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You Must Remember This

(two follow the last post—this is the first)

You Must Remember This
(sorry, it’s a wonderful song that
should be sung in safer times)

Terror is not Arabian, not
Muslim—not Judaic, either

It is not Christian or Hindu
Buddhist, Taoist, Jainist—

Choose a tradition or a people
Or those who have none

Not to blame our entire selves
For insanity extremes

But terrorism is human
(Tradition notwithstanding

Or lack thereof)
It has precedents with us

Select an age, select a place
There was terrorism there

I wish it were not so, but
If we understand a terrifying

Truth and need, maybe we
Can address an appalling

Human calling (not divine)
With righter resources

Not necessarily kind but
Complementing what we know

Of us, of them
Of us when them

January 14, 2016 5

History of Terrorism

History of Terrorism
(after bombings in Istanbul,
killing ten so far, wounding fifteen)

“What impresses your most about terrorists?”
“Their hundred-percent failure.”

I heard something like this in a television
Show, well-written show, an episode
First broadcast in the wake of 911

Now we have murder in Istanbul by a
Suicide bomber, so it appears, maybe in
Fearful avenging Turkish strikes against IS

Is ISIS going to have a state? Will the world
Allow that? Explosions, shootings,
Destroying lives with bodies strapped

With bombs: do these all realize such
A difference? Only in wasting, it seems—in
Exploitation and in scorn and in the
World’s resolve to stand together and against

Not a rising storm but rather in a lower
Continuity of tries at terror and of terror
Acts filled with, terribly and finally—you

Know, Macbeth’s signifying sound and fury

January 12, 2016 4

Muslim Tribulation

(drafted before an officer was shot
many times in Philadelphia, the
shooter claiming the cause was Islam)

Muslim Tribulation

We live to follow God,
to know the will of God
and continuously prepare
our lives so that we might
follow that sacred purpose
and intent.

There are religious
destroyers everywhere
in every tradition. But those of
us in unreasoned extremes—
these are sadly, specially alight
in the world just now.

We want peace. We believe
most do.

We want to be neighbors and
to welcome those into our
homes. But our hospitality is
challenged now of its
authenticity.

Do you want to be defined by
The remnant cause of woe?
Certainly, you don’t.
And neither do we.

We want our lives of faith
to delight our friends and
all those near us. Please
remember this.

We want to think
and believe
the best as well.

January 10, 2016 0

The Farm Show

(what we celebrate)

The Farm Show

The Farm Show is happening
in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
the state capital. If you’ve
ever shopped, looked at the
markings on a package of food,
and seen (you may say penna-
dept) “Penna. Dept. of
Agriculture,” that’s us.
That’s Pennsylvania. With
standards so high for food
that theirs is an approving
agency relied on
‘round the world.

Not local mythology (not
yet), this state (my state
for now) is important for
food—and the annual
Farm Show is a celebration
of this.

Is there anything better
to recognize than organic
eatable or otherwise livable
selection? I know there’s
a classically brutal aspect
to farming of most kinds.
Animals are raised to
die, lands are turned under
losing ancient undergrowth
and artifact, and now
there’s the tension of
losing farm land itself to
other development. But
for now and anyway, we
celebrate what we need
to eat.

Sheep-to-shawl (alpaca-
to-shawl) and field-
to-shelf, the process of
feeding, clothing, and
sheltering America and
the world is exhibited. Yes,
there are statues made
of butter. Enjoy! (A PA
celebrity famous for saying
that, although he said it
twice.) And there are
auctions for animals.
Many shows of the rodeo
kind abound, and many
buy the food there as well,
which I’m afraid refers to
some snacks better-suited
for carnivals. Though baked
potatoes don’t sound so bad.
Even loaded. Even chased
with a Pennsylvania dairy-
made milk shake. (Sorry, Mister
Weldon Johnson, but for these
Bits of cooperative creation:
That’s good!)

These festivals take place
elsewhere, certainly. And
so might we agree that
raising up the cause of
(say viddles) victuals is
worthy for all? (To borrow
again:) That’s good!

Missive. Truly yours,
from Harrisburg’s
(one-hundredth)
Farm Show.

C L Couch

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
January 2016

January 9, 2016 3

Second-Storey Moor

Second-Storey Moor

On a misty-morning
Winter January day,
I look out the window

All I see is fog and
Lack of definition
Except for one tree
Of bare branches

Reaching black into
My windowed sky

I didn’t expect the
Art and science of
This: skillful, narrow
Firm and slender
Branches reaching

With a clarity that
Startles a black vision
Against smoky
Pervasive mist

Grey behind each
Branch, rendering
All else vague

What is familiar
Now is mystery
And invitation

January 9, 2016 4

Us Icarus (inspired by Jacki Kellum)

Us Icarus

Oops Icarus,
An all-too-fine conviction
Of the troubled ones who
Try too high to fly
And those of us who
Thus fall

I wonder if it helps
That the parent in the
Mythic flight is older
And designer
Of the task ahead

If we learn to fly
Study something of
The design and
Making
Of the wings

Might our take-off
End in a landing that
Makes our flying
Success as well as
Joy

C L Couch
(inspired by Jacki Kellum’s compelling thoughts on balance, https://jackikellum.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/a-case-for-balance-recalling-the-myth-of-icarus-and-daedalus/)

January 8, 2016 5

What I Feared

(North Korea wants an H-bomb–why, I do not know)

What I Feared

What I feared was
Looking up into the sky
Where the blue became white

And out of parallel lines
That could be clouds or
Contrails, something silver
Falls

And everything becomes white
And I am gone with everyone
And everything I know.

Or, worse, that I live
To face oncoming nuclear winter.

My fears, while a child living
In an early nuclear age in a
War that was too cold.

January 8, 2016 4

Not No Guns

Not No Guns

Why not make it harder
As in better
To get guns?

Harder meaning safer
Better checks
Shared accountability

If you are a crazy person
Then I apologize
But you should not have a gun

You need better aid
Than that
Guns will not be your help

January 6, 2016 3

Epiphany (prose poem)

Epiphany

Epiphany. Twelfth Night. The magi come upon the infant Jesus at his family’s home. They are amazed. They give gifts. A tribute.

Epiphany means discovery. An ordinary act that brings new insight to life. The magi, I imagine, were not ordinary people, though what they did was hardly unusual. Many traveled land to land and town to town back when. The caravans were living roads to make trade and civilization possible.

They are not the only ones who had read and studied the stars to find alternative direction. Astrology, astronomy. They were blurred pursuits in this region of the past. There was meaning in the sky. The seasons brought us learning there. We looked for all these.

But when these magic persons, in their learn(ed) wisdom of the world, travel west at last to find this child at home, sameness leaves their lives and all the worlds’. Forever.

What did they discover? What was realized? They beheld a person who meant change.

How so? Two thousand years and some, we still ask.

January 6, 2016 2