry

Nonetheless, the land

And water took me back

After the air had had its way

With us

I’m thankful

Thankful for so many things

All the presidents should

Be brought here

To see the world

Without the lines

We so easily have drawn

That we war over

Move around

Then after sorties

Move back

Truly, sadly artificial

Artificed by us

When there is greater,

Sometimes gruesome need

For all our able hands

And an extraordinary

God-given

Horizon-filling

Resource

Hello, Earth

We are home

C L Couch

I’m not sure why I was thinking of astronauts, though I often think of outer space and those who go there. And with the new school year in the offing, maybe I was thinking it’s a good time for learning about space and space exploration. I don’t know. Enjoy.

Photo by Bill Jelen on Unsplash

August 8, 2022 0