(x = space)
x
x
(leaves can testify)
x
leaves can testify
an acceptable word tree
inherits earthly
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by guillaume bergaglia on unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Please Pass the Pray
x
Welcome home the victims
Heal the victims here
x
Quick prayer for those who died
And those who are wounded
And still here
x
Something in the house
Or in the car
Aloud or silently
It counts
The most basic ask of intercession
x
Like asking God
Be with whoever’s involved
In that emergency
Who are these people?
Someone knows
x
What is needed by way of comfort
Or of sutures
Or of passage?
Someone knows
We don’t know
Maybe we don’t have to
x
Prayer is involvement
Even anonymous
That works
We may not know the outcomes
That is faith
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Mikhail Volkov on Unsplash
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Violence
x
I guess nowadays
It seems to me
Not to wax
Not in a rant but with
Cold observation
x
A reader
And a hearer
And a watcher
x
We go to
Wicked without order
(yes, we know it’s good
in New England)
No vision
No plan
Make war not love
x
As if we’ve taken all the virtue
All the good things out of
Everything,
Which leaves us
(ask Oedipus
Creon
even Antigone)
Vanity
And hubris
A particular kind of cowardice
For bullying
An awful war
Frankly, an awful peace
x
On the inside first
Then interpersonal
x
Having arranged
For all of us
By all of us
Easy access to deadlier weapons
Lacking safeties
And restraints
And moderation
x
Intentions once machined
To the center
Now lathed
At a slant
Until the work breaks
In the machine
Our better parts left
Ragged
Rough
Deadly points
Untreated
Left unsmoothed
x
And then the other weapons
Too easy
x
C L Couch
x
x
Antigone. Ismene, dear sister,
You would think that we had already suffered enough
For the curse on Oedipus:
I cannot imagine any grief
That you and I have not gone through. And now—
Have they told you the new decree of our king Creon?
(Antigone by Sophocles)
x
Photo by Amber Kipp on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Wonder Dog
x
I used to let
The dog go
In the creek
Taking off the leash
Once we were behind
The houses
What a happy dog
Upstream was all right
There was freedom in that,
Too
x
Muscles got used
That needed using
The shaking of the chain
Hanging in the closet meant
That
All this could happen
x
Once released
x
C L Couch
x
x
Water Flowing over Rocks
Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Arts and Sciences
x
It used to be
That art was the vision
Science the practice
(of the vision)
Thus there was connection
As between birth
And grown-up life
That was not ineffable
But practical
Workable
For visioning, producing
Of an age
x
Now we don’t like each other
The theoretical
The practical
We grumble and we look
The other way
Well, to our way
If we must, we sigh
Whisper nearly sotto voce
For a bit of theory
Or a bit of usefulness
Or industry
x
Music, math
The Renaissance
Philosophy
Reading, writing
How to build community
Through argument
And pipes
And water fountains
Statuary for the ages
Buildings that make sense
Can be maintained
And are beautiful
x
They’re coming back, perhaps
I see new works in small towns
Better than returning is
Moving forward
Time for a new alliance
New connections
New community
x
Make new friends
And keep the old;
One is silver
And the other gold
Not bad for an age
Every day a merger
Every breath a hope
In vision
Words
Plans
Building
And-or preserving
The streets, the place,
And planet
We all live along
Each one
Each other
x
C L Couch
x
x
Light in the Law Quad
Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash
x
“Make New Friends” is a scout and camp song (a round) whose creators are unknown and whose lyrics have variations.
x
(x = space)
x
x
armageddon morning
x
all earthly alliances
whose treaties are for war
in violation
with a claim
to win the world
x
God will fight us
weeping
with the rain
no doubt of victory,
would rather gather us
on a field
for celebration
will take the victory
if we shall give it
insisting we are right
in no other way
x
dawn after
final skirmishes at night
surrendered remnants will
be healed
and taken home
surprising what was won
in defeat
who was the foe
we battered in the dark
who struck
who struck
we have forgotten
or will forget
with a will
x
the place is clean
Earth an altar
all other altars served
without knowing
the template
last sacrifices needed
and these weren’t
x
we will come home
quiet first
names
and wounds
the celebration shall come
later when renewed
x
when we awake forever
a universe
to get to know
and new assignments
x
there is a party
only for an age or so
inside new heaven
over new Earth
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by Dan Senior on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Abe Shinzō
x
Shinzo Abe
I’m sorry that he’s gone
Taken by insanity
And criminality
x
Two questions remain:
What made the killer
(first question
x
and second)
What may we remember
And be changed by
From the living
From Abe’s having lived
x
For
He is among the generations
Now
x
C L Couch
x
安倍晋三
Abe Shinzō
x
x
Photo by Daniel Seßler on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
On the Ecumenism of Species
x
Dogs and cats should share
Often, they do
They share heat when it’s cold
They can share toys
They can treat each other
As toys
Food is another matter
Their systems are different
So unless it’s An Incredible Journey
Situation,
They should eat apart
And eat apart
Be who each other is
They can rest together
Often, they do
And enjoy God’s-creature status
Both, together
All, together
Now
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Sextant
x
I have no idea how
One works
Somehow the sextants
Set
The way we need to take
In relation to
The stars’ own courses
x
Like the lodestone
The sunstone
A compass
Or the stars themselves,
We go with an absurdity
Of faith
Considering how wide
The water
x
How minimal the shorelines
And they
Save us against
The ocean’s
Featureless horizon
x
A journey by design
Or an irony of pressing,
A crossing by
The sextant’s parsecs
Tentatively ending at
A port-of-call
x
And the decision not
To yield but
To carry on,
Wayward sailors
Wayward children
x
Seeking the
Navigator’s colors
x
C L Couch
x
x
U.S. Navy Quartermaster 3rd Class, practices using a sextant as part of a navigation training aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), 2018
By National Museum of the U.S. Navy – 180423-N-DL434-149, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70793138
x
clcouch123 
Recent Comments