red moon angled rose
two-thirds and majestic bid
birth of a nation
c l couch
photo by Akin Cakiner on Unsplash
anymore
3 July 1863
the heat of July in southern Pennsylvania
it’s hotter now
these days
but a hundred fifty years ago and more
then
inside uniforms bearing
supplies and heavy guns
and
two days fighting even
to serve on the winning side and then a final
charge
to determine victory
then the march on Harrisburg
to end the war
and
the cannons fired too soon if like the rebel yell
but
too early over the field
then following orders though the noise
had cleared
the damage done with time
to reassemble
the smoke gone and
regardless
came the charge
over a flat place with little cover
and
stopping wasn’t ordered
anyway
and the soldiers
with their leaders were
cur
down
Hood shot down and
only some made it
to the stone wall of the enemy
and
were killed
there
and Lee called up Pickett to sort his army
for more fighting
to which
Picket proclaims with anger in his blood
and grief for loss
to Lee that there was no army of his leading
anymore that
day
the charges lay on the field
free in the worst way
from
any earthly order
anymore
clc
photo by Johnny Kaufman on Unsplash
“Roadside Sunset”
Gettysburg, PA, USA
the process of the psalm
how did the psalmist write
I wonder
how was the work composed
what
was the process
if
in paper and with pen
or quill or frayed papyrus
were there amanuenses
who
waited for each word
or
was the draft done mentally
and with the harp
at hand to test the measures and then
to set down
and
then all gone over many times
before the purpose
of subtitles
realized
by singers in or near the temple or at
the shrine before there was
a temple
serving
as the composition served
and
served through generations of us
in this age
and
we have the paper
anyway and some give music for an art
for
what’s on there for conveyance
and
we can replicate the act
when all
the people gathere or
for one
depending on the intimacy referenced
and yet it’s all
there
for use
I suppose
if sometimes there is an I or a you or a we implied
and underlying
sometimes to say
the Earth itself should sing
to praise
provision and the might
that is
implied
or saved until a parting of the sea of
food fall from heaven
should
be needed
and did we think of these or simply fear
our need
and then the exigence addressed
though miracle
of
power
and
yes
we could say of timing
that we need what we need
when
needed
though we don’t command the schedule anymore
than the agenda
of what
God can do
or
when
so sing to the Lord or
read it off the page
our
expressions and intentions
as we might own
what
is given there and over centuries
and to you
to me
to us
and now
c l couch
Psalm 96
1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise . . .
[NIV]
photo by Joël Vogt on Unsplash
guardian
is there an angel
and I think there is
if
I don’t know how many angels
are assigned wherever
and whenever
and how
they work their shifts
in a day
or night or in
an era
and
does each one get one and
maybe so
I have a presence
of a feeling of
one
and I don’t know
I could be wrong in heavenly creation
and whether or not
to have
similarity in voices
depending on
the client
and
the quotidian
need to know how many or only
one since that is close to doctrine
and yet one
or many
each is company and so many for each of us
have one
and
maybe always as in year
by year
and also all the moments in
each bit of present
time
by which we need
and want
or might be saved when we don’t know
or
get an answer
as
well as talk more openly
hoping to hear honestly by what
we get
on Earth
until we meet the delegate
and sponsor
when
there
c l couch
photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash
2 poems about fire
by an imagined flame
a clear
hot
day and like the gray
to be inside
to pretend a fire
for the scene
of
reading
even to imagine pets curled
around one’s satisfaction
oval rug
curves in the seating and the cycling
of
friendship
through it all
‘round the truth
and
to assuage the fear of what
might
have gotten to us first
and more
but by some
measures to regard
and
put in practice
for the peace in dealing
be it
clearly well or
adulterated by pain in the now
as
well as pain before
recalling
that pain is fear
as well
good fire
by the real flame
which
is not by
but
in
you know
if you’ve heard
or
you were made to go
to school to
learn the faith
and now
apply
and so the fire is within
traveling from heart
to brain
and back again for
more
normalcy or pressure in a situation
to share and to assuage by
every source
within us
in
the crisis
the source of fire
within
because we had it come from
without
to live
and to be standing by
like
orders issues so
long ago as to be by creation’s rings
when set and first called
good
c l couch
photo by Kyle Peyton on Unsplash
those three doctrinal things
what is for everyone today
hope
except by those who will not hope
not believe or have
enough
it seems not
toward wanting more
yet
wanting
more
faith
to believe in us
and in the world enough
if only inimically and
so
the spirit more with heaven as an element
maybe an application until
the spirit
obvious everywhere
and like the poles
should
peace prevail
then go to love
and what
shall
love be if not reliable like seasons
except
to be founding and producing
all the time
what does better
and
reliably
so we might rely and not
have to create our loves
and re-create
all
the time
but depend
and so have a fullness
in
independence
hope has wings
then
while faith has raiment
so
love has
the halo for sanctity
and
could be worldly important
though it’s also ordinary
and to
elevate the
ordinary
so that
even
if the land is occupied
we must hold the love and
so resist
even repel
siege
holders
until the enemy goes back to a phantom place
to plan some
more
while we keep to
and live of our own
until
the world change and we have
with everyone
if
not equally
but all
the time
in
love
c l couch
1 Corinthians 13:13 (World English Bible)
“These three things will remain for ever. They are faith, hope, and love. And love is the greatest of them.”
[yeah, I wrote about hope first]
Enemy-occupied territory--that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
the Donner film
on Sunday afternoon
how is
it
to be super
and how to dole it out
what gets taken
care of
who
and who does not get
the saving
since we tend to think there are limitations
of time
and energy and
can’t slip through dimensions of these
yet
and
don’t know how that works
so calculate from now
to now
and what is heard
and what is the response
and if not
in dimensions
how
about the nanosecond that maybe
the extraordinary her might pass through
to help
or simply to stop the wars with
a warning that
the rest is up
to us
so
humans
get it
together
and I will be there as I can
billions to help
beyond one
even
the amazing one
and finally like
us
c l couch
photo by Wil Stewart on Unsplash
how the day begins and ends
It’s a dark-gray day
there are green and brown to see
the sky scoured of blue
hear and see my friends
share a meal of smell and taste
touch the hours away
c l couch
photo by Mahdi Bafande on Unsplash
friends walking
new harmony
if we could walk
along
the gravel or something else
packed-
down until they get
to concrete
set
down perfected paths
without air un-gray
but with an interest in the clouds
whose
shapes we tacitly
acknowledge and with the part that
doesn’t have to
hear
can suss the shapes because
our time is easy and we define
companionable silence
that
we’ve been told about
through sorts
of
books
and so crunching go our way while
underneath
small sounds are radiated
into hearing or
more
silence
or
adding to the satisfying bank of noises
small
at our minds’ disposal
in this congenial time
the gift of that
and
us
our tranquil knowing of each other
and is this why the paintings in which
movement
is
nonetheless evoked
we
still call
the life still
and is this romantic
for we’ll have to
talk
now and then to keep things open
and
available over details
and maybe over
bigger
things that rise up
time
to time
yet for long stretches
counting
also
leaning into things we might keep
quiet with the outside or to
put up with
of
noises from our world even
the harmonious
though
quiet has its harmony
as well
c l couch
photo by Nigel Cohen on Unsplash
plus taking the photograph
Recent Comments