better news
1
better news
that God loves us
and sent
the child of God
to
live and innocent and perfect life
and then to be
killed
by the powers of the world
and the princes of the air
and
yet not have that be done
be it
and there is so much
more
because the child came back
up to Earth
if that was the direction
out
to all
to offer the child’s resurrection
from death to life
to a life for each of
us
and life that goes on
forever
finally
on a renewed Earth
beside or somewhere near
or in
a new heaven
and that’s our job
believe
2
feeling Christian
this morning
or
recalling who I am
and
that God sent God through
the Spirit of the Lord
so that
not only this
sect
but the whole world of us
might
believe and so be saved
from death
and
for this day and
the next and
on
be saved from sin as well
the whole word
John 3:17
remember to share it this way
a gospel for everyone
3
and will
we guess at
for
fun or profit
or in what we might
take
as the conquest of space
whether or not
Jesus
came to Mars
on comets
inside asteroids
and
shall Christ be there
awaiting lunar Artemis
as we
begin again
which is all right
‘cause Jesus has saved Mars
comets and asteroids and
first for us
the moon
for
the silent planet speaks again
and all that happened
here
to revive and fallen
pick us up so we
might
carry on again
miracle
new song
and our own arriving
c l couch
C. S. Lewis posits a cosmically quiet Earth and us in Out of the Silent Planet
photo by Petri Haanpää on Unsplash
particulates
what’s in the air
beside air
beside oxygen and nitrogen
argon
and the rest that has been there
for ages
with additions of smoke
in time
and then smog
radioactivity
changing art appreciation
and
the health of lungs
and such
other chemicals by now
plus plastic
parts
parts per million I suppose to measure
we breathe in bad things by us
belying the cartoon
version
of
artificial respiration
out with the bad air
in with the good
now
out with the bad air
in with badder
why we pollute ourselves
should be
a global conundrum
of
some
well
great urgency
we breathe through filters
helped by machines and when it’s worse
through
masks
we drink water from our plastic
metal bottles
we think we are immune
I guess
some of us
I guess
while failing to track for everyone
since
everyone’s affected
the work of all
societies
that measure and by measure
warn
the rates of cancer
c l couch
photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash
“Los Angeles, CA, USA”
(another preachy poem, and I could be sorry, but this one came to mind and word by my experience)
(haiku for fall, starting in a grumpy mood, I guess)
(1)
well that’s enough of
haiku play and fancy with
no work proof for pay
(2)
the hour is done now
leaves have fallen into water
growing into green
(3)
old and new worlds tilt
leaning could be tree-delight
as dancing solstice
(4)
water purify
as on our other planets
with true air command
c l couch
photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash
Red Sky at Morning
(today is World Environment Day)
We acknowledge
That we breathe
And
Do we breathe
That there is water we may treat
To drink
Because most of it’s unsafe
We could catalogue
The plant and animal
Species
We will have killed
Today
In the name of consumer
Consumption and
Development
And how large is the ozone layer
It’s been decades of
Awareness
And it could be better
The layer
Our awareness
How blue the sky
And shall we keep its blueness
Or trade
The blue of Earth for
Scarlet
Mars
Once we have finished
Here
And with what is left
Go there
C L Couch
Photo by Ryan Arnst on Unsplash
Every Time I
(you, we)
Every time I
Feel the
Spirit
Moving in my heart
I will pray
But I like it
When it moves outside
The heart
Also
Not as proof or evidence
But as
Communion
That spirits are merging
Venning at least
For faith
And sometimes simply for
Delight
Then spirits
Move
We sing and dance
Among the trees
And you wonder from
Where those
Strange lights
Come
In the woods or
Over water
Or horizoning desert
Ridges
Where there might be
Air
Or other medium
For breath
Bursts that
Might be daunting
Maybe
Also invitation
Dance with us to
Say
We move as lights
Be moved
C L Couch
Photo by Nick de Partee on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
No Woman Is an Island
x
I exhale a puff of air
Carbon dioxide
And yet that’s all right for kissing
And for lifting the lungs
Of someone who’s in trouble
And not breathing
The kiss of life, we call it
And it is
Both sides of air being good
The oxygen, the CO-2
Both give life all around
Our daily allies on the planet
Are the plants in our
Inhale-exhale
Symbiosis
All is relationship
No one goes alone
x
C L Couch
x
x
No Man Is an Island, a poem, a contemplation, a movie, a song
x
Photo by Kyle Wagner on Unsplash
Allan Gardens Children’s Conservatory, Toronto, Canada
the greenhouse
x
(x = space)
x
x
La Bohème
x
We cannot tell the good
From black or white
That’s clothing
Or how the clouds come at us
From the sky
Or day or night
Night or day
The priority is
Having clothes to wear
To feel secure
Safe from certain elements
That challenge us throughout the day
x
And we need air and food
A way to get around
Space for living and for working
For a Bohemian
The garret’s all the same
And prophesies pandemics
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Word for Forest
(for Ursula K. Le Guin)
x
We need something that is lasting
Like air
That hasn’t been ruined,
Where a tally of the molecules is useless
Because our calculators break
In the process
A world that is a forest
As in a story I read a while ago
Where the inhabitants cannot perceive
The sense
In wrecking air
And everything life-giving
Breaking a circle they took part in
For ages,
x
For what is profit if not that
A world that has trust in them
The smart ones on the planet
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash
x
Attending Nuclei
The spirit of God
Moves across the water
In the bathtub, not because
It’s trivial but because
It’s everywhere
Breathing, laughing, cajoling
Cleaning
As a spirit of God should
Present at creation, making
Things happen, here
And there
Inside the tree but not the tree
Taking part in everything
That’s made
And with us when
We’re washing dishes
More water
Water and air, we need them
Nothing lives without them
Except maybe anerobic cells
That might still cry out
From time to time
For a sip
Adding a speaker to
The microscope to hear
For all the cells
For all the grocery lists
For prayer at breakfast
For flat tires and new children
New cells on everyone
Everything that every second frames
Here endeth not so much
A lesson;
Here starteth—starts–a
Day of days worth knowing
Because when we want,
We find
The day and knowing it
Astounding
C L Couch
Photo by Camilo Fierro on Unsplash
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