For Edwin
Evidently
It’s
Hubble’s birthday
Happy Birthday
Your gift
To us
Rendering so many things
More clearly
Maybe our gift
To you
Our continued faith
In the sky
World Children’s Day
Today
As well
If we remember taking boxes ‘round
With
Trick or Treat for UNICEF
Collecting quarters
Then millions of quarters for
The cause
The cause of
Children
Need we say it
Though we forget
We adults
Forget
Leaving children inside schools
Or not counting them at all
(beyond
certain
grids)
Until they’re grown up
Into rivals
For our power
For our love
In the mean time
They are forgotten fodder
Uncounted
In the strategies for
War
Women and children
We still say
Which
Didn’t work
On liners
Any more than battlefields
Inside
And in back of
Loss
Hunger
And
Disease
And worse on them
Than on
The older us
Which we older ones might not
Want
To believe
Even though
The wretched things attack
Hope
In the young
As well as young awareness
Okay
We’ll say
And even mean
They are precious
And
They are our future
And they are precious
And
They are our
Present
Last Work of the Day
I think
Not of life
But
To move on a little
Unzip the sweater
Change
The shoes
And leave the make-believe
Awhile
How about
As is supposed to happen
We take the feeling of the sweater
The softer shoes
And
Made-up imagination
With us
Then meet
With feathered insights
Muscled inspiration
On
As has been said
The morrow
C L Couch
Photo by Lawrence Chismorie on Unsplash
Alexander Calder, the sculptor/mobilist whose work is featured here (in Switzerland), constructed a mobile for the children of Pittsburgh, which floated near the entrance to the Carnegie Museum—a favorite thing for me, when a child, to behold
Pittsburgh references to Mister Rogers, too
the waiting sky
(I know it sounds like a Western)
the sky looks white
uninteresting
at least when it rains
the sky
is interesting
as well as
what’s happening on land
I don’t mean
torrential
I mean civil
as in the good rain
we need
that sometimes cleans the air
or it seems that way
on breathing
outside
after
so it might rain today
(the sky
is tentative)
rain for sustenance and interest
c l couch
photo by Fiona on Unsplash
New Pages in a Book of Hours
The liturgy
As clouds for notes
Against the sky
An antiphon of leaves
As wind
Blows through them
As candlelight
Reflections
Off of water
And should anything
Feathered
Or mammalian
Be chirping
Chittering
We’ll take that as
Responding to
The sun as celebrant
C L Couch
Photo by Ginabell Andujar on Unsplash
Red Sky at Morning
(today is World Environment Day)
We acknowledge
That we breathe
And
Do we breathe
That there is water we may treat
To drink
Because most of it’s unsafe
We could catalogue
The plant and animal
Species
We will have killed
Today
In the name of consumer
Consumption and
Development
And how large is the ozone layer
It’s been decades of
Awareness
And it could be better
The layer
Our awareness
How blue the sky
And shall we keep its blueness
Or trade
The blue of Earth for
Scarlet
Mars
Once we have finished
Here
And with what is left
Go there
C L Couch
Photo by Ryan Arnst on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Glory
x
It’s a Sunday feeling
For those who have a Sunday
To be speaking
And singing to the Lord
x
The pastor cites
The shortest psalm
As an invocation,
Which is an invitation
More so a directive
To be singing
x
Can you imagine David
Dancing first
Before the ark
When it was brought into
Jerusalem?
There was singing then
And all the instruments
We’ve heard about
That played
x
Today is Mission Sunday at this church
So there are connections to the world
x
Everyone’s invited
Everywhere
Not as a number
But as you,
You are invited
To meet Jesus
Through us
Not because we are messiahs
But because
We can quote him
Tell his story
Show you something of his love
For everyone
And the hope that the whole human world
Might be saved,
x
Which is God’s wish
But not God’s will
For God has mitigated God
In favoring our will
And our decisions
Yes, it’s the reason why
The world is so flawed
And screws up so badly
x
That according to the story
Has made us
The silent planet in the universe
Burning other planets
With what happened in the garden
And then
Going quiet
While the planet’s fate is determined
Of itself
x
Then there will be noise
x
But here is David
In Jerusalem
And there is great noise
Locally
That celebrates
That helps to consecrate
The presence and the symbol
And our rendering of faith
In holy God
And in each other
As neighbors
And a nation
x
The world will not know you, Lord;
And nations will fall
x
We could wish it were not so,
And we do
x
But not everyone will be there
In the sky
The circle won’t be broken
But our hearts,
Well,
They are other matters
x
It’s a Sunday feeling
For those who have a Sunday
And take one
Or on another day
x
We have been ransomed
From kidnapping,
From the prisons
Huge or small—all intimate
When they should not
Have to be
x
The world violates our souls
And yet we believe
And from the ashes
Of all sins consumed
At last,
We shall rise
Who choose to rise
x
The glory of the Lord
In homely ways
Inside the heart
We do not understand
x
How something so
Cosmically grand
Can live in something
So small
As our souls,
One soul by one
x
Then there is the glory
That we read about
And then imagine:
The universe made straight
While also bending low,
We with that
And all the Earth
That knows at last
This is it,
The certainty of God
In blinding presence
That will not hurt our eyes
And the song of angels,
Unbinded song
That should destroy
But will not touch eardrums
Adversely
x
The glory of the Lord
Clearly
All there is,
Compelling
As to break our souls
Though it will not—in fact,
We’ll never had been
Better,
Freer,
Then to get
Our next assignments
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Christian Cagni on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Hear the Sky
x
Today the sky is talking through
The rain,
Discussing how to wash the
Earth
Tonight the sky
Might be humming a humid tune
About solace, anyway, and rest
x
The sky can sing
Through brightened colors
The rainbow, yes,
But don’t forget the message
In the blue,
Beauty that is not owned
By anyone
That doesn’t care for borders
But flies over them
Unchallenged
x
The sky is its own master
We can hear that anytime
It will speak its blessings
Or admonishments
Maybe we should listen
And respect
And offer messages of harmony
Ourselves
x
Does the sky hear us?
It may have heard
It might hear again
x
C L Couch
x
x
Sunset in Vancouver
Photo by Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Liturgy in Blue
x
A pleasant-looking day
In September
It’s been a while
Not that unattractive days
Are unattractive
They also have the wonder of
Inhale and exhale
Libation to the senses
For the God who made them
x
Inside this
In here,
What else is there
To say beyond
Praise plus supplication for
Another such as this?
Another gift we’ll think
We’re due
We are—with the caretaker’s
Responsibility as well
x
C L Couch
x
x
photo by Kae Anderson on Unsplash
trees with changing leaves under a bright blue sky
x
Check, Please
It’s a lovely day outside
The sky could be a little bluer
I’ll have to ask when
Ordering tomorrow
And you, what would you like?
Maybe some rain
For thirsty fauna
Or something zephyrous,
A blessing in a breeze
And since it’s you, I’m happy
To be countermanded
Order what you
Think is best
C L Couch
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Fenton, Michigan, United States
Coeli
The sky is a
Wow
Blue
The kind a robin’s egg
Could say
Hey, you
My color came from you
The green is
Startling, too
As if to say
Surprise!
I was here,
All the time
In this humid place
Of climate change
(yes, it’s real
sorry, children
we’re leaving this
for you)
Maybe for
A change,
The rain last night
Cleared out
The steamy parts
For this morning
If so,
Thank you, rain!
When I lived
Higher up,
It used to happen this way
All the time
Clear sky after
Rain that cleans
C L Couch
Photo by Kambani Ramano on Unsplash
Sossusvlei Sand Dunes, Namib Naukluft Park, Namibia
Mother & Daughter
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