the day you were born
according to the calendar
and I’ve checked
it more
than once
I was a Thursday child
and so had far
to go
which is a mystery at
least
to me
for
don’t we all have far to go
to get somewhere
in life and maybe
afterlife
in face
that after this is done
does not the distance unfold
grandly
for each one
and
all
so what is far to go
maybe
far to go for satisfaction
for fullness
in breathing and work
(the
work of breathing)
or
maybe for
philosophy to gain and so to carry
through
the trials of thought and feeling
faced in the world
wondrous
fallen
virtuous
Calvinistically depraved
pursuit beyond a declaration
for a nation
or
to help secure it for others
affirm at least when
despotry breaks in
then
attempting to persist
so maybe it is
freedom
and the distance we all have to go
in
service to others
and ourselves
in that
somewhere is far to go
at any rate
metaphor for what’s ahead
and
an assurance that little will happen toward
instant completion
loving and giving
for
Friday’s child
so says
the rhyme
loving and giving as if
starting qualities and to
sustain through
live
and to go for everything that’s needed
to keep going in this way
through
all the time and all phenomena
that happen
requiring
a bounty
I should think of
faith
and confidence
to have the wherewithal for these
and to secure the job
that funds the giving
and
might fortify the loving
so
where should Friday be if not
in a good place and
with resources
all
the time
so who loves and gives in Ukraine
just now or
Gaza
or pick a torn-up
place where one is likely to lose all
and
have to flee
get wounds bound up
also
to deal with loss of health
and companionship
of
family
as well as neighborhood and one’s identity
not only of the circles as
they Venn
but of the single
self
that comes at the beginning and then
knows the joining with the rest
somehow
I think
Bonhoeffer
managed loving and giving through
the rise
the war
the horrors
and the sacrifice of
life
like the prayer of thanks
not
to be a guard
and more so for the pastor’s life
to give it
in the camp so that another
person
live
and so the living and the giving
the worst in the world
plus
the best in spirit
and so
in surfeit or in want
the capacities
for each to
live
as Friday
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was imprisoned and killed in World War 2
photograph by Jon Tyson at Unsplash
VIA SACRA
full of grace
Tuesday’s child
what
kind of grace
I wonder
doctrinal or
looks or
manners as in good at dinner
or knows the steps
for
a party
maybe it’s the kind of luck
that person shall
have
the good kind if not
grand
as things fall together
for school
or work
or family
by belief the certainty of heaven
after
such an afterlife secured for
in feeling by the clear and
dovetailed angel
management
of
life
full of woe
(a Wednesday poem)
finally
some color outside both windows
nothing brilliant but
tingeworthy
and shall there be honest fall
or shall this aspect of climate change
cause too many to fall brown and
withered
from too-soon dessicated
branches the season
unseasonal
went
too hot too long
for riotous autumnal virtue
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photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash
Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival 2018
about ourselves in the world (2 poems)
to each a Compostela
God give me strength
that might seem out of character
to use
and own
measures for repentance
could be new gifts
inside
the grandest one
and how might we be changing
overall
new direction and new purpose
Matthew
or Zaccheus
those who used to fish for fish
Mary M
freed by touch of demons
new presence
new
bearing
new direction
sometimes they seem constant
Esther
Ruth
and
Deborah
sometimes misdirected
from the start
and
there’s no changing
Ahab
or Jezebel
or sometimes they get it wrong
then get it right
and
might still struggle
Moses
say
or Miriam
Jonah who in fact was
angry
to be changed
and where are we in these
each one on
the line
and how to use discretion
maybe grumbling
to change
the answer’s in the question for
each one
and how
we go
circumstances
yes
and how we change through these
going with or
resisting circumstance
to will ourselves
places alone morality
and what shall be our actions
and our
attitudes
to change or stay the same
somehow to plant and move ourselves
like
contrary pilgrims who begin the path
then stop
then start again
diplomat
inside the world
that changes or that stays the same
frankly
too troublesome
regardless
yet we go out
and
then go in
through foreign doors
to introduce ourselves and then
respond
to status quo
or status
as
it might be changing
charged
general or specific
by those back home who send us with
hopes
or maybe lack of interest
like
the indifferent who live allowably
not following
not voting
our care is for these
regardless
and the set of values we call home
to promulgate perhaps
though
maybe reverse-welcome at our stations
greet
those in their own places
hear their causes
hear more
and then respond
checking back
as
needed though bearing initiative
in
the call as well
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photo by Alejandra Rodríguez on Unsplash
2 poems about the new season (more or less)
Bouncy
God
It’s yellow Friday
With blue and brown
On deck
It’s
Spring and time
Not for the metaphor this
Time but
To really
Play some ball
Training
Then the opening
We each can do this
Batter
You know
Up
And I’ve switched audience
Though aren’t you
Always there
(for
an excuse)
Forgive me
And allow me to say
Maybe
To everyone
About
Gospel of play
And did you plays as you ringed
And then rounded
Creation
Maybe
Keep us
Safe
In this new season
Knowing that our choices
Make the difference
Even if
And when
We could turn our will
Toward yours
A wheel
And a wheel within a wheel
But I was thinking baseball
Pitches
Running
And then
The coming home
Green
Workaday
And extraordinary-day
New
Season to you
And to you
Amen
Freedom Ring
The Liberty Bell is cracked
And there were more
Bells
At the time
Ringing freedom
While now we have
The broken bell
For show
And there is wisdom
In admiring the broken
Toward
Kintsugi perhaps
Or to leave in
Pieces
Sometimes for further lack of use
Except in small beholding
Or
When a sizable
Cast bell
To dream on ringing
To dream really large
Sometimes
C L Couch
Photo by Joe Richmond on Unsplash
two fresh-baked works from ridiculous to personally at least sort-of maybe/maybe not sublime
Ides of March Eve
(or Pie with a Protractor)
3.14
Forget the year
Pi Day
Have some pie
A tasty metaphor
The circumference of
Which
Requires pi
To be determined
All our work in circles
Determined by a number
A function
That’s unsolvable
And yet
We build our arches
We have all our round things
The math might be frustrated
And sorry to
Computers
But our stone tools
Might have worked just fine
Without it
Without pi
Though it’s Pi Day
So let’s have a slice
That has a
Radius
With somehow
A part
Of the arc around
And maybe not get started
On the spheric calculation
Of
Each blueberry
The Morning Rush
Somedays
I wake
And try to make everything
Fit
Starting in my head
Into a style
If not a way
Simply
A few things to like
Some
Favorite flavors
A few items of clothing
Shoes
That fit easily
A car that might need work
No doubt from
Time
To time
But that gets around
From here to there and back
Again
While I may listen to my books
While on the road
A place to live
That’s quiet enough
Normal noise
Allowed
Even preferred
To gravestone silence
A thought
To work
That I can do
Beyond the blogging
Or maybe learn
A dollar
Two dollars
More
From the daily work
With any decent accomplishment
From the crafting and the
Posting
Though I don’t know
It seems skittish on many glassy surfaces
Inside
To consider
More exercise
Less weight
The national pastime that isn’t
Baseball
And with more study
And some interaction with
Like-
Minded people
Too
A church that I might stand
And might stand me
A life with God
That’s
Wel
Not palpable
For now
But authentically affirmed
And stretched out through the hours
Like
Taffy
Or an impossible balloon
Something with taste
(even savor)
Something to enjoy
Even remarkably
And
You know
It will not happen
There’s not enough allowance
Or belief
From the world
Not simply to help
But to permit
Because our life
Force
Is worked on by so many propositions
That become
Well
Impositions
What
To buy
How to vote
What
To believe as coded by
The pundits some of whom
Get elected
And
I’ll keep my faith
Of course
My discomfit with the world
Hoping for a purer
Uncultish Earth
Fitzgerald
This
Side of paradise
Sigh
Keep waking
And keep dreaming after
Waking
C L Couch
Photo by Kura Tregenza on Unsplash
a weather and a faith report (2 poems)
weatherized
so the snow falls
or something
falls
sometimes it’s hard to tell
and so to turn
the street is sounding
well
squishy outside
and all the shapes are white
though I can’t
tell
for sure
which means sleet
I guess
or freezing rain and I’m not sure
the difference
contrary weather so far
this winter
as I think
sleet
(or freezing rain)
is rain or snow that will not
make up its mind
which is
all right except a kind
of misery to be out
in
Saturday if church
we believe
we don’t believe
sometimes in the same person
often
in the same
in fact
I could say me
I could say
you
not
to judge or estimate
except to claim humanity
faithful
faithless
in each of us
temptations
evil as in the prayer
flaws as will worked out
or not
in Eden
a choice
then maybe an affiliation
lightly or heavily
to wear
and yet perhaps
not so much
a burden
as to worry through the seasons
we’re all right
with
the pleasure of peace
in life
also the joy
of
fun that God has made
we well
and heavenward we
Amish-like hope that we
move in
even assured
in faith
errors
are not sins
unless they are designed as
such
but sins we make
and
do not have to mean the end
but like mis-steps we
somehow mean
and can get over
can get up
can get help to lift
resume
the road again
pleasure
peace
joy
fun
resume again as they should
forgiven
redeemed
having gone first
admittedly
so we believe
we don’t believe
but
it ain’t over
Mister Berra
‘til it’s
over
and if gain
and re-gain the faith
it ain’t never over
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photo by Jodie Walton on Unsplash
2 poems about, I don’t know, the extraordinary ordinary
don’t unappreciate the day
the trees are gray
now
no longer black
the sky even paler than
it was
and hazy
both being a gift
if dull
a dull gift
and not that there’s evil
so we know the good
so as
a gray so we know the cheering
colors
on
arrival
better
the dullness forms the shadows
after all
and we have need
for three
dimensions
(if
not more)
gray trends sometimes
and do these other
neutral
shades or call
them natural
either way
to call the season
then
to sell
and there is more
for real
in having so much that is
available on
Earth
and to the hearing
smelling
tasting
touching of
you know
(phatically)
so much
please hurry up
(the practical Eliot)*
shall I have more coffee
or
do I dare
to eat
a peach
I could talk about the part
for the hair
though it always seems to go
to the
center
after trials over
years
and did I hear the mermaids song
then from land perhaps
the answer of
another
siren song
and if I walk along the shore
will the competing songs
from land
from ocean
through the air
lead
me to the cave in which
the extra treasure
that
Aladdin couldn’t use
might reside and just for me as if
a spirit said
this is yours
and it’s your time
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*dealing (over years) with T. S. Eliot, the writer of “The Wasteland,” “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” as well as the famous book about practical cats; citations are paraphrased (the layout paraphrased from the part about the peach)
photo by Ahmed on Unsplash
thy faithfulness and 14 June
(two poems)
thy faithfulness
and now for God
though maybe
God has been with me
from the start
because if not my own
it’s in
God’s nature
and certainly God’s
skill
and also
desire
the same desire
that made everything
and more
the wish
the will
to love the everything
and above all
and with the will of
unfallen angels
to love most
ourselves
we are that important
not for demons
whose interest in consumption
is not the healthy use of
creation
but frankly
to suck us dry
of flesh and spirit
and then display the husks
eagerly
in hell
but we have God
and willful angels
elected
on our side
and in the room
though will leave us quiet
when quiet
is soulfully
or physically demanded
quiet
time
and should we wish
some company
divine
with less than a word
shall be here
to cheer
and to guide
to love
and to show
how love
begins and ends
with presence
one form
or
another
14 June
(2024)
happy
Flag Day
Mitzi’s birthday
the puppy
(not the flag)
who crawled up
on the porch
the day our family
moved
into Pittsburgh
northern suburbs
and remained with us
the next
seventeen years
and was
extraordinary
patient with
several
growing children
as for the flag
you know
we flew it
very day
I recall
there are some things it seems I wrote about most years; today is a thing
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photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
2 poems
(about God and self, I guess, though, you know, you will find what you will find)
Freely
And there is God
Who first believed in us
First made us
Before we
Set out
Inventing
Re-inventing
Ourselves
Finding the words
We will be known by
If known at all
The looks
Our posture
Whatever
As if creation were a game
Of changing jerseys
Even affiliations
When we can get away with that
Elide expectations
To something like our own
Satisfactions
Who knows
Maybe aligned
With how that God
Had made us
With our natures
Toward our inclinations
Regarding expectations
Heaven-sent
Rather than
Always
Earth bound
Hours
Not much
For a Monday
I’ll admit
Frankly
Tried to sleep with back pain
Then woke up
Heavy on my leg
Under the other
But I breathe
I imagine you are breathing
Too
And there is a day ahead of us
To try
To sleep
Perchance to dream
(well
isn’t that what came to mind
honestly)
Or more importantly
Work out our dreams
Or if need be
Exchange them
For something good
It is to wear
To walk
To recline
To move through the world
And what we have for home
What works well
For a life
With potential satisfaction
Meaning
Faith
Pleasure
And hopes even high
For this and into the next
Hour
C L Couch
Photo by Tristan Colangelo on Unsplash
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