To a New Friend
You asked me
how I am,
and I didn’t tell you.
I didn’t know
how to be succinct
or how much you’d like to know,
though I have no reason to
doubt your sincerity
in asking
except I haven’t been that well:
I’ve been tired and rather ill.
And the doctors mention,
if only to mention,
the timeline for a transplant
and that I’m not getting any younger,
as we say.
And I’m concerned:
I worry
while living through the day,
awake at night,
half-awake the next day.
Maybe you have insight;
or maybe I would simply like—who
am I kidding—cherish
your responses that so far have been
both sympathetic
and intelligent
as an impressive combination,
though there won’t be anything unless
I say something.
C L Couch
Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash
God Buy Ye
God be with you
‘Til we meet again
As God is with you
Now
Which is to say
With us
And a hope
Therefore
For company
As you go upon the Earth
And through the
Changeable
Sometimes trap-laden
Population
God with you
God with me
If I may say
And certainly with us
Mine
And yours
Better than Mizpah
Certainly
More so
When Moses met the king
With the stone heart
More like near the rock
In fact
Where water
Leaped to save us
Or like Galilee
Where thousands met
To hear
The saving word
God keep you
And us
Even through
Maybe a long time
‘Til
We meet again
C L Couch
God buy ye, a Medieval understanding of salvation (paying a condemnation’s ransom with the coin that was Christ’s life); God be with ye a wish for spiritual company and comfort for a friend; all becomes Goodbye
though ironically I say hello from Pittsburgh where I was brought through cold, some snow to arrive; I get another car here, since mine was totaled (no one hurt except some cars), which is technically the main thing; I get to visit with some family, which is the real thing
hoping your winter days (or summer to the south) are grand,
God be with ye,
Christopher
(x = space)
x
x
Piglet and Samwise
x
Piglet and Samwise
Would that
We could
Only think on them
To be them
Or to appreciate
Steadfast
Companions
And companionship
So close to us
x
They’re smart
Don’t miss that
They’re clever
Too
x
Sometimes they carry
Oh
So much
And are capacious
To take on our burdens
Too
x
They trim the verge
They stir the honey
In the pot
For consistency
Well
Of verge
And pot
Or rather
What’s inside
x
They have their homes
But leave them gladly
To find us
And then to journey
With us
When
They reach us
And we tell them
Or somehow we know
We’re moving on
x
You’re leaving
Then
We’re going with you
To the other side of the wood
Or through
Minas Morgul
Into Mordor
x
Like grace
They will go far with us
Wishing to go
The entirety
Of the calling
To adventure
x
And maybe they will
Or maybe there’s a part
We’ll have to go on
All our own
And then
To meet them later
(with success)
Someday to consider
Final matters
(then)
x
And in the mean time
There are parties
And there is
Conversation
On paths
Off the paths
On bridges
Inside when there are storms
Outside
After
x
Christopher Robin once
Said about his mother
Than when she left their home
To wander round
(that is, around)
The hundred-acre wood
Christopher had asked
Would she like him
To go with her?
x
She said no
But when I return
Greet me as if
I had been gone
A long
Long
Time
x
Maybe we always have
Such friends
As heroes or companions
Recalling
We are both
To each other
x
C L Couch
x
x
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
(cited at or by GoodReads)
x
Piglet, as you know, is the companion to Winnie the Pooh. Samwise (Gamgee) is the gardener and companion to Frodo Baggins, the bearer of the ring in The Lord of the Rings. Each separately or both together was or were mentioned in a sermon that I heard today. I’m sorry I don’t remember why. Jesus had companions, too, though that was not the pastor’s point (or they were not his points).
x
The story of Christopher Robin and his mother is told in The Enchanted Places, an autobiography.
x
Photo by Arwin Neil Baichoo on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Long-Distance Rates
(for Susan)
x
I live long distance
So must you
What with
E-mails
Texts
DMs
Chat rooms
And now the added layer
Of A-I
Bumfustication
x
Where are you
Where am I
We’re here
In our respective heres
We own our molecules
And due
The air we breathe
The ideal cycle of
Good air goes in
Bad air goes out
Oxygen
To carbon dioxide
x
We live with plants
They love us
For our air
And they make food possible
For us
x
Which makes me wonder if
Distance is
Migratory
After all
Driven by seasons
And circumstances
Dodge the volcano here
Fly around the first fire
Stay high
Over the earthquake
x
Closeness might be relative
With our relatives
(hah)
Or when we convene
From Mars
It will only work that way
In the irony of distance
Safe with colleagues in
The interplanetary room
Then
Even the distance
To the moon
Will seem as close
As Artemis
Hunting
Dancing
With her followers
x
But back
To you and me
Where it starts
And where it counts
God inside
They say
We say
And we believe
And let spirits
Manage that
x
Flesh is something else
We know
We zoom
And those are electrons
We hurry
But that’s style
x
We touch in the same place
And anymore
That’s miracle
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Resource Database on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
You Know
x
I don’t know
I should have something
More to say
How are you?
What’s up with you?
What have you read
Or heard,
Seen or
Smelled, Tasted
Or touched?
How is the world for you
These days?
I hope you’re well
And having a good day
You deserve it
And to be told so
Many times
x
C L Couch
x
x
Friends
Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Missing Magic
x
Well, that was a clutter
Messages, groceries by the door
Coffeemaker, toaster
And nearly all of it
I slept through
Catching the final beep
From the phone
Signaling that
So many things had happened
In my Prufrock world
I don’t have a peach
And the part is in the middle
I’ve only heard the mermaid sing
In the Disney movie
But there is color outside
And cool air to breathe
x
And I shall go
Not
To strive or find
Yes, not
To yield
I doubt there will be a grail,
Either
Or a dragon
And if a dragon, we should
Become acquainted
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Artiom Vallat on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Be Serious
x
I should say something about God,
because I like God
though I wonder how God likes me.
x
Love and like,
like the basis
For a friendship.
And Jesus is our friend,
a revelation given when they met
for supper one last time.
x
So if Jesus likes me,
which has been the implication
then somehow, in some way
I must be likable.
x
I know God is all-giving
and all patience
with everything that’s perfect,
and my regard hardly necessary.
x
And I suppose
friendship must be doctrine
in this tradition, anyway,
though we switch it to indifference
when we think we might,
x
when we want to forget
until outside the booth
that God was there
in everything,
made complicit by us followers.
x
We are reverse claustrophobes
on Earth—we want to tunnel in
where we might take the rocks
and build small tyrannies,
x
which is not friendly action,
though if God is removed
by our convenience, how easily
each other?
x
Friendship with God,
a treat by Christian doctrine, I
suppose,
while others don’t forget
the awesomeness of God
and that awe means fear;
x
we could stand some friendly fear,
for it is God who loves
and calls us loves even from
prophets and lawgivers.
x
Jesus as our pal?
Our buddy at the bar?
It’s fun to think that way
(I think so),
x
though Jesus of creation
and of Sinai,
of Golgotha and victory
in hell—how trivially
is made up by us;
x
but God is always God
who cries, who creates,
who sacrifices—maybe, then,
deserving of
an attitude of more.
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
Aphoristically Yours
Friend,
You know more than I
So I’d rather listen
If you want to hear from me
That’s all right, too
Some would say
And they are wise
This is the definition of
A friendship
Some might say
It is a paradox
There would be too much silence
For the talking
Well, embrace the contrary
If everyone is listening
There might be fewer words
But greater truth
Prevail
C L Couch
Photo by Trung Thanh on Unsplash
Gilgamesh
(in memoriam of Enkidu)
There is no justice
The gods cannot reveal
Who deserves to live
And who must die
They are not strong
Their fickle weakness
One way the wind blows, now the other
There is nothing to rely on
No mercy
No respect
No consideration
Rank and merit have no meaning
I am king
And hero
And I could not save my friend
The one I found and fought
And from whom I learned
That to be a god
One should be human, first
Then with both natures
Understand the world, at last
My heart is severed from the rest
My mind burns
With fire:
Regret, loss, shame
Lack of understanding
With nothing
Nothing
I may do
Though I would cleave infinity
Face the worst beast I have yet to meet
More so than the Beast of Heaven
With no sword
But with my soul, alone
For my friend’s return
C L Couch
By Anonymous (Mesopotamia) – Walters Art Museum: Home page Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18784557
Early Middle Assyrian cylinder seal impression dating between 1400 and 1200 BC, showing a man with bird wings and a scorpion tail firing an arrow at a griffin on a hillock. A scorpion man is among the creatures Gilgamesh encounters on his journey to the homeland of Utnapishtim.
(Wikipedia text, “Gilgamesh”)
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