occasioning your book
to Pooja
today
they arrived
coffee
and your book
I’d ordered both
at
the same time
two exigencies
of pressed seeds
and
once opened
stimulation
the order could have been
about
how good and needful things
uplift
though mainly it was
timing
and
I thought
together
were good reasons
though
I want
to offer here and now
only your poems
with
your drawings
my congratulations
Pooja
on success
so far
with these works you have
and with all future
paginations
achieved
accomplished pleasure
added to
the fluid joy of each
day
you should have both
and all good
my friend
poet
c l couch
All the Words I Kept Inside by P. J. Gudka
the book is available through Amazon
Pooja's engaging blog is at https://lifesfinewhine.ca/
photo (above) by Jr Korpa 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 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
a few things I’d rather have written about today (and then heard further about the shooting)
Tributaries
Today is
Mom’s birthday
She’s been gone
Since ‘83
Gee
Now fifty years ago
Come 13 June
There is gravestone
With a flower
Though we had planned
A rabbit
And they go it
Wrong
So many things went wrong
Back then
And not to say
Things are so smooth now
There’s legacy
Though certainly
We’re on our own
And up to us
And on us
All our choices
By life
She lived too brief a life
I had wishes
For gifts and such
Hopes for relating
Never realized
Dreams
Dissolved
Everything went numb
And dark
For a while
And some of that remains
Even fifty years
Later
When it’s late
In the time
Of all of us
The children
While it’s also blessed early
For the new ones
To carry on
Inside generations
One by one
And all together
One, two, three, four
Black, white, green, red
One by one
And all together
Now
The Today Show
Today
Is a better day
Because I washed something
You don’t know what it means
If you’re depressed
And then
Improve one thing
One small thing
Unless
You are depressed
And maybe this works for you
As well
I hope so
Not to scrub
Obsessively
Toward bleeding in
(bleeding out
or in)
Somewhere
I mean washing
Almost without thought
Cleaning it
For safer
More hygienic use
Again
So ordinary
Now so extraordinary
Realized
And realized
There’s
Some sort of spiritual
Match in this
The extraordinary
In the ordinary
I can’t remember
Is it us
Made by God
This way
To live that way
Is it our purpose
Or the purpose of the universe
Made of small things
That become huge
In planet-making
In eruptions
Upon every rounded surface
At some time
I don’t know
Somehow the small is large
While remaining small
And I cleaned
Something small
And it has largened
My awareness
Just enough
To let in something better
And I could give it
A name
But for now
Will simply live with it
Let it live with me
(please let it live with me
a plea)
Nameless
And wondrous
For a while
lento
the ashes are gone
most likely
(we’re supposed
to let them fall off
naturally)
sometimes the skin
is broken
where they were
upon our foreheads
anyway
we’re in Lent now
the long season
named for the lengthening
of days
it is the Italian word
that also comes to mind
lento
meaning slow
play the music here
with ease
taking your time
while attending to
the baton
ahead of everything
the instruments
and guiding
interpretation
the Buddhists say
go slowly
they’re on to something
especially
for these days
in which the days grow
gradually longer
in assurance of spring
the green season
on its way
and we hope it will arrive
with nutrients enough
in soil
and rain enough
from above
and our good choices what
to plant
so that at long last
there might be abundance
though we’ll need the right amounts
of rain and sun
from above
a spiritual collaboration
we might believe
and hope for
even plan for
in these lengthening
of days
we make time now
to file away
what we know
and don’t know yet
eat less now
think more
lay a new foundation
for prayer
more solid convictions
and intentions
on which the frenzy
soon enough
will build
time now
maybe for dreams as well
to have them
talk about them
with the Lord
and with each other
on the plane of Earth
C L Couch
Photo by Praveen kumar Mathivanan on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
New Shapes
x
In the new century
When everything’s
An artifact
We’ll skew some things
Add our biases
That might be better
Might be inclined toward
An actual
Prosperity
x
In peace
We have declared some things
No more
Metal and blood war
Outside
We have enough
With
Environmental warfare
Chemical destruction
The legacies of hate
On all fronts
Which we’re trying to
Reform
And then re-form
Like plastics
Into spaceships
x
Welcome the new era
Should you
Time-travel
You might
Not recognize it
A universal language
Appreciation of unique
And favorable
A celebration of progress
In unity
While
Yes
We’re working on the hatred
And the other sins
We keep inside
x
It’s frightening
It’s new
We can’t be humanists
Not thoroughly
But must try
In alliance with God-parts
With the liminal
The numinous
We are spiritual in part
After all
x
Sigh
We have far to go and
We know that
Both open and oblique
Our novelists
Will tell us so
Our poets
Keep us honest
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Givers
x
I need to speak better
With the Lord
And of the Lord
And of a maker’s love
Of nature
And more so
The people
Living in all mysteries
x
People and mysteries
Of how to number them
In and if
Any propriety
How to count
And within the will acceptable
Of all of us
(three entities)
x
For us
Receivers of all words
Too much is un-understood
The glass is dark
The ideal
Is on the other side
As are the mysteries
Resolved
x
But there is the need
The compulsion
To move, anyway
While
We are here
Somehow to invest
In invisible interaction
That is real
In the sense we cannot count
Or measure
Yet bears salvation
x
A book of hours
Indicates
Yet cannot reveal
As much as, say,
Look or hear into the gentle candle
While we pray
x
Our rites are fine
Many are elegant
With an aim
Toward dignity
Mixed with an agenda of
Information
Clarity
Through what is revealed
Finally vague
And believed
(by me for one)
Vague evidence for faith
As manifested,
Which is to say
As is
x
More elegant
(as well)
Is the spirit
In the sky at night
With its own stillness
And its risks
The careful and the wild
Embodied
And presented
In unmoving blue
Maybe with high clouds
That haunt
Or in the storm
That
Threatens
Or attempts to ravage
When released
Land and sea
And us between
x
The hours we have
Altogether
Organized
Unkempt
The lives we have
With all the unsolved parts
Priests
Religious
(liturgy composers)
Poets
Room for unbelievers
All work
In both realms
Created
Sub-created
And must own
Not in harmony
But harmony
The music of the spheres
We say
With all the mysteries
Set down to solve
And leave or let
Untouched
Unsolved
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Ali Choubin on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Poetry 180 from the Library of Congress
x
I’ve been through the series
A few times now
I’ve read
And taken notes
Cut-and-paste the parts
That one way or another get
To me,
Placing everything inside
A sort of commonplace book
x
I speak
Electronically;
Everything for now
Is not on paper
But kept in columns
In the storage space
I rent
x
And I wonder if
I take out the same parts
Of poems
Except the new ones
Year by year:
Take them out and keep them
In the way I keep the same parts
Via electrons
x
It’s a terrific series;
I forget it’s not for me
(I am
the second audience
at best)
I mean, I don’t think Billy Collins
And the staff
Of the LoC mind that I read this
And keep it
And I like,
Even that I’m changed
Though not a highschooler
And not changed as one
x
C L Couch
x
x
https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/
x
Photo by sarina gr on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Cell Block
x
I don’t know that I’ve written
Anything
I like
Not that I have to like it
x
You have to like it,
That is, with textual
Appreciation
x
Or at least give me a break
To read
And then to have
Whatever frank reaction
If good to tell me,
If bad to keep it to yourself
Kidding!
(mostly)
x
I’ve been sitting by myself
Too long
Writing whatever
Looking up pretty pictures, too
x
I need to nap
Or go out to buy more coffee filters
One task then the other,
Recommending order
x
Later
Rested, filtered
Enjoy a tea time
(coffee time)
Then write some more
Or not
It’s not as if
There’s a contract
Yet
Except with myself, my own
Eccentric terms
x
I’m sure you understand
Defining, realizing
Your own discipline
As well
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by loli Clement on Unsplash
my sister’s coffee
x
(x = words)
x
x
Left Words
x
I look at another
Blank page,
Which is all right
There’s something down
Already,
Already stained with
Letters
x
One letter by one
Formed into words
Making a shape on
The page
Out of many shapes
(sanserif)
x
Once I read a
Single poem that
Trailed along the left
Side of the page
With a lack
Of syntax but
Replete with
Meaning, nonetheless
I could tell
x
The letters were sizable
And the name on top
Was famous
x
And that’s how
It’s done,
I supposed
It appears in
Someone else’s book
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash
Howard Hotel, 57 Howard St, Sheffield S1 2LW, UK, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom
x
clcouch123 
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