bless the wild
better than
form
is the love you place on wild things
blessing
these with
spirit and adventure
to
let them go
while under care
to dance and run and
love
in all the untame ways
that were
created
then released
while forms are fine for form
but
let the lightning-forces go
never the same
to strike
even with danger in
the magic
risks
in release
but how does freedom that you show
go in any other way
so model this
and
everything outside broken cages
as
the bars are devil’s interest
and love is as roarious
as you
c l couch
photo by wallace Henry on Unsplash
2 poems about the new season (more or less)
Bouncy
God
It’s yellow Friday
With blue and brown
On deck
It’s
Spring and time
Not for the metaphor this
Time but
To really
Play some ball
Training
Then the opening
We each can do this
Batter
You know
Up
And I’ve switched audience
Though aren’t you
Always there
(for
an excuse)
Forgive me
And allow me to say
Maybe
To everyone
About
Gospel of play
And did you plays as you ringed
And then rounded
Creation
Maybe
Keep us
Safe
In this new season
Knowing that our choices
Make the difference
Even if
And when
We could turn our will
Toward yours
A wheel
And a wheel within a wheel
But I was thinking baseball
Pitches
Running
And then
The coming home
Green
Workaday
And extraordinary-day
New
Season to you
And to you
Amen
Freedom Ring
The Liberty Bell is cracked
And there were more
Bells
At the time
Ringing freedom
While now we have
The broken bell
For show
And there is wisdom
In admiring the broken
Toward
Kintsugi perhaps
Or to leave in
Pieces
Sometimes for further lack of use
Except in small beholding
Or
When a sizable
Cast bell
To dream on ringing
To dream really large
Sometimes
C L Couch
Photo by Joe Richmond on Unsplash
Worth Keeping
I keep
Thinking
About
War
And war-like things
Like drugs in trade
And
Trafficking
Because one life
Is worthy
Even intensely
And intensely
Valuable
And who are we
To say
We’ll keep this one
Let that one
Go
By paperwork
The gold slip by
Aghast
Or sigh
For boredom
In our sins
We’ll bank another
Somewhere
Else
Conquer
Or imprison
Until
Or while
Each of us is caught
The flesh
For opportunity
Whatever else
Inside
Stays in the boxes
Where we keep
Supplies
Aside
To keep us going
Yet each
Might be a savior
No
You’re wrong
None of us
Shall save
Or even aid
To saving
Through an invention
Or a discourse
To change minds
Toward
New understanding
For a race
To have
To change
For the better
As we could have said
Even
Fantastically
To say
And have
Amazing
Opportunity
If we let each one go
To growth
And with assists
And then so much
Better
For a life
Not an investment for
Money
And for blood
Let each one
Live
Who came into this world
As we say
And say
By mortal hands
And by the Lord
As promises
To planets
And to galaxies
Home
And away
And for each other
One
Two
Keep going
Make a world
And then another one
Worth keeping
C L Couch
Photo by Aman Chaturvedi on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
ring
x
God is here
thank goodness
God is there
in Ukraine
in war
and Morocco
split earth
many lives taken
x
in the hundred-plus
degree days
in Texas
for those
trying to live there
and before the hurricane
call one Lee
while we are in ships
on land
securing
waiting
knowing there will be destruction
during
and after
re-life-building
keening
grieving
for the loss of us
anywhere
x
we still wait for freedom
God approves
and works resistance
and diplomacy
risks offense
Jesus was offensive
and still turns
the heads of certain people
x
souls
and daily lives
devotion on a string
that breaks
that someone cuts
to ruin
or to barricade
x
God persists
in presence
in numbers
yes
God has the Earth
all given satellites
and other worlds
but take it one by one
even
with respect
and certainly with truth
the kind a Pilate
may not know
or want to know
x
debate
sure
work your fallacies
and jaw agendas
or shut up
shut down
look at the world
with any
and all senses
in all seasons
x
God is there
you won’t believe
and it’s a place to start
like rain
to put out our fires
snow to cool the deserts
or fire
parametered
to thaw the frozen
x
listen
talk
give up
what must be given up
yes
me
too
x
enough grammar to share
and all civility
that’s dignified
respectful
God will take us there
as in the wilderness
the chaos
we can no longer
count
because the crazy overwhelms
sometimes
x
God is here
sorry
we can go rounds on this
or leave it go
experience it
or not
we could step over this
to save in our ways
that are constructive
building up
that is
tearing down what only
tears down
x
love and live the rest
even God might say
that is enough
for now
stepping around
certain stanzas
that divide
unusefully
not for distinction
or thick conformity
x
rather the unique
formal
free
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Ben Wicks on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Moment Clear
(to go with “The Moment,” “Moment Passed”)
x
Hello
You must be God
I don’t know what I’m saying
I could read from a book
I suppose
You’d know the words
And I guess
That you know mine
x
Why are you invisible
Why are you only known
Through agencies
Through angel words
And actions
Fighting
Providing
Or announcing
Such a scary thing to Mary
Words in the sky
To frighten shepherds
Though getting them
To Bethlehem
As well
x
And may I know you
Unseen and surrogates
The promise
In the making
Of the cosmos
Promising perfection
With you later
x
Well
Maybe it’s simple
Believe in you
Or not
You remain the same
And for some reason
Have a plaintive part
As if you long for us
Having made us
Then pushed us along
From making
Into life
Into choices
x
And we may choose you
On our own
Without good evidence
Through with impulsive knowing
That there’s good and bad
Somehow both
And good is better
Bad amounts to nothing
Even though it gets to dress
In temptation
That we find compelling
x
Oh God
How do we know
How do we choose
I guess we do
We do
And that is all
No more
No less
Through faith there is the grace
The gift to everyone
In shadowlands
Enough clarity
To know you
And to have you
Knowing
You have us
Through the next moment
Of posterity
Into eternity
x
That’s it
We believe
And you remain
Unrevealed
So that faith keeps to the road
As invisibly as ever
The way
Belief and grace
Shall take us
Knowing when we fall
From lack of evidence
Or from gilded devils
With their feet out
x
We can pick up ourselves
And even reach for you
To know that something’s
Someone’s
There
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Randy ORourke on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
today is Father’s Day in the USA, and I wish happiness for fathers; since I have no earthly Father anymore (and for some time) and got to thinking about tomorrow; and not stopping in thinking about tomorrow, I offer this
x
x
tomorrow is Juneteenth
x
tomorrow is Juneteenth
when in Texas slaves
no longer slaves
and who were never slaves
by the will
that was creation
nonetheless are told
they are no longer slaves
and by legislation
for two years
or so
x
you are free
but they knew that
they knew there was an enemy
that kept them down
that weighed the legs and feet
upon stolen ground
to earn crops
for another’s coffer
(boxes in the bank)
they knew
they would rise
they knew this sometimes
on occasion
while chains and fields
and white men’s whips
beat another message
upon backs
of backs and faces
on the legs
that did the work
that carried wealth
to a master
who was not a master
or an owner
but for thieving
against God
and integrity
who cared not for blood
that spilled on blossoms
as long as they looked white
in the sacks
x
such evil
Lord
and why did you allow it
why is our will
so important
that we are enabled
to grab weapons
to split human hides
to take the rest from Africa
stuffed like oranges
in ships
to the infantile
and erstwhile
USA
and late give up the practice
through a war
a reckoning
for what all of us knew
was wrong
was evil
x
we cannot imagine
who were not there
though at least
we may tell stories
and send messages
through generations
to the future
x
do not do this again
live a kind of sorry
if need be
and if recompense
be needed
well them
pay it
from those boxes
of the profiteers
whose gold inside
still shines
still funds
still mocks
the rest of us
for color
and all colors
x
let freedom ring
we hear
well
let it ring
ring bells
ring all we have
that makes a message
and response
with decibels as words
that say
yes freedom
we must have it
we must try it
we must make it known
to all the Earth
and all the worlds beyond
and all the worlds
that are inside
and all the worlds
that we must share
x
c l couch
x
x
Photo by Wasil Ahammed on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Juneteenth in Days
x
Juneteenth
Again
It’s coming
Don’t you like the sound
There might be
A proclamation
Somewhere
But we know how it sounds
It sounds for freedom
Ring a bell
On the day
Those who know
Shall know
And shall proclaim
Inside the heart
That this was a good day
A needful day
Against the tragedy
Of people
Who possess the sin
Believing
We may own another person
Other people
x
Treating
Counting them
As assets
Treating them
Like harvest
From the field
Or the factory
While building
Cities
Homely or large
Across the nation
In the heart
Of the land
And air and water
So many things
That should be willing
At no cost
x
Burn
Then
For freedom
Have good days
And set
Domestic fires
Carefully
For warmth
And for tomorrow
The twentieth
And then midsummer
And all seasons
To be free
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Wolf Zimmermann on Unsplash
x
(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
(x = space)
x
x
Brittney Griner
x
I’m glad she’s back
Aren’t you?
Return the others, please—and
We should say
You may have your own
x
We don’t like each other now
Except maybe in passing
On the street
On the subway
In the store
Real people
Real person to real person
We pick each other up
In small ways all the time
x
More real than politics
That makes a war
Forgets the real people
But counts numbers
Of them
Plays them on a map
And in a mortal dream
Of conquest,
Acquisition
To rationalize
Before the rest
Of temporal authority
That needs speeches
Bites for press releases
Justifying
All those people
In the street
And the street
No longer,
Well,
No longer there
Picking up each other
That we no longer do
Because we were made numbers
Then like gum on penciled math
The strategy erased
x
C L Couch
x
x
After Release from Russian Custody, Focus Is on Providing Brittney Griner and Her Family Additional Support, Officials Say
Story by Aya Elamroussi • 6h ago
x
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash
Disruptive
x
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