central Texas
one death we struggle
getting over
so
so how to comprehend a hundred
deaths and
more
storms and floods
destroying
like Time’s rolling sons in
the old hymn
taken
the material and
lively
debating over quick response
especially in a time of
cutting funding
for
all kinds of services
mostly
though a matter
now
of rescue
and the dreadful counting
receiving
aid
enduring then
to take
on
against all pushes of despair
considering
instead how to rebuild
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” by Isaac Watts
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the op’ning day.
(excerpt)
flooding town next over
(from mine in Pennsylvania)
Carlisle
one day
for storm floods
that were
severe
boating on streets
through town
no chance to pass through
radiating intersections
all the trees and parts of trees
that fell
and the delicate
dangerous dance
with
electricity
now nature helps to dry
in its irony of
having
delivered all the water first
the human focus next
on
taking
finding stock
and then rebuilding
c l couch
photo by Wes Warren on Unsplash
You May Ask Who Are the Storm Gods
Milton passed
Helene passed over
Earlier
Now one
At least
Is turn out
To sea
Where it will accost
As storms do
Ships and islands
There
In their way
We’re only in their way
The hurricane
Tornadoes
Storms are mindless
Believing gods are in there
Might
Be Interesting
We may say
God of the storms
To be figurative
To add to
The personality of God
For our
Relating
Also to make sense in fear and
Hope
That God is intimate with
Nature
And God is
And when God might say
People of the Earth
What are you doing with the planet
Well
I guess we could argue for metaphors
Of us with God
Though
I don’t think
God will go
With that
For the Earth is ours
The human ours
Even
God-given
And the responsibility is ours
Even
Now in aspect
Of storms
We make them worse
And who’s to care
While
We are rescuing
And
Picking up
And mourning
Oh
So much
So much that is
Lost
Afterward
When afterward
Becomes
The now
We can talk on this
And then together
May do
Something for
This Earth
The extraordinary gift
On which
You know
You know
We live
C L Couch
Photo by Don Daskalo on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
x
3 poems of encounters
x
x
x
Love, NOAA
x
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harold
x
The writer on
The wuthering heights
The character from PBS
Maybe the nickname
For Ms Stein
And I heard one forecaster
At least
Call it Harry
x
Our alphabet
Our panoply
Of names for the destruction
Small gods as small pilgrims
Manifesting through the portal
Moving away at last
To foreign altars
x
And what they do to us
Who would be faithful
If we knew the rites
The saints
For weather and
Forfending the destruction
Of an age
Each time
x
x
x
Grocery Store Evangelists
x
I met two evangelists
Last evening
After I got all the pills
That I needed
Well
Nearly
(the count after
means I need to order
more
silly
heart disease)
And was shopping
For a little more
When a tract appeared
x
Do I believe in God
How about Jesus
And the Holy Spirit
Am I saved
Do I read my Bible
x
I could say yes
And so we had
A pleasant conversation
In the spirit
We invoked
As two and three were gathered
(that’s in the Bible
too)
x
Their work is urgent
And actually
They’re happy
In it
Still the greater task
Not to take on faith-attackers in the forum
But to reach
The dispossessed
Who are indifferent
x
The lukewarm dogs
That Revelation says
Are the greater challenges
To see
To hear
To taste
The need for faith
x
Through all the rings of Earth
The rounds
Of worldly agendas
x
I wish them well
I wish no violence
I wish smooth rhetoric
All love through
Everything
They are
And move
And have their being
x
x
For through God we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets (Aratus, say) have said, “We are God’s offspring.”
Acts of the Apostles 17:28
NIV with paraphrase
x
x
x
These Girls, These Women
x
I wish I were more
Like Meg
But I don’t have a seeing rock
And I’m not that faithful
Though my feelings
Toward my father
Moved
Evolved
As well
x
I wish I were like Angharad
But I’m not a warrior
And have not won
A blue sword
x
Or the young women in
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Who was running
From her persecutors
Turned
And beheld
Her ship of rescue
x
I have the managerial acumen
Of Mom
Some of her anger
Too
And there’s my sister
Who does everything
So well
x
Maintains a jungle
In her home
While I take my few plants
To turn them brittle
Though
The pots look nice
x
These girls
These women
We should learn so much
About being boys
And men
And girls
And women
And scions of great literature
Ourselves to qualify
Among them
Should someone tell
With fictive elegance
Our stories
x
x
A Wrinkle in Time
x
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
Photo by Vlad Frolov on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Storm Chasing
x
It’s on the screen
Best that I can do
Storms are coming
I want to stay
In here
It’s an illusion
They could get me here
I have vague recollections
Of black and gray and green
Clouds looking to form
A funnel
While I drove beneath
Mainly though
It’s stories
On the news
From the family
From driving by
After
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Susquehanna’s high
brown water like the wide wide river
west Mississippi
x
C L Couch
x
x
I drove and then walked through storms today
x
Photo by Justin Wilkens on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Inside Armageddon
x
Forget the prophecy for now:
Sometimes
Most of the time
We have other things to do
x
There are the newly or ongoing
Wounded
Disenfranchised
So many who need
Our domestic help
And we can think the larger thoughts
As well
To offer courage
Without indictment
x
Things are awful
We need help
That is enough
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
clcouch123 
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