this is Owl Awareness Day
North American freedom
250 years ago
count
further back to Plymouth
to
Columbus
to Lief Erickson
and others still to discover since
not
everyone can leave a home behind
for
evidence
and Rome a thousand years
half as a more-honest
republic
with occasional tyrannies assigned
to lead
local forces against foes
then anything like dictatorship
resigns
returns to farming
and this isn’t
to describe usual elections but when
the weapons clash
blade
against sheld and armor
so close
the threat
as we don’t know these days
in
a supremacy
that’s voted in
in
order to remain
self-styled demagogues
who
aren’t so good at demagoguery and yet
we let them
in and
should know better
and
we do
we know that emperors have new clothes
and what the raiment’s made
of
while honest work’s unnoticed
and
there’s building only on
fragile clay
no virtue to congeal
without doubt
to fall
the school in heaven
philosophy must fail
as all analogies unravel
as
schools let out for life and though we must be something
on the inside
we
never are done deals
in spite of all the arguments
and heaven is philosophy
I guess
all done
and giving over
the last class
and
sorry
if you were otherwise so glad
never
to have to learn in rows again
and yet the brain
the mind
the learning
goes
goes on
this
side as well as maybe
and I think over
there
coz
at the zoo
I said
hi
cousin
to the monkey
simply to upset you
yet
I prize our species closeness with
the animals
and don’t know except
by adaptation
over
generations
evolution’s proven
and so our God is
God of
that
as with all creation miracles
and as for missing links between ourselves
and branched-off
primates
or
to have it that we are branches broken
from the tree
well
I wonder sometimes
if
the link is the intrusion of the Spirit
to move us on and especially
to
know
and to bear wisdom in the keeping
of the rest
c l couch
photo by Jeremy Hynes on Unsplash
“Great horned owl Please tag @hyneseyes on Instagram for credit, thank you :)”
Ontario, Canada
nebulae discuss
all sorts of stars to birth
how many each kind
if stars go along
the nebulae’s decisions
all creation wills
c l couch
photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
two poems about risk
reason
it is a message
then
of love
the god who gave of god
throughout all parts
of
itself and for the creatures
on the planet
all
were made
and if making demands gratitude
and
service even out of
model sacrifice
then
we have
our purposes should we ever
wonder
for we create attitudes
and moods and
state
our purposes
we make jobs and art
as jobs
we stand for office
and
we own responsibility
and we make
people
which were ourselves and
then
the new generation and by
all things made
all
of us
to count
for service
and so always
something
good
for us to do
theft
so I took the advice today
based
upon a perspective of creation and
divinity
and everything went wrong
worse
I was robbed
and then a second theft
for you robbed me
of
protection
plus my own amvition
and
now what
I must regroup
and
you know
recoup
and then what
set myself up to lose even more
to ask
and I suppose you’ll say
therein lies the answer
since
loss is a part of life against
what
by love is gained
c l couch
photo by mauro mora on Unsplash
2 poems about fire
by an imagined flame
a clear
hot
day and like the gray
to be inside
to pretend a fire
for the scene
of
reading
even to imagine pets curled
around one’s satisfaction
oval rug
curves in the seating and the cycling
of
friendship
through it all
‘round the truth
and
to assuage the fear of what
might
have gotten to us first
and more
but by some
measures to regard
and
put in practice
for the peace in dealing
be it
clearly well or
adulterated by pain in the now
as
well as pain before
recalling
that pain is fear
as well
good fire
by the real flame
which
is not by
but
in
you know
if you’ve heard
or
you were made to go
to school to
learn the faith
and now
apply
and so the fire is within
traveling from heart
to brain
and back again for
more
normalcy or pressure in a situation
to share and to assuage by
every source
within us
in
the crisis
the source of fire
within
because we had it come from
without
to live
and to be standing by
like
orders issues so
long ago as to be by creation’s rings
when set and first called
good
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photo by Kyle Peyton on Unsplash
how the day begins and ends
It’s a dark-gray day
there are green and brown to see
the sky scoured of blue
hear and see my friends
share a meal of smell and taste
touch the hours away
c l couch
photo by Mahdi Bafande on Unsplash
well, there are two poems here, the first I wrote on how I was (am) inside, the second as an extension, prompt, based on the photograph—so it’s a little journey through words and image and more words and hopefully acceptable to you
ergo sum
what freedom do we have
I want it
and a little more
which
is why I drive to no places in particular
but
to take in the view
pretend it’s clearer air
and always new
discovery
exploring
better than an armchair
if only really
not
so much
(clc)
photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
“Morning Hikes”
[Morning Hikes
to quote the photographer]
honestly
I’m wondering
if
one is holding back the other
preventing straying
yet
also perhaps initiative
the insight of one’s own
to move
to fine
more
than what it tacit
agreed upon
then
is
someone holding back another
or is the first one affirming
that
the other comes along
and this hand-
holding
is the gentlest of cues
c l couch
a few poems you know for Monday
scribbling
I guess
a scribble has a word
or
some words to distinguish from
a doodle
though doodle
I imagine could have
words
as well
say
the names of crushes by a child
an adolescent
since
we don’t have crushes
when we’re older
do
we
and we do
which might cause the child
the adolescent
to
cringe
that folk with wrinkles could let love
inside the creases
the war asleep
I slept poorly
which
is the syle anymore
and
I dn’t know what’s happened
in the mean time
as in
the wars
the ones we know
the ones we guess at
with
the ones we miss entirely
for all the destruction
caused
nonetheless
the war between people
maybe
men and women
as
Thurber has penned
or
inside oneself to start the war
or stop
then
these might be
all
the Monday wars
so that
I’ll
learn the real news
later on
a friendly wish is most of all
during or after
and so
it’s Monday
with all the lack of expectation
come
with Monday
and
I hope more than this
much more
that this has been and is
a really
good
day for you
since
you need it
after all
for all you’re going through
that
takes its toll of energy and might go so far
to dull the brightness of
the spirit
or things are not that bad
but
you tire anyway
and need
recharging
which
is pretty normal
or you’re well already
and
a wish is
simply added to the larger quantity
of excellence
so
don’t let me talk you into anything
but have the doo
day
soon or now
or keep it going
c l couch
photo by Dmytro Koplyk on Unsplash
A pileated woodpecker pauses mid-motion, head tilted as if listening for movement beneath the bark.
who tells the story, then?—perhaps a single nature or the other
a journey through haiku
[with annotations that are not unwinsome-less]
temperature speaks
you’ve had your cool days a while
time for something else
[told hot days are coming, are here]
something else there was
object before subject parsed
important thing gone
[thought of it last night]
and there was a launch
another to the station
they breathe and eat now
[ISS supply mission flight]
think we’ll find green cheese
and evidence of settlers
who no doubt were Swiss
[sorry to the French as well as the Stilton-bearers; take it up with Diana stories, I suppose; but it is the Swiss who make the cheese, not green, nonetheless with craters]
a glass of white wine
sometime after 5 or so
my flat heart would skip
[if you like red then write red or say it when you read it; part of you will do that, anyway]
I love you and more
scenes after each other then
hope for a real act
[discussion in a scene in a movie]
c l couch
photo by Huỳnh Chương on Unsplash
2 poems about angels
angels at the apocalypse
they all be working
I imagine
though I guess there could be some
held in reserve
I don’t know if our angels will have time for us
but then
I don’t know how many there are
even
if a third fell
how do we count these
and I doubt on
the head of a pin
Jesus said
legions
but he was audience-aware
maybe we’ll have our guardians on
assignment
still
with enough to fill the final battlefield
archangels
leading
taking care of their eldritch own
and all good beings might
weep
in
conquest
and by victory
ourfield
the wings are never long enough
not wide enough
not
wild enough
you’ll note
that birds
except the hummingbird phenomenon
tend toward having
twice
with length of wings as of
their bodies and how
much
more majestic
fearful
wings proportional unfolding from the centers
of the angels
we rarely indicate their power
or
the awe they should invoke
if
a fraction of the might of
their maker
c l couch
photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash
“Angels in the Outfield,” a story by Richard Conlin, which began a film franchise
clcouch123 
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