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dream

undeferred

undeferred

maybe the universe
is better noise
except for that half hour from heaven

otherwise
a harmony
of spheres

of cubes
planes on or off axis
axes
and
dimensions

better when we’re talking
even better when
we’re singing

that is
anything by way of music
mountains as instruments
moons as notes
on staffs of
interplanetary compositions

let dreaming become
utterance
instantly encouraged

no deferring here
or there
at first
at last

c l couch

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?

. . .

—Langston Hughes

photo by Benjamin Chambon on Unsplash

so far, the line-spacing remains uniform, no matter how I’d like to separate the elements on the page (and it seems I’m needing to reformat often, part or all, sigh)

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not safe but good

not safe but good

sigh
what’s to keep expression of anything
from ranting in
frustration
even to sound virtuous
and
winsome

as dark forces look attractive
by temptation
as
a strategy for falling

for knocking down by fear or envy
or both
as it is

and yet there is good in the world
not
that it’s good but there are pockets
there are corners
there is
here and there with some
and could be
more
to let out hounds who yap for joy of running
farther out
and
further on

really
there is
love
that nature in the smaller ways
has taught

and is the marker and
the guide
could seem like that signpost up
ahead
or
not a twilight zone so much

rather the lamppost into
Narnia

c l couch


photo by Giacomo Leandri on Unsplash

1

what comes shadow dreamed

what comes shadow dreamed
waking life add shaping time
lamp dream to vision

c l couch


Psalm 119:105

photo by Prashant Gupta on Unsplash

0

Bilbo’s dream

Bilbo’s dream

and
in the dream
the hobbit wandered room
to room
looking for something
and not finding
it
and if a dream is working out by night
what
we can’t solve by day
then
what is it the hobbit wanted that
took a dream of blank spaces to find
well
to find what

or is a need expressed
to be on the move somehow
somewhere
maybe
to a lonely mountain
lonely
as his life
to look for something there

not so much treasure since
he’s well-to-do
but
the story of the treasure
then the quest
to find it
dealing with adventure on the way
and clear evil toward
the end

and to be done
everything rescued
deserving rescue
and
the halfling goes home
now out of
but having to tell
the story

won’t be as lonely anymore
with
mementos and
memories turned into
pages
and who knows what friendships
so to keep if neighbors go
on
thinking
he’s a strange one
anyone with Took then Tookishness
inside might disappear perhaps
a while

and now
he’s returned
Bilbo does disappear
or so
it seems from time to time and now
we hear of a big party in the making and
those with young imaginations
might recall
the wizard who arrived
before
and launched fireworks with
shapes both to fright
and
well
delight

everything dreamworthy now if with
some nightmares
added from the unanticipated parts
of stories
which
he might not have thought
of
even hearing at his own unexpected party
that dragons by day yet
terrify

note

then dreams of home might not
come across
so confusing now
since
he knows where he is
at last

or will Bilbo wander
time to time
through Bag End in waking dreams
still
looking as
any might look for something
and
not find it
yet

c l couch


The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (Chapter 4—and I’m writing from recall, since my copies of The Hobbit got mildewed; so where I might get text-details wrong, I’m sorry; where it’s interpretation, I cannot apologize except in the classic way of apologies, which is to explain)

photo by bypalm on Unsplash

0

Undeferment


Undeferment

What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?

“Harlem,” Langston Hughes

I am poor
I guess
I have the words
And some temerity
(rubbed
with facts)
To say

And I wonder
If the poor
Can dream or
May

Because dreams require
Some funding
To live as vision
And idea
In the daytime
Or
After sleep whenever

Some apparatus
Finally
That might build something
Even with reason
And approval

Yet
After food
That is
And safe water
Shelter
And compulsory education

Voting

And some will say
We shouldn’t
Dream

Citing something like
Chains of being
Or in spirit
Shall have a realm
Not here
For sure

Rather
Then
To pass a rule to take
Those dreams
Our dreams
Away

Citing
Some might say
The classes as distinctions
Though we have only made them
Out of balsam

And so not in the realm
Of real
Lasting places
But only signs to keep
The oligarchy ready
And plutarchy
As well

Because
Oppression manufactured
By the way
Has begged our revolutions

But peace
Better ideas
Should prevail
From all
Of us
And all of us allowed
The dream

To have it
Work it
And to play
With
Only barricades
That any might encounter
While
Waking

So we may all
Dream dreams
Asleep
Alert
Without deferment

C L Couch

“’In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy . . .”

Peter talking to a crowd, citing Joel
Acts 2:17(a)
NIV


Photo by Kostiantyn Li on Unsplash

1

How We Might Be Made


How We Might Be Made

In a cloistered class
Someone could
Ask
Maybe
Inspired by
A word

Where do we live
Inside
And how might that relate
To what’s outside

Say
(say)
How do we
Live inside
In a war
And then after
If alive
In a time of troubled
Unbelieving peace

Inside
While
Waiting for what happens
To break and ruin
Outside
Once again

How does we prize
Our own
Ambition
Against all the things
In the world
That
Take the pursuit of
Dreams
Away

How do we act our dreams
After war
Even a war with nature
Though
War with each other
With humanity
Seems worse

But after trauma
Living trauma

Then in such a group
To begin
A response

Well
(well)
We hope
We can

C L Couch


Photo by Julia Rekamie on Unsplash

0

time and temporality


time and temporality

(for dreamers and for planners)



we look

we hear

we wonder

as we wander

like the song

out under the sky

or being still

having gone nowhere

perforce

or by design

the need to have some time

an hour or a day

in which we do not move

but traverse everything

inside

and inside



where shall we go

what shall we

hear

what shall we

see

what shall we smell

or get a taste of

what is the other sense

what shall we taste



though we may

also travel throughout

time

slip into other states of being

as our possibilities

visit other worlds

that we make

for moments

that never happened

though we may go there

for the possibility

the changes

the resolutions

never having taken place

except there

in what we visit

on the inside

that time and life

under the sun

never allowed



waking issues

that are not solved

out here



but we should

do this

this is good

a friend of mine might say

about ideas

when we planned things

together

in the day



this added time to dream

might engender

visions

three dimensions

only

but good experiences for

our constituencies

starting with

those of

one

then two



and who’s to say

the dimension of the spirit

or the spirits

will not be joining us



the outer life

the inner life

somehow touched and satisfied

through dreaming and

then

through waking



c l couch





I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,

how Jesus the Savior did come for to die

for poor ordinary people like you and like I;

I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.

adapted by John Jacob Niles



photo by Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash

"Sunset in Vancouver"



0

Dreaming the Mushroom Cloud

(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

4

Twilight Narrative

(x = space)

x

x

Twilight Narrative

x

Long dream this morning

The kind when I wake

Then fall asleep again

About Bill

We took a trip together

Which we had never done

Some kind of blazing thing

A celebration of

The Midwest

Though we knew each other

In school

In the East

x

I got mad

And sad

Because I wanted to talk

With Bill about something

Happening to me

That I didn’t like my life

In Harrisburg

Wanting to say so

Wanting encouragement

Even advice

And he’d said nothing

x

I challenged him on that

A while later

(long dream)

And we got nowhere with it

We could perform

But we could not talk

Not for real

x

I woke up, realizing that

Bill would not go on another

Trip with me

And that was doubly frustrating

Mad

And sad

And then I remembered

That Bill

Had died

A brief while ago

x

My college roommate gone

With earthly friendship

Following

And I am sad

And sad

And sad

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

x

Bill liked root beer, Dad’s; root beer is brown and dreams are wavy

x

5

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