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City of Angles and Approaches

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City of Angles and Approaches

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Steel city

Iron city

City of bridges

Renaissance city

First gateway

To the west

City of immigrants

City of technology,

Once heavy manufacturing

Collapsed

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City of

Corporate headquarters

Three wide rivers merge

The Allegheny and the Monongahela

Meet to form

The Ohio

Cargo moves from Pittsburgh

Down the Ohio

To meet the Mississippi

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City of

Great universities

And hospitals

Expensive housing

While expanding

City of neighborhoods

Old

Entrenched in the best way

And changing

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City of

Triangular streets

(those three rivers)

Midwest

Meets Appalachia

Mines and mills

Mostly closed

With careers and lives

Changing or still

Like statues without hearts

As well as movement

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Life must move

This great city moves

My childhood home

I leave and return

Come back, it says

Drive through the tunnels

And behold me

Take the funiculars

Again

Gaze at me from

Mount Washington

I am here

For so many people

I’m here for you

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C L Couch

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(on the last day while visiting with family)

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Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash

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Metamorphoses

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Metamorphoses

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Exhale

Breathe through the eyes

On a blank page

Maybe the muse will whisper

Maybe not

Don’t we want

To take credit for our work?

I guess if we get help

Who’s to know about the muses?

They have nine names,

None of which we remember

Except Calliope,

The organ-like device

We used to hear at carnivals,

The quainter gatherings

In the USA

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Do the gods

Visit on us here?

We have reruns of Xena

But does Zeus

Accost women here,

Later turning them to swans?

Does Apollo drive a golden chariot

Across the sky?

Do the Eumenides

Offer or receive libation

On behalf

Of mortals

Or against us,

Depending on our decisions

And our actions?

They would have met the other gods

Those of creation

And the forest

And the desert

And the sky

The spirits of

The Olmecs

And the Toltecs

Maya and Aztec

The Anasazi

And the Pueblo

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I wonder how it went

When Jesus of the Europeans

Met the sun and harvest,

Weather gods

Of the Powhatan

Just outside of Roanoke

The colony

Where barriers met

Open trees

And waterways

I don’t mean to romanticize

The Powhatan had their problems

But to say the least

They were there first

They were here

First

I wonder how it goes

When gods meet gods

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C L Couch

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Photo by samson tarimo on Unsplash

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Paradise Neither Lost nor Found

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Paradise Neither Lost nor Found

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It is not the best of times

Just now

I have to own that part

Of the Dickens

Narration

Too many sick

I know

And there is war

Infamous

Famously defended

I’d like to know the wisdom

Of the ages

Those who contemplated

Long ago

How to redeem the mind

And sanctify the heart

How did they do it

When we’re so

Smarter now

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How may I call up

Desert mothers

Desert fathers

My might I stir

My own kind of Celtic blood

That came to northern shores

And tried to have companionship

With nature and each other

Until organized, metallic

Factions entered

And took over

Slew what did not submit

Killed what submitted

Anyway

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That’s my northernness

I guess

I guess I like it well enough

I’d like to know yours

And what you have from the

Southern half

Because you might

Have that

East or west

As interesting

Exciting

The fascination of our differences

Shared in easy friendship

Easy joy

The direction points aren’t bad

Unless you make them

Points of dominion

Or points of fear

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Fear not

We can come toward each other with

Fingertip excitement

Passing through time

And sentiment

To share a call that says

The Earth is one

We are one

We are one and one and one

And one

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C L Couch

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If she doesn’t mind, I’d like to dedicate this work to Judith Nilan who wrote so kindly of me recently and whose friendship is cherished by me and by anyone else who is her friend, I’m sure.  You should read her blog because it would be good for you.  Her blog address is https://stonefireblog.com/.

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Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

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Next Sunday

(x = space)

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Next Sunday

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I am nearly asleep

I can hear the voice

On the machine

Thanks to Vimeo and Livestream

And presettings

It’s a message about Thomas

And doubting resurrection

What we see

What we unsee

And believe in other ways

Don’t be afraid to doubt

The pastor says

He’s preaching about Thomas

Don’t hide the doubt

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That sounds

Savvy

We’re on an adventure,

After all

Before discovery, often there

Is disappointment

If not disbelief

Then we come upon the X

Not that we have to doubt

There are those who believe

From just off the map

‘Til X

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I thought

I was gone on walkabout

But he’s started talking

About treasure

An old coin

What to believe in

For faith

Doubt is real

Maybe necessary

On the way to faith

(or maybe having left,

walking back again)

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Liberty is a theme,

I think,

In that we are free to doubt

On our own mortal terms

And to believe

With the same set

Of qualities and variables

A search for faith in love

An end to war

Peace talks

At our table

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The singers rise up

The sermon’s over

Captions appear

Soon I’ll have to turn it off

Get on with my distant day

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C L Couch

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Photo by Jiroe (Matia Rengel) on Unsplash

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Rick o’ the Wisp

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Rick o’ the Wisp

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Even so quickly may one catch the plague?

Olivia in Twelfth Night

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Happy Birthday, Master Shakespeare

Squire Shakespeare

William

Will

Will o’ the Wisp

I’m visiting my brother today

He has cancer

I’ll be you knew of cancer

Even called it that

(unlike in a later age consumption for

tuberculosis)

I can’t recall it from a play

Or poem

But then I hardly know them all

And as it is,

I’m tired and not thinking

Did Lear get sick with something?

Lady Macbeth?

Or the thane?

Was there a balm for the queen

In Merry Wives of Windsor?

Did all of us feel better

In the panoply of spirits

That concludes The Tempest?

Or were we simply reminded

Of a world that isn’t ours

Regretting

Or remaining

Chastely distant,

Keeping to our own?

Well, a

Happy birthday to you, anyway

I’m visiting my brother today

He has cancer

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C L Couch

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Photo by Enrique Alarcon on Unsplash

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Peace to You

Now are the times of Orthodox Easter, Passover, and Ramadan.  Praying for blessings to all the faithful.

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Peace to You

(John 20 and elsewhere)

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Peace to you

The teacher showed up saying

Peace

If God appeared

In the room

We were in

Then words of peace

Might be needed

To still our hearts

And keep them working

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God shows up

In the room

Alive in every way

(later we’ll share meals)

Except in expectation

For we had thought

Never to see

Or hear the words again

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Scars from nails

And a spear

Maybe the marks of thorns

On the brow

God appears again

God with us again

Immanuel

The end of

Maranatha

Folk at the center of the world

May suggest

While those outlying

Hear the story

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There is life again

Three days’ waiting

We weren’t counting

We forgot

All prophecy

And understanding

Thomas,

God lives again

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C L Couch

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Cross with Dove and Red Cloth in Pirenopolis, Brazil

Photo by Emily Crawford on Unsplash

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In a Word

(x = space)

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In a Word

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The gospel in a word is love

So goes a song

And it is

Gospel, song, or word

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The reason for the actions

And the stories

The meaning of everything

(there, you were wondering)

Is love

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Love precedes judgment

And is precedent

It precedes creation

And was the reason for it

Don’t worry, it is practical and smart

It is reasonable

And sounder than reason

For it lasts and is unwarranted

It outlasts our philosophy schools

And business strategies

And even plans for war

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It fortifies all decent purposes

Makes relations possible

Between all sorts of people

Plans

And nations

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It ends war

Keeps many wars from starting

It is the reason why we feed

And water

And clothe

Ourselves and everyone

Everywhere

It is the reason why we go to work

Or school

And why we come home after

It is home

And family

And self

And God

Civil society

It is why we move forward

And come back

Strength for today

Bright hope for tomorrow

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The first song concludes

(at least in my youth group)

Love your neighbor

As we’ve heard

From long ago

In many texts

And songs

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As it is

As it really is

Our lives go on

Conclude

Having begun

With love

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C L Couch

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“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is a hymn from the 1920s by Chisholm, Runyan, and Schrotenboer.  The other song alluded to is called “Love, Love, Love, Love”; it is a more contemporary song and is often sung as a round.

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Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

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Demons in the Corners

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Demons in the Corners

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Sometimes

Sometimes it seems

Too hard

There is too much that’s

Jagged like or as

Broken glass

Pieces that penetrate

That draw bright blood

Of one kind

Or another

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The world hurts

Because some people

Want it to hurt,

The cost

Of doing business

Raking prophet

Winning war

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In these strategies,

Theology is far away

There is no discussion of

Depravity,

Nearly original sin

Or otherwise

This is not a point of doctrine

We are mean in every way

Because we want to be

We want to wield something

As if it’s ours

And if it’s yours

At cost and sacrifice

So much the better:

I keep my things

And don’t care

If I lose yours

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This is mining Earth

(of any kind

of any kind)

For money

For tremendous feeling

Mortal glory

Fame or infamy

Two sides of

A silver coin

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In judgment, counted with

The other coins that paid

For Earth

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Conviction, sentence from betrayal

But that is sometime

Not today

At least is doesn’t feel that way

And we have plans

Today

We the profiteers

Are winning

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

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Temporary Beautiful

(x = space)

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Temporary Beautiful

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I don’t know

We walk in snow today

If we want to

It fell when nighttime degrees

Encountered would-be rain

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There is wind

To keep it down

For a while

Though the temperatures

Won’t keep it long

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Without worry,

We can hear the muffled sounds

Or spring and morning

Watch the white

Most of which will disappear

Before it’s trodden

Everywhere

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No slush

No pushing it

This way or that

Simply have it

Behold the art

That won’t outlast the Grecian urn

Except by hours

Give credit to

The artist of the

Temporary beautiful

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C L Couch

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“The Artist of the Beautiful” is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  “Ode to a Grecian Urn” is a poem by John Keats.

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Photo by Nadiia Ploshchenko on Unsplash

snowfall January 13th 2021

Ukraine

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