visions
having heard the word from a character
and it’s important
something about young people
having then
in
time
when prophecy is elevated
and how it moves along
with
God’s direction and may we
say
revelation
for it sounds like magic
like
mischief
like things no one should get paid for
that is not a regular
job
and how might mystics earn their living
anyway
out of a ring by patronage
I guess
provision of a family or other non-
profit
providing of a cave
outside of
town
somehow
funding
the anchorite approach
then do we take away the prophecies
relegate them to
extremes
that are unhealthy for the nine-
to-five of us
the sort
that earns and so can buy and own one’s breath
not saintly but
with
the relief of practicality
so no visions
thank you
or the crusades that follow
if
believed
dream on your own
in
your own time
and
don’t get paid
or expect encouragement even when
we need you
for
our work and then the way
we play
so come work
come play
with
the skeptics
maybe
spend time with Julian
and the cat
maybe when no one else is looking or the rumors
heard
c l couch
In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young will see visions.
Your elders will dream dreams.
Acts 2:17 (citing Joel)
Common English Bible
photo by Joshua Jordan on Unsplash
old gray
1
nothing
in my eccentricity
like
old gray stone
we have some fences around
here
a few are nice
while most are overgrown
there are some buildings
too
that stand
the association for me
is
with ghosts
of those who set
or
raised whichever and
the story
with the persons who are lost
maybe
in wars between the states
or
the war with England for first freedom
and
there’s what
to keep out
what
to keep in
speaking of first and
who
was here
and to extend the poet
classic and ironic meanings
it might have been
true and
could
still be that
good fences make good neighbors
so then
stone fences make stone
neighbors
2
texture
moss
what is fallen
what remains of what
has
fallen and what
keeps the form and
stands
for meaning
living metaphor for
boundary
for
protection
that could yet
be actual
for a building made with local
material
and that we mean to keep
and
to repair
and it’s the fences we have more of
in
all states and they are old
and some look pushed together while others
forgotten or
ignored
or someone owning
likes
the fallen texture
lopped shapes
even the worked through parts
made low
through
time
and unknown circumstances
they make good pictures
I believe
photographed
or
painted or fashioned with material
of one’s own
color
black and white
what
is decided
what’s at hand
or if we may
to
go there
smell
touch the long sides or
where they’re broken
touch
the nubs and
feel
the age
the stories
and I will make up stories of and
for
the ghosts there or
nearby
to have a story by my
home fire and
maybe an invitation for a hearing
by yours
3
the buildings and the fences
and
especially the fences
to drive by
as
the buildings are kept mostly at
a distance
but all
appreciable and made when
words
like
middlesex meant
something for a status and
a name
and the word we know
from
another poem
later Gettysburg close
about which
so
much has been said and sung and on
which
to borrow from a third so much depends
though
these are matters
upright or collapsed
like
dreams and
visions
we forget
to tell
the next ones on the way
the next ones
here
c l couch
Frost on fences, also Longfellow and William Carlos Williams
with another note by me
an unintentional study
even a reverie
though
I could have meant that
briefly
photo by Richard R on Unsplash
‘bye
twenty-five dollars ago
in a frozen land
I bought it
that was graduate school
and now by decades
having accumulated so much more
than Ideals allow furniture
on Earth
and so
picked up this morning
now is gone
I could be sad
over dreams of reupholstering
though
relief sublimates the wishing
mind
c l couch
(let’s pardon the pun)
photo by Jandira Sonnendeck on Unsplash
(mine was picked up separately, commercially)
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
(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
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
(x = space)
x
x
Old
x
We get old
Forgetting we were young
No one would believe us
White hair
No hair
Everything takes longer
We wonder what to do with our day
An irony
On irony
We know more
Unless we gave that up
Stopping in our heads
Sometime ago
We could grow
We have things to say
Who wants to listen?
The gray become unseen
Unheard
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
Taproot
x
The brown blade sinks
And feeds the seed
That was a part
x
Seeds that sleep through
Cold time
Far enough
North or south
x
Something new and all the same
For being new
Will rise in spring
x
C L Couch
x
x
The Colors of Nature Caught on a Hike
Photo by Don Raridon on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
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