Door Prize
Through a door to Narnia
For others, it has been a dream
Or through a wall
Something that opens between worlds
Because we have to be there
There is a story half-done, only
We must change something
And be changed
And someone else will tell
The now-whole story
And we who might not go anywhere
Will go through, too
C L Couch
Photo by Ronald Cuyan on Unsplash
Antigua, Guatemala
Passenger
I don’t care who’s at fault
As I slip from Earth
There will be rage and judgment
From our advocates in heaven
While we are carried
Souls inside
The fearsome (fearful) wings of angels
I don’t care who your leaders are
They’ve all turned faithless
In this, the taking of our lives
I see her, now him
Now small ones,
This is all they have
Yes, it’s glorious
But more time on Earth
Was called for
The ground or air will have my body
But I should be walking, still
Upon the planet
Even a nestling of supernal charms
Is difficult to manage
Though we were caught in time
Too fast is fast enough
Sad, outrageous, peaceful, stolen
Those who are left, caught here
With the search
For conviction
Have got to know there’s hope
If never own it
Or, if owning it,
Feel it
Rather the irony of forced agnoticism
C L Couch
Photo by Akira Hojo on Unsplash
January 8 Iran plane crash – CNN
edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/iran-plane-crash-live-intl-hnk/index.html
2 days ago · Iran plane crash: A Kiev-bound Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 plane crashed after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board.
Remembering Mohammad Asadi-Lari
Remembering SSP Fellow Mohammad Asadi-Lari, who died aboard the Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 that crashed in Iran shortly after takeoff.
Sister Moon
(song by Francis, metaphor by Zeffirelli)
I cannot fathom Clare
Understand her depths
I do not have to
I’ll readily admit
She is beyond me
Companion to Francis except
Well, except it was boy and girl
(convicted young)
And in communities
Established one gender from the other,
I’m not sure how much
They could be together
Though I imagine them working
Side by side with nascent followers
And I want to think of them
Playing games as well
Between bouts
Of growing things
(vegetables and campaigns)
Washing the poor
Wishing the church into a better place
For service and to any
Could she have gone with him to meet the
Sultan as
A missionary team
In hardship, danger
Doctrinal snares
And opportunities as well
For the sultan (as was the pope)
Was powerful and smart
Well, too much is binary
I should not define one by the other
She was her own
She has it
Who chose to become God’s and his,
The moon in canticle
So sing to the sun
Brother, we are here
We dress the sky above the earth
In dreams
In daylight, we work hard
Harder than our flesh can bear
Than flesh can bear all orders of our calling
At night and for all times
All things
We pray
Be with me, brother, as at Mizpah
When we are apart
Consider the stars at night
I the clouds by day
We are in each other
Inside God’s creation
And the same calling,
The announcement of redemption
While working to save mortal lives
Upon the ground
C L Couch
Detail depicting Saint Clare from a fresco (c. 1320) by Simone Martini in the Lower basilica of San Francesco, Assisi
Simone Martini – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154878
Peace for All Time
(a three-part cycle)
1
Machine Language
Each moment’s a decision
To exhale,
To circulate some blood
To let the body stir for a while longer
To let the synapse burn
Brightly with mind-fire,
Transactions between what’s happening
And memory
Much of this is done for us
But there’s a partnership, I think
Between all parts
The automatic will take over for
The temporary
When immediacy of thought and movement
Are tired out
Call it sleep
Call it the second cup of tea
Taken on the porch
When for a time there’s nothing else to do
And this has been invoked
Because needed,
The ending of which we’ll debate
Peace an invention,
A transaction
Between all partners
Serving on the inside
2
Contrition
I won’t take it back
Not yet
I need to know the outcome,
Did I get anything I wanted
If penance is a prayer,
I’ll do my part
If it’s in bad feeling,
I’m already there
And counting
A return to normalcy
And what is that
It takes me out of this
Otherwise, I want
The special moments back
But it’s the future, now
Plu-imperfect
Please
Say them with me, maybe
All the prayers,
Then let’s move on
3
The Answer Is in Someone Else as Well
Inner peace
That’s cool
It’s not enough
If I’m in my chrysalis
And have no sight of yours
Or time
Where is my peace
If not in you?
This is cheating an invocation,
For it’s not a talk to God
But to you
The one nearby
And not inside
We need transaction, too
And more
You need to carry me
And I a part of you
A magic story in which twins
Keep a gem lit by the light force
Of the other
And there’s responsibility
In our story,
We will partner differently
That is, for real
Not to prevaricate conditions
But to say push on
Make peace because
We know each other now
To arbitrate
And there’s no other way
To build the day
That each must have
Into a present contract
As the future
C L Couch
Photo by Jarrod Reed on Unsplash
All We Know We Have
The existentialists
Have it right
The Positivists, too
The Deists
(God sets the world in motion,
leaves it go
leaves)
The one thing they know
Is that the present moment matters
As if there were nothing more
There might not be
For conscience, there isn’t
Living for tomorrow
Worse, living for heaven
Was medieval mischief
If I want my serfs to work
For me contentedly,
Then I need assure them
Of eternity
There will be no pain, no sickness
No poverty, no want for
Anything (the present moment, again)
Work now, suffer now
Under my thumb
Heaven’s coming
Lennon’s song has it right
Don’t dwell on heaven
Don’t fret hell
There are consequences now
Don’t put off righteousness
Live as if
There’s nothing next
What do we know,
There might not be
There isn’t
If we go together
That is family
If not, then I’ll have my present
Presence
You’ll have yours
And it is a gift
Too easy? Sure,
And not enough
And it doesn’t mean to re-create
The world every moment
We have standards
And philosophy
This is philosophy
But there is now to apply
There might not be another
Work it in
Walk through
Go on
It’s what we know we have
C L Couch
Photo by Sung Jin Cho on Unsplash
Fire Out, Please
Australia’s dying
How are the first people there?
The second people are in dire need
Those who survive the danger
Needing something of what
Was brought with them
And then called home
One prison colony is
Now another
No time for blame
This is a time for life
For rescue, healing, then rebuilding
New air is needed
Everywhere except the fire
That, God willing, must be bereft
Of oxygen to die
The irony of living
Losing all the green sources for
The birth of breath
For people
The animals who might reinhabit
Give birth again
A billion
Having been killed so far
C L Couch
Photo by Alfred Kenneally on Unsplash
Australia bushfires: A billion animals will have been killed
MSN News· 23 hours ago
A billion animals will have died in Australia‘s devastating bushfires and those who make it through…
The Opposite of Magi
(for Epiphany, for any old epiphany)
The gift of the fools
The young who pay too much
For love
The old who believe there is too little
To be paying for at all
The city street is harsh for both
It’s only for transition
But because we feel the wind
Or the heat of summer,
We hope too much there’s something here
Only for us
And there is
The Earth remains a gift
And cities an invention
Not to mention farms
And small towns at crossroads
The roads themselves
The way that can only be felt
Across the desert
Through the forest
Choosing the strand to take
In a web of waterways
All ages have a chance
Must we always give
As in lose
Or in surrender?
Maybe so—if so, let’s make it
Worthwhile
(comes to mind is something about
aphoristic pearls and pigs,
sorry, pigs, a metaphor forwarding
the story)
Money, time, muscles, potential
Whatever it’s going to take
For betterment
One life, two lives, two and a half
A million
Can we count what matters,
Can we take it one by one?
The old response comes to mind
From the teacher trying to teach:
I don’t know if you can,
But you may
C L Couch
“The Gift of the Magi” is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal … en.wikipedia.org
Photo by Linh Nguyen on Unsplash
We Are X
Dear God, what shall we do
With a new world?
Another planet
Or the realm of antimatter,
Once breached?
Huge or microscopic,
There is responsibility
Not to mention
An awareness come from something
Else, new denizens
To us
Of new worlds
We’ll make an impression
We’ll try to mask the greed
Maybe we will indeed
Send our best people
But everything we are beneath
Must surface
Might we change ourselves
(change ourselves)
In the moment of discovery?
Become better friends
Or enemies
Once someone else
Some entity of consciousness
Without doubt is known?
So supplication while we can
Please watch over all encounters
Keep our explorers safe
And when and how
The universe might need
To be kept safe from us
C L Couch
Photo by Michael Henry on Unsplash
Fall on Your Knees
A new and glorious morn
For no reason other than arriving
Nothing special
Meaning all things are
Look for saints outside,
Dodging puddles
Miracles in coffee cups
Epiphanies while
Sliding on coats and gloves
It’s the oddest day, today
For being normal
It’s stunning and spectacular
For no reason at all
Except for what it’s earned
In being here
C L Couch
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
clcouch123 
Recent Comments