central Texas
one death we struggle
getting over
so
so how to comprehend a hundred
deaths and
more
storms and floods
destroying
like Time’s rolling sons in
the old hymn
taken
the material and
lively
debating over quick response
especially in a time of
cutting funding
for
all kinds of services
mostly
though a matter
now
of rescue
and the dreadful counting
receiving
aid
enduring then
to take
on
against all pushes of despair
considering
instead how to rebuild
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” by Isaac Watts
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the op’ning day.
(excerpt)
flooding town next over
(from mine in Pennsylvania)
Carlisle
one day
for storm floods
that were
severe
boating on streets
through town
no chance to pass through
radiating intersections
all the trees and parts of trees
that fell
and the delicate
dangerous dance
with
electricity
now nature helps to dry
in its irony of
having
delivered all the water first
the human focus next
on
taking
finding stock
and then rebuilding
c l couch
photo by Wes Warren on Unsplash
Debby
the storm has arrived
our part in it
the water runs
through branches of the trees
as if the branches
sponsor
and organize
a fountain from the sky
out front
it’s hard to see
through screens
and wide drops on the screens
their rivulets
translucent lines
that add
a close-in feeling
to a field
of fog
or mist
the falling rain
all from forever
flash-flooding
well
is flashing
as a warning
today
a kairos
to the organized
who have
a rush hour to maintain
it’s called areal
when the flood
be truly
local
when the streets become temptation
for drivers in cars
sure (drivers
that is)
it can’t really be
that deep
and really is
there are the parts
south and east
mostly
I guess
where like the ever-
rolling-stream washes crucial things away
like lives
and also stays
for days
I’m inside
dry on the second floor
I think
and with power for now
don’t think that I’m
not grateful
for I am
and hope you might be on the better
side of high and dry
as well
busy with bags
or something else or
wet
resting
from it all
I can only hope
straightforwardly
and
yes
and
pray
that you are safe
my dears
c l couch
photo by Ayla Verschueren on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
The Ohio River Once a Year
x
Did I dream
Of flooding?
It’s been raining
Occasionally
Torrentially
And I’ve been caught
In some
Not much
x
I have not seen a flood
Except after
With effects
I guess that’s normal
I’ve never lived along
The Mississippi
Though the Ohio
Used to flood
(still does, I’m sure)
Once a year
Taking houses
And lives away
Like the old hymn
About time’s sons
x
Then the houses
Would be built
And those alive
Resume their inside living
Once again
Until the following spring
Should cause
All the deadly
Wash again
x
Maybe no one
Wants to buy
Maybe if you have some land
You’ll live the terror
Once a year
To keep it
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Art Institute of Chicago on Unsplash
Two Women on the Shore by Edvard Munch
x
https://hymnary.org/text/our_god_our_help_in_ages_past_watts
x
(x = space)
x
x
Death Toll in Kentucky
x
I am from there
I am from other places
Doesn’t matter
x
I don’t need to know
The topography
The lay of the land
x
The floods have happened
People have died
Many things are ruined
x
The count continues
While the water rules
And there’s no good way through
x
Forgotten parts of the world
Except in songs
Shows from NPR
x
There are storms, I know
And people die
And land is ruined
x
These people are one by one
Discovered
And remembered
x
There are stories
There will be more
And we should be grateful
x
Some places might rise
When dry
Some remain below
x
In hollow places
In the Earth
Inhabited
x
Uninhabited
For ages
The hollers
x
Remembered
Unremembered
We can only hope
x
All the counting
Numbers and greater meaning
And their stories
x
C L Couch
x
x
Kentucky Flooding Death Toll Rises to 37 as Governor Says Hundreds Remain Unaccounted for
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/01/weather/kentucky-appalachia-flooding-monday/index.html
x
Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Good Machines
(for Earthly terrors)
x
Perhaps we could have cosmic-
Earth machines,
x
Could the floods
Be sucked up here—say,
In Germany and China—then
Taken and dropped there
Where the land
Is dry
And ablaze as the land
In California,
x
Then we’d have a system
Perhaps in harmony with nature,
x
Technocracy that favors life
In joy and praise
Of what machines can do
x
With pay and gratitude
The human operators
Deserve
x
C L Couch
x
x
Every spring the Mississippi River floods, but the downtown area of Davenport Iowa refuses to build a levee system to hold the waters back. It would block the river view. Some years the waters come several blocks up the banks and flood out local businesses.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
How We May Live
x
It’s all right
We don’t have to agree
To have a family
Or a nation
The world is filled with
Variance of thought,
And opinions bleed
And stay still
Like colors
And affiliations
Of the rainbow
x
Democratic theory says
That you and I
May argue toward no
Solution or a change
Today or ever
x
And democratic practice is
Even better,
For you and I may feed the hungry
And encourage those
In all kinds of trouble, all
The same
x
We both and together
May fill bags
With sand along
The growling, killing river
As we (after washing) may
Dispense soup
To the rescued
x
This is how to live
With variation
And to live with variation
Active in
Needs that are subsuming—those
Of the hungry or the flooded or,
After fire, the singed
x
Arguing the other situations
When we may breathe
Again with clarity
x
Happy days
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
Olive oil on water. “Immiscible 1”. The photo is called immiscible because oil and water don’t mix. The background colours come from a painting behind which is titled “Joy” and is itself bubble shapes like balloons of cheerful colours, where I have tried to express the emotion of joy in a painting, much like Mark Rothko.
x
Weeping in Ramah
Indonesia
At Sulawesi
In Palu
Hundreds have been carried away
Souls from bodies
The living weep
They bury who can be recovered
They mourn
Might we change the pronoun,
Might we mourn?
They are our sibling hearts
The family
That lost too many children
To vicissitudes
In nature’s anger
Our indifference
Rachel weeps in Ramah
Because Babylon has taken
Her children away
Our children
C L Couch
Rescuers evacuate an earthquake survivor by a damaged house following earthquakes and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sunday. AP PHOTO
Hundreds Die in Indonesia Quake, Tsunami
https://www.recorder.com/Over-800-dead-in-Indonesia-quake-and-tsunami-toll-may-rise-20559009
Two Hundred Fifty Dead
two hundred fifty dead in Chennai
a rounded number while the
counting of the dead goes on
rains and flood that’s what did
it now hopefully not so much
because of human design in
placing buildings and the populace
Chennai so you know is a city
of the world not that that should
matter for the death of one
native inhabitant anywhere is
a loss that makes a difference I
know you know this
but international technology
companies have invested in
Chennai with their presence their
companies are closed there now
worst killing flood in a century it’s
said and the rain keeps falling there
the part of all that’s drowned and
so given up which might be of natural
design has me wonder about a
fallen world did everything fall
that was created first would even
storms and floods that for now
cut off life would they run true and
right if renewed into the first and
given state makes me wonder if
free will then was worth the cost
sometimes I wonder this at other
times I don’t question for I know
that a fallen world is not worth the
cost of discretion and of choice
clcouch123 
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