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Don’t You Know There’s a War On

(x = space)

x

x

Don’t You Know There’s a War On

x

Yes

I do

And in too many places

x

Stop it

There

That’s that

x

(but)

Real war

The awful

Bloody king

That rents bodies

Families

Homes

And nations

Sometimes underneath

The quick

Where there is no fire

For warmth

For life

After the explosion’s fire

That roared

And then ceased

Under nothing

x

Is there a rubber drive

A paper drive

A drive for metals

After their first uses

No

There’s money

Certainly

And drives for that

All sides

Wanting

Naturally

Humanly enough

x

But closer in

Flesh is required

Holding weapons

Fired into the right direction

No protests

Allowed

Obey

Or be added to the fodder

We might not count

For service

Or for loyalty

x

Safely apart

We play games

Watch them

Eating food we do not need

Though it is ours

And the point is

To bring the world up

To peace

For play

x

How do we answer these

The tragedies

The questions

I don’t know

We could stop

The wars

Encouraged by contemporary versions

Of the Lysistrata

Reason could invade

Rather than

Atrocity

And greed

Reason could finish it

If somehow most of us

Agreed

x

I don’t know

Do you

Stop

Right now

Forget the rest

Leave it half-done

(half to stay alive)

Keep the warring general in Russia

Let Hamas keep to itself

In the basements beneath hospitals

Then move the hospitals

x

Let other

Designing warriors

Anywhere

Take note

x

Who erstwhile

Or present

Future

Makes these happen

There’s God

Who’s waiting for our minds

Maybe what

There’s reason

There is conscience

And goodwill

On Earth

Come out

To work

To grieve

To build

And then to play

The game on Earth

No brinksmanship

Anymore applied

x

We go home

With others

Searching homes

And to rebuild

x

note

x

I know I speak

From safety

That I wish

Then pray

For you

For everyone

Who needs it

In certain places

Even kinds

For whom war must

As all wars do

Like (and with) pre-judgments

Victimize

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Pop & Zebra on Unsplash

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1

Grow Us

(x = space)

x

x

Grow Us

x

Will you grow us

God

Give us the chance

Even with tense peace

Our contribution

To the means

x

On an Earth

That has its way

But

We push against

For what we think

Advances us

x

Maybe with some relenting

Rather

Enjoy the Earth

As is

The wisdom

In the higher places

Thin air to breathe

For penance

x

The living in the valleys

Towns and farms

For habitation

And for food

That daily bread

We talk

About

x

Also forgiving

Tempered in forgiven

x

So that

As is

As defined

Ain’t bad

Especially when

We’ve changed so much

x

We could stand

(like plants)

To remember

Even renew

With

Re-expression

The peace in what was made

And is

And still is

The promise of return

From no investment

Save faith and some respect

For having

All this wonder

Bestowed

x

Plant us

As in Eden

And water us

For life

Not to keep us

Stuck

But to grow us

Free

Out into the world

Anthropocene

For now

Maybe better in alliance

With the one who planted

First

And still

Tills with real peace

In

Genesis dynamic

x

Amen

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

x

0

As It Is on Earth

(x = space)

x

x

As It Is on Earth

x

I don’t know what I have

If I have

Anything

For me

And then for you

x

You might be first

But something about me must

Be satisfied

Or nothing travels

x

Something that could sound

Like a song

But must have sound

Regardless

In a shape that serves

And something of the world

Inside

The world and the inside

Where we live

x

Forgive me

Then

The lateness in the hour

Or anything that’s late

In getting to you

Though we have no schedule

I know

We know

And do our best

To post in blogs

Like bags of mail for ponies

Or task the runner

As at Marathon

x

We send

Receive

Respond

Then send again

It’s all a process

It’s a circle

Sacred

Called by some

And why not

Our gods as known

Believed

Walking like the

Lord

Or maybe

Gasp

Tash

Arrived

x

And in the interaction

All of us

In equal space

If not location

And for accountability

Well

Something holy happens

That is human

Set aside

As well as visitors

To take part

And approve

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash

x

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis is referenced.

x

1

staging, Open Range

(x = space)

x

x

first poem led to the second

x

x

staging

x

orange-pink

next to the tree

in the distance

deep blue sky

mostly

with the morning star

small and white

looking far-off

nova-like

in the waveless sea

predawn

it’s dawning now

only started

when I looked through

the blinds

hearing nearly nothing

on the street

in the tree

the usual outside

the window

absent

muffled

however everything prepares

so early

for the normal noise to come

x

x

Open Range

x

God

I wondered

If you ever might

Be surprised

Like us

Because you are in part

Like us

I mean

It goes that way as well

Made in your image

Aren’t we then

Like you

And if it’s on the inside

Then emotions

And sensations

Might be attributed

To you

Pleasure

Perhaps

And passion

Love

Even the fragile feeling

And do you feel sad

x

We say you’re angry

(it’s in

our books)

It was the impetus that

Forbearance

Allowed enough

The ark

With some people on it

To survive

The keel-less journey

x

Some say Gilgamesh

As well

While some and others

See and hear

Your anger in extremities

Of nature

(outside nature)

In the storms

Lightning fires

And eruptions

Even in

Quakes

That certify your condemnation

Or our use of land

x

Or that you stretch

Because you do

Your might because it is

Inside the

Cosmos

And must have its say

In addition to

The munificence of creation

x

So if

Everything’s available

Every aspect

Then you might mourn

And be taken

Unaware

Be satisfied

And disappointed

Have a plan

And have it moved

Knowing both parts

Are approved

x

And there’s the qualifier

Maybe

Whatever happens

Happens

In your sight

And your hearing

The smell

The touch

The taste

Of your omniscience

So that

Fragility is held by strength

Options are

More or less contained

And unaware

Might be for fun

Except for earnestness

Part of the plan

Somehow

You feel it

And you know it

Then move on

So you could say

With justice

That you knew it all along

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by César Couto on Unsplash

x

0

Portrait of the Artist as a Hungry Person

(x = space)

x

I know this is odd (well, odder), but I got hungry

x

x

Portrait of the Artist as a Hungry Person

x

Tired and hungry

Thirsty

Maybe that’s all there is

For now

x

I sit here and write

Distraction

Is a sea behind me

What in the hour

Should I do

x

How shall I let go

To find something

For the cup

On the plate

In my hand

Excused from this

x

To dine

To talk with someone

To play a game

Before returning

To this game

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Juan Manuel Núñez Méndez on Unsplash

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0

Fake Peace, Truth Waits (2 poems)

(x = space)

x

x

2 poems

x

x

Fake Peace

x

We negotiate in air

While the real war goes on

The numbers we’ve collected

Make for

Phantom outrage

x

We’ve learned to gather narratives

To help

Though hardness of head and heart

Like Pharoah’s

Or the safe distance of the Czar

The junta in a bunker

Technical commanders at the switches

For computers

Will not help

x

Stop it

We want to say

Though justification

Rationale

To go on while we’re winning

Think we are

Further compels us

x

There are sides

There are protests

There are groans

From hurt

And even dying people

More explosions

Inside walls

Bursting through

That might have been

Our homes

x

And now collateral

More numbers

Say we’re winning

Why negotiate

x

Come home sometime

What will there be

Rubble in defeat

(there’s rubble on the winning

side as well)

Enough to say

For losing

(and for winning)

We are done

With so much of our spirit

Surrendered over to

Waiting

For even a surer end

Damn the legations

x

Everything

Is over

Negotiate the absence

Of our families

(both sides)

Release the pain

And fill in all the losses

Like a journey through

Bomb craters

And we have no shoes

Only garments rent

From running

And now mourning

x

And you

Winners

Want negotiation

Naming the terms

If you can

Through all this

Forget it

I need food

And walls

And separation

From everything

And all of you

Even my own

x

And this is war

Universally

With tense peace

After

And new hopelessness

To feel every day

Upon waking

Sensing

And recalling

So much blasted

So much gone

So many

Even those we argued with

Now gone

x

Gone people

Name locations

Redraw

The lines

We do not care

The dead

And now

The living victims

Anyway

In war

And after war

x

x

Truth Waits

x

And what is true

Knowing that Pilate

Doesn’t wait

For an answer

But consigns the one

He asks

To a rabid crowd

Festered

And fettered

By the empires

And wasted doctrine

Rituals

That do not work

Make nothing better

But a promise

That the next world

Will be better

x

Ready to

Tear the one apart

And is consigned to this

By the one

Who asks for truth

And doesn’t wait

For an answer

x

The rhetorical question

But for a moment

Left unsaid

By further one

And then the other

x

Truth

Suspended in the air

Wafting uselessly

Too far above the crowd

And a governor’s

Own house

And how we govern

Waiting longer

For an answer

Not from Rome

But re-released

From above

Where Pilate’s truth

Was captured

And let go

Refined

And can be received

By him

Had waited

And the crowd

Had it been stilled

Like the truth

Over the storm

In Galilee

x

x

John 18:38

John 4:24

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

(THIS IS WHO I AM)

x

2

The Real Thing

(x = space)

x

x

The Real Thing

x

I am not in the war

Except

With my mind and heart

My contributions

Here and there

Not for a winner

But for everything

To cease

While there are citizens

And innocence

To count

x

I can’t imagine an explosion

(over me

and I am done)

Next to me

So that I live

But everything is changed

x

For what

And whom I’ve lost

All basic things

And anything

Refined

x

A world that’s there

Even to know

The risks in temporality

And to persist

Then what I know

Is gone

And I am hurt

My body

And my mind

x

I might get fixed

But something will not mend

Something broken

That the screws

And prayers

Cannot reward

With success

x

Some part of me

Who wonders now

A beggar on the plane

Of dreams

And real hours

When I dance

With hate

And seeming

Justification

x

For it all

To have happened

And it’s happened

So that

There’s an end

Before the end

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Jeff Kingma on Unsplash

x

3

The Rites and Rights for Veterans

(x = space)

x

x

The Rites and Rights for Veterans

x

I hope no one else

Was lost

While signatories waited for

11 11 11 11

The armistice

In a great war

All the ones

Must have been important

Were they really

And now the time

The day

Is broadened from one war

Into all wars

All military times

For service past

For anyone who fought

Whose fighting

Whose service into readiness

Now over

Now a veteran

Whose remains are

In the earth

Or whose living person

Very much deserves

To be served

In thanks

Or common sense

(someone’s hurt

we try to fix)

And is there not enough

And if not

Why not

Why not facilities

And programs

For the sacrifice

Same kind of treatment

We want

For anyone

Home

Back home

The kind of help

Plus the acknowledgement

For those of us

Moving only here

Might want

Might need

While they return

A victory

Returning

And might need assistance

Maybe much

Maybe grim

Or simply have stories

And it healthily

Supernally

Behooves us to

Listen

Listen

Listen

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash

x

2

Longing for the God who Stays

(x = space)

x

x

Longing for the God who Stays

x

Now to say

Something about God

Whom I do not know

A phantom lover

Cupid to Psyche

Embodied in the night

Gone by morning

x

And there the myth must end

For there’s a presence

Always

In the day

In all the hours

Probably in nanoseconds

In the smallest things

Perhaps

Angels dancing with electrons

‘Round the nuclei ephemera

Of thought

And awareness

x

Then the lovers meet

Again in dreams

Where we might talk

Words becoming solid

Resting in the liquid

Like a loving cup provided

Of the night

Out or which

We drink

Words and meaning

Clearly

In the night

x

Which might work

For a spiritual life

Except that in the daytime

There are daytime expectations

x

Who really stays

Who really goes

I make up things

For fear

Of isolation

And a longing for solidity

For the God who’s always there

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash

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