the promises
I will not die
and in faith
not have that the ending
I guess that’s the biggest one
promise
of promises
there are others
more earthbound
the oaths
we take as families
and citizens
before the flag in school
the vows
that in infant baptism
the parents with the church say for us
and we break these
even with guns sometimes
to emphasize
the bloodiness
in going rogue
against what had been promised first
thank goodness for
that first one and
we need it
a promise of a heaven
when the world has failed us
as it is bound to
and what we resort
to but remembrance of
that first thing
that was its claim
that became its oath
it’s good
the one from the beginning
slipped inside our code to be opened
at the last
I’m not sure there’s more to say
hang on
when it’s impossible
to change
yet work at change
there’s a promise in working today
that’s not so bad
for we are
loved from here into the next
c l couch
photo by Prashant on Unsplash
An Alligator on the Runway
And how shall the pilots
Deal with that
Instinctively, they might say
Into headsets
There’s an alligator on the runaway
Ten-four (or whatever)
Please advise, perhaps
Then waiting for an answer
There are rules,
After all
About animals on runways
Regulations
And what are they
Now?
I suppose an airplane
Running over animals
To keep a schedule
Would not go over well
Should anyone besides
Whoever’s in the cabin
In the tower
On the field
Should be watching
And there’s the clean-up, after
Poor alligator
Poor airplane workers
Poor plane
Poor schedule
We’ll all have to wait
While the wildlife authorities
And referees
Are contacted
And they come with easy loops
Which with to catch the alligator
Then to take it home
And the schedule
All our lives
Resume
And now we’ll have to wait
On their waiting
‘Til it’s shared
What happened
After all
Since I only saw the headline
afterward
Well, they arrived
And wrestled, so to say
Then the beast (the alligator)
Was taken to a river
Then all procedures, even the gator’s,
Resumed
C L Couch
USA Today via MSN (headline teased to start the day)
Photo by Shelly Collins on Unsplash
We’ll Need New Articles for Einstein, Too
(23 April 2024)
Is it
Today
That’s Shakespeare’s birthday
That is
The christening day
By record of
The fact of birth
And if a construct
Then a construct with some very good
Actual
Details
A birthplace
A church
Parents
All the poetry
For
A first reputation
And some munificence
With which
To fund
Some future
With
Plays
Also a theatre
That burned
Down
And that they could
Build a stage again
A favorite of the queen
And then the king
Respected
No doubt also scorned
For envy
By
Peers of verse
Especially
Also of drama
A family
And a burial
Back
At the church
Near the altar
As a deal
And after checking
Mini-eons later
To find the skull
That held
The face
The
Mind
Like Yorick
Isn’t there
(proving something
proving nothing
Macbeth-
like
sound and fury)
Maybe to be set aside
Become
Einstein
Someone whom
We’ll argue for
In the same way
For
For future
Academics’ sakes
C L Couch
n.b. (I think well)
My christening
By the way
Waited a year and
A half
Oh
No
Grist for more
Speculation
Photo by Dalton Smith on Unsplash
23 April 1564
(looked it up—twenty-three score years ago)
The Passing Over
Passover
The saddest of all miracles
And by the evidence
The history
Something that was absolutely
Called for
By the Lord
Against
The forces of the world
Extant in Pharaoh
We think it
Antique now
Perhaps
Since Egyptian is a style
And a history
To follow
With romance in thought
And purchasing
But it happened
Slavery had happened
The people lived
But poorly
The struggle for identity
After basic needs
The worst of all
And one of Egypt
Then of Midian
Was called
And did not want to come
But with his brother
And his sister
Called to lead
At least to take
The people
Out of there
No longer straws for bricks
Requiring miracle
To build
A miracle
So many miracles
To have a leader
To being
A prophet
Holding and excoriating
The court of many kings who
Also thought
In the lack of perspective
Once it had grown
They might as well be gods
And rule
Like their
Personalities
With their
Agendas
So there plagues
And again
We style these
And our imagination
Counts them
And the reason for their order
Is guessed at
But Moses said
There is only one reason
One plan
At work
As we sing
Today
To let the people go
Brutality
Built on
Presumptions to power
As well as
Divinity
The plagues persisted
(COVID is like these)
Until one last
Wave of pestilence
Invited
Unless Pharoah
With a practical heart
Against the magic
As they called it should
Let the people
Go
And it did not
The power could not relinquish
All it meant
To lose these people
Scared of them
For all their number
And maybe
Of their God
Unless
Unbelieving
Simply considered all of them
Moses
Who had been one of theirs
Another slave
Who had tasted of the best parts
Of the fertile land
Appearing by the Nile
And now that
Was a miracle
The gods who favored us
Each year
And there was back when
We don’t remember
The one who was
One of them
Whom we brought
To our side
Having predicted famine
And their God
Become one
Among our gods
To save us
So who is this person
Now
Whom we receive
Who would break free
And leading
All the others
And their God
Break free as well
And so lessen
Our treasuries
And pantheons
I will not release
I am Pharaoh
I am god
It cannot happen
And so the Passover
The first
And awful Passover
The angel pestilence
Save for protecting blood
Above the door
While the blood ceased in the firstborn
In every other house
And in the court
‘Til Pharoah
In new and tragic
Loneliness
Relented
And there was release
For who knows how many
(yes
God knows)
And then
Commemoration
As we have
With an empty chair
Should another prophet come
C L Couch
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash
Color Our World
(Earth Day)
Tomorrow is
Earth
Tomorrow is
A day
And it will be Earth Day
Shall we have an Earth tomorrow
Shall we have
A day
For green understanding
And gold wisdom
On our
You know
Blue world
Jazz understanding
With the waves
And sudden rushes
Both of wind
And water
The shoreline that
Behind which there is land
Before which
There is contemplation
Also the depths
That bring us danger
From both
The thrill
Of discovery
And the danger
Of encroachment
An Earth that should balance
In its orbit
Where all the planes
Should touch together
A turning point of miracle
And a starting point
For life
And as life
We hope
Should continue
By all means
Celebrate
For she is worthy
Of our partied
And our treasured
Wisdom
And emotion
And pledge perhaps
That we’ll do better
By this day
Next year
And there’s the doing
And the learning
And the doing
So that the blue and green
And gold
And the transparent air
Of what we know
Shall be preserved
Also enacted
For the present
And the future
The future comes not
On its own
All of it
In seeds
We plant today
And also leaving parts
As fallow fields
As the wilderness
Should teach us
By example
Not to say
That civilized is bad
It’s what we here for
Why we have the Earth
To begin with
And the inevitability
Of growth
But there is growth
And there is growth
What we should remember
Of the wild
And of the planned
And to keep both
And all
That is good
In blue and green and gold
And the clear parts
That keep us breathing
And inspiring
Together
C L Couch
Photo by Tim de Groot on Unsplash
the reason for the prophets
(and the poets)
yes
and how crazed
am I
isn’t
that something
beautiful
and practical
might be done
in pottery
an
effect designed
before the
fire makes
it hot
and changes it
to beauty
practicality
as both
might be
desired
then designed
intentions
can be good
as are my wishes
wants
efforts
for you
and keep the prophets
fed
by ravens bringing bread
and in the wilderness
internal
where the song is written
then is raised
for an inauguration
to the Lord
then maybe
others
take the song
to raise
back in the city
in the forest
on the farm
over the ocean
all the oceans
between
planets
all the worlds
we are
and even those we cannot
see
or hear
or smell
or taste
or touch
or take up time
and matter
and un-matter
in the choosing
in the personhood
of God
and maybe us
when we are in tandem
by example
when the prophet shall
come back
from
the wilderness
unto
the courts
of the world
c l couch
photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash
the Keep
God keep you
though in this world
I’m uncertain
on my way toward
doubting
what that means
God keep you
from harm
but we know
that doesn’t work
don’t we
God keep you
in a job
and house
and with security enough
to have these
without fear
God keep you
in peace
throughout your country
in such days
and in such days
we must not believe
keep such naivety
these days
and
sigh
so what does keep
what do I want
for you
in that
that God should keep you
anyway
in faith
and with peace that certainty
must pass understanding
the way
things are
and that
your choice
shall keep you
in the half-sphere of faith
that empties into heaven
all the time
where the other half
dispenses joy
that doesn’t lose a moment
in bathing you
somehow from inside out
with that
and peace eternal
peace internal
and so together
a new world
and with companionship
that cannot
be torn from war
against you
or anything
(that Bible promise)
from the Lord
c l couch
Numbers 6:24-26
photo by Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash
saving simplicity
believe in God
that’s all
maybe reminded
that
God is love
as well as judgment
and it seems
would rather love
us
than judge
us
read the verse
after
3:16
for God’s rather
what God
would rather do
and that
together these
verses shall say
the reason
for salvation
is not lack of fallacy
or even
fullness
in fortitude
but because there’s love
in
foreground
and in
background
and on which our lives
are painted in
between
love
and faith in love
from the Lord
that are
the Lord
in all the parts
and all of them
unfailing
and shall we love
and believe
from the same capacities
of creator
in
creation
simply
that’s ours to choose
war or peace
attack or
rescue
like the one
who from our perspective
must allow
our choosing
from
either course
weighed out of love
and faith
that’s all
c l couch
photo by Corey Hearne on Unsplash
and do we teach or simply learn to learn
clear
and clean
the page
well
add some “enter”
spaces
and go on
and what shall I
say cleanly
what is clean
and what
is clear
clear-headedness
we say
we don’t say
clear-heartedness
so much
well
maybe not at all
‘til now
and maybe
neither
is achievable
maybe
reality
keeps something of
complexity
even the fog
that moves between
the pieces
making questionable connections
because
there’s synapse
circulation
and
what shall we say
a web made out of
heartstrings
sigh
and there are
other things
the messages
and wearing off
of institutions
nearby
somewhere
and what
we might become
and freedom
calls
like bird-calls
(made by birds)
such as
the lonely
sadly
call of loons
out of the morning mist
both over water
and there are loves
other
attachments
we are both with
that we choose
that come to us
through reading
conversation
or some other
leading dialogue
like Socrates
we set
as our own method
or influenced by
the schools
of everything
we have attended
attending
also meaning
service
as in waiting
and there is waiting
as in
we wait for something
after we rise
and while we work
we look around
with every sense
we count
and cannot count
for we don’t understand
anything like
totality
of learning
and retention
and also of
discovery
that flows between the banks
of stultification on one side
creative shouting on the other
with places
to pull over
though we don’t set these
and must wait
for certain rituals
to hear them
see them
and take up
our crafts of exploration
for a while
it’s like we’re on the move
and consider cells
that are in movement
all the time
the turn of Earth
and the ringed nature
of the cosmos
also with
the turn of us
through moments
and through years
and just the same
the stillness
that we have
is honest
when we choose that hour
wish for that style
to achieve
and then to practice
with a kind
(with lapses)
of lasting
ever
I can stop for now
the part of me that stops
that is
that pauses
and refreshes
like a soda-pop
or tapas
with sangria
bread and wine
for ritual
and meaning
on our own
and especially
in community
because
alone is not so hopeful
as in useful
for philosophy
so write with me
and talk
and
yes
talk among yourselves
for there’s not test
and is no cheating
not for this
the examination
of a universe
of
circled possibilities
and
yes
we’re on our own
also together
don’t forget
c l couch
photo by Mackenzie Marco on Unsplash
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