Search

clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

Open Search

God in the World

(x = space)

x

x

God in the World

x

It’s got the whole world

In its hands

x

Maybe the song sounds badly

With

Impersonal pronouns

But as we know

Loath to admit

God is more than he

There is the she of God

As well as all the lively

If impersonal

Attributes

x

I doubt that God is male

In the wind

Though ancients saw that differently

Or that the rain is she

In my mythology

I have to admit that is attractive

(Sister Moon and Brother Sun

you know)

But really

If God is in anything

Then God is everything

In everything

x

Neither east nor west

As the apostle says

And well-chosen

In that

These are adversarial directions

Rome and Judea

Europe with the USA

And adversarially

Russia

China

Other parts of Asia

x

Presuming a meridian

x

Even then

Even now

But God then

God now

x

And this is the reach

Of God

To all directions

(if compassism)

All genders

All creeds

And attitudes

Everything divided

God cannot take the borders in

But sees the unity

Instead

x

For even God is biased

Love

Like gravity

Toward matter

x

C L Couch

x

x

“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” an African-American spiritual

x

Galatians 4:28; Romans 8:35-39

x

Canticle of Saint Francis

x

Photo by Lydia Gulinkina on Unsplash

x

0

New Shapes

(x = space)

x

x

New Shapes

x

In the new century

When everything’s

An artifact

We’ll skew some things

Add our biases

That might be better

Might be inclined toward

An actual

Prosperity

x

In peace

We have declared some things

No more

Metal and blood war

Outside

We have enough

With

Environmental warfare

Chemical destruction

The legacies of hate

On all fronts

Which we’re trying to

Reform

And then re-form

Like plastics

Into spaceships

x

Welcome the new era

Should you

Time-travel

You might

Not recognize it

A universal language

Appreciation of unique

And favorable

A celebration of progress

In unity

While

Yes

We’re working on the hatred

And the other sins

We keep inside

x

It’s frightening

It’s new

We can’t be humanists

Not thoroughly

But must try

In alliance with God-parts

With the liminal

The numinous

We are spiritual in part

After all

x

Sigh

We have far to go and

We know that

Both open and oblique

Our novelists

Will tell us so

Our poets

Keep us honest

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

x

0

who hopes for good days

(haiku)

x

who hopes for good days

apple blossoms or small fruits

how transitions go

x

c l couch

x

x

Photo by SIMON LEE on Unsplash

x

0

The Splendid Myth

(x = space)

x

x

The Splendid Myth

x

We have a problem

Everywhere

In that

We perceive myth

As untruth

As a story

That’s a lie

x

That’s a myth

We say

Meaning it’s

Untrue

x

But myth itself

Is better

x

It’s is a culture’s aim

To explain

What is larger

Than our words

Because

It’s larger than our thoughts

x

The source of things

The wherewithal

x

The why

The motivation

x

Weather

Natural disaster

Seasons

Where and when

There are seasons

x

The attributes of animals

And of ourselves

And finally

Mortality

Of everything

It seems

Except perhaps

The Earth itself

The light and dark

With sun and moon

And other skyward things

We might take in

x

Though all these

Need our stories

Too

x

These are myths

Neither stupid

Nor naïve

For they are put together

By great minds

And hearts

To work the mind

To placate

To work

To stir toward greater

Effort

Greater meaning

Our thoughts

Our feelings

All our ambitions

x

Everything

Given worth

If partially

Yet splendidly

Explained

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Gabriel Ramos on Unsplash

x

1

Hellish Season

(x = space)

x

x

Hellish Season

x

It’s summer

And it’s hot

The sky too dense

With particulates

Of fires

And there’s

An irony of floods

And there is war too hot to fight

Yet fought

There

And in

We’ve heard

The war at home

x

Too much heat

It could seem

For sin

And yet not (yet) hot enough

To forestall

Our trying

x

And should

The hellish rise

In us

Around us

There might be balm

Valued

And adored

x

Christ

(of battle

of

the coming of the Lord)

Spirit

And angels

Come with mercy

Like cool liquid

On fevered heads

Once bodies

Have been taken

From the fray

x

And then the heat

Might break

A cooling rain

In fact

Begins and lasts

All the next day

Like the fourth day after

Three days

Of terrifying

Awesome

Blooded battle

All battles drawing blood

But this

Specifically at Gettysburg

x

Four days at Gettysburg

The fourth day for rain

To wash the field

To mist the ignominy

Either of retreat

Or too much victory

x

C L Couch

x

x

(after three days of accidental, built-up, pent-up, exhausting, murderous battle, starting on the first, the battle at Gettysburg was done and on the fourth day there was rain—ironic for the nation, being the Fourth of July, of course our independence day for the USA)

x

Photo by Henrique Sá on Unsplash

x

2

And All That

(x = space)

x

x

And All That

x

There is cool

For heat

I am lucky

I have family

I have friends

I know I spend

My days alone

Which is belied

By your company

You are with me

It’s not a story

Well

It is

But the story

Explains the truth

Even the myth

That’s founded on

The truth

Of something larger

Than ourselves

That we wish to

Know

And so

Sometimes in clarity

Sometimes in mist

I have you with me

From the inside

Out

From the center fold

In me

Out through the pages

Into sunlit

Cloud-lit

Night-lit

Illumination

It’s always like as mask

I guess

Like the dark glass

A purple panel

That even should we leave

The cave

Goes with us

A pretty barrier

Maybe raised by sin

Maybe to challenge

Virtue

Well

You’re with me

I know that

And I am thankful

I am thankful for my sister

Too

My brothers

And my friends

Grateful for the lack

Of desolation

With all that livingly

Is set

Upon it

Knowledge

Insight

Discovery

A growing column

Always with

A hook for that dark glass

Yet rising toward the others

And toward you

Thank you

For being God

And Christ

And Spirit

More than doctrinaire

You save my soul

Without the rites

Though rites are good

As well

Vital esprit de corps

And all that

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

x

1

something small series

(x = space)

x

x

something small series

(three parts, that is, three poems)

x

x

For What We Are About to Receive

x

Thank you

God

For what is small

For what is easy

To see

To hear

To guess a touch

A taste

And what is left

A smell

In likelihood

Or gentle appreciation

x

Flower

Bird

Child

Not to touch

But to leave alone

Unless the touch be necessary

Or requested

Of the thing

Not my agenda

Or the world’s

x

Leave the flowers grow

And the birds

And the children

Provide

Teach

Enhance

The opportunities

Hold them

When our own

Release them

To their own

Be thankful for the borrowing

Even beholding

As a work

Of yours

In a museum

Without walls

With working space

And fields for play

The sunshine and the wind

To enhance

The experience

All experience

That’s human

Sanctioned by divine

In the making

And the giving

Thank you

x

x

The Open Gift

x

Thank God for something small

Seemingly

Seemingly

Easy to love

As if we had received a gift

For our delight

The flower

Or the bird

Or a child

Given in labor

Pain

And innocence

Returning both perhaps

Charged to our keeping

But here is the gift

A moment for the beauty

And the truth

In our beholding

In what is revealed

From the force

Behind all forces

The presence

We may guess at

And not know

For sure

Thought we know

This moment with

The flower

Bird

Or child

x

They are not avatars

They are their own

They are not agendas

Though they are

Naïve messages

Of innocence

x

Realistic purity

On Earth

x

(part 2 of something small a series)

x

x

The Final Solution

x

And now

Praise God

For something small

With song

In appreciation

To adore

Creator

In creation

x

For all there is

And isn’t

And should be

(the Quixotic dream)

x

Take in the leave

Take in the wind

Take in a stranger

Passing by

In New York City

Millions

Not to see again

x

Until our sight

Be perfect

And unbidden

Sighting love

In focus

Blissfully

Agenda-free

Sinless

Indiscriminate

x

Find something small

To love it

Even a molecule

Considered

The illustration

From a textbook

Or a website

x

Thanks God for protons

And electrons

Neutrons

That have meaning

Though they seem

Without an interest

Of their own

x

But they are here

And all the rest

To bind

In gravity

Of love

And willingness

For unity

And one’s own identity

Everything shared

Nothing lost

x

Praise God

For something small

That’s you

And me

When you

Love of self

And the other

We delightfully have both

And all the time

One by one

Small part by small part

A miniature greatness

That is set

And to combine

To form out of apocrypha

Or apocalypse

The real thing

x

We’ll be there

Won’t we

x

(part 3 and probably enough of the something small series)

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

x

9

The Lonely Makers

(x = space)

x

x

The Lonely Makers

(an accounting for geneses)

x

There is God

There is the Spirit

There has been Christ

As we have the story

There is Christ

Before Sarah

In fact

To speak to bring the world

Ex nihilo

Into something

x

The world was made in six days

Each day therein

An age

Such as the day of the dinosaur

Or the days of Camelot

Count twenty-four

God could do it

But there was void at first

Then light and dark

How shall one count

In that

Before the world of clocks

x

Christ speaks

And all is made

The Spirit moves

Behested to breathe life

After the first

Breath

Into the sky

Over the water

x

Abstracts are done

And then

The species

Of the Earth

Come forth

x

Creatures

With small spirits

Even

Our own

x

Breathed out of dust

To live

To make our way

To make

Our own

Shares in creativity

By will

Because later on

We ask for this

Alone

And alone

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Christine Kozak on Unsplash

x

0

The Garden of Scheherazade

(x = space)

x

x

The Garden of Scheherazade

x

Imagine

An Arabian portico

A ceiling to the side

Under which is

Furniture with pillows

It is day

Then it is night

And in another place

Deeper inside

She meets with the husband

She volunteered to take

Even though

He is a maniac

Who kills after one night

To secure fidelity

x

And so you tell a story

Recalling all the things you studied

Texts

Everything told you

By your father the vizier

By his advisors

Students

The servants of the house

And when allowed to wander

(covered up)

Making stories out of comments made

Along the streets

Of a desert country

With oases

And mountains

As well

x

Legends

Narratives from

Math and philosophy

The history of men

(mostly men

aware of audience)

Through the ages

Sinbad

Aladdin

Ali Baba

So many more

Nearly three years’ worth

x

Though it was the first night

That mattered

And the day that followed

Keeping life

By keeping the killer

Entertained

And then the second night

Made all the difference

And the third

x

While you stood

Or sat

Or walked

The garden outside

The blood-filled palace

Deciding

Crafting

Revising

Each narrative

For the night

Aiming for salvation

For another day

x

coda

x

I don’t know why I think of this

x

It

She

Came to me yesterday

Probably because

I was thinking about story

On its own

Not so much the content

But the abstract

And the purpose

The importance

The reality

A telling makes

x

Maybe not

To life and limb

Bur all the stories she got to tell

We got to hear

That were in context

So much fighting

For her life

x

C L Couch

x

x

A Thousand and One Arabian Nights is a collection framed by the telling of stories by Scheherazade, the daughter of the vizier.  She volunteered against her father’s wish, naturally enough, to marry the king as a defensive measure for the women of the realm—and because the realm was losing all its women, at least those suitable for a king to marry.  Whatever suitable means, especially given the circumstances.  And as an overarching cause because the king whose first wife cheated on him and was summarily executed made in the king an attitude of mania regarding fidelity.  And so each day he would marry a virgin and then each night have her killed.  Scheherazade, who was not only skilled in storytelling but in story content, went to the king, married him, and entertained him on the first night with a story and then, because he wanted more, on the second night and so on.  The king found good stories more enticing than slaying wives, which I guess is some kind of virtue even in one we can’t overall admire.  Finally, the king’s madness broke or something like that happened; and he thought to keep Scheherazade as his one (and lasting) wife.

Well, it’s a story within stories.  Or I should say without. But it adds an edge in the telling and our hearing.  An added edge like that of a sword, perhaps that of an executioner.

x

Photo by Arsalan Rad on Unsplash

x

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑