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Earth

Gestation

(x = space)

x

x

Gestation

x

I don’t know

It’s Friday

It’s raining

We need the rain

The clouds have little texture

At least from here

x

Nothing much to look at

A wet street

Spatter on the windows

We need the rain

x

There is war

In Ukraine

More death today

More wounded

And in Sudan

We’re drawing up our diplomats

Telling tourists

To go home

Choose another

(for now)

x

We know there’s trafficking

Where

Here

Of drugs

Of people

Contraband things that

Otherwise

Could be all right

x

But you know

People

Never people

Sold

Which means someone is

Buying

Where

Here

x

Struggles for freedom’s

Hard enough

On good days in

(relative)

Safe places

x

And they

The captured

Kidnapped

Bought and sold

Are not all

But tend to be

Children

Women

Who

We know

Struggle for freedom

Already

Hard enough

More than should be

Enough

x

On Friday I could cry

But the sky

Provides

As if behooving

I could say

Nature weeps for me

As in

Instead of me

And that

Nature weeps for all of us

In distress

But it is nature’s

Well

Nature

x

That’s all

And that’s enough

The rain

Provides

Other good things

x

But I’m thinking now

There should be

Laws

For freedom

To work within one’s

Bearing

Bearing

Who we are

What can we do

x

And freedom of our bodes

Politic

Personal

That many of us

Think we have

x

Let’s check the laws of nature

And our charters

I think it’s there

Many

Freedoms

Already

There

Officially

And by

Who made rain

x

We may read wet leaves

Or our own pages

Fearfully

Consider

Wonderfully made

And what

To do

With what and whom

When made

When with accountability

Co-making

x

Rain

Tears

Freedoms

Fridays

Notions

Not like the old

Department-store

Departments

(but) Full-blown

Like glass

Full-grown

Into ideas

x

We do

Need these

A good weekend

Please

For you

You deserve it

It’s deserved

x

Does rain mean freedom

I don’t think so

Sometimes

It’s relaxing to watch

To hear

Sometimes

It’s fearful

The median response

Might have something to do

With inconvenience

Maybe this is part

Part Friday

Too

Of freedom

x

C L Couch

x

x

Psalm 139:14

x

Photo by Sharon Pittaway on Unsplash

x

Imaginaria

Imaginaria

(insight, sci-fi, speculation)

x

x

Machine Life

x

Ain’t devices grand

Until they’re not

And how long is

A generation, anyway

Things work

They slow down

There is no message

Though the problems could be

Indications as they are

In old age

The old age of us,

That is

x

Machine life

Oxymoron

Maybe

Maybe with A-I for real

The opposite are nearer

To the same thing

In us all

Man and machine

They (ubiquitous) used to say

But let the women try

All shall be well

As a woman said

x

x

note

x

Saint Julian of Norwich

(we ubiquitous do not know her name—maybe her cat sussed it through any sublimation)

x

x

Visitors

x

They landed

And found a plethora

Of DNA

On our machines

On the insides

Even blood

Inside

Who were these people, then,

Was soon discovered

Helixes reconstructed

And their features

And their colors

And the shapes of

So many of them

x

The machines they talk to

And brought them here

In fact

Shall interpret

And reconstitute

Everything

Planetside

As well as

From the things in orbit

That have been falling

While a few remain

For boarding

Or retrieval

x

This was a race

Or races

Many kinds of one race

They covered themselves

For the atmospheres

And seasons

Up to four of these

It seems

They were preventive

Though mostly reactive,

Waiting for a crisis

Then responding

x

There might have been those

(translating documents

reshaping the shaping

of their flesh

and all the things they made

for prosperity

or expression)

Who tried in sciences

And arts

To say something

Warn them about

How to live

And what might be coming

x

Well,

Library these

Revive some as we can

Or may

They had the rudiments

A-I and androids

We can work off of these

As templates

The name

Many references to ground

And we have encountered

Worlds named water,

Fire, and air

Smoke and fog

Pollution

And clarity

x

x

Prophecy

x

Three kinds

I was taught this

I’ve thought about it

(these)

Maybe I’ve done some

Merging

On the inside

All about it, too

x

There is the kind

That foretells the future,

Which is the kind

We think about

The most

It seems

x

There is the kind

That foretells the present

That tells the monarchs

There is invasion

Here

Or a great fire there

x

Then there is the kind

That interprets

The present

With insight

And a voice

That can serve the queen

And should they arrange it

Assist today’s administration

Well

And overall

Overall

And well

x

But then prophets

Often get into trouble

Even in democracies

Who are they

Why should we listen

Are they saying

What we want

To hear

Is prosperity promised

And God’s approval

Because God is in our side

Because

We say so

x

Go to the launchpads

Go to the modern museums

Enjoy

Be warned

Grow

Live better

x

As for disagreements

Or outraged

If not ignorant

(usually ignorant)

Confusion

Well,

Weather that

And try not to burn

The saints

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Nathan Duck on Unsplash

x

Bad Day at Third Rock

(x = space)

x

x

Bad Day at Third Rock

x

Today there is a war

People try to live

Without attention

To or from

The state

x

There is a wildfire

Eruptions from volcanos

Storms rage

Earth splits

As if on revenging

Or indifference

x

There is

Addiction

Other ways we live

As if to self-destruct

Like the tapes

That were for our

Entertainment

About

Impossible missions

x

Jobs are taken out

They were useful

Now they’re gone

We get divorced

From each other

As if the vows

Were not thought out the first time

And now we know

x

And there is everything

We know is inexorable

It comes on

They come on

x

All these things

All these sad things

Most of which

Destroy

And all wound

x

The apologist might be right

To say

We live in land overrun

And occupied by the enemy

x

Princes of this world

Maybe princesses

Though give credit to the

Insight

When some women lead

Thinking of Deborah

And Judith

And the chairs

Of my departments

x

The world must be more

Than all the burning

And explosiveness

Literal to Earth

Or invoked too much by hell

Inside the human heart

x

Live more

Legislate, perhaps

Consider how extreme

The campaigns

Or the intimacy

In destruction

x

Renew

Repair

Like people

Learn to know

How we are likable

‘Cause we are

x

Give Earth a chance

And when it fails

Negotiate

Again

And do the same

For humankind

Fix things

And then

Consider less addition

For the second changes

Barring

You know

Those commandments

And redemption

Even so

Give us a chance

And the cosmos

In turn

Might welcome us

x

C L Couch

x

x

(citations)

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

1 Corinthians 2:6,8

x

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

x

Salut

(x = space)

x

x

Salut

x

The day has

Gone from blue to gray

And if so

That’s what we’ll have

But still it is the day

And it is ours

Not to possess

But to keep

As in maintain

Improve

In gratitude

x

A paean to the planet

Only gods who are

Not there

Desire;

Praise is fine

But better spent

In care

Like rearing children

Or taking care of grown-ups

In their ages

(maybe six and seven

out of seven)

x

In other words,

Do well by Earth

While it is

Under you and over you

And inside you

For planets

And our home among them

Circling stars

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by redcharlie | @redcharlie1 on Unsplash

x

Familiarize

(x = space)

x

x

Familiarize

x

It’s my brother’s birthday

I have brothers

I have a sister

So do you

We’re in this together

What did Franklin say,

We hang together

Or we or each hang

Separately

x

That may sound crass

I may

A side-swipe at togetherness

I wish there were more

x

I wish there were more

Friendliness

Maybe in the Midwest

Or the South

You know

x

You know

The easy kind of

Hi, how-are-you kind

x

And for a moment

We mean it

Then move on

As if we all were brothers

And a sister

x

Our people

One by one

A crowd

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Ravi Sharma on Unsplash

Street of Delhi, India.

Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, Delhi, India

x

Take It Outside

(x = space)

x

x

Take It Outside

x

Here it’s raining

There might be

Snow and sleet around

This is a strange place

For weather

x

I’m used to weather

From the west

Occasionally, from north

Or south

Because Canada or the tropics

Has something to say

To us

x

Here and now

It comes from all directions

I mean it

All the winds

In all their courses

Everything that’s brought with them

Or left here in stillness

When they’ve gone

Or turned away

As if we could conjure

As is conjured, somehow

Rain from anywhere

The denseness in the air

Anything

The comes

And we oblige

By working through it

Who can change it?

Well, I think we better

Not this

From all directions

In our days

Eccentric seasons

But overall

x

Experts

Not deny-ers

Who have no expertise

But go for easy

Ignorance

But experts say

The world has changed

And so has living here

Everywhere

For all

x

Don’t trust science?

Go outside

And move around

Through currents

In the water

Overland

And in the air

See broken ice

Too much

And drowning islands

New channels

We have lived without

x

Take back the Northwest Passage

Keep it blocked

With righteous cold

x

Right now feel the heat

You can

It should be cool

Where is the cool?

Maybe the ozone hole

Is taking it

x

But if it’s not conspiracy

It isn’t

Not this way

Then we may say

That we have done this

And should fix it

Which doesn’t have to be extraordinary

Not perforce

And unsure seeding clouds

Or oceans

Or burning what

We don’t like

(also bears a chance)

Or firing beams

Or changing the base chemistry

Of anything

x

We simply stop

Doing certain things

And use what we know

What Earth has taught us

To fix things

Replant, feed again

In everything

Let it grow

Let Earth grow

The goodness in four elements

And if there’s

A fifth element

(you know)

Maybe it’s

Our exchange

Stupidity for sense

The right to cool

Our rightly angered children

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Javier Miranda on Unsplash

x

Sides, The Earth Is Ours (2 poems)

(x = space)

x

x

Sides

x

If God is for us

Whom shall stand against us

Well, they will

They are they

They will

These are not shadows

Except in meaning,

Haunting for a while

Our better selves and motives

x

They are there

They are ghosts

(with apologies to ghosts)

Who look as if

They are substantial

And their weapons

Somehow

Wound and even kill

x

They (with those)

Tempt us from our fate

One by one

And altogether as

People loved by God

Who have a purpose covered

For the moment

Until the glass

Is clear

x

The battle won

Life prefigures death,

Better shows the shape

Of life again

x

C L Couch

x

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

x

x

Earth Is Ours

x

Do you hate the sides?

I often do

Jerusalem and Antioch

East and west

(Istanbul and Rome

as part of that)

China and Taiwan

Town and gown

City and countryside

North and south

And much, much worse

Cain and Abel

So that only Seth remains

For legacy

One without three

x

We need our groups

We don’t need the borders

In between

We should have the joy

To have our own

The strength in defending

Everyone

The Earth

Our own

Everyone’s Earth

To own

x

What does this mean?

It’s right to ask

Since we ask

And everything is lent

And legacy is life that

We cannot gift ourselves

But there’s a promise

Prophecy

Assurance in or as

What we believe

x

What we shall own

Though frankly we must share

The bigger parts

x

C L Couch

x

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

x

Rhapsody on Umber

(x = space)

x

x

Rhapsody on Umber

x

Orange

Nothing rhymes with it

(I’ll try syringe

sometime,

hydrangea-a?)

Who cares

In the better way

It’s wonderful

And add a little brown and yellow

Is that burnt umber

The lost crayon?

x

But it’s just

Right for fall

Add red on its own

For leaves

And all the shades

For possibilities

Cast them under clouds

On a cool day

When walking

In the countryside

Is right

A quiet celebration

A season in the season

If you live around

Here

If not,

In the mind then

Or online

x

It’s fall

The very best Pooh weather

There should be

Tea and honey

For Christopher and friends

The roly bear

The donkey with the usually tail

Mama kangaroo and child

Tiger with springs

An owl of storied wisdom

As far as a child’s genius go

Long-suffering rabbit

And the pig

Small

Always counted on

Like needful stories

To be there

x

thanks for A. A. Milne and to my mom who really liked the stories

x

C(hristopher Robin) L Couch

x

x

Photo by Valentina Ivanova on Unsplash

Ukrainian Village, Чикаго, Иллинойс, США

Published on October 19, 2021

x

Warplanes

(x = space)

x

x

Warplanes

x

Almost antique word

That brings to mind

The bombers in the movies

The models on a tray

I worked on

When I was sick

x

But these are real

Metal and tall,

Plastic in the systems

Electronics

And then there are

All the explosives, loaded,

Ready to send

Here or there

x

Warplanes

That was the word used on the news

Long, official,

And romantic

Scarves and leather jackets

Indiscreet

From up so high

While on the ground

Where we live

The war takes out

Our fields and homes

While a threat

x

Maybe

Only anxiety,

A state that has its own

Consequences

In the air

On the land

Where the bombs hit

Or there are UXBs

If only in the mind

When we look up

And then look at each other

Side to side

x

Or it’s the real thing

The planes we cannot trust

Unleashing

Some kind of hell

Upon the Earth

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Kevin Den Heijer on Unsplash

x

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