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Three Months

(x = space)

x

x

Three Months

x

I miss my brother

I have no one to talk about

Old movies with

I learned from him

But mainly it was the treat

In discussing

The subject

The people mostly black and white

The fictive stories they presented

The real stories

That they were

x

Older brothers seem to come with

Mysteries

Blank spots in life that stay

That way

Stories within stories

Ways of thinking

That I’ll never know

But we had the sure thing

Of old movies

For discussion

x

And now I miss that

As part of missing him

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

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1

Gilead

(x = space)

x

x

Gilead

x

There is a balm

In Gilead

I don’t know where that is

I don’t know if

It’s on a map

The Gilead

That heals

The sin-sick soul

x

And I don’t know

What it is

The balm of Gilead

An ointment

A colony of physicians

Waiting

A miracle in local water

Or the air

x

And is it

Sick with sin

Or sick of sin

As in

I’m tired

I want something better

I want to strain

Fewer people for it

No one hurt

Really

Because I think

I want something

I no longer want

x

And did I ask for it

Before

Maybe

Probably

But there’s also something about

Whiter than snow

Impossible

Except to take the texture out

Though it’s the texture

Of the sin

That needs removing

Money

Lines on the face

The heart

Whatever

Wherever

x

Heal me

Leave the scars

I ask with sighs

Certain things are inexorable

Like evidence

Though cleanliness

Time

Humor

Smiles for friends

And even for the world

Have wrought

A great deal

By repentance

x

C L Couch

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Jeremiah 8:22

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Photo by Christina Deravedisian on Unsplash

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1

(haiku about the river)

(x = space)

x

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Susquehanna’s high

brown water like the wide wide river

west Mississippi

x

C L Couch

x

x

I drove and then walked through storms today

x

Photo by Justin Wilkens on Unsplash

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0

“the devil,” “elements” (2 poems)

(x = space)

x

x

the devil

(you say)

x

the tempter

the corrupter

the ruiner of things

resist

no thanks

go away

we’ll bring in professionals

xxxxxif we have to

diaspora

we’re spread apart

you like us this way

we don’t believe in

xxxxxtogether

should we understand

that we are three in one

because God is

(that is the pattern)

we can stand alone

xxxxxJesus

xxxxxJohn

xxxxxElijah

xxxxxMoses

xxxxxeach and all did that

goodness, we know that well

but to be together

find gentle,

overwhelming power in that

we don’t know that

not anymore

not since the last time

and the time to come

and meantime?

we are together all the time

we only need to turn

to find each other

share the tiny glory

in that

the tiny victories

that add up

or they don’t

breathe in

breathe out

let life happen

as it’s supposed to happen

our alone times

our together state

the glory of the Lord

shine through

all shapes and sizes

everything and everyone

inside creation

not the devil

that gave up all right

to enter realms instead

of nothingness

x

x

elements

x

matter merges

xxxxxspiritual and fleshly

xxxxxmaterial

xxxxxgrain and grapes

xxxxxtogether

xxxxxeach part

xxxxxand together

xxxxxchanged

xxxxxinto finer things

xxxxxcloser to purpose

xxxxxcloser to creation

xxxxxand creation

xxxxxand what is finer than

xxxxxa smidgeon more intentional?

xxxxxall the wonder

xxxxxsimple and refined

xxxxxis here

xxxxxmade from the start

xxxxxmade full

xxxxxby God

xxxxxJesus

xxxxxand the Spirit

xxxxxwho are here

xxxxxwhose substance

xxxxxwhose presence

xxxxxis in here

xxxxxand is in you

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notes

x

I’m sorry, while drafting I couldn’t think of women in the Bible who stood or prayed or fled to be alone; now I think that Mary could have been by herself when encountered by the angel and in her response to the announcement and the will of God; Judith might have prayed on her own, away, as well; and Esther might have planned the salvation of Israel in the same way

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Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash

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0

Aunt Bette

(x = space)

x

x

Aunt Bette

x

My Aunt Bette

Died

My cousin reported

And reported

Well

Inside paper

And electronic

News

After communicating

With the family

x

Bette had a long life

Much longer than

Her sister

My mother

x

There were only two of them

In fact

For a long while

Growing up

x

Each sister had children

Four and five

Bette and my mother

x

We used to get together

At what they called

The camp

By the river

x

River swimming’s

Interesting

x

The water’s dark

The river’s wide

As famously understood

x

There was an amusement park

On the other side

x

My cousin Beth

Keeps the family

Wedges doors

So we might know what’s happening

On the other side

x

I’m thankful

x

I’m sorry

My aunt Bette is

No longer here

x

Her absence is a sadness

Though

I knew her less

x

Sometimes that happens

As we age

x

Welcome

Bette

To the other side

x

Age is no longer an issue

Or health

Or other challenges

x

Everything is new

For you

x

Made ready for

The wonders of

What’s next

x

‘Bye for now

Aunt Bette

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

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1

prose poem about an—

(x = space)

x

x

prose poem about an—

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–found and read a story about an angel.  A long time ago, I had a book of stories about angels.  As far as I know, I don’t have that book now; and I don’t know where I got it.  I don’t where I was when I read this story.  I seem to recall an institution-like place, a school cafeteria or something, though the light was not widespread and where it was was divided starkly between itself and shadow.  Maybe I’m imagining my imagining of the setting of the story.  This angel looked like a tramp.  He appeared in tattered clothes with a tattered raincoat over all.  He didn’t like where he was or that he had to look and feel this way.  I think he tended not to like his assignments all that much.  In this story, he saved someone; and I think he did this rather often, saving people.  At the moment just before salvation, he manifested as an angel.  As an angel should be.  He was majesty, all power and fear.  His wings were wide and they reached high.  There was great light through him (hmm, I guess he was depicted as male); and the evil in the story was overwhelmed, the human client rescued.  Afterward, he felt some contentment as an angel, though he knew he would be leaving and would be changing into whatever the next place and time required—not by his reckoning.  So he was about to leave and then—and this was the style of the writer—vanish in the middle of a–.

x

this story was written I believe by Stephen Donaldson who has composed the chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever; if I’m wrong then I apologize all around; I don’t recall the name of the anthology or the particular story cited, and I don’t know who else wrote the other stories—the theme was angels, that’s what I know and that I often think of this story, this time strongly enough to set something down

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ramez E. Nassif on Unsplash

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1

Gestation

(x = space)

x

x

Gestation

x

I don’t know

It’s Friday

It’s raining

We need the rain

The clouds have little texture

At least from here

x

Nothing much to look at

A wet street

Spatter on the windows

We need the rain

x

There is war

In Ukraine

More death today

More wounded

And in Sudan

We’re drawing up our diplomats

Telling tourists

To go home

Choose another

(for now)

x

We know there’s trafficking

Where

Here

Of drugs

Of people

Contraband things that

Otherwise

Could be all right

x

But you know

People

Never people

Sold

Which means someone is

Buying

Where

Here

x

Struggles for freedom’s

Hard enough

On good days in

(relative)

Safe places

x

And they

The captured

Kidnapped

Bought and sold

Are not all

But tend to be

Children

Women

Who

We know

Struggle for freedom

Already

Hard enough

More than should be

Enough

x

On Friday I could cry

But the sky

Provides

As if behooving

I could say

Nature weeps for me

As in

Instead of me

And that

Nature weeps for all of us

In distress

But it is nature’s

Well

Nature

x

That’s all

And that’s enough

The rain

Provides

Other good things

x

But I’m thinking now

There should be

Laws

For freedom

To work within one’s

Bearing

Bearing

Who we are

What can we do

x

And freedom of our bodes

Politic

Personal

That many of us

Think we have

x

Let’s check the laws of nature

And our charters

I think it’s there

Many

Freedoms

Already

There

Officially

And by

Who made rain

x

We may read wet leaves

Or our own pages

Fearfully

Consider

Wonderfully made

And what

To do

With what and whom

When made

When with accountability

Co-making

x

Rain

Tears

Freedoms

Fridays

Notions

Not like the old

Department-store

Departments

(but) Full-blown

Like glass

Full-grown

Into ideas

x

We do

Need these

A good weekend

Please

For you

You deserve it

It’s deserved

x

Does rain mean freedom

I don’t think so

Sometimes

It’s relaxing to watch

To hear

Sometimes

It’s fearful

The median response

Might have something to do

With inconvenience

Maybe this is part

Part Friday

Too

Of freedom

x

C L Couch

x

x

Psalm 139:14

x

Photo by Sharon Pittaway on Unsplash

x

1

Imaginaria

Imaginaria

(insight, sci-fi, speculation)

x

x

Machine Life

x

Ain’t devices grand

Until they’re not

And how long is

A generation, anyway

Things work

They slow down

There is no message

Though the problems could be

Indications as they are

In old age

The old age of us,

That is

x

Machine life

Oxymoron

Maybe

Maybe with A-I for real

The opposite are nearer

To the same thing

In us all

Man and machine

They (ubiquitous) used to say

But let the women try

All shall be well

As a woman said

x

x

note

x

Saint Julian of Norwich

(we ubiquitous do not know her name—maybe her cat sussed it through any sublimation)

x

x

Visitors

x

They landed

And found a plethora

Of DNA

On our machines

On the insides

Even blood

Inside

Who were these people, then,

Was soon discovered

Helixes reconstructed

And their features

And their colors

And the shapes of

So many of them

x

The machines they talk to

And brought them here

In fact

Shall interpret

And reconstitute

Everything

Planetside

As well as

From the things in orbit

That have been falling

While a few remain

For boarding

Or retrieval

x

This was a race

Or races

Many kinds of one race

They covered themselves

For the atmospheres

And seasons

Up to four of these

It seems

They were preventive

Though mostly reactive,

Waiting for a crisis

Then responding

x

There might have been those

(translating documents

reshaping the shaping

of their flesh

and all the things they made

for prosperity

or expression)

Who tried in sciences

And arts

To say something

Warn them about

How to live

And what might be coming

x

Well,

Library these

Revive some as we can

Or may

They had the rudiments

A-I and androids

We can work off of these

As templates

The name

Many references to ground

And we have encountered

Worlds named water,

Fire, and air

Smoke and fog

Pollution

And clarity

x

x

Prophecy

x

Three kinds

I was taught this

I’ve thought about it

(these)

Maybe I’ve done some

Merging

On the inside

All about it, too

x

There is the kind

That foretells the future,

Which is the kind

We think about

The most

It seems

x

There is the kind

That foretells the present

That tells the monarchs

There is invasion

Here

Or a great fire there

x

Then there is the kind

That interprets

The present

With insight

And a voice

That can serve the queen

And should they arrange it

Assist today’s administration

Well

And overall

Overall

And well

x

But then prophets

Often get into trouble

Even in democracies

Who are they

Why should we listen

Are they saying

What we want

To hear

Is prosperity promised

And God’s approval

Because God is in our side

Because

We say so

x

Go to the launchpads

Go to the modern museums

Enjoy

Be warned

Grow

Live better

x

As for disagreements

Or outraged

If not ignorant

(usually ignorant)

Confusion

Well,

Weather that

And try not to burn

The saints

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Nathan Duck on Unsplash

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0

(haiku)

(x = space)

x

x

new breast cancer bills

pink flow’rs on a living tree

nature yeas the text

x

c l couch

x

x

today in Pennsylvania, a bipartisan passing of two bills that support research as well as life with breast cancer; I guess haikus are not supposed to serve as news reporters; but on hearing this report at noon, three lines came to mind

x

photo by Susan G. Komen 3-Day on Unsplash

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