[haiku]
I do not know why
the sap of the tree sometimes
bleeds human for me
c l couch
photo by Michael B on Unsplash
Strikes
Only
Military targets
And is there such a way
A war in one’s land
Won’t
Only affect
Military forces and machines
Yet even
So
Military means soldiers
And support
Meaning people
While an oath to serve is fine
(and it is)
To serve
Defend
And if need be die
The oath or service doesn’t
Detract from
The reality and worth of
Soldiers and support
War might be metal
Regarding two or more it could
Go nuclear
Though
Mainly
War is human
That’s it
C L Couch
What Were the Targets India Says It Destroyed in Pakistan?
by Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/what-were-targets-india-destroyed-its-strikes-pakistan-2025-05-07/
Photo by imad Clicks on Unsplash
Srinagar, Kashmir On Dal Lake
To Serve with Love
(and what more)
I am very tired
Lord
And what do you have for me
Anyway
To try
And in the promises
Accomplish
Until the will is to move
Something else
Along
And there is a part
To play in
That
And with unknown others to complete
And so
Let my service for you
By
Your will
Maybe have
In part
Divine surprise
And if I suss well
Be
Satisfied
With the enormous will
I do
Or will not know
If in
A cloud
Of unknowing
C L Couch
Photo by Daoudi Aissa on Unsplash
(The Cloud of Knowing is a medieval text of Christian mysticism.)
A Plain and Fancy War
I’ve made
Notations
On the weather
Even risking
A mood
Based on the same
While all the hundreds
Are new victims
Anywhere there’s war
Or war
On deck
As if to step up to
The devil’s plate
In a game against a team
From hell
And this is stupid
Reasoning
So far
Foolish metaphors
Of weather
And of games
While in the east of east
From here
And west in Asia
So much is brewing
Like
The witch’s
Stew
That at this time
Is also fanciful
All because
I do not want
To face
With my face
And what's behind it
The real death
The ghost of war
(un-
metaphor)
Come
To haunt again
And everything
That schemes with it
Famine
Hopelessness
Annihilation
Of the body
And the spirit
To win more souls
For hell
Though for now
It’s destruction
Literal
Destruction
That matters most
And
Yes
The devil’s work
In strategies
And I can’t keep from this
I guess
The rhetoric
The discourse
When we have no mouths
And if we had
What we would have said
Gone ignored
And then frankly
Horribly
Set
To detonate
And then
Explode
The tangling
Of war
The limbs
The lies
That both must soar
In gruesome pieces
Through the battlefield
Certainly before
And after
Without doubt
When
Generals and presidents
Defend
Without forfending
And this is one place
And there is more
In more
Places
With all the consequences
To the body
As we say
And the soul
Cliché for closeness
And the truth of things
We must have one
And have
The other
Losing one
Or both
A battle
On the plains
Or any parts of middle Earth
With all the forces
Human and human-like
Divine and like divine
Assembled
Frankly
Like Megiddo
And now
To consider
What shall happen
C L Couch
Photo by Zihao Wang on Unsplash
Because We Can Doesn’t Mean We May
And where is conscience
In all this
May we agree
This is a secular value
Maybe not
Maybe we’d say
It’s a confluence of chemicals
And so adjust the chemicals
According to agenda
And this is it
We’ll say
We can do anything
And so might as well
And so the anarchies of one
Guided by something
Because we are
Guided by something
We will release
All anathema
All destruction
Because
We could
So might as well
All this
Without a conscience
Without a human try
At salvation
Our part preceding
Armageddon
That we could line up for
Weapons down
Bringing drink with food
Instead
And also medicine
With the medicine of joy
As another
Secular choice
We could do this
We can do it
C L Couch
Photo by John Benitez on Unsplash
“Donate Blood Today” (which might translate more easily than part of an image on a page)
(x = space)
x
x
two more brief poems today
x
x
Black Branches
x
The squirrel ran criss-cross
Up the branches
x
Zig-zag ladder
I certainly had not noticed
Upon
Looking out
Into the dark-grey day
x
The squirrel’s smart
Good legs
The tail helps
x
And the creature’s
Totally
Impulsively involved with nature
To be so in tune
With all vibrations
x
Must be astounding
To have so much
Ordinary
Magic
x
x
8 to try
x
Hanukkah tonight
starts
8 days for a miracle
x
what if
we try this for our
universal selves
x
8 days for peace
before they arrive
that is
something
outside ourselves
to judge
x
pretend
there is a deadline
x
find out
how far we get
then let it stay
for real
beyond 8
you know
as long as we can
or may
x
8 and more
as if the world
were at stake
which
you know
it is
x
x
Photo by Mila Tovar on Unsplash
x
x
C L Couch
x
(x = space)
x
x
Today in Washington, (a) District of Columbia
x
Huge aid
For Ukraine
And for Israel
Sits still in Congress
While Republicans
Look under seats
Wherever
For a
Speaker
x
While the
Democrat
Gets more votes
For candidates
If not
(but yet)
Procedure’s
Righteousness
x
Ironies
Within
The government’s three houses
While we wait
(who put them there)
For something
Most likely too partisan-extreme
To happen
x
C L Couch
x
x
wars for many are not partisan but human and humanitarianism; save lives, feed people, fix their wounds; that’s a side perhaps but undivided by our race, our minds and hearts and spirits, all other differences aside; save lives, feed people, fix their wounds, our wounds—build a society, healed
x
Photo by Alex Martinez on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
nether campaigning
x
the demon
knows a gun
or a Bible
and what shape
a trench might take
and the cosmic trouble
when a soul is gone
then how to argue
for salvation
of the other
the wide pathway
into hell
x
demon thwarted
demon satisfied
a report for
adversaries
smallest of decrees
ringing through
one judgment
or the other
x
two kinds of howls
for outcomes
two kinds of retributions
for the work
in afterlife
after a soul is counted
one way
or the other
x
they lose
you know
the demons
finally
they have contracted
signing by descent
to grasp for
less and less
until after last battles
when the aftermath
is simply
nothing
x
c l couch
x
x
one might read The Great Divorce or Revelation 22 of the Christian testament
x
photo by Jani Kaasinen on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Nicene Intention
(universal method)
x
God is God
And God becomes
Human
And as God and
Human
May serve as the
Mediator
Both in between
And on both sides
A sacrificing
(needn’t be done)
Remarkable
Negotiating strategy
To be in the middle
Also moving
Through each side
x
It’s real
It’s blood-won
It involves an intimate
Awareness of
Divinity and
The temporal through sin
And loving everyone
Inside everyone
Bring to bear
Reconciliation to the table
All parties
With a nod
That meant
I died for this
For you
For everyone
And everything
On sides
And at this table
One way or another
Now
x
Call it an altar
Or a cairn
A memorial
A space
That existed with all spaces
Before Sarah
Before Abraham
Before Buddha
Or Mohammed
(bless the name
and bless all names
approved)
And we have much to do
Then and now
Though now
For the mortal side
Is fair
x
Earth shall be fair
As a result of this
Mortal and divine
Working out
What is good
What is victory
What shall be the means
To believe in
And proceed from there
Toward Earth and us
In paradise
In time
Now
Then tomorrow
Breaking time
In fact
So that we have primal
And evermore
Perfection
With all wonders
Wonderful things to do
Each moment
That bears
And shall express
Forever
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
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