(x = space)
x
x
Devotionism
x
I talk with God
God talks back
Sometimes through
The trees,
As happened last night
When I went out
Encountering a roar
From a single tree
Near the garage,
A tree that always
Reaches
x
With the wind,
Maybe someone
From someone
Wanting to take notice
Of the night
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Florian Hesse on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
An Excuse Not to Ask Directions
(you know electrics fail from time to time)
x
Back roads are best
They still need
Paving
Until I get
My Jeep or an ATV
x
State routes are
Good
Try Route 8 in
Western Pennsylvania or
Route 22, across
x
Or any road
Inviting small adventure
Maybe there are
Trees
Or a turn,
The end of which
We cannot espy
x
C L Couch
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Photo by Adam Thomas on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
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Wounding Time
x
Hot, rainy day
I could be in Brazil
Except for lack of
Verdure
Did you know that the
Big mark of the equator
In Ecuador
Is wrong?
There is another line,
A smaller line,
A ways away
x
I’ve never been
To Greenwich,
And I don’t know
What might be wrong
There
Or in Geneva
x
In the planetarium
When I was young
(it has been
moved),
There was
A Foucault pendulum
Enormous,
Knocking down pegs
So faithfully
Marking through collapse
The hours in the day
x
Atomic clock?
I’ll take a sundial
But then
I don’t need
Tactical precision
In my day
Microseconds for transactions
Bids and buys for Wall Street
Testy parents
Watching watches
x
Olympics
Boats skimming water
Shoes on tracks
So many things need
Measurement
Of time
I’m sure
I hope
The athletes have joy
In their work
Pleasure in the wind
Running under the sun
x
There is a tower
Somewhere,
Where four faces are
Four clocks
Each clock noting time
Each clock a little off in minutes
From the other
So that
When people meet
There,
No one is late
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Goodwood Festival Of Speed , Chichester , U.K.
x
(x = space)
x
x
There’s a Story at the End
x
I don’t know what to say.
I need the birds to
dance across the
page
with their feet dipped in ink.
It’s a medieval riddle’s
answer,
though it would be cruel
to force birds’ feet
into wells.
x
I guess we take their feathers,
turn them into quills;
maybe we could wait
to find quills
inside forests:
gifts from the sources of stories
and the desert
and the sky
and moving waters
taking the shape
of earth below.
That’s what I want to tell,
a story!
Something for everyone. And
is there such a thing?
x
Once there was a child
in a forest
Who came upon a grown-up
clearly starving.
The child gave the grown-up
the only piece of
bread
in the child’s bag.
The adult rose up and thanked
the child.
Then they noticed that
the child’s bag
had a hole through which
crumbs had fallen—and through
forest-magic
had not been eaten
by birds or other creatures!
x
They knew certainly where the
crumbs
would take them,
so they went home
where everyone was
known,
because everyone was
home.
x
C L Couch
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Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Uncertainty Principle
x
God,
We have the day
And I’m thankful
x
Things must make
You thankful, too
x
Not surprises, I suppose
Though in Christ
It’s said that you are human
x
So maybe you can
Be taken in
By something that we choose
To say or do
x
Free will
Would be really free
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Katie Gerrard on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Beasts
x
Cats and dogs
And cows
Wolves in pictures
Videos of bears
Eagle nests
Through cameras
x
What do I know
Of beasts
In my suburban place?
I know the stories
Fairy stories
Thanks to
Father’s reading
And some records on
The record-player
x
And then,
You know,
I met the human kind
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Axel Blanchard on Unsplash
Zoo de Beauval, Saint Aignan, France
A White Tiger
x
(x = space)
x
x
Unrest
x
Sequester
Sounds like cloister
Yet how could there
Be opportunity for
Contemplation?
x
I feel for them
I wouldn’t want to be there
I feel for them for now
Though if they go against
My thinking, I will no longer
Care for their
Discomfort
x
Such is the life of jurors
I tried it for a day
At the insistence of my county
It’s rather claustrophobic,
Though in my case
(I mean, my jury time)
We all did well
I was relieved
Before I was relieved
Received a check
A few days later
x
I’m saying this
On behalf
Of the jurors in Minnesota
Deciding Chauvin’s guilt
Or innocence
Where we note with ease
From our safer places
The troops, the APCs
(whatever their affiliation)
Set around
The courthouse
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Isidoro Martínez on Unsplash
Policeman standing in front of the fire.
x
Awaiting Derek Chauvin Verdict, Police Prepare New Approach to Protests (msn.com)
x
For the past few days, I couldn’t get into WordPress. The search wheel would go round and round, and no web page for WordPress appeared. After making some browser and other changes, it seems I have access again. I still want to cut-and-paste my work, and WordPress still doesn’t recognize the breaks in text I make while drafting in my word-processing program and then posting here. I’m still grrrr-ing over this. With Browning’s speaker in the Spanish Cloister.
x
“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”
Robert Browning
x
Gr-r-r—there go, my heart’s abhorrence!
Water your damned flower-pots, do!
If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,
God’s blood, would not mine kill you!
. . .
‘St, there’s Vespers! _Plena grati
Ave, Virgo!_ Gr-r-r—you swine!
x
(x = space)
x
x
Shots Fired
x
Shooting in Indianapolis
Many killed
Then the shooter
Suicides,
Which might have been the plan
Or nascent horror
In reaction
That what has been done
And how it really looks
And sounds
And smells
All senses bely everything,
The shooter’s truth
x
I know people there
So do you
Six degrees
Less
Five for being
Human
x
Now there’s talk
About the weather
As if there were
No separation
x
We can graft it all together—
Watch, we’re doing it
x
I don’t want
To know, either
It’s gross, and I’m trying
To deal in closer things
x
But there it is
We do living color well
In irony of tones
x
The coffee’s late
The toast is early
I’m not cycling well with the news
And please
Sell windows at another time
x
In Europe,
I understand
They used to add them up
The advertisements
To show them at one time
A day
And give awards for them
That everyone would follow
In gratitude, no doubt,
For separation
x
That we can do
Ecclesiastes says so
x
C L Couch
x
x
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/16/us/mass-shootings-45-one-month/index.html
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Photo by Zinko Hein on Unsplash
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