church time December 7
moonlight was used
against
its use
as there was preparation
near
sunlight
to betray as well
on
early Sunday morning
when order
and white uniforms
were torn
apart
and life a tissue by attack
and
everything exploded
while ripped-up men and women
with
children close by
tried to shoot back and
also
run
to stations
and to homes
the attack upon our useful soil
and beautiful
while
we thought
to live there and none
should
bother us by might
and
arrangement
and yet
and yet
empire and
democracy
too much to reconcile
too
divergent for our values
so we fought
with destruction
as the theme and total
the result
so
the agenda
and the strategy
the chaos of attacking
on all
sides
and so the President and Congress
said
this is officially declared
and so to the west
and east
and so many points on Earth
to
call the war
world
second Sunday in Advent
when
the candle’s lit for
peace
and on that Sunday
eighty-four
years the count
the awful
lively
living and the dying there
and then
and how might all politics and factions
reconcile
only
by tragedy
and where there is alliance
or
appreciation
now
new fronts are drawn
between
within
and these days
the radical
it seems
to keep value in the sacrifice
done
and remembered
and to apply
as we tend to think in reverse
reminding
and if owning
of
the greatest sacrifice
become
the saving doctrine
remembered by the seasons
then
and now
c l couch
photo by Graddes on Unsplash
yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and so the following is for this day and any day we remember something larger than ourselves that still involves our responsibility in happiness or sadness to enact
day of remembrance
yesterday was for remembrance
each day is for remembrance
and recall
together
with poppies
or monuments of angles
the ceremonies we create
over what has happened
so we might remember
and not
as Santayana says
doom ourselves
to repetition
of the dire
and destructive
take it slowly on these days
don’t rush to something else
the prophet margin
will remain
in the margins
a call of justice
that is heard
might mediate
with all the other worldly matters
all our loves
the good things
the distracting things
that sometimes we must order
like new things
especially through
our days of remembrance
c l couch
photo by Pete Nuij on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
poem plus a verse nodding to tomorrow
x
x
Flesh and Plastic
(having heard about the current cancer rates)
x
How do we poison
Ourselves
How do the cancer rates
Increase
I looked outside
Through polluted air
While inside
My mother fought for life
Or couldn’t fight
When the disease
Or medications
Were too much
x
And I couldn’t help
But wonder
Do we do this to each other
Change condensation nuclei
From dirt
To chemical compounds
And so our snow in winter
Raindrops
All year ‘round
x
We poison up our food
The animals
And plants might have it
Too
With all the Earth
We used to praise
And respect
If only scenery
For action
x
And now maybe
The Earth talks back
To say
You could once blame us
For our parts
In quakes and floods
Eruptions
But as you do
What you do
To yourselves
With how you build
And how you bury
How you live
We must share the blame
For a plastic planet
Made of chemicals
That do not make the cycle
Of planting
And fruition
But poison everything
Removing what is natural
(what is ours)
From the seasons
x
From what is natural
For life
The life that we would have for you
Even with quakes
And flooding
Eruptions
The harsher liturgy
We provide
With all the living
Rather
Life
x
The God whom we report to
Might be sad
Might be angry
Might be waiting
As with faith
For you to get it
Change
While polluted soil
And water
Air
We keep waiting as we can
For change
For better boxing
As discretion
To let the poison
Be mistakes that mar
Rather than
Daily living
x
For now we take
The poisons as we can
While expecting
Your human race to change
Before the earthline
Fails
And falls
Before the fire consumes
Where then
Would you go
x
We wait
God waits
So change
Already
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash
Plastic bottle floats in water. Plastic pollution is a problem that every single person on earth can relate to. Single-use plastics are being found at every corner of our natural world, and it’s a problem that each of us can help to solve. Follow on Instagram @wildlife_by_yuri, and find more free plastic pollution photos at: https://www.wildlifebyyuri.com/free-ocean-photography
x
x
Introit to All Souls
x
November two
All Souls
Yesterday to celebrate
The living church
Now to remember
Reconnoiter with
The church that has gone on
Some of which
That stays behind
To watch
To receive prayers
x
CLC
x
(x = space)
x
x
Remembrance of Things and People Past
(Memorial Day 2023)
x
My grandfather was a doughboy
Another one
(I knew him more)
Cooked for the
Army in
The second war
x
My father served
In the war that followed
The war no one remembers
But cost lives
Of bodes and the souls therein
And for lack of
Remembering
Because remembering
Matters much
x
It’s a thought
A salute
And a parade
To visit flags on graves
Before we shop
Before we picnic
x
Mind you
Shopping and picnicking
Ain’t bad
Rights and privileges
Secured
Silly to you
Perhaps
There’s also watching war movies
On TCM
x
Arcane remembrances
We still make war movies
We still shop
And eat outside
Save rain
To drive companionship
Inside
x
Be inside
Be there
Be aware
Remembrance is a near miss
From experience
What follows war
Was bought for us
Our own secular
Allegiances
And promise
In significant
And blessed silly
Existence
x
God bless peace
And forestall war
And keep us faithful
To each other
More so to you
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Wesley Mc Lachlan on Unsplash
Corning, Corning, United States
x
(x = space)
x
x
Someone Said a Pearl for a Harbor
(7 December 1941, an invocation)
x
Whom shall we honor
Today?
The citizens of Hawaii
Who died then
For strategy
On two sides
x
The crews
Of small submarines
That tried to get through
And sank somewhere
Close by
x
Mostly, the soldiers
We should honor
For the loss of life,
By the by material
That could (by the by)
Cost a war
x
Honor convictions?
How shall they be
Dispersed?
On either side,
There might be recognition
Even under actions
Worse for horror and
A lack of declaration
x
I don’t know,
There were people everywhere:
Many termed the enemy
Who were not in any way
An enemy
Taken to camps
Frankly
For looking different
(I say exotic and
of the USA—the
ubiquitous they
say the difference
lay in espionage,
so we became
the creepers
and the judges);
We hadn’t done so
To the urban Germans here
Or in our suburbs,
On the farms
Or to the Italians
Though I wouldn’t be surprised
To hear
They weren’t treated well
In the environs
Of duration
x
We sent to camps
Then tried not to think
Some more about
Walled and shadowed camps
Turning into
Many of our own
For racist reasons;
We could have tasked
The FBI, the OSS
Instead
For their investigations
x
There is a danger
That the battleship memorial
Might slide into the water,
As it placed one way or another
Over tombs
Of flesh and rust
x
I’d hate for that happen,
For we need remembrance
x
We need to remember
Many things:
God and our conscience
Make it so
x
Recalling sudden loss of life,
A shining, lethal campaign of
Surprise
x
Oh, we should be careful:
Watch our shores,
Keep our early systems
Early,
Though we need no longer
Look to the right and left
For enemies
Since looking right and left
Shall land on every one
Of us
x
And what’s left of united?
x
My families
Fought inside this war
That we remember;
Some could still
Tell stories
That tend to
Try the young to hear
x
On this day remember, then—those
Who could see and hear
And taste and touch,
Who suddenly
Lost all the senses
Along with mortal life,
The joy of daily living
In a paradise
We tried to covet
For a paradise
x
Farewell, we may salute
And say
All those
Who cannot call out
Except for memory,
Call out
For each other
In the fire
And the smoke
x
And the few remaining
Now
Who would
Can tell us
Of the hours
And the aftermath
x
Times and
Experiences
That
Soldiers, sailors, flyers—on
The ground, on deck, or in the air—
Mechanics and KP,
Bystanders
Try not to talk about
So much
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Kyle Chicoine on Unsplash
Birds by the Bay
x
(x = space)
x
x
Narrative for Veteran’s Day
x
I hope the veterans
Have a good day today
They served
Time to be serving them
Certain restaurants
Will do that literally
(track the ads)
x
There was a draft
I was in school
A war for oil fomenting
As if primordial
Muck were heating
In the gulf
(not that war
in the gulf
or the next one)
There was an energy crisis
Hiding profits
x
I didn’t want to fight
For companies’ oil
But when on the application
I was asked
If there were anything I would fight for
I had to answer yes
And so ruin the deal for c-o
And the draft board changed
My status
(they won’t admit to punishment)
From 1-H to 1-A
x
Well, that war didn’t start
There were numbers
But no draft
I finished school
And then the next one
And with Watergate
Had reasons to feel bitter
Toward my government,
Which since then
Has become increasingly
Stupid and useless
x
But love of country
All the stickers
All the posters
The Bicentennial
If we forget who is in charge
There are superlative reasons
To be serving
And they have served
Time to be serving them
x
My brother
And my father
And my grandfathers
Came back
My friend Patricia
Returned, retired
A full colonel
x
There are those
The many, many those
Who did not return
And have their days
And who cannot remember them?
Anytime and every time
We should?
x
Red poppies will festoon
And sides of buildings carry
Words of verses
“In Flanders Fields”
And that is London today
Here there will be flowers, too,
And flags
And I hope everywhere
That she has served
And he
And they
And all the fields
Nourished by remembrance
With all the hopes
And wishful strategies
To change
x
C L Couch
x
x
carrying the burden of a nation
Photo by Joel Rivera-Camacho on Unsplash
U.S. Marines with Combat Logistics Regiment 17, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, conduct vehicle recovery drills on Camp Pendleton, California, Apr. 6, 2021.The Marines of Motor Transportation Platoon pride themselves not only on their vehicles, but on each Marines’ hard work, dedication, and drive to excel in all they do.
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Fallbrook, United States
x
(x = space)
x
x
Ephemeral
x
A loose hair
A tress, in fact
Something for keeping
As Victorians
And other nineteenth-century
People
x
In a box
A remembrance of youth
Or younger days
Or the other day
When the lock was snipped
And tied with ribbon
And I remember you
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
For All Souls
x
Soon
And very soon
It will be time for
Remembering
The dead
Los Díos de los Muertos when
Graveyards light with
Stunning light in
Some places,
Other places
Less so
For remembrance
x
There will be candy
Other foods
Meals shared beside
The stones
It is Latino
Latin-x
Other groups have other ways
Of memory
x
For some, this becomes
A party
Like a wake
For others, city-wide
Express or digress
There will be something
It is for
Everyone
Para todos
x
To Latin-x
The community
In thanks
The ones who inspire
A lighted way
For shadows,
A way to catch our tears
But for love
In remembering
x
C L Couch
x
x
Sugar skulls before decoration.
[image b]y Jonathunder – Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63912646
x
(sorry, I add a hyphen to Latin as a help in my pronouncing)
x
(x = space)
x
x
Rescue Time
x
1
x
Monday
Is remembrance
And for some reason
(for that reason?)
A deadline for
Medicare plans
x
We remember days
Invaded and sometimes
Days invading:
x
Sixth of June
In Normandy,
Sometimes Grenada
x
Remembrance to
Become a kind of normalcy;
We turn it
Into ritual,
A plain on which to
Cry
However smally
And to celebrate,
Wave small flags
Attending on parades
x
Later or before
By gravestones or
With photo albums
x
2
x
We’ll have
So many reasons
To remember now
With names and with dates
x
We could remember
As we go
x
The numbers needing
To dealt with
For what they mean
In bodies
And the layers of
What they mean,
What has been lost
x
Talk of remembrance
Ironically
Or,
Ignoring politics,
Through the heart
x
C L Couch
x
x
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Paso Robles
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