names
Our Lady has a day
Juan Diego anglo named
she gave him roses
(12 December, Our Lady of Guadalupe)
I am Christopher
bearer of Christ and walking
hundred-acre woods
your name is your name
assigned you for a reason
there is a story
c l couch
(a series, I suppose, though I think each poem stands on its own)
there are good stories [a line while drafting that I thought I’d let stay on the page]
photo by Aida Batres on Unsplash
all saints day
saints small s
every day is their
followers
of God
who try
both to believe
and to act
patronage
of nothing in particular
no groups
claim our own
but the
relative
ease and simplicity
without notoriety
or beads
or rituals
simply leave it
to faith and action
anyone
believing
anyone who tries
a life of faith
with flaws
the Holy Spirit
will provide
kintsugi
c l couch
photo by Motoki Tonn on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
The Today Show
(30 November)
x
What shall I say
Today
An in-between day
Neither this
Nor that
Not hallmarked
In a certain way
Though some saints’ days
To be sure
x
There are so many saints
Inside the calendar
x
I have looked it up
And Bing cooperated
On the home
Page
That it’s
Saint Andrew’s Day
The apostle
Brother to Peter
Also a fisher
Said to have gone
Apostle-lized in Scotland
Who went for it
In blue and white
And a big
Terrible X
For crucifixion
(now on the British
flag)
x
I’m sure there are lesser
Saints
(so to say)
Who have this day as well
Sometimes the better entryway
For modesty
To faith
x
Maybe we should check
Tomorrow
But God’s blessings on Saint Andrew’s Day
For the saint
And all of us
More earnest
Saints
Or ersatz
Saints
Beloved
For show but
Try-to-be
(and sometimes trying)
Like
Littlest angels
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Luke Paris on Unsplash
x
(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
saints
(1 november 2020)
x
small-s day
and tomorrow
today is for the living
who keep churches going
tomorrow for the dead
who have done their work
and now have
new assignments
the capital-s people are here
as well and will be busy
on both days
if the doctrine is correct
though they should know
who they are
it’s the other ones
the ones without an alphabet
to support them
it’s, well, you and me
and everyone who’s interested
and busy
not for the sake of busyness
but the sake of her
and him
and animals
and earth
and everyone in need
x
that is the ministry of saints
the living who will
slide over to the next
day for all souls
when it’s time
tragic or a relief
finally to sleep a while
before the call
a clarion perhaps
to wake us all
into revelation and the next course
of energy and will
saints and souls
to keep it intimate for now
and cosmic later on
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by nina staer nathan on unsplash
x
Rescue Me
Once, I was in trouble
It was fixed, I don’t know how
Someone appeared
And kept the fall from hurting worse
Somehow in fact
Abbreviated all the crisis
Pulled my substance
Soul-enfleshed
Back from the next edge, so
That I might go home
One more time that day
And with my spirit
Lean into tomorrow
I don’t think the saints are gone
Or angels, either
Like the elves from Middle-Earth
We won’t need
White shores
While we are defended, now
C L Couch
Georgia National Guard from United States – Air Rescue, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70915161
The Way
Saints and sinners
We need them both
Maybe it’s just me
I can’t be saintly as a rule
And sinning is too easy
Yet the yoke must be easy
The rule must be a way
Not only to do better but
To be reminded there are
Better ways
And sinning? I don’t know,
It could be easier, too, in
Its own way
Less costly
Maybe the Catholics are on to
Something with venial and mortal
I am mortal
So are you
Saintly and sinly are what we have
We are
Saintly too severe
Sinning too lazy, until it becomes
Too close to all there is
Asking why
Might not help so much
We have these ways
The issues, consequence, and
Choices
Though I doubt we’ll say, Today
I’ll sin this way
Then devout an hour later
I imagine this works out, anyway
And since it does
Well, maybe there’s reality
We can’t define one against the other
I doubt we can place the essences
In Erlenmeyers, drink from one flask
Or the other from time to time
We have to live now
And sometimes we’ll be good
Sometimes not so much
We have both, we are
Measures of prayer and pardon, too
The way it is
It’s Monday
Must move on with what we have
Turning the needle toward the better way
Understanding when the dial slips
And we must live in contrition
For a while
It’s what we have, it’s what we are
It’s how we live in four dimensions
Adding time and maybe soul
For fifth-dimension living
It has to be well enough
To get us into Tuesday
All of it
There is no other way
And is this way so bad?
Yes, sometimes it is
Then we are needed:
To employ discretion through
All the parts
The substances
The issues
All the matters
Our way through
The best we can,
The best we will
C L Couch
Pixabay
All at Once Everywhere
(for Christmas day, anytime)
It’s a holiday everywhere
Except where it’s not
Sometimes in some places that
Is normal
Some places not so much
Where there is suffering
Where there is illness without comfort
Where there is nothing but alone
And, you know,
Christ came for these
An infant will grow up into infinity
We will treat him horribly
He will return, because he loves us
More than that
He is here
He is with us, now
And all the angels
With the saints
That’s us
C L Couch
https://pixabay.com/en/frost-winter-morning-snow-season-633826/
Living Church
(all saints day)
I sing a song of the saints of God
Small s people
Some of the names we know
Many, many, many
We will not
But this is their day
Your day
A day for living in the church
For the church
The kirke
The iglesia
Is people, translated
And without translation
Who could know?
Another song mentions a spark
But really it takes a fire
A fire on the inside
Enflaming eyes and ears
The touch, the taste, the word
Senses made alive
We burn together
Heritage and prophecy
Say so
It is the living church in irony,
For fire consumes
It can be used in punishment
Or condemnation
It makes a pillar for a promised people
Its clouds guiding by night
Set fire in the only safe and saving way
The saints of God are led
And leading
Keep us going
Take us there
C L Couch
Isabella Thomas (right) and Starla Williams-Neeley chat while serving the annual Thanksgiving dinner at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Milwaukee. Lynnda Guyton (center) organized this year’s meal. Also serving were (from left) Mary Banks and Denzel and Jasmine Tidmore. Credit: Kristyna Wentz-Graff
Free Meals Make Thanksgiving for Many in Milwaukee
November 24, 2011
Don Behm reporting
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