2 disparate poems (one poem about church, the other about art)


church time

liturgy
a language for the church at prayer
though we can go through
the mass book
on our own

the missal
I should say

not sacred language
in whatever language
unless
there is a translation
of glossolalia
but
as far as I know
normal words
that
enable me to go through
devotion
or a service
on my own

or two could
do

and this is church
is
said
that two or three are gathered
and no more
which means I’m not
a church
by myself
and
should have company
in prayer
and worship
(prayer for worship)
if
we want this to be church
as if it’s us
there is


perhaps while in the formal feeling

again
I ask
does art come from pain
and must it
always

love what we do
do what we love
we’re told

trite
cliché
advice a trope
along with dream big
I suppose

and
we know that life is hard
the artist thrown out from the start
or
disenfranchised once
the vision’s owned
because
normalcy
without a challenge is what’s
paid for
and
not the art
except that it appear
magic
at the show
someone decides to buy it
for
colors that complement
or
honestly could be because someone
is moved
(and
the colors complement)

never pay the artist
though
assuming
grants
or commissions
that for most
are in an air
too rare to breathe

and so
we go like the bohème
in a garett that’s happy enough
while
poor
until the poverty should bring disease
without a cure to pay for
by medicine
or
southern Italy
with the means to rest
and so
sun-heal

and I exaggerate
and
don’t

and so after
losing
what
the ordinary company of
one
next to another
having lost most of the world
already

there is work
and it might be art
and
I think shall be

proving
the thesis of the ages
I suppose
except for those who were not poor
to art
who
I imagine
started out that way
by something else

and then the provocations
to the institutions
true
freedom and creation
that outcast
as they please


c l couch


photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash
Harmonious Times, Paul Signac