'round
I have to leave today
if only
for a while
like
his mother leaving for a walk
around the Hundred Acre Wood
and he asking before
would you like
me
to go with you with her replying
no
but when I return
greet me as if
I had been away
a long time
no mother or
another
to whom to say
that
to
or hear that from
though
needing to leave
also
to return
in a later hour
of this day
having gone around
c(hristopher robin) l couch
Christopher Milne tells the story of the walk and the question in The Enchanted Places. This Christopher better known as Christopher Robin. (And I nearly forgot mentioning that his name was how I got my own. Christopher, not Robin but for him, anyway, my mom really liking the stories.)
photograph by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash
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
c l couch
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
c l couch
photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash
Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival 2018
of John 3:17
for God
did not send
the child of God
into
the world
to condemn the world
but that
through the child
the world
and all the world
might
be saved
for God so loved
c l couch
photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Babe
x
Advent 4
That sometimes falls on Christmas Eve
Smooshing our liturgies
Though sometimes it is Christmas day
For greater smooshing
x
We light four candles now
From sources
Matches
Friction inside brass cases
Long metal sticks with flames
Other candles
x
There is a fifth candle
Waiting
Which doesn’t stand for anything
No merging of symbols
Or guesses at tradition
It is Christ’s candle
It means Christ
Alone
x
The baby born at last
Who came to term
In Advent
And in that
A hurrying of the season
One month
While eight months somehow
Happened somewhere else
In ordinary time
Perhaps
A mother
Would know how to count
x
But Christ
Soon will be born
Another season
Lasting something like
Twelve days
Twelve days to celebrate
To sing like angels
With the fact they sing
Though nothing
Like their song
Their heavenly keys
Supernal rhythms
x
So this is the last
Before he comes
Anticipation’s nearly done
And (nearly) all our candles lit
We know
We are illumined
As much as we shall have
Before arrival
This final lesson
Only
x
In that
Christ arrives
Christ arrives
Not only once a year
Though once
As a liturgical
Baby
x
There’s
Dedication
While the rest of the time
He’s pretty grown
With grown-up things to say
x
Though he elevates
Other children
In the notion that
Innocence
Unworldly honesty
Make the way to lead
As well as
How to live
x
So ask for blessings
On the child
For we might not know
Where God ends
And the human part begins
x
There might be surprise
And pain
To have come into the world
The way as all
Like us
Who arrive
And now to live here
With us
For us all
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Anna Vander Stel on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
West Newton Township in my county
x
a child has died
been killed
by accident
we trust
train tracks
speed and mass
of the bulk
that must move upon
x
and my heart is hurt
and is not yours
it is
I know
the child is ours
our cosmic possession
we must return
to God
from a faulty Earth
with misdirected people
on it
x
would that we say
and more than say
the child
must be safe
x
no blame around
but all around
this is a sad equality
and now
inclusion
for the mourning
and resolve
to keep our children better
so they go to God
at
the proper time
that God would rather
allow
say
in ninety years
or so
x
c l couch
x
x
Cumberland County village mourns child killed in mid-morning train accident
WALNUT BOTTOM – Tragedy struck this little village in western Cumberland County Thursday when a Norfolk Southern freight train struck and killed a 15-month-old boy who’d wandered onto the tracks that pass by the rear of his family’s backyard.
The boy was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival by ambulance at UPMC Carlisle Hospital.
Cumberland County Coroner Charley Hall declared the case an accidental death, but said an autopsy will be conducted next week to confirm a precise cause of death. Pennsylvania State Police said they are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident.
The boy’s identity was not immediately released by authorities, but neighbors and acquaintances of the family said he was the youngest of four children.
x
photo by Andrew Karn on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Dreaming the Mushroom Cloud
x
I suppose it’s because
I knew the movie
Would appear today
And got me thinking
Stirring something
Too
As a surprise
x
I dreamed I saw the cloud
The mushroom cloud
Rising above the horizon
Of the tress
Near the place where I was standing
And I knew
Inescapably
The effects would be upon us
x
I could be atomized
The irony of the name for the bomb
As a result
(in addition to the cause)
Or I could be set
In winter
The awful winter without food
Or safety
And were the people inside
In the building near me
(in the dream)
Ready for a new companionship
Survival from the blast
And all the blasts
And then I woke
x
It’s been a while
Since I had a dream like that
I don’t think
Since childhood
When I looked up on summer days
To wonder if a silver missile might
Arc out of the blue
And toward the ground
x
No matter what the season
Counting
It was the famous cold time
For a war
x
C L Couch
x
x
(I think it’s today that the film Oppenheimer premieres)
x
Photo by Alen Smola on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
excerpt from “The Heart”
x
I was a child who
Wanted to
Escape
And on rainy days
I sat in a chair next to a lamp
In the room saved for
Official company
And rather than
All that
I took the quiet
And went into books
With
Stories that saved
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Amaan Ali on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Mom’s Day
x
When she was alive
And I had friends on campus
I got notes from her
From time to time
And a card on Mother’s Day
Sometimes for Father’s Day
She could get confused
She was a cat
Who when sick
Or when we were moving
I brought to my office
To let her sleep under the desk
Or rub my face
When I was working
As was her way
x
And to make friends of peers
Students
Even the cleaning staff
Who were friendly people
So was she
She couldn’t be a mother
But she let me
From time to time
Be a mother
(also a father, keeper, friend, target)
And sent me notes and cards
For Mom’s Day
And other reasons
When I was on campus
And had friends there
While she was a good friend
A cat-child
In all places
x
x
happy Mom’s Day to all moms
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Valeria Zoncoll on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
Recent Comments