[haiku]
ask at all of firsts
from nil gifts to open so
open Earth and us
[out now]
Tranquility: An Anthology of Haiku
by Literary Revelations
I’m not so good at promoting myself, but my work is in this anthology. As I’ve mentioned before, I find haiku an arduous process. So I guess I will say for myself that I’m pleased to have my haiku selected for inclusion in this work.
The book is out now and available at Amazon and appears to have been well-received so far. I’m grateful to Literary Revelations for the publishing and more specifically to Gabrielle Marie Milton for all her art and effort.
The main title, I probably don’t need to say, is the theme for this gathering of haiku. Thank you—any, all of you—for your reading of my work generally and should you read what I’ve contributed in Tranquility.
I think as I’ve written earlier, ten years ago while I was recovering from surgery, my sister gave me a laptop and told me to write something. I decided then to try a blog, though I barely knew what one was.
Throughout my life, it seems that writing has been one thing I can do nearly anytime. Feeling well, feeling poorly. At peace or in great stress.
Who knows, maybe I’m getting somewhere on this path.
Christopher
C L Couch
image from Pixabay with thanks to shell_ghostcage
occasioning your book
to Pooja
today
they arrived
coffee
and your book
I’d ordered both
at
the same time
two exigencies
of pressed seeds
and
once opened
stimulation
the order could have been
about
how good and needful things
uplift
though mainly it was
timing
and
I thought
together
were good reasons
though
I want
to offer here and now
only your poems
with
your drawings
my congratulations
Pooja
on success
so far
with these works you have
and with all future
paginations
achieved
accomplished pleasure
added to
the fluid joy of each
day
you should have both
and all good
my friend
poet
c l couch
All the Words I Kept Inside by P. J. Gudka
the book is available through Amazon
Pooja's engaging blog is at https://lifesfinewhine.ca/
photo (above) by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
Westmarch
sometimes I wish
I were a
well-to-do hobbit
except for
the living
in the ground
even a comfort-home
in there
would aggravate
most likely
claustrophobia
as being carried by
an eagle
would invoke
the other
unreasoned fear I have
but still
to have a day
to write a book
of my adventures
having had
adventures
first
and to have tea
close at hand
with cakes
and at a table
by the window
with my pens
(all right
computer)
and paper
at my side
and on which
I write
(well
type)
and maybe to have
friends
who come to call
for friendly reasons
only
I hear their stories
while
I also think
on dragons
Dwarves
and Elves
and wistfully
believe
I should be somewhere else
with them
c l couch
photo by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash
General Delivery
It’s all for
General delivery
Eventually
These words
Your words
The words of anyone
To our chagrin
It all gets kept
Inside the book
Except when
The doctrine of
Justification
Is established
And then
The sins are written out
No book mark
Or any record left
When we can try again
To draft
Compose
Revise
Edit
Have someone else maybe
Take a look
Then we commit
The words are out there
Once again
Actions
Repercussions
Maybe it goes well
This time
For we are clearer
Then become reliable
For this
To some
Even constituents
Those we serve
Most closely
While in the future
Subject to interpretation
Still
Whom do we know
And how
The ethnologists
Have a way
With story
And might get us right
Eventually
We have today
For saying the right thing
And if we need
To make up for it
(not make it up)
Well
We have our doctrine
Still
To keep us
With our God
And with each other
Say this
Don’t say anything
Restraint
And modesty
Could be our values
Too
With respect to keep a world
From destruction
And bring us to
Instead
A table
Neither polished
Or shaped perfectly
But smooth enough
With people standing
(sitting)
By for splinters
But ‘round which
We have set ourselves
For conversation
The expressions
Of ourselves
The receiving of
The offered words of others
Why
There are models
Of this
Here
And every day
Thank goodness
C L Couch
Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
The Way to God
(or, Mystics Are Confounding)
x
God guide us
Does God guide us
Seems
We decide
To take the step
To the right
Or to the left
x
How much is up to us
Why
(and then)
Why
Just about everything
I think
We might want
To go on the path of God
To God
And there might be clues
Insight
Perhaps
Bristly sensation
‘Cause a treasure hunt
If run
And this would be
The richest one
To have
To hoard
Perhaps
(though hoarding really
is no fun)
Better to share
Especially as some of it
Is news
x
But
Come on
Too much is invisible
A code
Without an artifact
Some books that might be changing
And we argue all the time
x
So maybe we hope
For approval
On the way and afterward
Which isn’t gold
But is heaven
That in jazz of virtue
Sometimes perplexing
Ain’t all bad
x
Don’t mean a thing
If it ain’t got that
Je ne se pas
Karl someone said that
(with an “It” as in “It don’t”)
Paas (like eggs)
Haas
Or who is Schickele
A syllable
A couple of Es away
From an adverb
x
Well
Someone
Something
Help us
Please
Maybe a map
On the pages
Or inside a leaf
Inspired (for the books)
By the leaf
That falls
These days
From trees
And set some kind of standard
x
They
Often fall on paths
While one path of the paths
We seek
Who knows
Nature might show the way
Overall
x
Or at least in part
Or parts
Sigh
Where are the arrows
Where is the angel
Pointing
Not much for a duty
But then
One has been assigned
To raise a flaming sword
Outside of Eden
Since the
Lapsarian
Moment
x
So many mysteries
And what we want
Is God-directed
Without mystic
Understanding
(though Ms Underhill
teaches
we all might
have it to use)
x
Well
We find our way
We do our best
Maybe we rather
Act like blocks
Sculpted
Undivinely
Because we favor
Hammers
Of agendas
x
The rest of us
Then
Try
To find a way
To go a way
To find the treasure
Of the Lord
Which is the same
As one who’s somehow
With us
Now
x
C L Couch
x
x
Karl Haas composed and hosted a radio show about Classical music; he was famous for his deeply-intoned greeting, “Hello, everyone.” Peter Schickele also hosted (hosts) a radio show wherein (for the closing) he told us to remember that, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that je ne se pas.” (A comic re-rendering of the line (and title) “I don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing” by Duke Ellington.)
Evelyn Underhill was a mystic and writer who composed Practical Mysticism: A Little Book for Normal People.
And may I annotate myself?
x
Photo by Gabriel Jimenez on Unsplash
Ancient Stump
x
(x = space)
x
x
Shaping the Word of God
x
You know,
It didn’t come with numbers
Chapters and verses
I guess the whole thing was recited
As a book, we say
x
Then we moved on to another
The community
x
The interpreting community
Setting doctrine
As a group,
A denomination
Or on our own
Without a magisterium
x
Tricky doctrine-setters
How do they avoid a lie
In designation?
x
Maybe with the humility
Of Pietists
Or the Amish who
Set salvation as
A conditional process
We hope we’re saved
x
Meanwhile, we have
A book of books
Providing order,
Which is fine
Except when God is wild
In the wilderness,
Awaiting Moses
Beside the symbol and reality
(one comes first)
Of the burning tree
That will not consume
x
Remove your shoes,
Moses,
This is not a nine to five
This is a place above the desert
Thin blue air
For food
And doctrine from a flame
And from the words
One hears
Through the host
That is speaking
x
And if the order is to play,
Then be grateful
For bare feet
x
And we believe?
Our committees
And our meetings
All things gilt or burnished
For the Sunday best
To be best?
x
Might we go to Sinai
In a Thoreauvian way
Take all the time we need
Outside of shoes
To think it through
The bush will burn
There’s time
x
If need be,
Chronos will slip into kairos
For a while
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash
Saint Catherine Monastery, Mount Sinai, Egypt
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Book of Numbers
(in pandemic time)
x
Lots of twos and ones
Tomorrow
And a zero,
And there could be church:
I think I’d cherish
Learning someone else’s
Story
If in a cyber way
x
To understand
How a narrative fits
Into the weaving,
The puzzle
Of the one great story
In which we each
Have a page
x
Monochrome
Or colorful
Burnt along the edges,
Gilded for the saints
After all the torn-up
Parts have been
Repaired
x
Not a book of judgment
Not a cache of
Clever evidence;
Rather the story of us
In part
And all the rest of us
And God inside, above
With tired angels
Tirelessly binding
Fixing binding
All the time
x
C L Couch
(for 2/21/2021)
x
x
Photo by Paulius Dragunas on Unsplash
Antelope Canyon, United States
Ladder to Nowhere
(reasonable skeptic)
x
(x = space)
x
x
Book War
(preventive)
x
It happens
When a group
Has a code
That is set down
For day-to-day
And legacy
x
It took place with
The Quran
The evening of
The morning
When there was
Certitude that
There would be
A new
Generation
x
The Christian Bible
Set off conflict
With each change,
Each schism
Set to fighting
Over what to do
For faith
And what the book
Of faith should say
x
Not to mention
All the agnostica
Falling ‘round
The faithful
x
How many books
In the book?
Sixty-six or seventy-two with
All that should be in
Sixty-six or seventy-two
x
My version’s better
My translation
My paraphrase
No, mine
No, mine
No, OURS
Said with authority
No one outside commends
So we will need an army
Defending ink,
Scriptoria,
And brittle generations
x
A Bible war
Could be fun for trivia
On pub night
But not to justify
The raping of
Constantinople,
Christians thieving Christians
Or the books
That fuel internal fires
Burning up Jerusalem
For faith
x
Now, it seems
The Jewish book
For faith
Kept growing
x
While some groups
For their faith
Don’t keep a book at all
x
To say the least,
There’s fondness for a text
But to justify—well,
We’ve heard good things about
A declaration
And a constitution
And a touchstone
x
We should not fight about it
But leave room
As at the table
After dinner
x
Or the second half
Of sermons,
Engagement that most folk
Forget or remember
In leaving off
x
coda
x
If we write
And publish,
Pass around,
We should talk about it
x
Since pages are not
Altars
(altars are not altars)
And there’s always trouble
With our idols when
In idolatry
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Drew Murphy on Unsplash
I was on a work shoot in a suburban church in Johannesburg. I took a walk around and noticed this soft light spilling onto the pews. Immediately I knew I should get a Bible and place it there. To me this image speaks of the gentle peace that can be found in the midst of a crazy world.
x
(x = space)
x
x
First Story
x
The Bible is a book
Stories, sometimes
Told in poetry
The thinking of a people
And, certainly, their feelings
Faith based on
Invisibility
Not to be fanciful
But there’s a lack of evidence
That is the design
x
A collection of books,
We say
Sixty-six or seventy-two
There are reasons
For the difference, we’re told
But some of us
Are wondering if
Judith was left out
By the Protestants
Because she is so heroic
While also
Scolding
Cowering men
x
But take our pick, it’s still
An impressive collection
There is truth in it
In the one story, overall
Parts of the world
That point to it
Pages on leaves,
Waves telling it aloud
And other texts
And other storytellers
x
It’s a book of faith
Behind that, it’s a book of love
That was the first purpose
The pleasure in the making,
We can only guess
The peace,
We’re told, is passing understanding,
Too
But maybe we can take
A guess at love
We can think it
We can think it through
We can feel it
We can feel it through
x
The story is compelling
As it is pervasive
We can enjoy it
(try the creating)
We can be persuaded
We can be grossed out from
Time to time
We can be changed
We can be saved
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Aleksei Ieshkin on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
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