two poems of blessings
make me a world
the combination
old and new
forget the wineskins
(use them)
we’ll have inconsistency
in what we have
and use
old things for nostalgia
or because we say
some good left in them
then
something breaks
beyond repair
falling in with our national attitude of
disposability
moving the economy
and then
perforce
there’s new
or new because
and likely
we want something new
believing there is virtue
in a shininess
that someone else has made
that new-car smell
say
new food
certainly
from the garden that we know
so well
and count on
year by year
in the propriety
of seasons
so with age and youth
let something new
be built on
something old
and old foundation
like the Earth
itself
and there’s enough amelioration
treaty-making
for a day
having agreement that
again
bring in extremes
to love all forms
uneschewing norms averse
and plans
to build a city
or wherever
we might live in
with
and naturally
reasonably
needed diversity
the old
and new
for love
God bless and sing America
(which might mean north or south for jazz or all the rest)
I rhapsodize
without the blue
without the cool
of jazz
or jazzy notes
that Gershwin found
even
frenetically applied
so that we have
some music
for the nation
having co-invented gospel
then bringing home
with marching saints
New Orleans
then Memphis
and
Detroit
we need some music
for a country
as countries have
their own
and share
Olympically
also for normal moments
who should last a day
without some
music
and who should want
to
play on
having composed
and also improvised
then crazy-legs it
song and
dance
for all
outside with hats on ground
inside in
the ticketed way
but must be for democracy
music
free
and even
freedom-ringing
yet the gospel
emphasize
the freeing part
the part that plays
release
from tyranny
refrained
only
in freedom
composition’s
notes
we play on
c l couch
photo by Nathan Bingle on Unsplash
inexactitude
1
first full day of summer
the solstice
slides around
though it’s our calendars
you know
and the inexact nature
of the world
as is
and maybe as should be
as
you know
the foundation
of everything
our math is built on pi
our philosophy
inexactitude
uncertainty
plussed or minused
into everything
we cannot count
without
knowing there’s less or more
the rings of everything
aren’t worried
about the x and y and
z axes
shall work
in angling somehow
off other
they work
it works
we work
and that is
all we know
and all we really need to know
2
who came up with this
uncertainty
some might say
the devil
though I think it was
the Lord
everything
a thing
and everything in motion
all the time
we measure
we presume to stop the thing for
numbers
but the thing keeps moving
everything keeps moving
so what can we know
okay
okay
well
maybe enough
for jazz
here is the formula we made
plus or minus jazz
3
the glory
by the way
that jazz is
a syncopated tribute
to creation
in a day
of
twenty-three hours
fifty-six minutes
plus seconds
for change
or the day
of an age
say
the jazz age
or how about
a day
as in the day
of thunder-lizards
or the day
of Arthur
of Morgaine
c l couch
photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Hanukkah Blue
x
Hanukkah
Blue
Blue of certain
Stars
Pretty blue
Thoughtful
Magic
Works its way inside
Protective shells
To say
This is right
This is good
Blue for the miracle
Blue for peace
That should be
No one’s miracle
For happening
For real
Everyone
Upon the Earth
In every season
Once achieved
That point
From
Now on
Blue for jazz
Blue for me
Blue for you
Blue on
Beauty
All the stars
Starting on one star
For
Seasons’
Greetings
Blue on
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Zhifei Zhou on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Saint James
x
That’s good
Now will you add some O-s with me?
That’s gooood
And now
That’s gooooooood
The gospel
The jazz
Making everything
That is
You know
So created
And insinuated
(maybe with
a little slide)
GOOOOOOOOOOD!
x
Then we may
In the
Genesis world
With its poets be
Saintly, too,
And who knows
Maybe
(maybe a little whispery
for humility)
gooooooooooood
x
C L Couch
x
x
saying, singing (playing) “The Creation” by James Weldon Johnson
x
. . .
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That’s good!
. . .
x
Photo by Leonard Alcira on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Jazz Mass
(recovering lost verse)
x
Jazz mass
A mass of jazz
Inside the church
That might
Be
Preservation Hall
x
Or come with me
To Cleveland
Or
New Liberty
Or a flat place in a field
With divots
Happening to happen
Just right for
Our instruments
To rest
While we musicians
Get to listen,
While exhaling,
Too
x
Inside the halls
Of the Lord
Which might have heaven
For a ceiling
With hell beneath the basement
So let’s stay here
On Earth
To worship
In good syncopation
(planned,
unplanned)
With an aim
Sometimes
To raise that roof
More heaven-toward
x
Loud
Or soft,
Sharing the stories
Of both places
And our prophets
And
Our prospects
x
Don’t charge for tickets
Maybe leave
A jar
Inside the door
More visible
When leaving
Should
We leave
Because there might be food
(after spiritual food)
And then another
Set-to
All of us
Jazzy playing
Jazzy-praying
To the Lord
x
C L Couch
x
x
A Jazz Mass is a worship service with service music and hymns played in a Jazz genre.
Jazz Mass | Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church
x
Photo by Mary Hammel on Unsplash
x
Conversation with a Pop Star
You don’t like pop music?
Not so much
What do you like?
I like jazz
I like the symphony, too
But jazz brings music to life
So you don’t like new things?
No, I like them
Experiments in jazz are cool
As long as they aren’t atonal
Jazz already masters
Notes, half-notes, and dissonance
Not to mention syncopation
Jazz accepts chaos in the world
To wonder why
In saddest beauty
Do you have a favorite?
The one I heard last night
C L Couch
Photo by Sash Margrie Hunt on Unsplash
New York Subway Jazz Musician
Jazz Mass
Welcome to this house
Of Monk
Coltrane
And many more
Saintly-celebrating
Billie Holiday
Muddy Waters
Buddy Rich who sticks for
Ella
Sacred syncopated
Earth and all stars
Their music turns
A service
Into lifetime crazy, holy
Obligation
C L Couch
“Earth and all stars,” the first words of a hymn by Herbert Brokering composed for Saint Olaf College, Minnesota, first published in 1968
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