Aver
Affirm
As if
To make a pledge about it
We might aver the Lord
And all the works
Therein
Therefrom
Vocabulary
Syntax
Devotion to one’s homework
Enough so that the computers
Might stay running
In
A way the machines might
Talk to us
Share everything
After inputting
At least
Translucently
For spell-check and search engines
Sigh
School is worthwhile
After all
Establish
Learning all the time
As the model
For the way
As
Even Genesis
Continues
Certainly
The love
Made
And spoken of God
Go on
C L Couch
Photo by Sam Loyd on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
take away the confessional and informative emendations and there’s one poem here with endings like certain music selections
x
Processionals
x
I think
Often of David
Of a picture
I have seen
Or made up
It’s when the ark
Is brought into
Jerusalem
And it’s a triumph
A kind of victory
x
And I think of David
Young
(and was he young)
Dancing
Before the ark
Not wearing much
But he’s king
And he arranged all this
And so
The instruments
Let play
And maybe favorites
Follow suit
x
I see light colors
As if this were a desert scene
Done as a picture
With pastels
You know
I think I figure the hair
On David
From the statue by
Michelangelo
x
Processions are important
He and they
Had to have one
Because the ark
Would have a home
Forever
Well
At least for generations
(I should
look this up
it might be before
Absalom)
But what do we know
Today is forever
And the
Ark is here
x
And Jesus came
Into Jerusalem
And a procession
Was needed
And so it was
Arranged
In humility
And somehow awesome
Awful majesty
x
C L Couch
x
x
I worked on this scene before as a draft; I have in mind I didn’t finish it, and this time I did; but if the other work appeared and I forgot, then I apologize for the repetition—CLC
x
and a bit more (for free)
x
a coda
x
David was a shepherd
He was a king
He was loved by God
As either
So are you
Loved by God
For either
Any
Way
x
Photo by Alberico Bartoccini on Unsplash
x
(and here’s the lesson should you need one
coda 2
that was D. S.
this is D. C.)
x
Jesus came
Into Jerusalem
Like the ark
Meaning a triumph
Victory
For a home people
Battling
To keep a promise
x
And like the ark
Is lost
Defeat
And sacrifice
Through lack of faith
(bad kings—you may
look it up)
And so sacrilege
And a new needed
Promise
Follows
(read the prophets)
For restoration
Of the people
x
Turns out
It’s Israel
And all of us
Redeemed
Through this
Second coming
Triumph
Then sacrifice
This time as well
And
Cosmically speaking
Greater
All the world
And how far out
On the edge
x
With destruction
Turned to joy
With all our flaws intact
Until a final resurrection
That will keep
Us and the world
Intact
And better
And forever
x
Stone not only
Rolled away
But smashed
Here endeth
And look
And listen
Smell
And taste
And touch
This is the start
And we might think we do
But we don’t know
What’s next
x
(x = space)
x
x
Snow Overnight
(the forecast)
x
Snow in the dark
Except where under
Artificial lights,
Maybe like renegades
Outside the windows
Of our homes
Or business locales
x
Over the runway
Through trees
Sleeping gardens
Flying around steeples
It’s there
It might go well
To turn off the lights
Go outside
I have to recommend
In numbers
x
But let them strike our flesh
Faces,
Wrists between our gloves
And sleeves
x
Small hits, the kind that
Most of us can take
With the cold
In thirties Fahrenheit,
Knowing that heat awaits
Inside
After the dance
Or anything to learn
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Impulses
x
Exhaling’s good
x
We feel as if we’re
Letting go,
Letting things out
We no longer
Need
x
Maybe small cells
Of disease
(don’t breathe those
at anyone),
Maybe
Small particles of
Memory we
Could do without
Because they act like
Sickness,
Like an infection
x
Maybe we’ll
Straighten up a little
As we inhale,
Let the shoulders
Do their part
x
Maybe we’ll inhale
Healthy remembrance,
As life allows
For these, the
Memories that heal
x
It’s a dicey game
That is no game
Breathing, hurting,
Healing,
Breathing some more
x
We learn from
this, from these
x
It’s why we
Went to school,
To learn how
To learn
To breathe
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Erik Dungan on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Reading Lists
x
Adrienne Rich
Wrote about Aunt Jennifer’s
Rings and tigers on screens
And diving into a wreck
x
These were the poems
We interns were assigned
To read and teach,
And that was all right
x
But reading on one’s own
With no one’s rubric but
One’s own
Is so much better;
I’m sure we were supposed
To instill some kind of
Critical process regarding
Life and reading in it
x
But I’m not sure
How well that worked,
What kind of processes
We might have instilled,
What seeds grown,
What personal
Allegiances to one’s own
Mind and heart
x
So was a new generation of
New readers of poetry
Begun? Has it flourished?
Are they among the ones who
Turn to poetry when there’s
A tragedy?
x
(read up how we
took to verse after the
Towers fell)
x
I like Rich, though that
Would not be enough
In that we were serving
A learning process
x
It was a small, state school;
I never heard from anyone
Again, though nothing and
No one is due me
x
A state away and many
Years, I wish us well
And to take up small books
Of miracles from time to time;
I do this, Mary Oliver’s
Most recently
x
C L Couch
X
x
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash
x
A Now That Must Also Look Ahead
It’s Tuesday
It’s a nuthin’ day
A sick day
Among sick days
The novelty’s worn off
Some learning’s needed
With the cooking
And the cleaning
The boxing
(of both kinds)
All the games that
Walls and cyber-walls allow
Thank goodness, we can
Look outside and go there
There’s real talking, too
In many ways
A face to face
That’s a comfort
And we learn from this
A different kind
Of schooling, maybe
There are books
Paper and pencil, too
Or let them be totems for
Pens or the electron kind,
What it all might represent
The faces
All the forms
We can through this, now
Until the angel passes
Our own kind of rite
The Jewish own so well
Singing for pass-over
Blood upon the lintel
Chair for the prophet, should
The prophet come to call
Food, some of it with bitter herbs
But everything we need
For the journey
Into such desert and
At last
A homeland
The Passover is family
Each tradition has its form
And if we have none,
What better time than pandemic’s
For making something new?
For the world needs cleaning
Not a purging
But a dusting off
Soap and water
Disinfectant for the worst
While we wait
Research
And wait
With everything that passes over
Having something of the new
Inside,
Maybe inexorably, ineffably
Once shared,
New ritual
Based on care for what we’ve learned
Of who we’ve been
And who we are
Again and for the first time
As for death and mourning,
Each tradition knows that well
And those without
However we might feel
I don’t know how to count
While others do
Remember, in the future,
It was this kind of plague
I might not be here
Or another witness
Closer and more qualified
You’ll have to have a story
Back to learning, again
Sad lessons
And tragic
And a void
We learn this other kind of life
Lived through emptiness
It is time for a wake, the Irish say
(who also know bread
and bitter herbs for sin and hope,
Irish Jews more so)
Though this party if too big
Too many coffins to line up
Along the bar
What the dead drink
Will do nothing for a tab
Only take coins in readiness for
Ferry pilots
Announced by banshees
These groups I know a little of
You have your own
And stories
Set them down and tell them
Try not to worry about variants
They happen
There is a narrative here
Part of the story of the Earth
If we tell it well,
The Earth might weep
For us
C L Couch
Holey Week 3
Pedagogy
(learning for children)
My sister has an allergy
She didn’t have when we were growing up
I have one, too
An allergy
I did not have before
If we return to anything like childhood
I’d rather it were in another way
But nowadays
Now that we’re older, anyway
And just because
She will have to eschew strawberries
As I have to avoid bell peppers
Then invent it on our own
An aspect of joy and unquantified
Curiosity
That without even a nod
Such as children have
C L Couch
Good Morning, Teacher
A wizard without a monarch
Spells to cast for no one
Lessons offered in an empty room
So Merlin retires
A teacher in an empty classroom
Someone standing on the shore alone
Where is Miranda
For Prospero to teach about
The wider world?
We need learners
We need to serve the cause
In animated bone and blood and flesh
Mentors require mentees
Can you imagine Mister Chips
Without someone to say good-bye?
I can’t
I don’t want to
It’s not a crave for audience
The universe is crowded
It’s someone who comes into the room
Asks a question
Just right for a leading answer
An educator’s reply, meant for
Engagement
Let’s begin
C L Couch
Helen Mirren as Prospero in The Tempest
Source: The Official Trailer
Learning
I wish I could capture nature
Which isn’t right, I want to cooperate
To live in harmony,
Which modern poets say we cannot do
I want to find the metaphor
That catches all I see
And it must come through nature’s voice
And ear and eye
Not mine
For the mentor is out there
To tutor me inside
The sky, the leaf, the chlorophyll
The classroom of a cell
Time is the tuition
Finding what is ultimately real
The assignment
I know what is in the room is real, though
The cells are stable, and so
Much never moves
I can learn here, too
Through darkness on pale leaves
And don’t think that I’m ungrateful
To have life and the moments
But, yes, the better teacher’s out there
So the transcendentalists thought, and they
Were right
I should be outside
Playing
Walking if not running
Or sitting still to let the air present a better lecture
Than I’ll ever hear inside
I’m learning
I’m in love
The world and I will never be the same
Catch me
I’m on a current, and
The wind will make it hard for me to return
C L Couch
(image–“404” when I tried to track for attribution)
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