(x = space)
x
x
Apology in Irony
x
I can’t think of anything to say
That doesn’t sound
Mansplaining
Rightly named
About my take
On ideas or events
x
Maybe I should just shut up,
Take instead the day
Until there’s something decent
Open-ended
Offering
Half-engagement should
We wish
To take it further
x
I’ll talk with you
Tomorrow then,
Not tomorrow and tomorrow
But tomorrow
x
C L Couch
x
x
Old Iron
Photo by Malik Skydsgaard on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
circling
x
today good people
met
they talked
and prayed
maybe did the praying
first
it’s Sunday
but it could be on a Friday
or a Wednesday
or a Tuesday
you know, any day
I’m sure
in any hour
x
they pray for other people
for the Earth
for peace
for wisdom
for discretion
when it truly is
the better part of valor
x
they won’t quit,
these folk
they’ll meet again
talk and pray
or maybe pray first
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Speak for a Nation
x
Receiving a message from the Lord
was rare in those days; revelatory
visions were infrequent.
(1 Samuel 3:1b)
x
Prophets have jobs
Usually doing something else
Until the words are called for,
Until the wind
Blows through
Every atom
We think of them as crazy,
But they’re not
There is relentless urgency
Is all
Repent, while you’re alive
Don’t wait for judgment
And the fire
Leaders, most of all
You are double-cursed
If you do it wrong
Return to the temple
Pray in litany
And all humility
For a change and
For a change,
Recovering the modesty
In service that dressed you
Before fame
x
We think they’re crazy, sometimes
Maybe they are
From time to time
But there is authenticity
And love of service,
Such as those in stadiums
At podiums
Behind the microphones
Must have
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Pavel Brodsky on Unsplash
A slow shutter-speed rendition of a BBQ fire.
x
(New English Translation
verse indentations by me)
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Lost World
x
I took my .22,
Shot at paper targets
I wasn’t very good
There were
I’m sure
Excuses
x
I could not shoot Bambi
There are those who could
And use the food
At home or to give
To other,
Hungry people
x
A bullet from a distance
What might Cain
Have devised?
With such Indiscretion
And the safety off,
He might have gone
After Seth
x
Then where would we be
For progeny
With only wives surviving, were
They out of range?
x
They might retrieve
The guns
Then learn to shoot for life,
Maybe instructed by
An angel
Out of Eden
x
An imagined state
Doomed,
We’d think
Excepting life to find a way
x
C L Couch
x
x
Suspect nabbed in stray bullet slaying of 1-year-old Brooklyn boy sitting in stroller last summer
The accused shooter in last summer’s horrific stray bullet shooting of a 1-year-old boy outside a Brooklyn playground was charged Thursday in the devastating death that shocked a pandemic-stricken city and rattled Mayor de Blasio.
. . .
x
Photo by Omkar Jadhav on Unsplash
x
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, then by Michael Crichton
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Pair of Socks
(from Philippians 4)
x
Jesus says don’t worry
Perfect present tense
No need to count
x
Flowers contain beauty
On their own
A sparrow falls
I must admit
I like to think it’s caught
Maybe that discloses lack of faith
In falling without catching
When something good
Can happen,
Anyway,
And in a plan of which
I don’t have any understanding
x
How do I understand
Victory in a plan for failure?
On a good day
Or a bad one,
I have to embrace paradox
Death for life
Peace for enemies
Even assisting them
Who wants that?
x
Blake is good
At embracing contraries
Blake is correct
To do so
South is not the bottom
North is not up here
Certain maps
Do get it right
x
We conclude that in Philippi
In a time of persecution
There were directions
Not to be anxious
Over anything
Or to be anxious
Over nothing
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Havilah Galaxy on Unsplash
socks in the street
x
(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
x
x
Photo by Adam Thomas on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
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
x
x
Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash
x
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