Search

clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

Open Search
Tag

poem

Field Manual for Seasons

Field Manual for Seasons

 

Blue peeks through

Green netting

On a midsummer day

Maybe it’s high summer, now

A timetable is needed

Not for tides

But for the broader reaches

Of the seasons

 

Something to say

These are dog days

Tell the dogs, they’ll want to know

When are cat days?

Silly humans, cats say,

Every day

Give dogs a few

 

It could also be a time

For field mice

Chipmunks, squirrels

All creatures seem to know

The seasons,

When to bury food

When to look for it again

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Jonnelle Yankovich on Unsplash

Chassell, MI, USA

instagram: @jey__photography

 

10

The Original Series

The Original Series

 

There will come a time

When I won’t know myself

The old one from the young

One that becomes

Maybe a mask for Hallowe’en

 

I wonder if I’ll put up

The barricade between me

And young (in years) people

Forget that I was one

And used to see me then and there

And here for a long time

 

And will I talk of them

As if they had just landed

From Spain or from

Another planet

And will I rail about

Their demon music

And wonder where their generation’s going

While mine was worse about direction

Or destination

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by shawn henry on Unsplash

 

5

Timing Isn’t Everything

Timing Isn’t Everything

 

When we pray

There is listening

Because God is infinite,

Which means

There’s plenty of time

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by June O on Unsplash

 

9

Finite

Finite

 

When we exhale

Things go out

We no longer need,

Which is all right because

Parts of the world need them

That, in turn, give up what

We need

And so inhale

To say the least, it’s a good arrangement

We should keep it going

Oxygen doesn’t come from

An artificial tube

We borrow it

And sometimes

Too often, really

Don’t give anything back for it

Let’s not begrudge astronauts

Someday maybe

We’ll make our own sustenance

For breathing

Though really everything we have

Is borrowed, molecules from

Someone else

Call it Mother Nature

Father Time

Or random, hexagonal arrangements

In the universe

Finally, it’s what we’re lent

Of substance and of time with

The energy to use them

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Moses Lee on Unsplash

Richmond, BC, Canada

Comet NEOWISE over Iona Beach through tall grass.

 

11

There Are Way Too Many People Dying

There Are Way Too Many People Dying

 

There are way too many people dying

Yet we, the living, complain

Because we’re still here

With masks and keeping six feet or

Two meters apart

Staying not in a factory or prison

But at home

From where we live and work

Unless you have to go away to work,

And we thank you

And (everyone) get by hopefully without catching

Anything,

Such as the nineteenth COVID virus

 

We have to get outside,

And so we protest in Berlin

And politicians in Ohio

And D.C.

Hawk a malarial that not only

Doesn’t work but harms in other ways

If Madame Cleo came back

And recommended something,

I’d be more inclined to listen

 

This should be the year of doing nothing

I’ve said it elsewhere

I’m saying it again

This should be the year of doing nothing

But getting better

 

Next year we could try it

Without the disease

 

C L Couch

 

 

(image from Unsplash)

United Nations COVID-19 Response

Frontline. Inspired by images of exhausted doctors and nurses. Image created by Kevin Kobsic. Submitted for United Nations Global Call Out To Creatives – help stop the spread of COVID-19.

 

10

Snoopyism

Snoopyism

 

Take out the “stormy” part,

And “It was a dark night”

As most nights are,

When it happened to rain

Snoopy went for this

(the words appear above

his doghouse, when

he’s typing—how does

the typewriter stay perched

along the top

like that?)

But the words were borrowed

From other sources (more

than one writer claims

the cliché!), and we

Smiled, because we were certain

We could do better

It was night; there was rain

Okay, now your turn

 

C L Couch

 

 

(see, Snoopy is a beagle character in the Peanuts comics and cartoons, and Snoopy like to write while on top of his doghouse (Snoopy’s always on top, not in, his doghouse), and the famous words he quotes are “It was a dark and stormy night” that have been used now and then by writers who evidently had nothing else to say

and I keep forgetting that Madeleine L’Engle uses the phrase intentionally (knowing it was cliché) to start her novel A Wrinkle in Time)

 

Photo by Grant Durr on Unsplash

 

8

Sabbathism

Sabbathism

 

Resting is a process

When we’re not exhausted

So that sleep is something like

Unconsciousness

(we might as well have fainted)

Spiritual rest, more so

A process, and there are

Some truly mortal things

We can do

 

Do you have a favorite place?

Something you like to drink

That will enhance

(not abrogate) the experience?

Like violins singing beneath

The piano solo,

Can you wear something comfortable

Or comfortably?

And here it is,

Will you give yourself some time?

 

By doctrine, it’s a whole day

But take what you will give

Half a day, an hour

Twenty minutes, five

Do you need a prescription?

Get someone to write you one

Better yet, write it

Yourself

 

Read something, then and there

Write something

Pray something

Or do next to nothing

But be present

In the moment, as de Caussade

Has recommended

Think things

Feel things through

Decide something, if you must

Though you don’t have to

And it might be better

If you don’t

 

Afterward,

Reach out to someone else

Especially, if you took help

To make sabbath happen

Didn’t I mention getting help?

Well, feel free

Always feel free

 

C L Couch

 

 

(The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre de Caussade)

 

Photo by Matthew Angus on Unsplash

Jerusalem, Israel

Devotion in prayer.

 

8

Ordinary Invitation

Ordinary Invitation

 

A pale day

Painted in yellow

Talking to the trees and sky

Green and blue in perfect tones

Framed through the window

Because the house is old,

Tall and wide

In this moment, there is fortune

Lucky to be here

You’re invited—look at that,

You’re here

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by yns plt on Unsplash

Çatalca, Turkey

 

7

No Indifference

No Indifference

 

If there is a God

And there is

Then why all the terrible things?

Because there are

There have to be

Otherwise, it’s all a game

And God is a demon,

Only the biggest

But there’s another question, too

For all the terrible things

That happen,

There should be no inspiration

No interest in virtue

Even to using it when lying

Why should good have an interest

At all in our deliberations?

But it does

We want it, pursue it

Even bad people

Want good things

Companionship, ambition

Self-satisfaction, pleasure

Nice things

Nice sensations

The bad has been twisting them

Hiding inside means that

Should be hidden,

A bent form of going after

What is good

Like every villain in every story

 

But there are heroes

Please understand, as women

As men

And people of all colors

And locations

And there is virtue

That usually starts with something

That is true,

Perhaps the truth

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Pavel Nekoranec on Unsplash

Am Lustgarten 1, 10178 Berlin, Germany, Berlin

[cropped]

 

11

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑