a mystery solved
(there are more puzzles so don’t worry)
no
not real enough
to say
try
new
old
there’s value in each
tradition
innovation
making
new
respecting old
and we should know
this is
the way that
things
that we
should go
mix
spill
fight
make up
difference
the same
respecting each
enlivening
the life
the upward gradients
also
frankly
the fun
who are we
anyway
we are cherished
and should cherish
as
obligation
work
and play
rest
and rise
to keep us
and to keep this world
until Earth B
and then
keep A and B
together
on their own
the way of children
and of
home
c l couch
photo by Rejaul Karim on Unsplash
a man buys food from street hawker
[photographer's caption]
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
The Pastor’s Last Sunday
I will miss him
Miss his preaching
Frankly
Which is affirming
Reasonable
And good
Though she will be arriving
Actually
Has been her for a while
So they could consult
Past and present
Which is good
As well
Things change
They must
We have some count of
Three score and ten
After all
And we age
And there’s a time decided
When we step away
Into what might be
A formless new
Retire
Or Retry
And some part of the present
Must reform
As in
Add something new
C L Couch
For “Pastor Denny” (Reverend Doctor Dennis Keller)
Photo by David Weber on Unsplash
(x = where)
x
x
You and You Will Be There
x
I haven’t mentioned you
Today
Though you are intertwined
Threaded
Through everything
Like gold inside a tapestry
Running to be seen
Or rediscovered
Later
x
You were there
Of course
You were
Our time alone
Is really for companionship
And when things are like Fatima
Well
That’s obvious
But when the world is busy
With phenomena
Broadcasters don’t find you
To interview
Preferring mortal leaders
And settling
For pundits
x
Well
How may we ask questions
Of an invisible God
On the scene
Or even chez lui
In a church
Or temple
Or where you’re really home
x
I guess
We can’t take our wires
There
Until we can and may
Maybe at Megiddo
Maybe at the gates
Or just inside
For justice
x
Given a chance
To know the words
The one word over
Under
For salvation
Ticket
For a journey
To the other side
North
And south
And west and east
Of Eden
With new promises
Across the world we’ve known
Pushed
Riotously
Perhaps
With celebration
And good humor
Among angels and the saved
New grace
New creation
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
New Shapes
x
In the new century
When everything’s
An artifact
We’ll skew some things
Add our biases
That might be better
Might be inclined toward
An actual
Prosperity
x
In peace
We have declared some things
No more
Metal and blood war
Outside
We have enough
With
Environmental warfare
Chemical destruction
The legacies of hate
On all fronts
Which we’re trying to
Reform
And then re-form
Like plastics
Into spaceships
x
Welcome the new era
Should you
Time-travel
You might
Not recognize it
A universal language
Appreciation of unique
And favorable
A celebration of progress
In unity
While
Yes
We’re working on the hatred
And the other sins
We keep inside
x
It’s frightening
It’s new
We can’t be humanists
Not thoroughly
But must try
In alliance with God-parts
With the liminal
The numinous
We are spiritual in part
After all
x
Sigh
We have far to go and
We know that
Both open and oblique
Our novelists
Will tell us so
Our poets
Keep us honest
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
New Song
x
Sing to the Lord
a new song
All right
A new song
And what shall make it new
New arrangement
Instruments we rarely
Have in church
Maybe there should be dancing
Like
The king’s before the ark
As it was taken
Across Jerusalem
(risking disapproval
of the court
the queen)
x
Maybe not
A psalm
Of normalcy at all
By that I mean
New words
Phrased by us
And our understanding
A gift today
And as a record
Kept in legacy
With the music of
The music master
(female
or male)
x
What we keep
Because we made it
With a notation
Of the first time
It was read
It was played
It was sung
It was danced
x
C L Couch
x
x
Psalm 46
x
Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash
x
(if you want a story of the queen risking the disapproval of the king, then read Esther)
x
(x = space)
x
x
Greetings from Earth with All Things Earthly
x
So what’s new
The day is new
It’s re-creation
Isn’t it
x
Some would say
The day’s the day
It’s yesterday’s day
Redone
And nothing new
Same sets of compounds
To have earth and sea
And sky
And we are nothing new
x
But cells are sloughed
There is room for change
There is age
There might be new growth
From where our cells
Land
Like the sower’s seeds
Some on good soil
x
There is a thought
That built on yesterday’s
And does that count
As old or new
x
How shall we measure
Ongoing
Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something blue
Here meaning
Blue for calm
Thankful for
The return of sky
x
And as for borrowed
It’s all borrowed
After all
We own our souls
We should own our skins
On Earth
Our thoughts
And our discoveries
To have
To share
x
Should be no fear
Rather with impunity
Or the fear of loss
Unrecompensed
x
So here’s
To a new day
It is founded
It is its own
It is tomorrow realized
It archives yesterday
As for what’s new to argue
Let’s first be
Thankful for the having
Then appreciate the cells
That change
The thoughts that build
That what we thought as next
Is now
x
C L Couch
x
x
Dancers
x
(x = space)
x
x
two brief poems, unrelated (well)
x
x
Spirited
x
What shall God
Have for us today?
x
A new assignment?
x
A day to read up
Instead?
x
A list of prayer so long
Indeed
x
Indeed
We’ll need the day,
Its focused energy for
Intercessions?
x
A day to encounter
Creation
Specially,
To consider all the wonder
And to play?
x
Or this day
Might be a day
Like all days
To love God and each other,
Not a suggestion
Or an option
But direction
Limited by human will
Alone
x
Though
Admittedly
As people in the world
With
Myriad possibilities
There are days
When it’s hard
Or when it’s easier
To love
x
Which might be why
There’s both
Expression
And redemption
Available
At will
All the time
x
x
At the Bottom of the Hour
x
Could we do the news
In halves
So that
There’s bad followed by
As much good?
x
The readers
And
The ratings
Would be fine
x
We sponsor and produce as if
We believe
Good is automatic
While bad
Is creative
And so (bad) more attention-worthy
x
Though
The presumption is
Ironically
Disingenuous;
We know
By now
That bad is not
Exceptional
And good could stand more press
x
So by halves
Coverage of good and bad
(for some reason
in
the discourse
bad then good),
Well,
It would not be
(hah)
So bad
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
What Become Our Favorites
x
We shall turn the page
To Thursday
Inside the good book
Of our lives
x
One book
Or many books?
I am unsure
Yes
No
Sure there is a book
And there are books
There is a book
Of wisdom and delight
We each part
Or we each have our own
I like to think we have our own
And there becomes a library—imagine!
Such a thing
x
The new page
For each one
Or more
On Thursday
Might be written over
Or unmarked
Waiting for experience
And then a recipe
For those who share
These pages,
After
x
Or finding birds upon the page
In the medieval way
We’ll scare up the ingredients
To try ourselves
Each one
Each with an assist:
Success in old
Meaning
In what’s gone before
And also
Maybe only
Thursday new
x
C L Couch
x
x
[sorry for the English-only, and I don’t know what’s being made]
Photo by James Lee on Unsplash
x
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