soul power
let us break bread and
drink
wine together
breaking hate for whatever
reason
we saw justified
wine as blood
to know that blood is poured
and
has been poured
and except
by the one must be
bled no
longer for the rest
to say today
and
how
shall we rejoin
(or if
rejoin)
tomorrow
if
we could
remember on our
knees
in faith
to the one
and then in service
also
to each other
then
that we study war no more
but
let peace prevail and
a feast
by love
by love
tempered by wisdom as
mercy tempers
justice
unafraid
overcome
if afraid
still overcome
c l couch
for Juneteenth
photo by Ian Kiragu on Unsplash
Montage
(well, a little one)
[haiku]
a blossomed morning
so many beautiful things
Juneteenth celebrates
Time Like
An ever-rolling stream
That
If we’re walking
We cannot step in
Twice
The same experience
Same water
But a new thing
Every time
So said
The pre-Socratic
For a thing
To teach
A lesson in
Immutability
And that there is none
While the water
Rolls
And we approach it
For whatever reason
Not for
The same thing
Every time
Change is natural
Therefore
Whether by the
Evolution water
We prepare
To swim
Or hand up our lyres
We might know
And like the health
Of a source
That’s moving
And meaning
Altogether
Change
With unchange
C L Couch
(Heraclitus and a hymn and a psalm and, you know, hopefully some inspiration)
Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash
Forest River & Waterfall
shall we gather
Deep and
Wide
(the call
and then the gathering)
Tomorrow’s
Juneteenth
Remembering
The
unrelenting drive toward freedom
After war
After the
smaller wars
That
Take us
One by one
Even
together
For a cause
To have a
life
That daily
speaks to
Choice in
where we go
No one to
intervene
Direction
Or allowance
●
To be free
Of that
ridiculousness
That is
itself
Free of ethics
Free of consideration
For the freedom
of the flesh
Itself
Herself
Or himself
Or in the
people
All my
people
As ways
The right to
be unchained
As in each
birthing
In each
house
●
How sad
Tragic
To have to
make the case
For liberty
To use up
energy
Needed for
So many
other
Needful things
In life
For enough
acquisition
Self-esteem
in work
And play
In laughing
with the children
Of our
legacy
●
These and
other lines
Established and
maintained
As on a ship
Where working
lines
Is vital
To the journey
●
Knowing when
to keep them taut
When to let
go
Of everything
To pause
within the wind
Maybe the
wind
That tricks
the journey
Of misdirected
Doctrine
Or information
Then agendas
Without evidence
Or conviction
of
Truth inside
●
Goodness
We go far
For only a
day
But if we
don’t remember
It seems we
repeat
Not the
better parts
But the
things
That bring
us down
Into a
whirlpool
Of unknown
ending
Though without
the likelihood
To brins us
Home
●
Juneteenth
Something to
do with Texas
Though the
nation
Wholly free
Should ring
throughout all states
And to the
world
New liberty
bells
From the
same carillons
That have
been sounding since
From Independence
Hall
And are not
we owed
All of us
Some room
inside that place
That forum
From the
start
When each
one aimed
First pled to
Europe
Then
Campaigned
Consciously
●
While pushing
on
Indigenous
From the
start
And the gross
Wrongheaded
And wrong
hearted
Soiled
Spoiled
Impractical sin
In presuming
to own
People
To work a
place
In which
Nothing was
avowed
For these
●
And by the
way
Of our
family
Traded for
And purchased
In the way
of hell
Against
Disgrace from
heaven
●
Then begin
Inside one’s
own
And all our
own
Words and
moves
Toward freedom
Centuries
Ago
Throughout
A woeful
Backward aga
Into the
struggle
Even for
this hour
Certainly
for this day
●
Juneteenth
A new day
For triumphant
calendars
For the
meaning
And the pleasuring
Owning for
Instead
Flesh
And home
And fear
only of God
In this
brightened hour
Followed by
another
In arriving
To the
lit-up day
Illustrious
And carried
to tomorrow
For a legacy
●
But in this
time
We have
Please own
it
The idea
The discretion
Humility
Restraint in
Knowing
And having
This second
Freely
Then with
hope
That anyone
might
Freely have
Into another
And another
Toward that
better age
To which we
add
In quiet
ways
Of love
And this
Our proclamation
Of the same
●
Amen?
Maybe we
could say
Syllables for
striving
An
Amen
C L
Couch
Photo by Pawel
Czerwinski on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
today is Father’s Day in the USA, and I wish happiness for fathers; since I have no earthly Father anymore (and for some time) and got to thinking about tomorrow; and not stopping in thinking about tomorrow, I offer this
x
x
tomorrow is Juneteenth
x
tomorrow is Juneteenth
when in Texas slaves
no longer slaves
and who were never slaves
by the will
that was creation
nonetheless are told
they are no longer slaves
and by legislation
for two years
or so
x
you are free
but they knew that
they knew there was an enemy
that kept them down
that weighed the legs and feet
upon stolen ground
to earn crops
for another’s coffer
(boxes in the bank)
they knew
they would rise
they knew this sometimes
on occasion
while chains and fields
and white men’s whips
beat another message
upon backs
of backs and faces
on the legs
that did the work
that carried wealth
to a master
who was not a master
or an owner
but for thieving
against God
and integrity
who cared not for blood
that spilled on blossoms
as long as they looked white
in the sacks
x
such evil
Lord
and why did you allow it
why is our will
so important
that we are enabled
to grab weapons
to split human hides
to take the rest from Africa
stuffed like oranges
in ships
to the infantile
and erstwhile
USA
and late give up the practice
through a war
a reckoning
for what all of us knew
was wrong
was evil
x
we cannot imagine
who were not there
though at least
we may tell stories
and send messages
through generations
to the future
x
do not do this again
live a kind of sorry
if need be
and if recompense
be needed
well them
pay it
from those boxes
of the profiteers
whose gold inside
still shines
still funds
still mocks
the rest of us
for color
and all colors
x
let freedom ring
we hear
well
let it ring
ring bells
ring all we have
that makes a message
and response
with decibels as words
that say
yes freedom
we must have it
we must try it
we must make it known
to all the Earth
and all the worlds beyond
and all the worlds
that are inside
and all the worlds
that we must share
x
c l couch
x
x
Photo by Wasil Ahammed on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Juneteenth in Days
x
Juneteenth
Again
It’s coming
Don’t you like the sound
There might be
A proclamation
Somewhere
But we know how it sounds
It sounds for freedom
Ring a bell
On the day
Those who know
Shall know
And shall proclaim
Inside the heart
That this was a good day
A needful day
Against the tragedy
Of people
Who possess the sin
Believing
We may own another person
Other people
x
Treating
Counting them
As assets
Treating them
Like harvest
From the field
Or the factory
While building
Cities
Homely or large
Across the nation
In the heart
Of the land
And air and water
So many things
That should be willing
At no cost
x
Burn
Then
For freedom
Have good days
And set
Domestic fires
Carefully
For warmth
And for tomorrow
The twentieth
And then midsummer
And all seasons
To be free
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Wolf Zimmermann on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
An Era of Juneteenth
x
1865
Galveston
They didn’t know
They know now
I imagine it’s a day
Somehow slid
Between the nineteenth
And twentieth
Though it’s not
And around here
It’s a week-long celebration
x
When I see it
I think of youth
Because teen’s in the word
I suppose
And June
The month that starts
The summer
It should be a youthful celebration
Encouraging the present
And the future
x
I hope it’s a good day
Where you are
A day as in twenty-four hours
And also an age
A day of freedom
A day of getting back
And giving back
To have one’s own
To own it
For the present
For the future
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Joice Kelly on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Sunday Best
(for Juneteenth)
x
I celebrate from a distance,
Thinking of church
As an invitation
I received
Several years ago
In a Black church in Louisville,
Kentucky
x
I was there for meetings
And on
Sunday morning
We went to a church
Some of us
Had known about
x
Arms rose into the air
For hours, and the choir
Never seemed
To stop
x
And, I’m sorry,
I don’t remember the
Preaching
But remember the music
And the dancing in the air
Of arms and words
Carried up
By song
x
And if the Spirit could be
Smoke, we
We wouldn’t breathe
But as it’s air
We breathed in life
And exhaled
New visions
x
And we were welcomed,
Such was love
In the airy cloud
That prismed every color
With invitation
Courtesy
And movement
For outsiders
x
We were there for hours
Without knowing
This was Sunday best
At its best
I’ll be a part of it again
Someday
x
For there
There was freedom in the
Spirit
As there should be a day for it
Then every day
Every day a work
And play
For freedom
Numinous
And real
x
C L Couch
x
x
Spirituality
Photo by Thiago Barletta on Unsplash
x
June Teeth
(19 June)
Don’t worry,
The current administration
Has no part in this
In fact, it doesn’t like you
Very much
Tips outside an open door
While behind it,
All the cronies gamble
For what’s left
In the real real, however,
You are wise
And rising
Except for violence—everyone
Stop doing that
There is greater power
In peace
(you know this)
And change that lasts
It is an important day
Make tomorrow important, too
And as your gospel roots
Might say
Do say
(because roots can speak)
Love one another
C L Couch
Susie King Taylor, known as the first African American Army nurse
detail, frontispiece of book published in 1902. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003653538/
photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash
clcouch123 
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