better news
1
better news
that God loves us
and sent
the child of God
to
live and innocent and perfect life
and then to be
killed
by the powers of the world
and the princes of the air
and
yet not have that be done
be it
and there is so much
more
because the child came back
up to Earth
if that was the direction
out
to all
to offer the child’s resurrection
from death to life
to a life for each of
us
and life that goes on
forever
finally
on a renewed Earth
beside or somewhere near
or in
a new heaven
and that’s our job
believe
2
feeling Christian
this morning
or
recalling who I am
and
that God sent God through
the Spirit of the Lord
so that
not only this
sect
but the whole world of us
might
believe and so be saved
from death
and
for this day and
the next and
on
be saved from sin as well
the whole word
John 3:17
remember to share it this way
a gospel for everyone
3
and will
we guess at
for
fun or profit
or in what we might
take
as the conquest of space
whether or not
Jesus
came to Mars
on comets
inside asteroids
and
shall Christ be there
awaiting lunar Artemis
as we
begin again
which is all right
‘cause Jesus has saved Mars
comets and asteroids and
first for us
the moon
for
the silent planet speaks again
and all that happened
here
to revive and fallen
pick us up so we
might
carry on again
miracle
new song
and our own arriving
c l couch
C. S. Lewis posits a cosmically quiet Earth and us in Out of the Silent Planet
photo by Petri Haanpää on Unsplash
Mars Not for the Taking
Who owns the moon
Who wants it
Besides Gru
Someone who thinks the mineral rights
Would be glad to take
And to provide through
Taking
And so make the other Earthers pay
Who owns Mars
But that the same agendas
Work
And again the rest on Earth to pay
And
What kinds of lessons will we learn
When we are truly
There
And other places
And the ones before us
Say
Sorry
Wrong number
Phone elsewhere
And then
In a seriousness of Spaceballs
We will decide to take their
Air
So we may have it
And the progenitors
No longer
And keep on this track of
Piracy
And war
Until the cosmos
Squish us out
By the things
Always bigger than
Ourselves
And had we read
The appendix of the guide
That said
Don’t ever do this
And now panic
For
So many things were
And are given
Without
The taking
C L Couch
for Earth Day and even Easter week
all the things trademarked or copyrighted that I cite or to which I allude I do not own and make no money from (no more than Earth or the moon, Mars, Phobos, or Deimos)
Photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
How to Go to the New World
(either way)
I still don’t know what
To say to you
Today
I mean
This is me
And I don’t know
Not knowing
Words
And something of their use
Often
Re-rendered
When conscripted
Into verse
Or let the message
Be a branch
Or bird
Inside the tree
Or something of the sun
Through clouds
Below
Leaving a gospel
In a shadow
But something new
Or affirming
Something old
Or even ancient
Like virtue
And its complement
Of rules
We take for argument
From Greeks
Who took things
From Egyptians
Then both subsumed
By Rome
And so
What’s happening
In Asia
All the while
And then the holy
And the Roman
Christians
Establish empire
Where for eons
There had been those
Who fought
And
Dwelled
Expanded and
Diminished
On their own
To have the only world
They knew
And it was vast
More than enough
Until the white gods
Came
The devils
To deceive us
A whole world
For its varied understanding
Of
The way things go
And on another side
How seasons
Turn
To go another way
And so subvert
The growing year
Of Gregory
So much
So many
To have touched
On so few
And in one time
And so
Move forward
When complexities
Are
Rife with
Differences
Agendas
Styles
And signals
Of the fear of the unknown
Toward other people
In the shadows
From our light
Whose singularity
Makes others
Fearsome in the dark
That we have made
Much darker
Not
To behold
Their part
In the same light
We could tone down ourselves
And so inquire
Of the ones
We do not know
But could
In openness
And inquiry
The way we learned research
In school
Before the grown-ups interests
And fear for profit
Took us over
We could learn to love
The differences
As might have been
Our first impressions
When meeting
As children
Invested by impulse
With curiosity
And let the world change
With our acquaintance
Let everyone be different
Just a little
For having met
With outstretched hand
Empty for introduction
While the other hand
At our side
Is open
Too
With honesty
Allowed to gain
Through inquiry
And
Once permitted
Exploration
C L Couch
Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Partial Recall
x
How many things I’ve missed
In the last few days
The Lunar New Year
Valentine’s
The birthday of my mother
She died thirty-eight years ago
Shrove Tuesday
Ash Wednesday
Diagnoses take their toll
x
Today the rover Perseverance
Lands on Mars
I should see and hear that
And all the other days
Will have gone by
Love in the time of plague
To contemplate while waiting
In her office
x
We go on
We sigh, we breathe
We go somewhere
Where there is no breath
Unless we bring it with us
Then we craft it
Inside something like
New wineskins
x
C L Couch
(2/18/2021)
x
x
Photo by Lucas Myers on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Practical Lack of Magic
x
I am tired
With a blanket ‘round me
Wishing for
Some writing
That would serve
The quiet, sobbing Earth
x
The moon
And Mars
That shake for prospects,
Having heard
That we are coming
With agendas
And mechanical persistence
x
The moon’s already scarred
Not that we
Shouldn’t go
But have a care
At least
For places that so far
Have gone untouched
x
Mystery
Romance of the unknown
Once resolved,
What we will see
When look up
Is practical
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Forest Katsch on Unsplash
Starship SN8 lifts off from SpaceX’s South Texas facility in Cameron County.
x
(x = space)
x
x
Watching Science TV
x
How the Universe Works
“Dawn of Life”
(4.5)
Mars had life back then
(it was a viable planet
could it have sent some life
to Earth?
my question
then the episode agrees)
Cyanobacteria
Turns green and then accepts
(takes part in)
Photosynthesis
Releasing oxygen
For other species
There are changes
And the theorist says
They’re random
A little taller, a little clearer in the eye
Both for better hunting on
The primordial range
I’m wondering
About the randomness
Changes for better living
(through chemistry)
But vital changes, really
Not simply for improvement but
For life at all
x
And if it’s random
Like a guess from the universe
To say, look at that, we made things
Better for that one
That kind upon the plain
That must needs kill to eat,
Then is there no touch
Of evolution, let alone
Of the divine?
No working out
Or through of human need?
x
These attributes are needful
It seems an existential crisis
(a crisis of existence)
To have left it,
Left the living to the
Throw of an indifferent die
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Sam Wermut on Unsplash
Stockton Sand Dunes, Salt Ash, Australia
mars
x
The Martians
I feel a mechanical breeze
And I’m thankful
There’s real light in here
And from the lamps
Thank goodness for invention
As for my invention,
I’m not sure what to write about
A kind of hazy, light-colored day
Or the gift of light,
Colors on the rest
I think were I on Mars
I’d see there were a tint
Or some kind of curtain lowered
Over everything
Maybe eventually
I’d see the ochre tones as normal
That this is color for a Martian
My transitory home
‘Til there be oxygen in the sky
To breathe
And then what of the color?
Maybe it would look like Earth
A baby blue on everything
Though ancient Martians
If only microbe denizens
Could no longer
Look on home
C L Couch
Regarding the Earthlings’ Case
Winter is a freezing time
Up north
Down south, when it’s time
Though there seem to be extremes
Among, inside
The peaks of the Andes
The ice-steppes under which
Somewhere is land
This is Antarctica
Wide colonies of wildlife
I’m not saying we don’t have these
In the north,
But often they are left alone down there,
And a meaning to keep it that way
I don’t know,
Eventually the Andes will wear down,
Which is natural
But the shelves around the South Pole
That slip away in parts
The breakage in icebergs
Bigger and bigger
And ill-timed
Don’t you think there might be
An irregular reason for these?
That we, in fact, precipitate all the early
Slides affecting
Millions of square meters?
I ask to be polite,
Though there is no courtesy in wreckage
On the Earth
By our fair hands
Become dirt-ridden
(the dishonest kind of dirt)
And plastic
The profit of pollution
While we’ve stopped talking about ozone
And the protections
We are ruining
Until they go elsewhere
Care for another place
While well-received
Soon we will need rescue from ourselves
By whom, I also do not know
If there’s a Martian league
Or on blue Venus
Might come over to assist
Then exact a price, because
There must be justice in
The Solar System
C L Couch
Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash
Andromeda
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