(x = space)
x
x
away from all things (haiku)
x
away from all things
only bloom and branch attract
safety in numbers
x
c l couch
x
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photo by Kamala Bright on Unsplash
apple blossoms
(safety in numbers)
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Heart
x
I breathe a little
Saturday morning
Last moments
Before noon
When I would be called upon
For chores
Last free moments
Watching another show
As an excuse
Pretending its significance
x
Did I have a heart defect
Back then
We’ll never know
Or was I put to work
Too soon
Or was it the lesson that
Work is bad
And I should only be glad
When it’s done
x
Whichever way
I was a child who
Wanted to
Escape
And on rainy days
I sat in a chair next to a lamp
In the room saved for
Official company
And rather than
All that
I took the quiet
And went into books
With
Stories that saved
x
The mind
The heart
Everything that mattered
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
excerpt from “The Heart”
x
I was a child who
Wanted to
Escape
And on rainy days
I sat in a chair next to a lamp
In the room saved for
Official company
And rather than
All that
I took the quiet
And went into books
With
Stories that saved
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Amaan Ali on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Prevaricating Sharks
x
I don’t know what
To share
With you today
x
How are things with you
How is your health
x
How are your
Relations
And your story
x
I hope you’re really well
x
I’m not sure what
To ask
Without specifics
x
I don’t know what
To ask
But we can pray for friends
And strangers
Can’t we
x
Sure
We can
And I hope
This day is grand for you
x
The sharks swim closely to us
But they’re not
Attacking
Without meaning
Without purpose
x
Let’s not give them
A reason
Today
x
Live in cooperation
Maybe with nature as the
Romantics
Sought
The Victorians eschewed
x
In harmony with nature
x
Certainly
Let’s live out
The contracts natural
With each other
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Consider It All Joy
x
Let the outside
Be awful
If it must
For princes of the world
Might have their own way
There
(not letting
princesses rise
by the way)
If only
There
x
Be good on the inside
Your own realm
Where you have willed
Let in
Avowed
God to rule
While you serve God
Servant
Steward before monarch
Even when pressed
Persecuted
Outside
Sigh
Sometimes devilishly
On the inside, too
x
Consider it all joy
The paradox of life and death
And resurrection
Final joy
Complete
And unrelenting
Even
In new tasks
Assignments from
A celestial magisterium
Or shall we say
The will beneath the crown
Of the Lord
x
Doing what God says
Because
The glass is clear and
We can hear
x
x
Consider it all joy when we must have trials, knowing that this testing of our faith makes endurance. And let endurance be complete even by trials so that we are whole, lacking nothing that we really need especially inside.
James 1:2-4 (paraphrased a little)
x
Photo by Sam Mgrdichian on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Entertaining Unaware
x
The Greek myth that
I like so much
About the couple who
Ends up entertaining gods
x
Then while at dinner
Having both
The pitcher and the plate
Fill with wine and grapes
Respectively
All the time
x
Comes to mind
When pouring out the last
Of the cream
From the carton
x
Hoping there’s enough for
A cup of coffee
By an acolyte
Of morning
x
Or whenever
Some plenty might be needed
Provided by maybe
A not-unknown
God
With perhaps
An agency of angels
x
C L Couch
x
x
Baucis and Philemon
Metamorphoses
x
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Hebrews 13:2
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Shape of Water Music
x
There is a shape
In text
Maybe like the way
Shape notes are sung
While
Both sets look beautiful
Upon the page
x
I suppose the sound
Might matter more
Unless only looking’s possible
But all of it
(the music, too)
Are cues
Upon the page
x
To signal
Let us in
Move us on
Toward more
x
By the way
There is no shape here
That I know
Simply words set down
With some thought
You know
For mental pauses
So maybe in that way
I move
I music you
Along
Maybe a little
Maybe more
x
C L Couch
x
x
C major scale, in the 7-shape shape note system of Jesse Aiken.
By Opus33 at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Bulwersator using CommonsHelper, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17740280
x
(x = space)
x
x
oops
(even big oops)
x
we make mistakes
mistakes aren’t sins
unless we mean mistakes
that way
x
errors made
that aren’t intentions
sins should meet grace
anyway
the spirit’s and our own
x
and as for tripping up
who doesn’t trip
from time to time
the curse from living on this side
of eden
x
fix it
clean it
whatever’s needed
apologize
accept apologies
move on
there’s so much more
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Sarah Kilian on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Get Up
x
There was something
I don’t have it
That happens more and more
I could fear dementia
Or being tired
Living near bad people
Being bad myself
Mixtures of denial
With remembrance
Corrosion
Over time
With late-night promises of products
Ready to shine up all the leads
Again
For the cost
Of philosophy
And exorbitance
So buy in
To something
Try to wear oneself out
For better sleep
To match the abstract way in which
A length of life
Keeps everything
Worn out
In style and manners
Lumping on the way
Another morning
Toward the coffeemaker’s
Totemity
Of dreams
And hopefulness
Having wrestling with an angel
Through the night
Near the water
And the waking land
To either side
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
clcouch123 
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