once born
and now we must
go to Egypt
for
a while
or forever should the Lord decide
mountains
vales
and
deserts of empire ancient
than the one the called us to the father’s
home in Bethlehem
in
time for this holy birth
though isn’t any baby’s birth
a holy time
go-to of other nations when famine
was famous
our ancestors
certainly
the survival and the sanctity of tribes
to
have a people with what
became a wicked past
and then
a hopeful future
and what shall we see there
and hear
and smell and all our senses know
along the Nile over
the land
and in alien cities there
which
of course are theirs for
home
while we are the refugees
and God knows what we’ll have
of home again
if
dreams and miracles
the rumors of war
shall drive
us
c l couch
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Matthew 24:6-8
(NIV)
photo by ian borg on Unsplash
President’s Cancer
My President has cancer
The kind
That killed my brother
Whose detection seemingly
Went late
And though he lasted through
The treatment and his life
Awhile
He was taken by the cancer away
From us
And what he knew
For sure of him
And so I feel strongly for this thing
My parents
And too many others I
Have known
While
This is about you
Mister President
Like
My brother
And I am sorry
And I wish you well through medical
Responses
Thank you for your service
By which we know
How to pray for you
In
Days
C L Couch
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Este Día y Esta Noche
All Souls
The family dining at
The gravesites of
Family
The veil even thinner
Than the evening
Before
That was
Hallowe'en
As
The three with
All Saints
Become
For us
Para nosotros
Its own kind
Of
An intimate
Triduum
C L Couch
Photo by Roger Ce on Unsplash
The aroma of marigolds specifically serves as a guide to bring los muertos to their families on All Souls Day (El Día de los Muertos).
Kathy
I wrote a poem
For my sister-in-law
And then
Started to question everything
About it
That it had no heart
No real
Let alone deep
Humanity
That it didn’t address mourning
At all well
The reality
The need
The inevitability
Regardless of how we might
Believe we can reason
Things through
Not that reason has no place
But who can figure death
Each time
Or at any time
It’s a surprise
It shouldn’t happen
It always happens
This
Side of Enoch
Anyway
But we who do not walk with God
And are subsumed
At last
Must simply know that death
Is coming
Not as a person
As much as a failure
Of our systems
And it’s an actual person
Each time
Who had a life
Who had preferences
And
Dislikes
And those of us still here
Should feel for them
What we feel
Thinking
Too
Whatever we must think
Feel the loss
The pain of that
Take comfort
In the placement of heaven
After this
Or something next
However it might be described
Or named
Something is on the way
Though maybe
We mortals
Will have to rest a while
First
Our souls to be cared for
In that
Sleep restores
As we’ve known in our daily lives
In mortality
That is
In normalcy
Anyway
I’m sorry she is gone
I shall miss her
It’s not sibling pain
Perhaps
And yet
Bonds by marriage
Still hurts
To have her gone
to Beth about her sister Kathy
C L Couch
Photo by Javier Cañada on Unsplash
“Unsurvivable”
Hurricane
Helene
Has killed through
Its own force
And
Maybe we’re complicit
For
The lack of means
We should
Provide
Even
Long before
I don’t know
And in the moment
Don’t care
Probably as much
As
I should
But I have family in its way
And maybe you do
Too
How about we pray
Then find
Additional ways to
Help
How about no matter
Who we are
Or where
We pray
Then find
Additional ways to
Help
C L Couch
Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash
cooking lessons
the patterns in
the sky
the stories
and the messages
Orion hunts
forever
while
the Pleiades escape
forever
that do not
change
that do
but we don’t notice
any more than
noticing
the hands upon the clock
on the wall
or by the bed
or in
the kitchen while
we cook
thinking on results
though maybe
all the stories
that
returns us here
this day
stories in the sky
we have to have them
even as
an anonymous umbrella
‘til we’re told
what this group is
and what
it means
though we have
parochial in
the mean time
what the family members
tell us
what the world
teaches us
somehow or
rather through
indifference
told with care
the stories
we might own
that even
heal
maybe with laughter
first
and then
the learning kind
reminding us
that family lore
might matter most
to have us
rising
working
cooking maybe
in the morning
come
the evening
then maybe going for
the holidays
feeding
even more
more
story time
c l couch
photo by Gaku Suyama on Unsplash
(one is looking up at
me
and-or to
the sky)
thy faithfulness and 14 June
(two poems)
thy faithfulness
and now for God
though maybe
God has been with me
from the start
because if not my own
it’s in
God’s nature
and certainly God’s
skill
and also
desire
the same desire
that made everything
and more
the wish
the will
to love the everything
and above all
and with the will of
unfallen angels
to love most
ourselves
we are that important
not for demons
whose interest in consumption
is not the healthy use of
creation
but frankly
to suck us dry
of flesh and spirit
and then display the husks
eagerly
in hell
but we have God
and willful angels
elected
on our side
and in the room
though will leave us quiet
when quiet
is soulfully
or physically demanded
quiet
time
and should we wish
some company
divine
with less than a word
shall be here
to cheer
and to guide
to love
and to show
how love
begins and ends
with presence
one form
or
another
14 June
(2024)
happy
Flag Day
Mitzi’s birthday
the puppy
(not the flag)
who crawled up
on the porch
the day our family
moved
into Pittsburgh
northern suburbs
and remained with us
the next
seventeen years
and was
extraordinary
patient with
several
growing children
as for the flag
you know
we flew it
very day
I recall
there are some things it seems I wrote about most years; today is a thing
c l couch
photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Poetry and Senses (3 poems)
x
x
Upstart Clay
x
God will help us through
By being quiet
Leaving all the noise to us
Except the wind
Maybe the water that descends
To strike the surface
Maybe on the ancient
Mountaintop
That moans
Or the young one that must explode
Or pushing geysers through
The scalding
Earth
x
So there
God might be noisy
After all
To take a part in all this
And remind us
Of the presence
And natural participation
Of the maker
And the making
Which is us
Fashioning our noise
Into making something
Too
x
x
The Color Wheel
x
There is yellow
There is red
Then blue
There are the colors
In between
Orange
Purple
Green
And there we are
x
No white
Or pink carnation
For a crayon
No black to see
Though depending on perspective
Black might be suffuse
x
We love our color wheel
Couldn’t get along
To see
Without it
And the colors might turn concepts
To explain
x
To touch sometimes
Though there is no distinction
Doing that
To smell the color
Which is to smell the paint
Nothing to hear
Unless the wheel
Be turning
And there is humming from an engine
Or a supplicating gear
x
Imagine Earth the wheel
Us the fashioners
How are we doing
Are we colorful
Do we six colors
Bordered
Unattended
Or do we mix and blend
And have a globe
Outstanding
Then when turning
Make a noise
Send a message
To the others
Here we are
Introduce us to yourselves
x
x
Wheels within Wheels
x
Wheels within wheels
That had been said
As it’s been invented
With clay
With metal
In the mind
Over centuries
x
As a metaphor
Plots within plots
Every smaller
Going out
Ever larger
So that families
And nations
Are affected
Even over thrown
Reinvented
From parts left over
Rounded
And toothed
To have new rhythms
And redesigned
Noise
x
Wheels that press
Or parts caught
Inside gears
Or there’s so much pressure
So much lack of space
That something crushes
Unless so difficult itself
Breaks the gear
Breaks the wheel
x
And someone
Victor
I suppose
Must rework everything
So that we’re round again
And might make music
This time
As we turn
Through space
And time
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Future Perfect
x
What is that, Father?
The child asks,
Pointing
Like accusation
x
That is a gun, the
Father says
x
Over the mantel
Perched
By law
x
But, observes the child,
It’s falling apart;
I can barely tell the shape
Of it
x
Yes,
Father replies,
And that is the way
Of all guns now,
Now that we’ve grown
To take
Care of each other
And put the guns
Aside
And, as we have,
Reminders
x
Later in the day,
Mother enters
And has news
From work:
x
The assembly made the choice
At last
To take them down,
To put up other tokens,
Totems, symbols,
What have you
What have us
Instead
x
And so
The gun is taken down,
Parts swept off the mantel
And
For a while
The peaceful emptiness there
Pervades
While the family
Talks
About what to put there next
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Patrick Metzdorf on Unsplash
x
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