Actual
(to youth)
What kind of world
Should we leave you
Not the world we’re leaving you
Some say to move back in time
To former greatness
Such greatness not existing
Not in hindsight’s
Either
And
Anyway
Who has a time
Machine
Because the river has moved on
And we can’t wade
In the water
That was
I think the world as is
Is what you’ll get
And everyone in charge now
And everyone who’s silent over it
Should
Apologize
Even
Try to get as many things right
Before it’s fully yours
Though in part
Already
Naturally
It’s yours
If we can do this
Make a few things better
Not by war
Not by pollution
Desecration
Death of character
If we can change things
In a peaceful
And productive
Way
Even a loving way
The real way of love
The strong way
Well
That would be something
Not nearly enough
For letting things get this bad
Already
But something
Something of a better place
To leave you
C L Couch
Photo by Lil Mayer on Unsplash
"What are we going to do with all this future?" [for translation programs]
space ranger God
so many
science-fiction futures
read sad to me
yet
maybe I know
why
because they are nearly
always
God-less
the meaning not mentioned
much less
taking part
in new creations
and inventions
comforting
again
our flaws
but gladdened by
the progress
humans make
it might be hard
to craft
too difficult
in fact
since we must invent
our future
stake our hold on it
come disaster
or a clean and silver form
of paradise
and how to say
there’s God in this
that God
pushed us in the spacecraft
that brought the first
to a new world
we instead
must
try to own
and have such bid for ownership
tested
and tried
by what we find
or whom we find
there
toward a final tempering
of us
that accommodates the cosmos
for the differences
we find
to mesh with them
at last
who we are
perhaps we fear
the role
of God would spoil the story
(the real story
too)
and so we play out
only ourselves
on new
planetary stages
and all the things that fly
between
smallest things
(like mustard seeds)
or
parsec-sized things
God might bide
at the launching pad
or well behind
like farewelling parents
waving kerchiefs
allowing tears
for those who leave
we shall not see
again
though
in fact
God sees
and might see toward the end
of our expansion age
how we have done
and what we’ve done
to be here
there might be
judgment following
of our accounting
then decisions
regarding more dimensions
multi-universes
to encounter
encounter serving as
the theme
maybe the most important theme
in sci-fi
and for all the real findings
it inspires
c l couch
Spaceship Earth
photo by Ronald Yang on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Partly inspired by “There Will Come Soft Rains,” a chapter in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. This part of the story speaks to what is left of us. The chapter’s sad. Nonetheless I often think upon it.
x
x
Sci-Fied
x
Should the bombs fall
And I am atomized
And you
And the insects shall find
Nourishment
Not through flesh
(I’m atomized
so are you)
But through bits of trash
I had not the time
To take our back
x
And shall the Earth survive
To have another age
x
I remember
In the days of Strontium
We said we could
Destroy the planet’s crust
And so leave
The molten mass
The could heave
Or be
Settled down
x
Nostalgia
For a future guess
x
The Earth might have
Its own
As it once held us
There could be bees
And flowers for the bees
Or something
For pollen
So that something could
Pollenate
And there be land
With flora
Feeding
And softening
What’s left of our platforms
For another age
Of Earth
x
Arthropodic
Or could it be with feathers
Things that move
And have their being
Avoiding shadows
Form which
There used to be
Something in charge
Though now
The lesson’s different
This time
The arthropods
And feathered things
Have sentience
And speak gospel
x
While the Earth
In its own way
We never got
Though it was there
Shall smile
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
x
(x = where)
x
x
You and You Will Be There
x
I haven’t mentioned you
Today
Though you are intertwined
Threaded
Through everything
Like gold inside a tapestry
Running to be seen
Or rediscovered
Later
x
You were there
Of course
You were
Our time alone
Is really for companionship
And when things are like Fatima
Well
That’s obvious
But when the world is busy
With phenomena
Broadcasters don’t find you
To interview
Preferring mortal leaders
And settling
For pundits
x
Well
How may we ask questions
Of an invisible God
On the scene
Or even chez lui
In a church
Or temple
Or where you’re really home
x
I guess
We can’t take our wires
There
Until we can and may
Maybe at Megiddo
Maybe at the gates
Or just inside
For justice
x
Given a chance
To know the words
The one word over
Under
For salvation
Ticket
For a journey
To the other side
North
And south
And west and east
Of Eden
With new promises
Across the world we’ve known
Pushed
Riotously
Perhaps
With celebration
And good humor
Among angels and the saved
New grace
New creation
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Pledge Break
x
Goodness
It’s late
I haven’t really
Said anything
I’ve let the tyranny
Of memories and songs
Take over
Drafting elsewhere
x
Tyranny
That could be blessed
For pleasures recalled
And challenges
And to reconsider
Resolutions
x
Well
What is there to say?
Love God
Love each other
I’ll try to do better
Always better
Improve
Even invent
Devices and topoi
As devices
Not cleverness
(clearly)
But invitations
For the nonce
And later on
x
For that is the joy of words
Arranged
That they might be
Considered later on
x
Like words
I like your words
And almost everything they carry
I’m sorry
But for now
I must set aside the hate
Even for justice
‘Til mediation
Greater wisdom
So much greater than my own
Take over
x
We must talk
At least we should
And I can hope
We do
At that table
Where all words
Be shared and understood
And a new world built by them
From every session
Made
Into our mission
x
While most of us
Lead lives away
Improved
Steadier on the path
Cosmically designed
Determined
Our input welcomed
Now with grace
Re-made
From our negotiation
With each other
Willing to listen
By the end
Of sessions
And be changed in
And for
A universe
Always moving
Always changing
x
Together
There’s the wisdom
There has to be
Or else
Franky
We’ve earned oblivion
x
I say
We say
Enough
Let’s fill our cups
And serve each other
On our plates
Wise love
Via service
Receiving thus
Salvation
x
Poetically
And prosaically
Yours,
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Futurism
x
Men retreat
Women advance
Children waiting
They play
An idea forms
A dream invented
All go toward
An interpretive horizon
Until the line and
Agenda are released
And all go home
With marbles
So many
You would not believe
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Surgent Prophecy
x
Flood
Fire,
Crushes at the border
Pandemic
Surgency of variants
Afghanistan has fallen
To a group we have called
Terrorist,
Though a while ago
Alliant in and as the
Mujahideen
x
Farther east in Asia
There is disease
There is prison
For dissidents
x
Sounds like end times
Too many will believe
One of the riders is
Pestilence, another
War
Famine and Death—and
We can make a case for
These
x
So is this the start
Of the end,
Of apocalypse, Parousia?
Could be
Probably not
Against the march of days
That has marched and
Most likely
Will march on
But who knows?
Someone who we are not
x
We can be ready
It’s not a matter
Of bunkers
But of the spirit
Are we loving animals
(and do we love
our animals)?
Are we ready for straight roads
For the coming of the monarch
Over land
Or under sea
Or through the air?
Will we have good stewardship
Reports to make
About the
Earth that has been our charge?
x
Well, we’ll see
About it all
Though our part
Is ready now
x
Believe
Harvest
Care
Preserve
Plant and move around
What will grow anew
And what will grow forever
x
C L Couch
x
x
Burning Down the House
Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash
x
3 brief poems for the new year
(x = space)
x
x
May I Sell You a Machine?
(end of December)
x
According to commercials
At this time of year,
We should be losing weight
x
Grinding on exercise machines,
Finding our food in a box,
Engaging meditation maybe
Thirty seconds, maybe
Less
x
I suppose the box companies
Are doing well
And companies that make
Machines—I wonder
That machines are always doing well
x
We lose weight,
They weigh us down
x
x
Contemporarities
(2021)
x
God, help us in new years
Whenever they begin
In calendars,
In life
x
When someone dies,
When someone comes to life
x
Because she or he is born,
Because there is a return
To life
After pain, as she says
x
When the formal feeling comes
And something after
x
x
Our Sci-Fi Lives
x
Now is the science-fiction time,
Far enough into
The twenty-first century
That we may have some expectations
For reverse magnetism
And anti-gravity
x
For cities in the air and mining solely
By machines, enough that humans
Have jobs again
In new alliances
x
But we know how to fix it, at least
I hope we do,
The Earth that we have harmed;
And when we go, the missions we take
With us will not harm
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
I was a suburban kid but grew up in or near mining and steel-making country. And our city fell apart when the industries fell apart. If they could come back in local and safe ways, I should be relieved and very glad.
x
After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?
. . .
Emily Dickinson
x
Photo by Fabrício Severo on Unsplash
Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Bishop Street, The Lough, Cork, Irlanda
x
Future Tense
Mostly, I’m hoping
Some of this will lie around
Like Claudius’s second copy
According to the novel
To be found under an urn
Behind a shelf that no one sought
To look (behind)
For ages
That dusting off
(however that’s done
with electrons)
There will be some words
From someone we didn’t know
Maybe some initials,
Half a word for clues
We’ll read
And have two sets of wondering:
What was this person saying then?
What is this person saying now?
The first we’ll most likely
Never know
The second will be up to us
We own the words, now
C L Couch
(I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves)
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