By Numbers
Some of you
I think
Have had
The new year’s moment
Already
And are into the new number
The rest of us
Shall follow in fireworks
And maybe smaller flames
Inside
Not resolutions
Though they’re formal
But
In some craziness of growth
Some of which
Goes
Yes
Formally
As far as cells
E.g.
Might grow
As far as they might grow
Though sometimes cells are crazy
Too
There are classes
Too
And levels of promotions
And stages of development
(uncrazy)
And then the things that happen
We might make
To happen
Or shall take place
Anyway
To change us
To challenge us
In all of these
To grow
So happy new number
Sun-
Counters
Though some liturgically
Have started weeks
Ago
While others will have their first
Numbers
At yet
Other times
But let’s wish well
All
The beginnings with
“Well”
Meaning a tiny pledge
Perhaps
To help
C L Couch
Photo by Sichen Xiang on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
The Book of Numbers
(in pandemic time)
x
Lots of twos and ones
Tomorrow
And a zero,
And there could be church:
I think I’d cherish
Learning someone else’s
Story
If in a cyber way
x
To understand
How a narrative fits
Into the weaving,
The puzzle
Of the one great story
In which we each
Have a page
x
Monochrome
Or colorful
Burnt along the edges,
Gilded for the saints
After all the torn-up
Parts have been
Repaired
x
Not a book of judgment
Not a cache of
Clever evidence;
Rather the story of us
In part
And all the rest of us
And God inside, above
With tired angels
Tirelessly binding
Fixing binding
All the time
x
C L Couch
(for 2/21/2021)
x
x
Photo by Paulius Dragunas on Unsplash
Antelope Canyon, United States
Ladder to Nowhere
(reasonable skeptic)
x
(x = space)
x
x
Counting on God
x
We are in Lent
That like “lente” should mean
Go slowly
(Holy Week might be
“adagio,” I think)
x
Lent is a Christian thing
And goes along with
Our preoccupation
For things forty:
Forty years our parents
In the wilderness,
Forty days’ temptation
Between Jesus and the devil,
Angels standing (flying)
By,
Forty days for seasons
There are more
x
Four gospel writers
Three angels meet with Sarah
(meet with Abraham)
She laughs with them
Isaac, Rebekah
With two sons
The sons are parted
As father was separated
From brother,
Two traditions started
Eve and Adam
Had two sons as well
One of whom
Need be remembered
On account of murdering,
First murder
x
I’m making up the factor
And where is ten?
Ten tribes to the north,
Two to south
x
Numbers must be important
There’s a whole book for them
In our traditions
But I stop
Just this side of numerology
Yet remembering, just now
That Arabs gave us numerals;
Before then,
Letters had numeric value
Cf. X, V, I, L, C, and M in Roman
Usage
x
Letters as numbers
I think that hurts my brain
What is the number in the name of God,
In the quotient
Or should one multiply?
x
We say three in,
But sometimes I must wonder
How many God might be
How many parts and particles
Go into one
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Makarios Tang on Unsplash
x
Psalm 27
a birthdate song
My day once a month,
Nine times three or
Thrice three multiplied
Such numeric niceties:
How much do they
Matter?
I make special one day
In my own way, taking
The number to own
Eccentrically
My little arrangement,
My small deal, to
Negotiate in the world
A little something
Shadowed that is mine
Small possessions, Lord,
Do you mind?
I’m guessing not
We all need to remake
Certain days
clcouch123 
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