Paucity
Yesterday
It dispensed easily
Like rain
Let go
From a swollen cloud
I had slept some
And daylight seemed
A welcome thing
And writing
Something natural
Instinctive
Like a salutary
Habit
Today it is forced
Word by word
Even choice in syllables
Certainly hopping
Around
Like bunnies
Or like joeys
Seeking mamas
Or small plants
While I seek
Themes
For nourishment
And all of us
Hunt space from predators
Something holy
Set apart
Something measured
Dispensing peaceful portions
Something with color and
With shape
That is also moving
Changing
Like diversity
Itself
As a
Kaleidoscopic offering
Without round lines
Bounding
Even
Weight presses down
Maybe I’ll try again
To sleep
The light is not inviting
Though it’s pretty
But pretty
Enervating
Too
Doze off a while
Maybe
For dreams enough
To help me when
I’m waking
And I’m doing this
Again
Z on
Dream on
Plenty
God help us all
This day
I know God will
The form
Is mystery
The timing
But God is good
Many say
That God is great
God is a spirit
God is love
To move us ‘round
And give us our
Discretion
Honest mystery
To treat us
As we matter
With everyone
And it’s everyone
Everything that’s made
That matters
C L Couch
Photo by Amer Alhalawani on Unsplash
half moon mid of the day
New River Beach, NB, Canada
here is a chapbooklet, as it were (and to have made up the word), a small series of poems it won’t take long to read or, please and naturally, read how much however, whenever
From Psalm 51
It’s past the sabbath time
And the spirit
Of the Lord
Stays with us
Create in me a clean heart
O God
And renew a right spirit
Within me
My favorite psalm
And it’s a good one
Anyway
Because there is a promise
It can happen
Like the washed sins
Becoming like the snow
Though I like
The sense of plea
In this one
We reach out
To God
Invoke God
And ask for God’s involvement
We may ask for this
Each time we read
And think on it
(words with thoughts, Claudius)
Though
The Lord might say
I’ve done it
Clean heart
Right spirit
All is well
Be at peace
And the Lord
Will listen to our plea
All our pleas
Time and again
As much as need
To send over to
The perfect listening
Of the Lord
God Hears Us
Should I shout to God
Or splutter words
Between sobs
Or ask
While sitting on a chair
Before a meeting
Or whisper
God hears me
Every time
God can do that
And hear the prayers
Of everyone
Who speaks
Or thinks
Into that extraordinary network
Where angels might be working
Fast
At fever pitch
We could think
Though they must be even-handed
Being willed to perfection
But beyond fancy
Really
Or what really happens
We don’t know
God hears us
And responds
With reason
And attentiveness
Yes
With a modicum
Of mystery
God’s timing is not ours
More so the wisdom
As we are heard
And loved
Each time
Re-Tool
I wish the news were better
Stabbings in New York
After guns
We’ll have to outlaw knives
Stabbings in many places
I guess they are
Cheap guns
The wars go on
And now
We missile Houthis
And I can’t say
We shouldn’t
Though we have a State Department
That’s pretty big
And pretty busy
I think on the tall trees
And want them to remain
Or to be moved
With the kind of skill
We have
In such things
Rather than topple
Cut down
And cut apart
For tables
Spoons
And toothpicks
And so go our forests
And our oxygen
For ages
Though we might find it hard to breathe
Today
There are wonders
In the woods
And in the animals
No matter where
But so many things that live
And maybe nearly all
Have pain centers
And something for a thought
If only impulse
In something
Like a mind
We could try to relate
Before the slaughter
I really think
We could
I know it would harm industry
Though industry’s
Industrious
And should find something else
As it has
At least when successful
As it can be
Re-think
Re-tool
Re-train
Get governments
Communities
To help
While we get
To keep a world
With more
Positive prosperity
That might engender
More
Good feeling
So we keep
Our knives in drawers
From Out of Town
I am a visitor
More spectator
Than participant
These folk
Know their world
And I am visiting
Without a ticket
Except for love
Saturated
In the invitation
C L Couch
Photo by Jigar Panchal on Unsplash
Worth Keeping
I keep
Thinking
About
War
And war-like things
Like drugs in trade
And
Trafficking
Because one life
Is worthy
Even intensely
And intensely
Valuable
And who are we
To say
We’ll keep this one
Let that one
Go
By paperwork
The gold slip by
Aghast
Or sigh
For boredom
In our sins
We’ll bank another
Somewhere
Else
Conquer
Or imprison
Until
Or while
Each of us is caught
The flesh
For opportunity
Whatever else
Inside
Stays in the boxes
Where we keep
Supplies
Aside
To keep us going
Yet each
Might be a savior
No
You’re wrong
None of us
Shall save
Or even aid
To saving
Through an invention
Or a discourse
To change minds
Toward
New understanding
For a race
To have
To change
For the better
As we could have said
Even
Fantastically
To say
And have
Amazing
Opportunity
If we let each one go
To growth
And with assists
And then so much
Better
For a life
Not an investment for
Money
And for blood
Let each one
Live
Who came into this world
As we say
And say
By mortal hands
And by the Lord
As promises
To planets
And to galaxies
Home
And away
And for each other
One
Two
Keep going
Make a world
And then another one
Worth keeping
C L Couch
Photo by Aman Chaturvedi on Unsplash
practical peace
because
we won’t have peace naively
or stupidly
it must be practical
to be lasting
needs
wants
hopes
desires
visions
futures
should be secured
or all the awful
bloody
tiresome effort
will be wasted
good words
define
a map
could help
actions will prove
peace right
that we deserve it
and should have it
starting
with the victims
made before
we got to this
august place
and really mean it
by defining
by mapping
by our doing
it
the peace
we practice
everywhere
this time
C L Couch
photo in Berlin, Germany
by Norbert Braun on Unsplash
God Buy Ye
God be with you
‘Til we meet again
As God is with you
Now
Which is to say
With us
And a hope
Therefore
For company
As you go upon the Earth
And through the
Changeable
Sometimes trap-laden
Population
God with you
God with me
If I may say
And certainly with us
Mine
And yours
Better than Mizpah
Certainly
More so
When Moses met the king
With the stone heart
More like near the rock
In fact
Where water
Leaped to save us
Or like Galilee
Where thousands met
To hear
The saving word
God keep you
And us
Even through
Maybe a long time
‘Til
We meet again
C L Couch
God buy ye, a Medieval understanding of salvation (paying a condemnation’s ransom with the coin that was Christ’s life); God be with ye a wish for spiritual company and comfort for a friend; all becomes Goodbye
though ironically I say hello from Pittsburgh where I was brought through cold, some snow to arrive; I get another car here, since mine was totaled (no one hurt except some cars), which is technically the main thing; I get to visit with some family, which is the real thing
hoping your winter days (or summer to the south) are grand,
God be with ye,
Christopher
Making a Manifesto
I’ve been unfaithful
It’s too easy
To look the other way
Or ignore you altogether
With an attitude
And yet
Don’t I say thank you
When the good things happen
And help me
When things are awry
And aren’t you there
And don’t I know that
So maybe
It’s not so bad
I think of you quite often
I think about creation
In a treatise-sort of way
You are more
Than a proposition
An idea
Some kind of certifying
From an argument
Within a forum
You are you
The best
And one who made the best
Even the better parts
In me
And anyone
My friend
Or enemy
Maybe that’s the problem
Too many things being
Inimical
And I have to find my own way
Through
At least inside my head
And for my heart’s vibrations
Reason
And good feeling
I’m afraid both must be
Pursued
And satisfied
And I guess I’d say this
For the inner life
That is then realized
In attitude
Behavior
Anything by way of profession
Of anyone
Still
I could think of you more often
And believe
With a readiness
That is both abstract
And material
Belief and action
In the world
So forgive me
Please
I ask for the thousandth time
Today
(well, maybe a few days)
Help me with my system
Help me
In my actions
Help me to help
For I am not good
In any other way
But to be listening
And ready
Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
I’ll be gone for a few days. Depending on issues regarding connectivity (good issues, problematic), I might not be here, per se, in that time. If not, then I should be back soon. Thank you. Be good. Be safe.
—Christopher
Count and Serve the Days
(for Martin Luther King, Junior, Day)
Four score
And fifteen years ago
A person was brought forth
Into the human world
To change that world
His clothing
As he wore them
When grown-up
Are on display
At least they were
Last time I was in Atlanta
So that we could see them
See he was a person
Not a giant
Not bearing metal armor
Though he had a strength
And for a while a protection
While others felt
Stronger and protected
With him
He was a pastor
He was named for
The first Protestant reformer
And he took steps
And got many
To take steps
To change things
That too many folk
Believed
Could not be changed
And he took on
The attitude
That not changing things
Was good
For the society
(a part)
That believed
The dominance arising
From not changing
Kept things good
Even though
Things were not so good
Protests
Marches
Covering details
With rides
And meals
The words that encourage
That could not always
Be counted on
For softness
For the wrongness to change
Was hard
And difficult
And broke many lives upon it
So strength was needed
Out of prison
Out of reason
In all persuasion
For all
Of humanity
That
Yes
It was time to dream
It was also time to move
Through the world we have
The time we have
To make things
Better
Make things fair
For everyone
Uncommitted to an evil way
Because everyone
(everyone else)
Deserves a voice
And to be heard
And everyone
Should have a turn
In which there is
Justice
And through which
Should there be an opportunity
To live
To grow
To believe
To vote
To be busy in one’s work
And delight in play
He served the faith
He served the people whom he knew
As well as
So many strangers
Finally
The human world
Out of Selma
Out of Birmingham
Our of Montgomery
With his family
That goes on
And his
Many
Many
Friends
And acquaintances
I cannot help but think
About the night he spent
In jail
As have spent
So many believers
And protesters
And did he surrender
For this
And all barriers
Set up to siege his conscience
And his hope
Seems not
For out of that experience
And all such similar
Experiences
He dreamed
He wrote
He shared his thoughts
Before
During
And after
So that there was a cause
And a cause
Articulated
We have those words now
We have the pledge to change
To take it
Or leave down
But it is there
And
You know
For everyone
For the famous
And the not-so
Most of us who do
Only small things
But change the day
And altogether
Change the world
Because
You know
Change is endemic
It is human
It is spiritual
If need be
We have our aging cells
To prove it
If change
Then change
For the better
Starting
With the smaller
Hearing the larger
And supporting
As we hear
His words
As with progenitors
Successors
Happy Birthday
Martin Luther King
Junior
On fifteen January
Starting in 1929
And for the ages
And even
For
Into
Eternity
C L Couch
Martin Luther King Day is tomorrow, 15 January 2024
Photo by Frederic Bourbeau on Unsplash
The Glory in the Choir
Have you ever been
In the room
To sit
Almost to rest
To hear holy music
The singers
Other instruments
Our happening
Ticketed
Or happenstance
To Be there
As
A live performance
Shall we say
Have you ever got
To listen
In the room
For I have not
I have either been
Singing with
Them
Too
Or heard it
From the TV
Radio
Or disc
Oh
Dear
What I have missed
I mean
Being inside of it
Is grand
Where there is
A mingling
Of discipline and joy
Concern
For pitch
And complementing others
Trying to watch
The director
Not for approval
But a downbeat
So there is
That limitation
If to call it
Limitation
I don’t get to be out there
Simply
Not minding my place
For where I am
And who I am
Is challenged not
To matter
There simply
Is the pulse
Of the music for
A heart
No Tin Man
Should object
For here it is
We’ll stay
Our hearts are here
Listen
The notes are vessels
Sound is circulation
What we see
Can matter
Too
Shapes in the shadows
Unselfconscious
The light is dim
Here
While the light up there
That’s where it has to be
And really
Where
The glory is
For us
We can pretend
Maybe
In dim light
Or starker shadow
What we hear
That’s for the world
Might or must
Also be
For us
C L Couch
Photo by Dieter K on Unsplash
General Delivery
It’s all for
General delivery
Eventually
These words
Your words
The words of anyone
To our chagrin
It all gets kept
Inside the book
Except when
The doctrine of
Justification
Is established
And then
The sins are written out
No book mark
Or any record left
When we can try again
To draft
Compose
Revise
Edit
Have someone else maybe
Take a look
Then we commit
The words are out there
Once again
Actions
Repercussions
Maybe it goes well
This time
For we are clearer
Then become reliable
For this
To some
Even constituents
Those we serve
Most closely
While in the future
Subject to interpretation
Still
Whom do we know
And how
The ethnologists
Have a way
With story
And might get us right
Eventually
We have today
For saying the right thing
And if we need
To make up for it
(not make it up)
Well
We have our doctrine
Still
To keep us
With our God
And with each other
Say this
Don’t say anything
Restraint
And modesty
Could be our values
Too
With respect to keep a world
From destruction
And bring us to
Instead
A table
Neither polished
Or shaped perfectly
But smooth enough
With people standing
(sitting)
By for splinters
But ‘round which
We have set ourselves
For conversation
The expressions
Of ourselves
The receiving of
The offered words of others
Why
There are models
Of this
Here
And every day
Thank goodness
C L Couch
Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash
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