ides of December
(3 poems)
north time
(5:42 a.m.)
still so dark
still
so dark
remembering that it’s blue
is
all
practicing memory of daytime as
it’s
taken away
creeps back with the solstice
yet
we believe it is brief time
with
victory enough
in
enduring days
again
again like these
to the north
to
the far south
prayer while frankly things are bad
(though regardless could be daily)
God
please
forgive me
help me
in
your timing
I know
though endurance with some endings
along the way
would
really serve
you know
and
of course
you do
you love
you know
you help
and if invisible while suffering
is real
and so there seems a differences
help me in this
to undeceive my senses
to
that the paradox of evidence unseen
and even
life by death
is
understood
and with embraces
here
nonetheless looking elsewhere
is it
forward or more directions
fully everywhere
at last
the past few days at Brown and in Sydney
(and the other places)
to have lost someone through murder
to have lost a child
a lover
or a friend
or to know there is an absence
a gap in what we knew
with health
was
a totality of presence
school of learners
place where faithful gather
any place that should
be easy to walk
through
where normal then became
punishing
insane
so much innocence
and
cowardice
not perfection in the victims
maybe worse for being any
one of
us
walking
breathing
now the smallest valley
sliced
in smooth land
where we had been walking even
if
absently yet
side by side
now only gone
and
in way that was horror and
now
how must we remaining
get on
because we must
we’re called
to
and we must call ourselves
and yet
to face all there is to face
to look within
then
at the world
in
what must be a teary way and then
once scoured
from
the empty place
c l couch
At about 4:20 p.m. on a cold Rhode Island Saturday, a message from Brown University flashed up on cellphones all over campus — everyone should run or take cover from an active shooter.
Hours later, horror erupted again, on the other side of the globe, as two gunmen sprayed bullets into a Hanukkah celebration on iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney.
At Brown, two students were killed and nine others were injured. At least 15 people died at Bondi Beach, and more than three dozen remain in the hospital.
. . .
(CNN)
photo by Nikola Johnny Mirkovic on Unsplash
church time December 7
moonlight was used
against
its use
as there was preparation
near
sunlight
to betray as well
on
early Sunday morning
when order
and white uniforms
were torn
apart
and life a tissue by attack
and
everything exploded
while ripped-up men and women
with
children close by
tried to shoot back and
also
run
to stations
and to homes
the attack upon our useful soil
and beautiful
while
we thought
to live there and none
should
bother us by might
and
arrangement
and yet
and yet
empire and
democracy
too much to reconcile
too
divergent for our values
so we fought
with destruction
as the theme and total
the result
so
the agenda
and the strategy
the chaos of attacking
on all
sides
and so the President and Congress
said
this is officially declared
and so to the west
and east
and so many points on Earth
to
call the war
world
second Sunday in Advent
when
the candle’s lit for
peace
and on that Sunday
eighty-four
years the count
the awful
lively
living and the dying there
and then
and how might all politics and factions
reconcile
only
by tragedy
and where there is alliance
or
appreciation
now
new fronts are drawn
between
within
and these days
the radical
it seems
to keep value in the sacrifice
done
and remembered
and to apply
as we tend to think in reverse
reminding
and if owning
of
the greatest sacrifice
become
the saving doctrine
remembered by the seasons
then
and now
c l couch
photo by Graddes on Unsplash
terminus
it is finished
and
it wasn’t
but
to Jesus in that
time
it was
in that moment of unliving
it was done
and to be
plain
there was no more
and
who knows of surprise
from God in
having
or unhaving this
the finality
of death
not
to feel the body released
from iron and wood
to be
taken down and carried
who knows where
at first
though finally to stone
small space rolled shut as all of
space rolled
shut
in all systems everywhere
it might seem to
us
and to angels likely
and who knows
but
to God as well
even some knowing
might not
shut out the pain and then the nothingness
to have
in all the heavens
as with us on
Earth
we had our prophecies but forgot
or forgetting to believe
and
did it happen right away
the resolution
and
the glory
and was hell harrowed
right away
or did the sleep without sensation
go a while
so
it was death
complete
even more so than our own
though the moment did arrive
when
the stone and
the space inside the stone
were
not enough and there might have been fire
in release
and
so to heaven
and on Earth
so much a timeline
we don’t
know
though we believe
and who knows how difficult for God
who gave up being God
to
live and
die mortally
totally
by our count for three days
and then
c l couch
photograph by Lucrezia De Agrò on Unsplash
on snowy evenings
an early evening when
sleet pings on the window pane
behind me
while I write
and try to write
to say something not likely
pithy
yet a touch
maybe to a point
and to
confess it
or to let
the setting like
the season stand alone
the dark and cold and icy rain I know
and thinking of a friend’s
father
who died last night
surrounded by faithfulness
it seems
and yet
I’m sad for her
and maybe I should let the night before
and the night behind me
do the talking
now
about
what feels separate and
in faith
might not be
a union shown by fact
someday
c l couch
photo by Anastasia Zolotukhina on Unsplash
Let It Go
I should write early
Then release it
Each piece a journey
If a stroll
And like a tapestry
There’s thread
And there’s a loom
Something
On which something else
Is framed
The work
The weave
Go out in directions
And make patterns
And there are
The damaged parts
But it’s a
Piece at last
For all our senses
And
Overall
The sense in things
[here’s an example, first thing out most recent session, not revised to death—or life if it can’t reach]
Consideration of the Afterlife and Through-Life
So what happens next
The short answer is that we don’t know
The long answer is
We hear things
Saint Paul tells
There shall be no pain
And our bodies shall be perfect
Perfected
That is
Through some sort of transformation
Some new alignment of
The spirit and the flesh
We have stories from
Those who have
Gone
And then come back
And I don’t know
These stories
Seem
To go along with ancient texts
Of many traditions
Many followings
And
Do we translate somehow
Right away
And where might judgment be
How might it
Happen
Christians say there shall be
Advocacy
In what transpires
And that we could
Be secure of heaven
Not for being
Good
In an unerring way
But for belief
Solely by belief
Sola Dei
Sola Christus
Other groups have other ways
To understand and have
The same
To be respectful and to say
Sola-something else
Sola-someone else
We don’t know what we don’t know
But it seems
We do know things
Though it’s all
So abstract
And invisible
What happens
And criteria
Could be clearer
And frankly sensible
As in
Assuring to the senses
That we have
It all would be
Frankly
Less frightening
As well
But then our will would have no place
It seems
And for the loss of Eden
It also seems
That what we choose
Does matter
And there might be no higher stakes
In fact
Sigh
I wish it were all easier
Though even angels
Without will
We say
Manage to rebel
So all things choose
Perhaps
Nature chooses
In the changing seasons
In responding to
New
And ongoing circumstances
So try to believe
Appears to be the way
Do well
Do good
Because it’s better
More uplifting
More constructive
Evidencing of itself
The better way
Thinking
And feeling better
Too
Children
Believe
For we are all the children
And belief is our
Incumbency
Our legacy
Our lore
The words of God to tell
And evidence in
Nature
Clear enough for being made
By God
C L Couch
Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash
“And in death they were not divided. 2 Sam.1.23” (for translation programs)
12 February 2024
today is
Lincoln’s birthday
as I recall
most years
uncongealed
from the
single
Presidents Day
and
yes
ten days from now
is Washington’s
Lincoln was
from Kentucky
as was I
though much taller
when he grew
much taller
about everything
adding that hat
for greater
height
he split rails
the kind for fences
I believe
maybe to be ready for
a fenced-in nation
he took us
through the worst
making mistakes
I’m sure
and losing children
maybe
tens of thousands
of these
whose names
might as well have been
Edward
William
Thomas who went by
Tad
the ones who died then
and the others
later on
as
a tragic legacy
and in two days we’ll celebrate
romantic love
which has me recall
the story of
how Lincoln first encountered
Mary Todd
saying he’d like to dance
with her
in the worst way
and then
proceeding to prove that
and she endured
poorly
as the war happened
and then
once it was over
she lost her family
viscerally
terribly
one child remained
as company
for her
remaining days
the President would turn
215 today
which means
he wouldn’t
but in remembrance
where his years
as in heritage
are eternal
he made mistakes
I’m sure
but he was whom
we needed
for splitting fences
in and of
themselves
the biggest
worst metaphors
barriers
having been made
by slavery
with other interests
from the states
that having been decided
in a sibling war
could turn out be
the U.S.A.
a single entity
imperfect
but so far indivisible
again
c l couch
photo by Ron Graham on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Halfway Home
x
The sacrifice
Of your shed blood
He said
On our behalf
In prayer
His words the surrogates
A shadow
Of the death itself
x
Horribly
A bleeding body
Shed of its spirit
At the last
A life too pure
A sacrifice
For us
x
Yet there it was
In expiation
Half redemption
For our sins
x
The weight of everything
That hates
Crushing his body down
Pushing out his spirit
On to Hades
Or Valhalla
To Gehenna
Or to Sheol
As it’s understood
To name it
x
Half the promise
The brutal
Ugly
Barbarous part
Complete
And it is over
He said it was finished
Maybe it is
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
Five through the Ocean’s Gate
x
I shirk
From contemplating this
I love the water
Love the ocean
Love the walk along a portion
Of its rim
At early morning
x
I’ve never been out far
No cruise
Or transatlantic anything
To look out
At waves without horizon
When there is the slightest haze
Along our edges
As if the clouds
Were now
Rimless warnings
Of an endless
World
Along the top
Let alone to think about
Below
x
They are there now
It seems
Their bodies
Anyway
They died in that below
Circuitous to
The wreck of all the wrecks
One of the sisters
Whose names were too large
A hubris
For an invitation
From the trickster gods
x
Five of them
Five of us
Someday officialdom
Will offer numbers with
Technical reasons
For us outside
The families
Conclusion
So we can move on
To other stories
To think about them
Once a year
Perhaps
x
Exploration
Research
Play
All are valid reasons
Human reasons
To go down
Into the blue
Though without expectation
I imagine
That there would be
No returning
x
Sorry
For your loss
We must do better
Say it months from now
And years
With meaning
And with safer
Measures
Though adventure
Is a chance
And cannot change
From that
x
C L Couch
x
x
Missing Titanic Sub Crew Killed after “Catastrophic Implosion”
Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Rob Picheta, Aditi Sangal, Elise Hammond, Matt Meyer, Tori B. Powell, Mareen Chowdhury
https://www.cnn.com/americas/live-news/titanic-missing-sub-oceangate-06-22-23/index.html
x
Photo by Inés Álvarez Fdez on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Oracle
x
x
Pent-Up
x
I wish the chemicals
Flowed more freely
Is it that they pass through
Glands
And mine rest in the body
Without balance
x
I was calm
And then adrenaline released
Caused me to jump
Around
You know
Inside
x
And now I contemplate my day
And its appointments
And could do without
The set-to
Consideration the expectations
Guessing really
Going on
Inside
x
x
Better Living
x
I never experimented
Never toked
Never smoked a cigarette
Never tried
What came within
The colored patches
x
Now a grown-up
I get pills
I know the younger
Get them
Too
And apologize
x
Prognosis
And prescriptions
It is the way
Buter’s way for our flesh
With what imposes
From the testament
About
Three-score and seven
x
x
That’s All
x
But
Lord
There are all the
Hundreds of years
Of patriarchs
Of Eve
Of Sarah
The subsumption of
Enoch
Elijah
x
Too many dying young
Through
Murder
Flood
And war
And then
The many who exceed
The formula
Citing classic wisdom
x
How long shall you go
(that’s you)
Or I
Our pets
Our people
Or our nations
Chronology
x
We might play with time
In elevated ways
Einstein
Velocity
The vehicles to get there
And such
x
Slows down things
Perhaps
While we are fast
And yet the direction’s
Always forward
Because that’s how the story plays
And toward which
The ending rests
And waits
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Aleksandr Barsukov on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
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