lyrics on a day that’s cold and cold at least in the MidAtlantic
Suburban Wait
Winter light’s
Too bright
For cleaning deeply
Finally
Dispiriting
The leaning light
Shows everything we’ll never get
To or
Even want
To get around to
Those dust-bunnies shall
Keep their warrens
After all
While we wait
For the easy lighting
To clean by
Which
Will happen
You know
Spring
Roll
Roll in the hay
Roll out the barrel
Mister
Yankovic
Roll on home
Now
There might be rolls
For dinner
Rolled oats
Though I don’t know what
These are
Roll the dice
Roll to win
Field Work
God
You love us
Anyway
Which is remarkable
Not inexcusably
But
Unconditionally
Which splices doctrine
Maybe
But you can handle that
And so
Should we
The field of the Lord is vast
There are no mines
No
Not ever
Only living things
Mythic plants
That spring back as we pass over
Them
So that everyone may have
The chance
To pilgrim
Toward
What’s next
Possessive Tense
The dogs of God
The cats
The bunnies
Too
The aardvarks
And the platypus too silly
Some
Might think
The insects
Too
There might be reasons
For mosquitoes
What is tall
What is
Low
What is brief
What has long life
On Earth
The Earth is the Lord’s
Too
A place on which to keep
The complex
Living things
And
Well
Among these
Us
Use Words
(as you are able)
I love you
Honestly
I know
(since I’m in me)
You love me
I think I know
Not quite as
Whose woods are these
I know
(not with the same divine
assurance
frankly)
So you might have to say
From time to time
Though if you
Always do
(flawed occasions notwithstanding)
Then
Maybe not so much to say
But
Sorry
Still
To say
C L Couch
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost (cited)
Photo by Kevin Cress on Unsplash
Arundel
It’s
Larkin
Captures the detail
In the stone
That the couple’s hands are touching
Throughout what might be
The long life of
Statuary
Isn’t that the thing to
Leave
And who they knew the message
When flesh
Was intimate
The lord and the lady considering
The tomb
And a commission
To have their hands joined
After
Death
While
Uncommissioned
Beyond wedding vows
They had the life deserving
Of the clue
On the monument
For keep observers to be
Noting
And who knows
Maybe corresponding in their touching
As well
While on Earth
And promising celestial
Closeness
Too
Larkin’s message might be hard
(like
the stone)
Until the end
And it’s after I am thinking
Since his hands are in a posture too
Just now
And for how long
By bone
Or ash
There's knowing
C L Couch
a response to “An Arundel Tomb” by Philip Larkin
(can read at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47594/an-arundel-tomb)
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
graves in Arundel
my practiced cat sleeps
gilt by sun on the mattress
she meows to bless
c l couch
photo by Anna Karapetian on Unsplash
[not my cat, though my cat also gave the don’t-mess-with-the-cat look—this cat, by the way, is from Ukraine]
the question of this evening
(responding to “Now the Day Is Over”)
evening draws nigh
the old song
imposes
for the song becomes
well
rather maudlin
melancholy
minimally
there is a prayer
and that’s fine
for Jesus to keep us through
the night
but
some will ignore
all this prayer
to fire up
the evening hours
instead
so lie low tonight
or charge
the time there is
to pub
and such
though morning comes
and with it
some responsibility
unless
retirement
has taken over
as an age
or
attitude
and then
what then
a song of peace
results in consternation
for there is much to figure out
by night
by day
rebellion
indifference
extremes cut through
by rest
c l couch
(the song often sung in my college chapel Sunday night—here, sorry, the assurance questioned
Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky.
verse 1)
photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
“Sometimes you just have to look up.”
(caption given)
A People of All Seasons
(to the accomplishment and memory of President Jimmy Carter)
Sacrifice
And service
Duty
As love
All of these
Impulses
And choices
Be love
As in
Love of country
Love of each other
Preference
For peace
And everyone be fed
And living safely
In
Unconscious readiness
For something from an outer circle
To round in
Provide the next challenge
For
A species
Shall we care and
Shall
We lift each one
Diversely
And also through
One principle
And let that principle
Of course
Be that
Of love and growth
And so earn
That readiness
Even while
Simply
Learning delight
In the energy
Of ourselves
Sponsored
And
Grown of ourselves
While
Naturally enough
God might
Approve
Then leave us as in let
Us
To what’s next
C L Couch
Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash
murmuring
what shall we do tonight
I think I shall lie in
though
quiet so much better when
you are around
and also making your
home noise
thank you for companionship
above
below the skin
the sense
of things
c l couch
photo by Gui Avelar on Unsplash
Aver
Affirm
As if
To make a pledge about it
We might aver the Lord
And all the works
Therein
Therefrom
Vocabulary
Syntax
Devotion to one’s homework
Enough so that the computers
Might stay running
In
A way the machines might
Talk to us
Share everything
After inputting
At least
Translucently
For spell-check and search engines
Sigh
School is worthwhile
After all
Establish
Learning all the time
As the model
For the way
As
Even Genesis
Continues
Certainly
The love
Made
And spoken of God
Go on
C L Couch
Photo by Sam Loyd on Unsplash
Writing in School
Hmm
I wrote a poem
A long time ago
I couldn’t work the artifice
And so
Worked a loosened mind
With something of a heart
To write
Of invitation
And because I was a senior
It was printed
Though
One reaction only
Had I heard and was
Of
Confusion
And now I often
Sigh
Into words
Reconsider tickets
To the show
And so
Writings later
The search
For what’s authentic
And the answer that I have
Is that what is real
I write for you
C L Couch
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Epiphanaeity
It’s pretty
White and black
I don’t think
I’ve said that yet
The new snow for a while
Outside the second-story
Window
And might last
A while
C L Couch
Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash
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