A Psalm of Species Complaint
Up high
Down low
We
Freeze
We burn
Our efforts
Rise
And useless
Fall
Or stay down
To
Begin with
An idea
On the table
That might be forthright
But politics
As we
Know
Politics
Destroys
Where is the comfort
Cooling
Warming
Fit for seasons
Which
In time
Or place
On
Earth
Inspires
There is
Something about
Grass
Withering
Though really
It is us
Our synapses
Our growth
Our
Faith inside
And for each other
To give a world
A chance
An opening
Into
The crying needs
The cosmos
Can take in
(when we hear)
And
Why not
Us
Forgive
Inspire
Fund
Allow
Take part
In what comes after
Consider
Now
Of whom
To ask all
This
C L Couch
Isaiah 40:8
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Loss Is Great
(a fantasy)
1
Loss is great
So in loss
Like a song
I wander
And
I wonder
I’m sure the loss in heaven
Was felt greatly
More so
Maybe
Than the war that followed
That goes on
Still
Perhaps
What do we know
Of time and strategy
Among
Timeless
(and all-strategic)
Beings
Will it be over
When
Revelation says so
And how much is this war
Our war
It seems
For lack of orders
We do not fight
In this
And yet
Something like effects
Are always with us in
Mortality
That is
Temptation
Even falls
Great falls
Some of us
Take
And how much influence
How much willfulness
Decided
How much
Or all
Of it
Person or demon
Devil
Behind it all
Deceiving
That seems to be its job
So is the war all
Around us
Because
I don’t think we’re training
For it
I don’t think we’re supposed to be
Fighting
In it
Meaning
I mean
How could we
2
Orders
Above
Has me thinking
Order
Then orderly
(the noun more than
the adverb)
And might I serve as
An orderly
Behind
The line
Fixing
(helping to fix)
Wounded angels
Why
That would be
Wonderful service
Yes
The wonder
In the angels
But the wonder in
The service
For I could not fight for lack
Of wings
Or blades
Or
You know
An unlimited kind of strength
Yet
I could serve this way
To fix the angels
Then with trench-deep regret
Know
They return
And should a demon
Hurt
Come to the table
Then we fix it
Too
Because in love
There can be no other
Craft
No other option
To apply
Though
When repaired
It
Too
Returns
Maybe tries to hurt us
As it begins
I don’t know what protections
Might be
Afforded orderlies
From Earth
(or moon or Mars
depending on the length
of battle)
Maybe no succor
Whatsoever
Since
Triage
Would be for
Celestial soldiers
Of all orders
First
And there’s the word
Orders again
And maybe I wake up
To hear the cry
Or is it
Near my ear
The mourning dove
Through
Glass
And I wake
To mortal pain’s
Return
C L Couch
(one allusion is to “I Wander as I Wonder,” a song by John Jacob Niles)
Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
the waiting sky
(I know it sounds like a Western)
the sky looks white
uninteresting
at least when it rains
the sky
is interesting
as well as
what’s happening on land
I don’t mean
torrential
I mean civil
as in the good rain
we need
that sometimes cleans the air
or it seems that way
on breathing
outside
after
so it might rain today
(the sky
is tentative)
rain for sustenance and interest
c l couch
photo by Fiona on Unsplash
Earth for You
I hope it is
A good day for you and
Better
From a corner
Of the upper hemisphere
And
To the left
Please
I greet you
Nearby those who are
Neighbors
In geography
While far away
Peers
In another way
It’s nice
To have the world as one
If only we believed the
One shape from the station
Beheld
With
So many parts
Of wonder
Bound by round
And also sinuous
Sometimes jagged
Lines
But without borders
Of our own
None of the barriers we make
Shone through
So that
From space
They’re only in our mind
And the way
We make agenda
Peace on Earth
Seasonless the fact
While Earth
Keeps it blue-green
With red only in spots
Where we could
Rush repair
Or having kept away
In
The first place
The open spaces
Underneath cloud movements
Or
Left-open deserts
Without cover
The openness
So much an invitation
Though the shifts in clouds
Write one
As well
Come down
And if you’re here already
Make a world
So that everyone
James-Weldon-Johnson-like
Might say
After all the work
“That’s good!”
Before
All of us might have
The party
Of the planet
C L Couch
Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash
Wondrous
I love you
Says the Lord
Which is
Why
I made you a world
With stars around it
And isn’t it
Grand
The starlight
To give you something
Wonderful
To dream
C L Couch
Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash
Love’s Labors
I rock
While cross-legged
On the bed
I think it helps
To stretch out small parts
Of my lower back
I think
I breathe
Like thinking
I am quiet
Letting the world go around me
While I think about
The very thing
The world
All its troubles
All the better possibilities
With
Faith
Hope
And love
Sorry if that’s trite
As I should sound cleverer
Uniquer
In a poem
But these are the answers
Have been for two thousand years
Reflecting older teaching
And the laws
From Deuteronomy
That now
You don’t have to read
Though it wouldn’t hurt you
(much)
To know that love has come from God
And was the goodness in creation
And the reason
For first promises
Even for provisions when
We were cast out of Eden
Though the sweat of labor
For the man
And the real sweat of labor
For the woman
Wasn’t fun
And maybe still within the garden
We’d have worked
We’d have birthed
Without all the sweat
And all the pain
That we’ve learned to make
Philosophy
And a marketplace
To say that sweat and pain are actually
Good things
And you should buy our
Reasoning
Along with our products
And our memberships
But then
As far as relegation
Goes
Why not accept
And make the most of things
We must work
We must bear children
As we do
And while the process hurts
The product of pay
Is all right
And certainly
What comes with woman’s labor
Is a source
For joy
Delight in the present
While remarkable has happened
Toward the future
And maybe God and angels
Sweat and even
Hurt with us
Through everything
And there are
Times
When it’s hard
When I imagine we don’t care about
Divine sponsorship
Maybe after
Maybe not
Though we could thank the Lord
And the angels
When the job goes well
When a child is born
And for the mother
We work under a curse in all endeavors
Which sounds terrible
But that’s
You know
The way things are
‘Til dawning
Of the new age
When all pain is tabulated
Health restored
Hurt dismissed
And then
All the apologies in heaven
Divine
With what was mortal
May begin
C L Couch
Photo by eze cmf on Unsplash
Red Sky at Morning
(today is World Environment Day)
We acknowledge
That we breathe
And
Do we breathe
That there is water we may treat
To drink
Because most of it’s unsafe
We could catalogue
The plant and animal
Species
We will have killed
Today
In the name of consumer
Consumption and
Development
And how large is the ozone layer
It’s been decades of
Awareness
And it could be better
The layer
Our awareness
How blue the sky
And shall we keep its blueness
Or trade
The blue of Earth for
Scarlet
Mars
Once we have finished
Here
And with what is left
Go there
C L Couch
Photo by Ryan Arnst on Unsplash
Brave Peace
It’s Friday
I don’t want
To talk about the war
Ain’t gonna study war no more
Especially
The war inside
That causes all the troubles
On
The outside
We let the inside
Get away
With so much
Nonsense that is
Nonsense
That gets
To destroy so much
That we were counting on
The way
We count on
Things
Such as air
And sometimes
Heaven help us
Boredom
Why do we let
Invisible
Get away with so much
To say
There’s a war on
And it means so much
Because
A life is gone
And then another
In a heartbeat
Save there is
No more
A heartbeat
And everything’s in pieces
Gruesome pieces
(if you are not
there
but have read All Quiet
on the Western
Front then
you know something)
And also
Walls
Machine parts
That we counted on
Like air
And I guess
That is the thing
There’s no more breathing
Or there’s
Barely breathing
While the world after
Might remain
Quiet
For a half an hour
Or so
And then resume
A way to war
(to study war)
Or maybe
With diplomacy
Or blooded on
The face
eventuality
A way
To rebuild
After war
Though too often
Then
To knock it down
Again
As if hell’s game
Should never end
Except
In final judgment
When the children
(of all ages)
Of beatitude
Shall own
Peace-making again
Outside
The sermon
For the fact
Of sight and sound
Of war
And having chosen
Anyway
The one
Not taken
As the narrow way
And shall there be an echo
For an echo
Inside heaven
And on
New Earth
I don’t know
Here’s one
I note
And now another
To be counting
Or
Not counting
Might be overwhelming
All the believing gates
Regardless
C L Couch
Photo by Shamoil on Unsplash
“delicate decision”
(https://leafandtwig.org/2024/04/14/delicate-decisions/)
to decide between
winter or spring
and
it must be spring
but what if
the decision goes the other way
what if
spring’s not ready
and winter coldness
might feel grand
a little longer
given quarters of the Earth
already turned
and hot
or maybe to rest a while longer
in the freeze
in caves
in trees
and beneath the ground
letting seeds build up
their inner strength
to shoot
and rise
through the crusts of soil
to find in time
the nurture
of the sky
so let the new
be moved on a little
maybe a month or so
a scandal to our calendars
though the big negotiations
shall go
between
the tilt of Earth
and the truculence
of nature here
that wants to wait
a while
c l couch
this verse, undulating for good or ill in form and content, is inspired by the post on 14 April 2024 of the excellent blog by Catherine Arcolio—“Leaf and Twig” that presents evocative photographs and text, both as expressions and comments about nature (thank you, Catherine)
photo by Jodie Righos on Unsplash
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