Shares
So
I’m sorry
I’ve been ranting
In the drafting
Anyone
(else)
Do that
Trying to de-poison first
So that there might be
Something healthy
As in virtuous
To say
That we are strong
When we are favorable
Toward
Each other
And the planet
That wellness is
As wellness does
And parentally
Sometimes
(at any
age)
For children
(of any age)
Bask in awareness of
Sunshine as good
And also clouds
Day
And night
Are sound
And should be left
To rise and fall
Unpolluted
Under which
Allow life
Even romance
(in life
again
at any age)
To dance
C L Couch
Photo by Leon Liu on Unsplash
Gospel according to for good or ill ourselves
a summer’s day
what is there for us
now
it is too hot
the rain too helter-skelter
flood or famine
for the ground
the seeds
the shoots
the corn that reaches
in both ways
we are
uncomfortable
the heat
too much
the night whose only solace
is the dark
but not cool temperatures
that are not
happening
hottest on record
set the year before
the year
before
and thank goodness
there’s no climate change
and that it has
(thereby)
nothing to do with us
we’ll keep
burning things
beyond what is
suitable
for Earth
sending ersatz smoke into the sky
and the chemical equivalents
dump in water
chemicals aren’t evil
as we know
they have no moral value
as we know
we do this on our own
discover poison
then we use it
to make products
to make money
for the products
and the jobs
that making all the poison
does provide
we need the jobs
we know this
we could
do something else
I mean both
searchers and
providers
we could
do something else
for Earth
and on our way to other worlds
we could launch
in all directions
a fleet of possibilities
against the poison
in favor or
the sanctity of everything
organic
and how about
ourselves
bless the Earth
and pray for it
we humans can
and ask the help of heaven
should that be
our wont
and bless each other
too
as far as humans may
without the sponsorship
indeed the surrogacy
from the Lord
who blesses first
and blest
and should bless or curse
our efforts
as they are
and
(Quijote)
as they should be
it isn’t hard
and it’s hard
goodness
we know it’s hard
to change a world
and severer
in a subatomic way
to change ourselves
the knights are out
(they’re Artemis
and Ares)
while corsairs with full sails
assail the edge of us
while we are sieged
from monsters in the hall
that came
from deeper parts
the deepest parts
of us
yet deeper still
there are solutions
like a treasure
to unearth
and bring to the Earth
starting with the skin
of us
and all our will beneath
new will
(if we will)
not
to recall the knights
but let them quest beyond
to share
their discoveries
there
while we hobbit-heroes
have our work
to do
and bless the work
in turn
O Earth
and Earth’s lord
that has been waiting for us
blessing only in small ways
while waiting for
the rise
of each of us
our families
and the world of us
quietly
yet firmly to say
we know at last
whose house this is
and whom
to serve
which is
the layers of creation
so serve the core
the mantle
and the surface
all the water
all the land
all the creeping
and the soaring things
that we may use
(with water
land
and air)
with apology
(both kinds)
in order to explain
excuse
and also
to define
and thrive
the Earth
is not one
and doesn’t have to be
so many parts
to allow
expressed
yet from the outside
(and the inside
on occasion)
see compressed
as of a jewel
in and of
the cosmos
joining with other lights
both
light and dark
that make the sky
and give us all we need
to dance
beneath
c l couch
photo by Man from Forest on Unsplash
Birch Grove on a Summer Day
Lisburn Road at night
wonder as a verb
to go out there
and look
with the senses that
we have
and think
with the synapse
that we have
about the looked
and also
the looking
to look through question marks
that is our punctuation
as a gift
of moving on
since
we tend to ask
and then go on
for answers
there is a hill outside of town
that I would take
pull over
then peer out at night
I got
to see
Halle-Bopp
that way
and also got
to stand
or lean against the car
too see both
darkness and the light
and then
go back inside
for warmth
against the night
the comfort of
artificial glow
that I could pretend that I made
and whatever cushiony
substance
made the seats
but if it weren’t
too cold
I’d stand
or lean
a while first
waiting for more
that what saw
and sometimes
I saw
with some sense of other
then
I’d write it down
on paper
I’d have
wonder as a noun
and
who knows
maybe keep
wondering as a gerund
something standing for an
ongoing thing
c l couch
photo by Tristen Lee on Unsplash
happy June
happy night skies
the holey week
so this is
Holy Week
except for holes
we have
in planning
certain days
but come by the church
we will be open
all the time
you may kneel in darkness
or in daylight
whatever is the atmosphere
for God and you
to chat
for God will not mind
your mood
or what you have to say
if need be
God will listen
though profanity
though maybe
keep that
‘twixt yourselves
and God will answer in
a away
that most likely
will not satisfy
though there are
instant precedents
they are
in stories
mostly
though
we’ll leave
without resolve
unrecommended
maybe unbelieving
in the silence
that was shared
for God
works in God’s timing
and waiting much
is called for
or not
or something else
kairos
and a gift
we don’t know
how to ask for
and receive
in time
more than we could
ever ask
and ain’t that something
this translucent
faith business
that ain’t a business
but a gift store
without prices
where everything’s available
though we have to wait
to have it chosen
for us
what we need
in time
and we could call it
holy time
in a
holy week
c l couch
photo by Josh Eckstein on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Longing for the God who Stays
x
Now to say
Something about God
Whom I do not know
A phantom lover
Cupid to Psyche
Embodied in the night
Gone by morning
x
And there the myth must end
For there’s a presence
Always
In the day
In all the hours
Probably in nanoseconds
In the smallest things
Perhaps
Angels dancing with electrons
‘Round the nuclei ephemera
Of thought
And awareness
x
Then the lovers meet
Again in dreams
Where we might talk
Words becoming solid
Resting in the liquid
Like a loving cup provided
Of the night
Out or which
We drink
Words and meaning
Clearly
In the night
x
Which might work
For a spiritual life
Except that in the daytime
There are daytime expectations
x
Who really stays
Who really goes
I make up things
For fear
Of isolation
And a longing for solidity
For the God who’s always there
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
First Frost
x
1
Last night
x
It kills some things
Blankets others for the night
That is the final season
x
Nature knows
What we try to control
Knowing that relenting is
The final lesson
x
2
Ally ourselves
Withal
The nature of our lives
With the nature
Steadfast all around
Whose
Perturbations are
A part of all of it
x
Rhythms
Cycles
Seasons
Storms and quakes
Floods and eruptions
Take too many
Should have their own
Rhythms
Cycles
Seasons
x
Try to dance
Like skaters
Swimmers
Climbers
They all fall
And rise again
x
We could take care
Of all of us
This way
And let us grow
Into work as play
And play as work
(if we take in both parts)
Into retirement
What comes next after
Seed and bloom
Trunk and ever after
Life again
Life ever after
Goes the story
x
Join with the movement
Of the seasons
Of the spheres
While together
Work it out
For better times
Reasoned
Lives today
Living ahead
The generations of the forest
x
We are the forest
Too
x
C L Couch
x
x
(the briefest of bibliographies)
x
The Word for World Is Forest
Ursula K. Le Guin
x
Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the Creator triumphantly raise,
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
Who guideth us on to the end of our days.
Katherine Davis
x
x
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Garden of Scheherazade
x
Imagine
An Arabian portico
A ceiling to the side
Under which is
Furniture with pillows
It is day
Then it is night
And in another place
Deeper inside
She meets with the husband
She volunteered to take
Even though
He is a maniac
Who kills after one night
To secure fidelity
x
And so you tell a story
Recalling all the things you studied
Texts
Everything told you
By your father the vizier
By his advisors
Students
The servants of the house
And when allowed to wander
(covered up)
Making stories out of comments made
Along the streets
Of a desert country
With oases
And mountains
As well
x
Legends
Narratives from
Math and philosophy
The history of men
(mostly men
aware of audience)
Through the ages
Sinbad
Aladdin
Ali Baba
So many more
Nearly three years’ worth
x
Though it was the first night
That mattered
And the day that followed
Keeping life
By keeping the killer
Entertained
And then the second night
Made all the difference
And the third
x
While you stood
Or sat
Or walked
The garden outside
The blood-filled palace
Deciding
Crafting
Revising
Each narrative
For the night
Aiming for salvation
For another day
x
coda
x
I don’t know why I think of this
x
It
She
Came to me yesterday
Probably because
I was thinking about story
On its own
Not so much the content
But the abstract
And the purpose
The importance
The reality
A telling makes
x
Maybe not
To life and limb
Bur all the stories she got to tell
We got to hear
That were in context
So much fighting
For her life
x
C L Couch
x
x
A Thousand and One Arabian Nights is a collection framed by the telling of stories by Scheherazade, the daughter of the vizier. She volunteered against her father’s wish, naturally enough, to marry the king as a defensive measure for the women of the realm—and because the realm was losing all its women, at least those suitable for a king to marry. Whatever suitable means, especially given the circumstances. And as an overarching cause because the king whose first wife cheated on him and was summarily executed made in the king an attitude of mania regarding fidelity. And so each day he would marry a virgin and then each night have her killed. Scheherazade, who was not only skilled in storytelling but in story content, went to the king, married him, and entertained him on the first night with a story and then, because he wanted more, on the second night and so on. The king found good stories more enticing than slaying wives, which I guess is some kind of virtue even in one we can’t overall admire. Finally, the king’s madness broke or something like that happened; and he thought to keep Scheherazade as his one (and lasting) wife.
Well, it’s a story within stories. Or I should say without. But it adds an edge in the telling and our hearing. An added edge like that of a sword, perhaps that of an executioner.
x
Photo by Arsalan Rad on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Givers
x
I need to speak better
With the Lord
And of the Lord
And of a maker’s love
Of nature
And more so
The people
Living in all mysteries
x
People and mysteries
Of how to number them
In and if
Any propriety
How to count
And within the will acceptable
Of all of us
(three entities)
x
For us
Receivers of all words
Too much is un-understood
The glass is dark
The ideal
Is on the other side
As are the mysteries
Resolved
x
But there is the need
The compulsion
To move, anyway
While
We are here
Somehow to invest
In invisible interaction
That is real
In the sense we cannot count
Or measure
Yet bears salvation
x
A book of hours
Indicates
Yet cannot reveal
As much as, say,
Look or hear into the gentle candle
While we pray
x
Our rites are fine
Many are elegant
With an aim
Toward dignity
Mixed with an agenda of
Information
Clarity
Through what is revealed
Finally vague
And believed
(by me for one)
Vague evidence for faith
As manifested,
Which is to say
As is
x
More elegant
(as well)
Is the spirit
In the sky at night
With its own stillness
And its risks
The careful and the wild
Embodied
And presented
In unmoving blue
Maybe with high clouds
That haunt
Or in the storm
That
Threatens
Or attempts to ravage
When released
Land and sea
And us between
x
The hours we have
Altogether
Organized
Unkempt
The lives we have
With all the unsolved parts
Priests
Religious
(liturgy composers)
Poets
Room for unbelievers
All work
In both realms
Created
Sub-created
And must own
Not in harmony
But harmony
The music of the spheres
We say
With all the mysteries
Set down to solve
And leave or let
Untouched
Unsolved
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Ali Choubin on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
summation
x
its been a day and i havent told you anything ive been in pain and there has been some amelioration through being still and water food when I was hungry
x
ive been praying prayers as time rick goes by for welcome home to those whove died healing for those in hospital or in pain for reasons that take us other places or simply to the heart and mind and spirit of a promise
x
now the day is over night has drawn nigh to paraphrase another older song more sleep for you less pain for you more health in the morning or reverse that if you work at night third shifting
x
c l couch
x
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photo by gilberto parada on unsplash
x
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