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Dark Heart

Dark Heart

 

Light, bring me light!

It must be nice to call for it

A monarch

Then expect it

If I want light, I’ll have to get it

Not to complain

I have matches that strike on anything

And it’s one payment of my bills

That’s current

And now we have the bulbs

That light and last

That are expensive

That is a promise of investment in

Illumination

As for what’s inside, I’m unsure what to say

We say or see each new idea

As a light

A symbol in a balloon

A cartoon moment without words

Light to curse the darkness

Say the Christophers

Because darkness isn’t always bad

We call them the Dark Ages

We called it the dark continent

Though that was agenda

And racism

The agenda of racism

Belief to form a profit

Over people

Maybe we do better with the heart of darkness

Maybe not

But that is the end of light at the horizon

The entrance of the Congo

And the human being

And who is the main character

If not the continent itself

That without restraint

(another sort of character)

Ruins each of us—

And whose restraint

 

C L Couch

 

 

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, 1899 serially in Blackwood’s Magazine, published (whole) with other stories in 1902

 

The mission of The Christophers is to encourage people of all ages, and from all walks of life, to use their God-given talents to make a positive difference in the world. The mission is best expressed in The Christophers’ motto: “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”

https://www.christophers.org/

 

Photo by Nathan John on Unsplash

 

0

Seventh-Inning Stretch

Seventh-Inning Stretch

 

God

Help us

I think God will

I believe

You don’t have to

Not because I’m better

Never that

No

But because belief

Infects at different rates

Like a desirable disease

And some are never touched

Some are cured

Or forestalled

By degrees of nihilism

 

But it’s fair to understand

Faith as sick

The world doesn’t welcome it

Many take remedies, so to say

For me,

Welcome the infection

Feed the fever

Starve the cold

Once the heart is hosted

All other major organs

(yes those, too)

 

The wisdom of the world

Is foolish to believers

We are fools

To its wisdom

 

C L Couch

 

 

Mask of a fool dancer; Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl); North America department, Ethnological Museum, Berlin, Germany (Jacobsen collection, 1881)

By User:FA2010 – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15334105

 

0

After Words

After Words

(Lent 41)

x

There must still be words

We’re stuck with them, I guess

Or at least I am

x

We could end here

Or yesterday

But we won’t,

Which is not a matter of words

As it is of life

x

Yet we should be ready

Now,

To pause when needed

Maybe turn the pause to play

Whatever is called for

x

It’s called for often

Snow day

Day in the sun

Comp time (whoever has this)

Playing hooky

(you can look it up)

x

Work will resume

With its kind of

Awareness, learning, deciding

Not in cryptic ways

Or inaccessible

Though recall that there’s a mystery

In pretty much everything

x

The kind that moves a martyr’s heart

And for other reasons, too, can thrill the heart

Of each of us

Of the sort like

Joan, Priscilla, Rachel, Esther

Judith, Hrosvitha, and Hildegard

Who found their way with God

While in the world

x

And for the Joans, Priscillas, Rachels, Esthers

Judiths, though I don’t suppose we’ll be

Naming anyone Hildegard or

Hrosvitha for a while

We may

We will

x

I don’t know, I think we’ll find

What we need

As long as we don’t keep the process to ourselves

Or the results

x

Anyway,

I thought I should say something once it’s all over,

Our Lenten experience

We’re comingling times and traditions

Of the end of Lent (for those still counting),

The Passion, the Triduum, then

Easter and the Easter season

x

I pray

Together and apart

These are all good for you

The way spring days, clean from rain,

Can be

x

C L Couch

x

note for the blog

Counting forty days from Ash Wednesday takes Lent through Palm Sunday, which might seem odd given the reflective nature of the season maybe abandoned in triumphant celebration.  But the count of days in Lent can take out the Sundays and Holy (Maundy) Thursday (when the celebration of the Eucharist occurs) and add in Good Friday and Holy Saturday to make up a count and observation of forty days.  Timing of events for the Passion and the Triduum might overlap this way of counting, and it’s also true that some have it (more or less officially, according to one’s tradition) that the length of Lent (even the sense of forty days) be taken metaphorically.

I guess I’m counting forty days from Ash Wednesday and let the paradox of Palm Sunday prevail.

Whew.

x

Photo Credit: Wikimedia User John Morgan CC-BY-2.0

0

Lent 25

Lent 25

 

It’s a paradox

Unorthodox

 

This is a long time for slowing

Down, and yet

We must prepare for

Coming jubilation

There will be speed in that

The coming and the going

And the getting

 

And it’s spring

 

So what kind of spoil-sport

Must we be?

No kind, really

Work goes on

Of every kind

And there are families

And parochial festivities,

Which must be all right

 

So where is the season, then: where

Is our Lenten heart?

Well, in the heart, we say

Yes, it’s there

With other precious things we

Can recall—can reinvoke, if desired

(reorder to reorder)

Those times, those persons

Those happenings, those feelings

Discoveries

Then and now

 

We can keep the season

Let it work inside the mind

And maybe let it course

Through other organs

 

We can have Lenten lungs

A Lenten stomach

Pick something

 

We are so many parts to come

To know and to

Have everything done

 

C L Couch

 

0

Ghost Walk

Ghost Walk

 

The past haunts it,

Doesn’t it

It walks with us at night

Well past the witching hour

Sometimes I am awake

On my side

Fearing that my heart might sometime explode

Figuratively but

A crisis with literally arrhythmic parts

It can be a problem

How do I stay awake

(too easily)

And how might I fall asleep again

(that’s hard)

 

There is an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show

When, for fear of something, Laura doesn’t want to

Sleep, and so she flips up

All the switches in her house

Plays music and the television

And gets the neighbor to stay up

With her

And there are other alterations

 

And, you know, I’m sure

There is some resolution

(it’s a half-hour show),

Though I have no idea what that was

 

But the black-and-white imaging is invoked

When I can’t sleep or think about

The lack of sleep

In the middle of a night and wish for rest

 

C L Couch

 

 

CC0 Public Domain

https://pxhere.com/en/photo/697047

 

0

Corazón

Corazón

 

Can I write about this now?

Maybe a sabbath day will help

It’s the living, you know

They cannot have that

The people of Puerto Rico

Spanish and Taino

Legacy of colony

Self-determination that we prize

So much is always mollified

Into a chance for daily life

And that is gone and has been for such

A long, long while

 

We chose this for them

Our nation did not free them

Did not favor statehood

Rendered a possession in a war

With Spain

One set of owners to another

Arecibo’s there

Ancient San Juan with El Moro

But life is dark

Because there’s no electricity

For so many

For so many

 

It’s a litany of labor

Living that does not allow for expectation:

What might we have today

Food that has not spoiled

Walls that are dry at last of storm

Our children start school soon

Will there power in the classroom

Or at home for studying?

The nation could answer affirmative

We haven’t

 

We could build them back

And Texas, too

And, yes, handle the wildfires

In the golden state

And all the shootings in Chicago

We’re reactive

Here’s a tragedy

Could be our finest set of hours

What is it

They’re mestizo?

We don’t know five hundred years of conflict

To comfort?

We’re unaware of what is manufactured

That we need?

 

I’m asking

Because we made a claim

Because we have the navy there

And look for understanding in the stars

 

So maybe we can listen for

Ayúdanos

 

C L Couch

 

 

Free photo: El Moro Puerto Rico – structure, washed, worn – Non …

Jooinn

El Moro Puerto Rico, structure, washed, worn, stone

 

2

Ice Castles

Ice Castles

 

It is so cold outside today

And I must go, ironically, to

The doctor’s

In pursuit of health, my heart

Might burst

I’ll try to leave

There was snow last night

I’ll try to clear the car

That needs inspecting, but it

Is so cold

 

Before leaving, I listen a story

Of a knight besieged

In a palace on the mountainside

In winter

 

C L Couch

 

1

Destination (and a note)

I’m facing another surgery for my heart.  I can’t say I’ve been feeling well, because I haven’t.  I’m sorry for not being more interactive.  I do enjoy reading your works.

Christopher

 

Destination

 

God’s plan

We don’t know it

Shouldn’t try

We have a code for life

It’s about sheep and goats

And a golden mean

Commandments and a wheel

And the

Way

This is enough

Certainly, our records show

We’re hardly successful

In these

Our actions tell too much

Failure by choice (so)

Dare we know

All the plan

When we reveal such small willingness

About

The instructions

 

C L Couch

 

1

Psalm 38, a morning song

Psalm 38

a morning song

 

A normal day, at last

Blue sky and green leaves

The air is cool

 

Ablutions and then coffee

I sit here

Bird-song is low

 

Maybe birds are taking

Time to let this day

Herald itself

 

I sit here

With a cool current on

My back and liquid warmth

 

Close by: you give me

This peace, dear Lord

And my heart

 

Only begins, with what

Capacity it has,

To thank you

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