Amos


me, you, God (3 poems)


Smart Scan

Something happened
If only for
A little while

Some sleep helped
And lying in
A while

And now some coffee
Having checked the phone
Set up the machine
Which
Didn’t take so long this time

And I am glad
Thinking about moving a lamp
In a Prufrockian
Way

And there is peace
I think for emptiness
The good kind being alone
In the building
Maybe
Or at least

Most of them are gone

And I am alone
With my vibes
That for some reason
Don’t feel so bad
So pressed
Just now

There is pleasure in the isolation
Not
To want it all the time

But I think on passages from
Call of the Wild
And
Martian Chronicles

Moments
Well
Passages of aloneness
That are hard on
Them
Perhaps
From time to time
And me as well

And yet
The stories move forward
With freedom from the outside
Enhancing
Liberty
Inside
To think on everything
Or at least enough
For the passage that
Is this day


Still Time

And that’s me
How is it with you
I just lay and thought a while
An hour
In
This morning

When by the way
I saw the branches dripping
Recent rain
With golden hangers-on
Of fall

Maybe doing that might
Be good for you

The time to lie
(to lay)
That is
And not to drop off branches
(though who knows
since there is
a way
with trees)

I mean
I’m not a guru
(with
apologies to gurus)
As much as I’d like to be your friend
In this
Or at least
An ally

Allies
Negotiate
And strategize campaigns
Sometimes
And maybe such
Would work for
You
And us

Let me encourage you
To take time to
Take time
‘Cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all

Which is a passage that
I think on often
(partly
‘cause the memory
is tuneful)
From a show
And the voice
I’ve heard is
That
Of Granny Clampett
Which also appeals to me
Somehow

Anyway
Remembrances aside
Or frankly
To focus better on them
And the rest that needs recall
Before deciding

Maybe we will
Find that
Time
Call it a candle hour
(with a wick
or
screw in the flame)
That is
Some time for stillness
And to think in
Stillness


A Genesis and Then Another

And then there’s God
Who made all things
And keeps
Creating
Who is investing in the largest
And the smallest

The Grand Canyon
A grasshopper
The features and
The people
Of
The West Bank

God’s spirit is in you and me
Or me because
I ask
Or you
In the same way

Though should we not invite
We have our spirits
At the least
Which is extraordinary
In presence
And in value

Each one lost
May go to God
A greater
Closeness
And a new home
Perhaps

(I’m uncertain of
theology)

The loss might be as we expect
Peaceful
Even dull
Or it might crash into life
(and
life no more)
By flood
Or war

Loss and gain
And every feather
Every hair
(or loss of hair)
Is tracked
By God
As if angels followed every
Created thing
With ledger
And the feathered thing called hope
With which to quill
Numbers
And notations

Such wonders in the world
Too many wonders
Really
For each one
To take them all
But size
And the notated numbers
Give allowance
For each one
On Earth
To have so much

Though
There are thieves

With sometimes heroes
To thwart
The thieves
And thievery
To
Bring into repentant
Light
And life

So what might God
With all our trials
Yet
Expect of us

Well
There’s Amos
About justice
And rolling waters

And also walking humbly
By those waters
(which is
Micah
more or less)
As if they were also
Still enough
While
Being hale
For companionship

Even
Some kind of feast
Beside

And so there’s God
And God with us
Our own
Immanuel
And also for the world
Come Christmas and
You know
364
(365 when leaping)

God makes
God gives
We also provide
Gifting
Maintaining
For each other
Though we are not first cause
But we’re enough

There is great utility
In being
Giving
Sharing
Out of the bounty
Or the paucity
Of God sending
As well
As famously
Each one of us
An Immanuel
(small i)
Each one


C L Couch


But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Amos 5:24

[God] has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8


Oh, it's time to start livin'
Time to take a little from this world we're given
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all.
“No Time at All”
Pippin
sung by Irene Ryan in the first Broadway cast


(Ecclesiastes 3, Psalm 23, Jack London, Ray Bradbury)