From 5 to 7
How was
Your day
Mine
Went strangely
But I’d like to hear about
Your own
Adventures that
If are mostly
Small
What you consider homely
Shall be
Frankly
Resting
Glad
And grateful
In the hearing
C L Couch
(I guess maybe there’s an American and a British way to say and use “homely,” one use meaning plain if attractive, the other meaning domestic even welcome—and I think I mean both meanings, if I may)
Photo by rebootanika on Unsplash
Poeming Also
A poem on
Anything
Not so difficult
Say
A listing of ingredients
Gives rise
As an epic
Choose
Something else
You know
Something like a star
Track the wording
How shall the phrases
Speak
To one thing
Or how many
Craft
Revise
Get it out
Not
Done ‘til we do that
C L Couch
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
[next one should begin "poeming also/really difficult"]
Steel Brass Plastic Agenda, Never the Last Word
(2 poems)
Steel Brass Plastic Agenda
There was an argument
In Kansas City
And evidently
Lots of guns
At the scene
So who wants to be powerful
Who wants to be famous
First
Who is more superior
By bullets
An argument
Is not enough
Except perhaps
For pretense
I am ready
I have the final volume
With my gun
Keep talking
Keep rising
I’ll have you
With the last word
My own
Explosion
To settle everything
Then come and get me
You should
Know me now
Never the Last Word
This is no last word
But taking a breath
To breathe
Without the news
And all things
That press on me
On us
I can’t do this without you
And don’t want
To
But let’s all take time
To breathe
And we can drink
And talk
Besides
We could sit
At table
In that made-up
Lakeside café
I keep making up
Adding details
For our ease
And for reflection
On reflection
Of the water
And we could leave
Better than before
Join me
In breathing
If you will
In sipping
Also nibbling something
For small pleasure
Great pleasure
In the interacting
Relief in
Trying to be ourselves
A little more
Each time
We meet
You send me something
And I send you things
While the café waits
And other good
Imagined things
In between
The substance of ourselves
And what we choose
In greater and more open
Health
(let’s try)
To share
C L Couch
Photo by Fern M. Lomibao on Unsplash
Reading The Guardian
I like to read The Guardian
for an outside-USA perspective. (I
like the name, too.) But
today’s Monday-morning headlines
were, I swear, all grim. Even the global
climate accord received political, not
environmental, comment. The only
good news I read about was a promise
from a person not to litigate, not
to sue against unlawful (long and
tortuous) detention at Guantanamo.
I applaud, truly, this one’s
forgiving purpose. But that’s as good
as it got. A withholding of returning
punishment: the avoidance of bad
news from someone being better
than. And so
nothing more?
Why not?
It’s my fault. It’s yours. We must
do good, then do better than to allow
it to become good news. Then (others,
us) we must report the good
that happens, too. As an alternative,
a celebration, and exemplar for all.
I visited my friend in the hospital
just in time to take him home. My
neighbors have launched a mission
website to help the children with
Down’s Syndrome and those who
want the children to have
a child’s life.
There’s some good, becomes good
news. It’s small. Good news is often
small.
My small part as an example’s done.
So now,
“there are ways that others need our presences, too”
“in reality, we throw gold mines into the trash”
by Jacki Kellum
Do you think that it is important to share? Describe in detail another way for you and others to share–to give to people around you.
Presence as Presents
by C L Couch
On this Thanksgiving, I won’t be with family. I’ll be dining with neighbor friends. And I’ll be cat-sitting for other friends who will be away enjoying a family reunion of sorts.
I’ll be bringing nothing to my own activities except myself, my choice, and time. I will feed the cats then visit with them, and they will ignore me. I will sit with my neighbors, enjoying the company of children and of parents. Then I will go home, alone.
When others do this—providing nothing but themselves—I call this the ministry of presence. (So do others, too.) When I used to work with youth, I surprised my ignorance of talent with an asset of simply being there. I didn’t what to say to youth, then discovered that wasn’t the important part. The important part was reliable company. Youth needed to know that someone, ideally someone without an agenda, would be there this time and probably the next.
So that’s how I share. And I imagine how anyone can. I will say that I’m a trained and active listener, which helps in interaction of any kind—even with indifferent cats. But if anyone shows up without self-preoccupation and then maybe shows up the next time. Well, that’s sharing. That’s even ministry.
Yes, I guess it means going beyond merely eating food and watching the game. But not much more. Talk with those, a little, who are there. More importantly, listen to what anyone has to say.
So Happy Thanksgiving to the relatively inert, as I will be. Happy presence to all. And, to all, a could night.
(image credit, http://www.usb-resources.org from Google Images)
clcouch123 
Recent Comments