black

Poetry and Senses (3 poems)

(x = space)

Poetry and Senses (3 poems)

Upstart Clay

God will help us through

By being quiet

Leaving all the noise to us

Except the wind

Maybe the water that descends

To strike the surface

Maybe on the ancient

Mountaintop

That moans

Or the young one that must explode

Or pushing geysers through

The scalding

Earth

So there

God might be noisy

After all

To take a part in all this

And remind us

Of the presence

And natural participation

Of the maker

And the making

Which is us

Fashioning our noise

Into making something

Too

The Color Wheel

There is yellow

There is red

Then blue

There are the colors

In between

Orange

Purple

Green

And there we are

No white

Or pink carnation

For a crayon

No black to see

Though depending on perspective

Black might be suffuse

We love our color wheel

Couldn’t get along

To see

Without it

And the colors might turn concepts

To explain

To touch sometimes

Though there is no distinction

Doing that

To smell the color

Which is to smell the paint

Nothing to hear

Unless the wheel

Be turning

And there is humming from an engine

Or a supplicating gear

Imagine Earth the wheel

Us the fashioners

How are we doing

Are we colorful

Do we six colors

Bordered

Unattended

Or do we mix and blend

And have a globe

Outstanding

Then when turning

Make a noise

Send a message

To the others

Here we are

Introduce us to yourselves

Wheels within Wheels

Wheels within wheels

That had been said

As it’s been invented

With clay

With metal

In the mind

Over centuries

As a metaphor

Plots within plots

Every smaller

Going out

Ever larger

So that families

And nations

Are affected

Even over thrown

Reinvented

From parts left over

Rounded

And toothed

To have new rhythms

And redesigned

Noise

Wheels that press

Or parts caught

Inside gears

Or there’s so much pressure

So much lack of space

That something crushes

Unless so difficult itself

Breaks the gear

Breaks the wheel

And someone

Victor

I suppose

Must rework everything

So that we’re round again

And might make music

This time

As we turn

Through space

And time

C L Couch

Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash

October 22, 2023 0

today is Father’s Day in the USA, and I wish happiness for fathers; since I have no earthly Father anymore (and for some time) and got to thinking about tomorrow; and not stopping in thinking about tomorrow, I offer this

tomorrow is Juneteenth

tomorrow is Juneteenth

when in Texas slaves

no longer slaves

and who were never slaves

by the will

that was creation

nonetheless are told

they are no longer slaves

and by legislation

for two years

or so

you are free

but they knew that

they knew there was an enemy

that kept them down

that weighed the legs and feet

upon stolen ground

to earn crops

for another’s coffer

(boxes in the bank)

they knew

they would rise

they knew this sometimes

on occasion

while chains and fields

and white men’s whips

beat another message

upon backs

of backs and faces

on the legs

that did the work

that carried wealth

to a master

who was not a master

or an owner

but for thieving

against God

and integrity

who cared not for blood

that spilled on blossoms

as long as they looked white

in the sacks

such evil

Lord

and why did you allow it

why is our will

so important

that we are enabled

to grab weapons

to split human hides

to take the rest from Africa

stuffed like oranges

in ships

to the infantile

and erstwhile

USA

and late give up the practice

through a war

a reckoning

for what all of us knew

was wrong

was evil

we cannot imagine

who were not there

though at least

we may tell stories

and send messages

through generations

to the future

do not do this again

live a kind of sorry

if need be

and if recompense

be needed

well them

pay it

from those boxes

of the profiteers

whose gold inside

still shines

still funds

still mocks

the rest of us

for color

and all colors

let freedom ring

we hear

well

let it ring

ring bells

ring all we have

that makes a message

and response

with decibels as words

that say

yes freedom

we must have it

we must try it

we must make it known

to all the Earth

and all the worlds beyond

and all the worlds

that are inside

and all the worlds

that we must share

c l couch

Photo by Wasil Ahammed on Unsplash

June 18, 2023 2

Till We Have Faces

(x = space)

Till We Have Faces

Black History Month begins

Black experience

Recorded

Call it Black experience month

Black testimony

Black story

Till

Evers

Amistad

Empires in Africa

Black and white

Greedy

Murderous

Raid

Take

Transport

Sell

And so begins a nation

You may say that others did it, too

So what

So fucking what

We have a month to cringe

A month to listen

Get it right

Fix something small

Fix something huge

Enormous

Like a nation

C L Couch

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

HDR shot of a sunset over downtown Memphis with the pyramid and bridge.

Memphis, TN, USA

February 1, 2023 0

This Autumn Morning

(x = space)

This Autumn Morning

Gray with

A patch

Of red

Inside black

Branches

Red leaves

Attached

Maybe until

A winter wind

Comes to

Take them

Through the

Air until the

Breath’s expired

Then gravity

Must have

Its way and

Like the roots

We can see

And-or touch

Must lie upon the

Earth

And inside

For a while

C L Couch

Joshua Tree National Park

Photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash

November 17, 2021 5

The Funeral of George Floyd

The Funeral of George Floyd

I knew a man

Named Jerry who

After a funeral said,

I look at it this way

He’s gone

And I’m still here

His wife tried to shoosh

Him, though I suppose

There was truth in

What he said,

If not the saying of it

He’s gone

And we’re still here

Prayers to heaven might

Release him into

Further bliss, so some

Doctrines say

We can do that here for him

But all the rest

Is us for us

To take part in a life after

The fact, the death

Of all we could have known

We’ll acknowledge

Even celebrate

Laugh a little

Wish we could laugh a lot

We’re no good at this

There is an expression

To choke the life out of it

A program

Or a promise or a pledge

To take it literally

Upon a person

Outside of stagey melodrama

A Darth-Vader move

Is never having been sublime

But move the

Ridiculous to an absurdity

Of evil

Might we be

Angry at a funeral?

I think we might

But be sad first

Make crying space

For tears and any keening

Let him go

And never let him go

C L Couch

Photo by William Rouse on Unsplash

June 9, 2020 4

Myriad

Myriad

(watching it on TV)

“sorry, kid”

Wilson College to a Black woman wanting to attend and qualified, until the interview

“dream deferred”

going into Woolworth’s

I liked Woolworth’s

singing while being arrested

Rich’s Department Store

“it wasn’t about the food anyhow”

Morris Brown College

“I can be smart, I can have curly hair, I can be whatever I want to be”

student at Spellman

it’s so exciting to hear young Black people, excited

FAMU

#HBCURising

(plot)

I don’t want to do anything to

You know, intrude

But I’m so thrilled

Because I’m a stupid person, I guess

Untrained in the ways of prejudice

If there’s a better choice, it’s so easy to make

It goes something like

Of course, of course, of course

I never learned to hate someone whose

Skin color was not my own

I know my own, it’s dull

I find other skin colors so interesting

It’s marvelous—I can’t do that!

I suppose some will call me traitor

Probably do

I suppose I do not care

Except for sadness that the myriad

Cannot be loved

Have I been passed over so that

A Black woman could be preferred

Probably

Yes

I understand

I mean, I want work, too

And I know I didn’t start it

But really

What does it take for anyone to get a job

It should be the work

But I find too many places with those who

Do not care in the wrong way

(benediction)

Get them up, then

Those who need the rising

Rise over me

That’s all right

Don’t worry, anything I might feel by way of

Patronizing is compensated by the pain

Of loss

But it’s not only my own

It’s yours

And I’m sorry

For a change, let’s all take the chance

To bleed

C L Couch

Tell Them We Are Rising | History & Impact of Historically Black … – PBS

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/tell-them-we-are-rising/ Tell Them We Are Rising explores pivotal role historically black colleges & universities (HBCUs) have played over 150 years in American history and identity.

Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and … – IMDb

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333094/ A haven for Black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries-and path of promise toward the American dream-Black colleges and universities have educated the …

A black man goes into the “colored” entrance of the Crescent Movie Theatre in Belzoni, Mississippi, 1939.

Marion Post Wolcott – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.12888.

Public Domain

February 12, 2019 0