'round
I have to leave today
if only
for a while
like
his mother leaving for a walk
around the Hundred Acre Wood
and he asking before
would you like
me
to go with you with her replying
no
but when I return
greet me as if
I had been away
a long time
no mother or
another
to whom to say
that
to
or hear that from
though
needing to leave
also
to return
in a later hour
of this day
having gone around
c(hristopher robin) l couch
Christopher Milne tells the story of the walk and the question in The Enchanted Places. This Christopher better known as Christopher Robin. (And I nearly forgot mentioning that his name was how I got my own. Christopher, not Robin but for him, anyway, my mom really liking the stories.)
photograph by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash
pathwork
the poem is a path
I guess
we start
then move down or around
the page
depending on the form
the program functions
we can have translation
if we may
there are pools
from which to sip
and
forfend against the traps
that only rhetors
might
have set
but let the way be easy
through a story
though
the story’s difficult
or
fearful
yet there is a frame provided
if not for comfort
then
to keep going
and you’ll go alone
though
you don’t have to
as
it’s a form for speaking
after all
and even in a hall
to tell of what goes on outside
inside
so where
or how walk on
the path
is wide enough
and narrow
to discover what is offered
only as
we go the step around or
valley
toward what’s next
c l couch
photo by Deborah Goodsell on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Form
x
God
I love you
Even though
I’m unsure of the terms
Or attitude
How to be both
Obeisant and
Democratic
x
See
You’re a monarch
Absolute ruler
Of the universe
(more than He-Man
or She-Ra)
While for now
To mortal lives
You’re also
Frankly
Invisible
x
I may say
You’re in the wind
Your fingerprints the bark
On trees
And all the patterns
Helix
Hexagons
The nautilus
In nature
x
We may say there’s evidence
I may say
And I believe
The wonder inside everything
Indicating
A wonder-maker
x
And there are words for you
As you speak
To Adam
Eve
And prophets
Though you tend so speak
Through agencies
Especially after Eden
Still
We say your words
Which is all right
For me
x
You are layered
Through the books
And we must read
And listen
Let it sink
Through layers
Into our own deep places
Reemerging
Into peace
And promise
x
We are surprised by joy
x
But who are you
And how are you
An image
In what ways
x
And how are you
Today
x
How is it to know you
And to live with you
Really
We wake to a clock
And then what
Should happen
x
There are domestic
Possibilities
When Jesus says
To wash and comb
x
When mourning
To offer in the temple
Our poorer
Open selves
Then give
What for each of us
Corresponds to the
Widow’s mite
x
We know you count the hair
Track the falling sparrow
Offer bread
When sinners offer stones
Plus you prodigally receive
Whenever we return
From profligacy
Spending our inheritance
The gifts you gave
And what we have
From the world
All gone
And only we are left
As shells
Needing frankly
Food and water
x
And then you give us
Feasts
While the righteous and the stern
Glower
While serving
x
There is that stream
Of course
We wander by
So I guess you somehow do that
And in some form
So we might walk
Together
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Luke Ellis-Craven on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
August on Deck
(easy greetings)
x
It’s Friday
Anticipate a weekend
Late summer
Final trip before the school year
Work at home
Clean at home
Leave the home
For the park
For stores
For church
Find company
Leave company
Hours on one’s own
The quiet might invite
x
Or out into the world
A different way
A drive, a walk
To nowhere in particular
A new nowhere
Untried
Something heard of
Or an inviting opening
A path into
Some inviting part of the world
Keep safe
Why not
x
After the anthem,
Play ball
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Maksym Tymchyk 🇺🇦 on Unsplash
I look at this
I can smell the stalks, the petals
Memory, I suppose
x
The Trail
Who gets the good?
Who gets the bad?
We do at least in here
We have it for the asking
We ask it of ourselves
We ask providence for help
This much we get
One step and then the other
And we’re on our way
Toward a path we’ve chosen
And which, if
Covertly (this is grace
until revealed, sometimes
a surprise)
Will have chosen us
The good then selecting
The bad will make a claim as well
Spirits will mediate
Depending on tradition and
Our current habits
Stay the path being generally
Good advice
Ready to move,
Even to change course
Should that become
Necessary
(tricks or illusions)
Good will let us alter ways
When needed
Bad should like to keep us in a rut
Neither trail
Path or gap
Being easy
Though we can ask for help, again
That divinity would show us
More than allegory
(though allegory, too)
We’re talking choices for
The way
And on the way
It shouldn’t be guesswork
Maybe resorting to a text
Thoughts and insights should help
The kind that only hurt
Or serve single ambition might
Indicate the other
Finally, we’ll find elsewhere
That feels like home
Even if home
We never really had
Because it is
Nothing but strangeness and
Foreboding
Should a turn be wrong,
Which will be all right
Because we can turn again
C L Couch
Photo by Alex Bertha on Unsplash
Going into Woods
I’m not sure
Which way to turn
Or if the path is widening
Anywhere
A track would do
It needn’t be easy-going
Only a way that shows enough
Of this step and the next
Maybe it’s in a desert
Though I’d prefer a forest
With patches of sun and shade
On the ground
Rising to the sky
There could be a breeze to
Touch my face
With all the sounds around
Of everything that nature’s
Creatures call
To one another
But if a desert, so
And if a track I can barely see,
So be it
I haven’t mentioned company
Though I know of nothing bearing
That would say this journey
Must be taken alone
But the right companions
Well-humored, uncomplaining save
For the things we all complain
About with just enough good talk
To keep us going
With—this would be grace—long,
Deep listening when we stop
For night
Who knows where we’re going,
Some might have a quest
Others, questions
What I know is that we would be moving
I would be on the way
With them:
Nature, nature’s creatures,
Angel-guardians,
Acquaintances, siblings, parents,
Friends, all those
We know
And have yet to know
C L Couch
Broken Pathing
‘Round here, I guess it’s sinkholes
In other parts, it might be from
An I.E.D.
Or maybe lava turned to magma when
Nature groans upheaval
If I were walking, and an unformed line
Broke open before me,
Whether in the moment or who knows
How many hours before,
I’d wonder not only what to do
But also how it happened in the first place
Forming foreboding words,
Don’t cross here, not at this place
Not here
Walk around, if you can
Walk around
If I’m still here by nighttime
I might not tell one darkness
From the other
For all we say of woods and bread crumbs
(now ash),
Treasure might be on the other side
Or
A new way home
C L Couch
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
Yellowstone National Park, WY, USA
The Big Trip | Moody Morning at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park — Explore more at explorehuper.com/the-big-trip.
Lent 24
In our time together,
We might travel far
In one way or another
We might hear sounds
See new sights
Enjoy new tastes
Feel the air and mist
That ribbon other shores
Smell the clarity of salt
It might be walking
Or a plane
Some other vehicle that gets us there
A conveyance of our bodies, yes
Our senses
Though must do
The harder work
It’s how we’re made
We give ourselves the data
Via input from our lives
(first machines)
What shall we learn, one by one
What shall we learn together?
So much to learn
So little time
But that’s no way to operate
We must value what we have
Each mote, each moment
Singly or together,
We can learn
While traveling far
In one way or another
C L Couch
Photo by Nicola Nuttall on Unsplash
The Wild
(companion to “Way”)
Maybe we can find another way
That no one’s taken
It’s a big world, after all
And we are small upon it
A road not ever taken
Not even a road
But what we make
Not an Appian macadam through an empire
Or cord wood laid down by artisan French
To consecrate
The king’s highway
Rude trail, if any
For others to press with
Greater permanence
Should they pass this way
On the track we have christened
Before nature grows it over
C L Couch
Overgrown Pathway Looking east across Banky Meadows.
from geograph.org.uk
clcouch123 
Recent Comments