ours
it’s my world
though the wars are far away
I could complain about war-chemicals
in the atmosphere
and more exigently about
war’s cost of life
the sad and tragic loss of life
by artificial means
those who had been alive
the moment before
and who am I but an Israeli
I am from Ukraine also
and of the Palestinians
Lebanese and Egyptians
Iraq
and Iran
and Russia
knowing some fine people there
I am of all despot states
especially the ones who say they’re not
I am of Earth
and so are you
and so means of destruction
hit at the statues of our lives and states
destroys us
piece by piece
one oppressive act by the next
whatever takes out freedom
will
and life
hours
exchange
one deadly volley
then another back or
somewhere else
maybe
toward allied
then the arcs overlap
and collapse
order
of things
and then we say it’s over
‘cause we say
and then ceasefire’s broken
and
who is left
respecting whom
worse than chaos is
the void
we shouldn’t move toward such
things
such lack of shape and substance
and the life itself
one life by one
c l couch
photo by mauro mora on Unsplash
Kathy
I wrote a poem
For my sister-in-law
And then
Started to question everything
About it
That it had no heart
No real
Let alone deep
Humanity
That it didn’t address mourning
At all well
The reality
The need
The inevitability
Regardless of how we might
Believe we can reason
Things through
Not that reason has no place
But who can figure death
Each time
Or at any time
It’s a surprise
It shouldn’t happen
It always happens
This
Side of Enoch
Anyway
But we who do not walk with God
And are subsumed
At last
Must simply know that death
Is coming
Not as a person
As much as a failure
Of our systems
And it’s an actual person
Each time
Who had a life
Who had preferences
And
Dislikes
And those of us still here
Should feel for them
What we feel
Thinking
Too
Whatever we must think
Feel the loss
The pain of that
Take comfort
In the placement of heaven
After this
Or something next
However it might be described
Or named
Something is on the way
Though maybe
We mortals
Will have to rest a while
First
Our souls to be cared for
In that
Sleep restores
As we’ve known in our daily lives
In mortality
That is
In normalcy
Anyway
I’m sorry she is gone
I shall miss her
It’s not sibling pain
Perhaps
And yet
Bonds by marriage
Still hurts
To have her gone
to Beth about her sister Kathy
C L Couch
Photo by Javier Cañada on Unsplash
You May Ask Who Are the Storm Gods
Milton passed
Helene passed over
Earlier
Now one
At least
Is turn out
To sea
Where it will accost
As storms do
Ships and islands
There
In their way
We’re only in their way
The hurricane
Tornadoes
Storms are mindless
Believing gods are in there
Might
Be Interesting
We may say
God of the storms
To be figurative
To add to
The personality of God
For our
Relating
Also to make sense in fear and
Hope
That God is intimate with
Nature
And God is
And when God might say
People of the Earth
What are you doing with the planet
Well
I guess we could argue for metaphors
Of us with God
Though
I don’t think
God will go
With that
For the Earth is ours
The human ours
Even
God-given
And the responsibility is ours
Even
Now in aspect
Of storms
We make them worse
And who’s to care
While
We are rescuing
And
Picking up
And mourning
Oh
So much
So much that is
Lost
Afterward
When afterward
Becomes
The now
We can talk on this
And then together
May do
Something for
This Earth
The extraordinary gift
On which
You know
You know
We live
C L Couch
Photo by Don Daskalo on Unsplash
Love andGainLoss
I don’t know
How are we honest
About loss
We feel it
We feel the
Not-the-presence from what is
No longer there
It’s rather plain
All the small things
That don’t quite work right
Anymore
Or at least don’t work
The way they used to
When
What is missing now
Was there
But then
The missing is another
Something
Too
It has been added
And we’re supposed to deal
With less
Than we had before
I don’t know
The paradox of
Loss and gain
Or
Loss and loss
Escapes me for compassion
Even in
A philosophy
Of love
Which is the “love”
Part
Of the “love of wisdom”
Though love might say
With philosophy
Or away from formal justifying
That everything should be embraced
What we have
What we no longer have
(I know
like hugging
a phantom
somehow)
Well
My friend is gone
And other friends are gone
And something of good
Feeling’s
Gone as well
Though ironically
(and paradoxically)
I suppose
We may need more such feeling
In these times
All right
No supposing
This is when we say
God
Of goodness
Help us through this time
For you are author and sustainer
Of everything beneficent
Plus
The way
(you show the way)
To deal with
What happens
And is
Injurious
The answer as in all things
Must be love
And love somehow in
The inquiry
As well
Which is added
To the present pain
In
Our reasons for it
Any of it
Plus the lack thereof
(of reason)
Clearly
Then
We go back and forth
And not so clearly
Why the loss
Even why
In the first place
Love
Knowing
And not knowing
Love is the means
The resorting
The resource
And was
At first
And shall be last
The seal
Our pledge
That is
An answer
With a reason
From
The start
And now even
Our gratitude
To go on
Positive
And with
Anticipation
C L Couch
(on the death of a friend)
Photo by Kseniia Rastvorova on Unsplash
(x = space]
x
x
Plane Crash in Nepal
x
preamble
x
And if you think of other planes
Dimensions, even
Torn and torn apart
I think you’re tragically
Correct
x
story
x
If you’ve ever seen
A landing in Nepal
(I saw one, recorded)
Then you saw
How steep
How brief
A perilous experience
Considered normal
Was there sudden wind
Inside the mountains
Of Himalaya?
Was there ennui
Among the pilots
Who got too used to doing this?
Was there worse
Or better
Doesn’t matter
To the loss of life
That’s final on this side
And for us
All the keening
And investigating
A place of peril
On a good day
This was not a good day
It was a horror
Out of normalcy
We like to think plane landings
Are ho-hum
Not a terror
The humdrum fabric
On the loom
Ripped apart
The frames of bodies
Broken
Flung and sung away
For furies
Or other agencies
Who mission is to surprise death
Out of our ordinary
x
This was ordinary
Leisure
Otherwise, uninteresting
Now the count
The cost
The loss
The news
Prayers lining up through ages
A horrible new age
Unending sorry
Ending
Beginning
Some kind of cycle no one
Wants to live through
And live through
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Rahul Lal on Unsplash
The Other Side of Himalays
x
(x = space)
x
x
Earthquake in Indonesia
x
Pray for the souls
Of victims
Dead and living
And the
In-between
We don’t understand the hundreds
Because we are not there
We’ve seen pictures
These are not enough
What would we see for real?
What would we smell?
What would we taste?
What would we be allowed
To touch
And whom?
And all the misery
We’d hear
From the keening of the living
And the demons overhead
And underground
That scream a victory
x
Nature is corrupted
We’re claiming the win
x
C L Couch
x
x
Boy, 6, pulled alive from wreckage of Indonesia earthquake
Story by Masrur Jamaluddin • 1h ago
x
Photo by Chris Zhang on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Valley of Weeping
(Psalm 84)
x
Loss
Patience with loss
Endurance
Not only keeping faith
But using it
While I might not know your suffering
God does
And God loves you for it
And will go with you through
Valleys of shadows
‘Til shadows encounter shade
A comfort in the desert,
An unknown place of suffering
Become familiar
Not in which to dwell
But through which
To cool our sight
Our sense
To know the way
To leave
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash
[story that came with photograph—I think it’s apropos]
We were looking to capture a foggy sunrise view of Half-Dome in Yosemite, but the weather wasn’t cooperating with us. The fog that did show up was low-lying and moving quickly through the trees like a ghostly river meandering through the canyon, swirling around the tallest trees in small eddies. Like too many forests, the valley is infested with borers, which has killed thousands of trees. The splash of golden trees mixed with the green is actually really beautiful, but a sad reminder of how fragile the forest is.
Yosemite Valley, United States
x
(x = space)
x
x
Everything Is Listening
x
It is a fallen world:
Fallen people,
Fallen nature,
Maybe primal good
As in
Genesis
Until the fruit is eaten
Then everything is
Changed
x
What kind of universe
Allows such a fall
From the marrow
To the skin
And in the air
The slough above the skin?
x
A universe that’s made
With allowance
From its maker
x
Everything made
Real
With real alternatives,
Real consequences
x
Real joy
x
Real loss
x
The chance for one thing
Or the other;
Chance matters
Choice matters more
x
What we choose
Moves the Earth,
Maybe heaven
A little
x
Heaven malleable enough
For a third
To fall away,
The Earth more so
Affected by our choices
Mortal
Inside mortality
x
Save the Earth,
Save each other:
This can be done
With faith
And better choices
After faith
x
We believe—help
Our unbelief
x
What shall we say?
What shall we do?
How shall we live?
x
We are fallen;
Our choices mingle
With the dust
Of ages;
We have an age,
This age
x
We have flaws
x
We have hope
x
We know a better way
x
The prophets and the angels
Tell us
Of repentance
And good news
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Mohsen Samimi on Unsplash
x
Loss
(for my friend Sanford)
Love pitches
And slides down
No purchase for a hold
All last moments gone
You
Are friend sitting beside
Me, sometimes
Walking with me here
And there
You moved so slowly
Through the world
So that love might
Permeate, a message
In itself
Go slowly, the Buddhists
Say—you taught me
That
A righteous challenge
For those who move
Too fast, a badge
A sign that virtue
Is in rapidity alone
Rather what we do
While on the way
Is what makes the
Difference
And the love we leave
While on our way
Where you are
Is good, is right
Is healing, and is
Love—
You loved us here
Thank you for that
I cannot say good-bye
clcouch123 
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