haiku plus announcement
yellow brown blue white
and there must be green for spring
gospel of out there
As I’ve mentioned, I find haiku a challenging craft. Maybe if I knew Japanese, though I’d have to know Japan as well (more than I know now). Nonetheless some haiku of mine—five in all (each one invited to send five)—will be published in an upcoming collection by Literary Revelations (https://literaryrevelations.com/). I’m keenly grateful to the publishing house for accepting my work to share with others. More specifically, I'm grateful to Gabriela Marie Milton who invited and received submissions. (If I understand the process.)
More details as I have them. Thank you for reading and thus encouraging my work.
photo by Xuan Nguyen on Unsplash
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Play Dates
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We should have
a good weekend. We
deserve it. Not everyone
will have one because
those will work
to keep the power
on and
other things. So
there’s the possibility
for rest and joy in
good and homely things.
We should permit
Our gratitude. Happy
Saturday and Sunday,
friend. If
not free, then
when you have
a long break later on.
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C L Couch
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Photo by Shannon VanDenHeuvel on Unsplash
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Unbroken Surprise
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I’d like to offer prayer
Of thanksgiving
For I have received
Good help
I can question how deserving
But I got it, anyway
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In the moment,
Certain things let go:
Doubt, worth,
Particularity
People give, and I receive
Not that I haven’t helped before
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But here is the receiving side:
Thankful, relieved
Not burden-free
But bearing less
Than before
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All this to say thank you
To both sides of prayer
The givers
And this time
The one who has so gladly taken
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C L Couch
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National Day Fireworks
Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash
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Stuff of Life
I should say something about love
Because I know
Nothing special
You can read the book as well as I
Write in the margins
Receive advice from those
Who live it closer
It’s not a single set
There are swords as well as feathers
Lions and sheep
Living near each other off the page
In a vision manifest
Somewhere for real
For now, nature’s what it is
While we borrow from it flesh and blood and bone
Muscles protecting organs
That will work on and off for a while
Is there love in this?
I think so
Gifts of Earth
Set in motion long ago
With us, we with it, for a time
And we hope longer
An existentialist should have her way
This moment, this now
We can count on this
Live on it
Not for wages
But for the working of those organs
As the gift of now
Unbroken moment without contract
Though gratitude would be appropriate
And spices all the rest
C L Couch
Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash
A Call to Worship
(could be read antiphonally)
We might not have thanked you
Recently for capillaries,
For all the things we cannot see
That keep us going, anyway:
The roots of trees
Underneath;
The tunnels through which
Things creep, which break
Up the land
To keep it porous
The ozone layer,
Hard to breathe;
The relationship between the
Earth and moon;
The soles of our feet,
When we’re wearing shoes
For what gratitude might look like,
If we could hold it in our hands
Like cupped water from
A faucet;
For the pipes set to reach the source
And for the source
For hydrogen and oxygen
That come together,
Making a miracle
Of molecules
Thank you for the easy and the difficult,
For everything that mixes up
To make our lives
And what we’re gifted with
Today
C L Couch
Photo by Lorenzo Spoleti on Unsplash
Odd Gratitude
The weight is in my eyes
Just over my lungs
Inside the muscles
Pressing on the bones
Everything moves, anyway
Fingers, hands
Knees stretch
I blink, swallow, turn my neck
To see what’s what
The day’s ahead, and I’m
Thankful
Surprised? Shouldn’t be
Life is nearly always worth it
And always, really
There’s torture in the world,
Which must challenge the price
To pay
But this is being tired
Really tired
And there’s pain
Though not enough
To wreck the odds
Of there being maybe many
Good things ahead
C L Couch
Gratitude Stones
https://www.firefliesandmudpies.com/gratitude-stones/
http://www.yessafechoices.org/parents/character-education-corner/gratitude
Ode to Small Things
The toast has jumped
Thank you, toast and toaster
Those who made you
Then
Those who made you
Let’s have an ode to
Every small thing that’s good
Typing
Lids that unscrew
Peanut butter
George Washington Carver’s inventions,
The ones that were never made
You and me
And each one of us,
Small upon the planet
Large in worth
And skill
And gratitude
For being made
And someone of us who
Might fix everything
C L Couch
https://pxhere.com/cs/photo/590878
Psalm 4
a small song of gratitude
thank you, Lord, and I mean that
this is not hiding or prevaricating
but truth and openness of spirit
I can despair over illnesses and
news broadcasts, matters of
danger at home and away
far away and in myself
leaders cause too much truth
to die, so do other sellers of
our souls—thankfully, not
all who lead or sell
but the world is a twisted
place, and some like that too much
yet, still, I find myself in a
place of paradox with you
for you must teach me how to thank
and then accept my gratitude
as original and honest, and it is
thank you, Lord, and I mean that
clcouch123 
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