(x = space)
x
x
Honestly
x
O God
You are so good
I say this when the sun is out
Will I say it
In the storm
When I am losing everything I’ve had
Maybe a person
x
While my people are shattered
Or even when the sun
Comes out
After
x
I won’t believe the sun
May I believe you
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
to an unknown god
(acts 17:22-23)
x
the cars hiss outside
like snakes complaining
we had a storm
another might be coming
aren’t we always
in between
we can sleep
only through so much
and then must wake
if only to the aftermath
but then in earnest weather
we’d have been up
to take care of things
before the blow
the pounding of the fists
and stentor breathing
of an angry god
who cannot forgive
our not knowing its name
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by raychel sanner on unsplash
gathering storm over kansas.
x
note (c. f. earlier notes)
the computer’s back, I guess; if so, I’m thankful (thankful for the nonce, anyway)
merry eve before the eve
x
(x = space)
x
x
Nicole
x
Hammering the east side
(no hyperbole)
Working its way over now
To wreak havoc
Like the dogs of war
On the panhandle,
Then move north
x
We’ll get remnants
No one seems to care
Up here for here
(good)
But six hundred thousand people
Without power
How shall they do?
How shall they cook
And read
And watch TV
Manipulate keyboards and screens
And stay cool?
x
It’s still Florida, after all
x
What can we say
To habitual destruction
Only to build the same, again
And maybe many times?
x
I’ve not been there enough
(not enough)
To understand the charm
x
Their politics are weird
But I wish for them
Electricity,
Dry days
x
I could wish that
This would learn us all
Something of our neighbors,
Their catastrophes
That linger years
In loss and less than everything
In daily rise
And style
x
For now,
Floridians
We pray for you
Really for now
For all the wreckage
You must live through
And as they come
For fair winds
And following seas
And maybe for
A long, long while
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Petitioning before the Storm
x
Later today
Ida comes to call
With too much rain
For an area
That is soaked already
There should be floods
x
I’m sorry
I’ve been praying for myself
I’ve been praying
For you, too
x
But I need the power
The electricity
My heart needs the help
Frankly, in the summer heat
And afterward
I’ll need to get around
For bread
x
Maybe I’ll get or keep
(since nothing
will have changed)
My petition
x
But I need the prayer for me
I hope there’s understanding
x
C L Couch
x
x
Sinai
no, Italy
Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash
Alpe di Siusi, 39040 Castelrotto BZ, Kastelruth, Italy
x
(x = space)
x
x
Doctrine by Tempest
x
And should I turn
To the Spirit,
How shall she say
Or guide?
To love in all things,
Though that
Can be a mystery
Like faith
And should I ask for grace
Or is that bestowed
In quantities
Already
Measured out by God,
Dispensed by angels?
I don’t know,
I think grace might be wild,
Ready to fall itself
Into the crisis
Spreading all the elements
And changing time
For
Working things,
Which means perhaps
That prayer
Is unchained, too,
And to do so
Into the storm
In terror
And unformed bequest
Well, it counts
x
C L Couch
x
x
Hurricane Map
x
(x = space)
x
x
blue day turns gray with
rain to see and hear and then
lightning and thunder
x
C L Couch
x
x
(x = space)
X
x
Our Northeastern Storm
(2 February 2021)
x
Somewhere this might
Land
As a Sou’wester
Here, it’s been impressive
And in too many places
Dire
x
The vaccine is frozen,
So to say
The chances to get shots
Into people have been hindered,
Frankly stopped in the
Storm areas for now
x
Maybe there can be
A harsh and honest breath
In our disbursement process
While Democrats
Republicans
Fight for our relief
In the nation
x
The forecaster
Is citing “The Song that
Never Ends” by
Sherry Lewis that
The puppets sang
At the end of each show
Because this isn’t done
And will be
Renewed, it looks,
In two days or so
x
This snow
Plus the chill in the Capitol
x
The groundhog, by
The way, official Phil in
Punxsutawney,
Yanked out of his home
On Gobbler’s Knob,
Did not
See his shadow
Prognosticating six more
Weeks of this kind of
Winter without
An early spring
x
But my friend Debbie,
Well, she’s happy:
x
She’s been wanting
To drive around her Jeep
Through snow,
Sitting way above
The trouble down below
x
Have a great time, Debbie
We mortals lift our
Shovel heads
In obeisance
As you carom by
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Dylan LaPierre on Unsplash
New York, New York, United States
x
(x = space)
x
x
Cenobite
(last ice age or next one)
x
I need food
I need drink
That’s primal
x
Since the world has iced over,
I have nearly nothing now
She should have told the hermits
x
I haven’t seen siblings for days
x
We always pray
But without tools
And a bigger fire,
We shall dry like
Animal meat, which is
All we’ll leave behind
Surrounded by charcoaled pages
As a testament
x
What shall I leave as last words?
That it was too thick,
That I could not break through?
That the storm ruined my fire,
Even inside the cave?
x
That I still believe?
That my supplication
Is to receive my soul?
x
I do believe
Yet wish I had a follower,
Someone come from town
To bring me coals and kindling,
Water and a pike whose metal tip
Could break through ice
To running water far below
Though I haven’t heard it
Seems for an age
x
I might be addled
Or unfaithful,
But I could go for bread and
Cheese as well and wine,
Though I’ve tried to make the
Bitter ale I have last for a while
(nearly gone, now)
x
And candlelight
I miss candlelight
x
My head hurts,
My body weakens
I don’t know if I’ll die
In night or day
x
It’s hard to tell
Anymore
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Shannon McInnes on Unsplash
On an off chance we found ourselves needing to drive from Inuvik to Tuktoyuktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada, which was only accessible by ice road at the time. It took us about three hours driving on the ice to reach Tuktoyuktuk, which sits on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. This is what you see when you step out and look down. Taken during the last weeks of the ice road before it permanently closed. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/arctic-highway-challenges-1.4398726
x
x
There was an ice age in the Middle Ages. The next one might be caused by global warming.
x
The Unforgiven
(over three hundred now)
Matthew kills
Two hundred eighty
In the place that Papa
Doc abused
Where the recent
Legacy of earthquake
Leaves homes
Waiting to rise
For five years’ passing
On toward Florida,
This is not
The succession of an
Apostle but the
Random naming of
A storm
That, anonymous,
Would rise and fall,
Slam and flood, beat and
And take the
Breathing from too
Many enfleshed
Fragile souls
clcouch123 
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