Once and Future
Camelot has fallen
The last knight rides
Away
Into the sunrise
Of the first day of the year
So Tennyson decided
Maybe based on information
Or more by
Insight
That had moved the poet
Through
Construction
And destruction
The rising
And the falling
Raised by music
Like cathedrals
Or said the poet’s peers
By the command of
Merlin
While depicting in
What must have seemed
Indomitable stone
All ascent and descent
In
Human ages
By
The wizard’s art
At its command
Now fallen also
The unearthly being
Sealed away
For now
And we are left
To ride away with Bedivere
Into our uncertain year
As
A matter of courses
When this hearing is done
And in our case
Unready for the courts
Ideals
By betrayals
Story-slain
As if by Mordred
Also
Guinevere
And Lancelot
All exposed
As our
Baser impulses toward
Ruination
Wrecking the foundation
Into rubble
That can
Support nothing like
The comely towers
Anymore
What kind of year
Is this
Where is the refuge
For the refugees
Shall Camelot be rebuilt
If only by words
In songs
Until we have the might
For right
To try again
With mortar in
Our stanzas
For now
On this first day
The sounds of riding
Harsh
Like our discourse
Now concluded
‘Til we open up
The pages of our lives
Again
While in a distant place
Already to be set
In camouflage by nature
The final
Burning
Broken stones of the last battle
Settle into
What had been
A part of Earth
More glorious
Somehow
By us
C L Couch
. . .
Or thought he saw, the speck that bare the King,
Down that long water opening on the deep
Somewhere far off, pass on and on, and go
From less to less and vanish into light.
And the new sun rose bringing the new year.
from “The Passing of Arthur,” concluding Idylls of the King by Arthur, Lord Tennyson
Photo by Jigar Panchal on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
having been incarnated
x
oh
God
we say
you’re born
you’ve slipped inside
the pacing
of the world
flesh cells
adapting
to our measure
to our growth
and our decay
three score and ten
how does it
feel
x
I guess you knew
what this was
and is the human part
surprised
by mortal beats
the skipping
of the heart
outside
the rhythm
as we say
of the spheres
x
and are you well
will you
catch cold
or get mumps
have influenza
as our children must
from time to time
it seems
x
and you
will endure
(you must)
though it won’t be
so comfortable
with chicken pox
x
and then
grown-up
to feel
all that we feel
and think inside the vacuum
the shell
of thoughts
inhabiting the skull
and not much further on
nothing like
the mindset
you must know
inside eternity
and Godhead
x
and there are feelings
in the chest
desire
for the nation
yes
and only
for your own
because you are
humanly
entitled
x
yet what shall you have
when your body
it turns out
is for a cause
even
perhaps part of a plan
to cheat mortality
like the stratagems
of Pharisees
or statues of
self-styled kings
or emperors
x
Rome and Judea
and there is Parthia
and Britain
way-off China
and there’s India
and there are first people
everywhere
who belong
where they have moved
and stopped
and finally
no place to move
with what they have
for moving
x
all the people
of the Earth
post-Alexander
and never having known
Alexandrian expansion
or Roman roads
connecting
a known world
x
yet
are you here
for these
everywhere
which means
you might be here for us
here and now
x
I suppose
the other two
of you
will out
while you alone
are limited
while you must live here
with only us
for easy company
and reaching out
like us
often alone
sometimes in groups
though only through the shell
as we must beseech
mortally
unto the Lord
with questions
asking of a will
we do not understand
yet we believe
is there
x
how frustrating to be human
welcome here
we wish you well
we really do
because should we encounter you
there are stories
about something special
from you
something even
we don’t know
rescuing
about you
even in the flesh
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
some poems for you today
(some poems of the day)
x
x
night will come on
x
second full day of winter
a thoughtful day
perhaps
x
day before the night
before the day
still a blue or purple day
white or gold
in the offing
x
another yet another
gray day outside
to look at it
to feel it
too
there’s something of a chill
x
maybe it’s three ghosts
warming up
in an ethereal bullpen
before descending upon London
or wherever
whoever Scrooge
might try to sleep
inside posts of tarnished gold
having eaten
unappreciated food
and nothing for the child
Want or Ignorance
not yet
x
we can await
transition
transformation
of a night
in a great story
sometimes on Earth
the real Earth
to know
x
x
the allusion is, of course, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, often published with other Christmas stories
x
x
multiplicity
x
sigh
a great God
comes to Earth
having been here already
shooed us from the
garden
set an angel with a sword
to keep us out
should we find it
however accidently
once again
x
a God
who’s always here
already
thus begging a confusion
since we make a deal
of God arriving
though God is here
x
well
the ancients
didn’t have that problem
paradox in time
like characters
from Bible stories
costumed as one’s own
also
in Old English
for example
without a future tense
x
so that
every time is now
and the next thing
and the thing
that was
no worries
x
God is always here
always arriving
too
everything a kind of participle
or a gerund
the subject in or as
a tense
that is all timelines
all the time
x
confused mortality
perhaps
yet replicating
meter of a chaosed clock
that has numbers
that
for the sake of our philosophy
are movable
forgettable
in the exigencies
of moments’
having
and remembering
also anticipating
x
always the birth
always the apocalypse
as well
meaning that
time and meaning
have all seeds
and growth
and harvest
with all accounts
as with all stories
every gospel
all the same
with kairos room for change
here and now
and then
and what’s to come
all the same
here
and in a kind of ancient
(that means contemporary
too)
crazy and amenable
as now
x
was
is
will
as now
x
bless our ancients
for knowing something
of
the ways things magically
and really are
today
from yesterday
into divine best-guessing
for tomorrow
x
x
servile
x
what shall we say
that’s permanent
except that God is love
God is a spirit
plus all better metaphors
a rock
a lion
x
who has an investment
in every good
and reasoned thing
in need
for us to call it miracle
x
water from
desert stone
food in ravens’ mouths
that they abey
until
delivery
x
God strives
to keep the prophets
whole
for the rest of us to
hear
and to absorb
the entire
story
letting
the wisdom
and the warnings
to soak in
through all
our cells
supernal messages
easier metaphors
for meaning
x
no riddles
save for fun
sometimes erudition
(though the simple ones
are better
aren’t they
Bilbo)
no requirements
beyond a willing
and created nature
x
there being
no stars for gain
(there are no Sneetches
and there is no
McBean)
no refectories
with sainted machines
dispensing
when the answer
or indulgence
might be right
that is
Earthly correct
x
rather leave
our kitchens
for serving
real food
for need
and in a turn
for pleasure
since there’s no reason
service should not be
pleasant
as well as exigent
with even
seasons to remember
the life outside
inside
x
the gospel within
food
perhaps
though better
after
so that we might be
sated twice
with victuals
and nourishment
from stories
forgetting not
our own
x
x
the clock that smiles
x
tomorrow go to church
or last night
this evening
later the next day
until the sun
decides
to set
and an indulgent clock
must by the maker
say
it’s had enough
x
there is this morning
too
there is right now
and shall we worship
God
inside a heartbeat
savoring the next
secured
inside
the believing beat
of now
x
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by Dominic Tham on Unsplash
x
x
God bless
our in-between days
x
(x = space)
x
x
Partly inspired by “There Will Come Soft Rains,” a chapter in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. This part of the story speaks to what is left of us. The chapter’s sad. Nonetheless I often think upon it.
x
x
Sci-Fied
x
Should the bombs fall
And I am atomized
And you
And the insects shall find
Nourishment
Not through flesh
(I’m atomized
so are you)
But through bits of trash
I had not the time
To take our back
x
And shall the Earth survive
To have another age
x
I remember
In the days of Strontium
We said we could
Destroy the planet’s crust
And so leave
The molten mass
The could heave
Or be
Settled down
x
Nostalgia
For a future guess
x
The Earth might have
Its own
As it once held us
There could be bees
And flowers for the bees
Or something
For pollen
So that something could
Pollenate
And there be land
With flora
Feeding
And softening
What’s left of our platforms
For another age
Of Earth
x
Arthropodic
Or could it be with feathers
Things that move
And have their being
Avoiding shadows
Form which
There used to be
Something in charge
Though now
The lesson’s different
This time
The arthropods
And feathered things
Have sentience
And speak gospel
x
While the Earth
In its own way
We never got
Though it was there
Shall smile
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
3 poems, when you have time (one poem about observation, one about reading, one about war taking all)
x
x
Observe and Report
x
For preamble
Nothing like
The burdens of a people
Upon Joshua
Or Caleb
x
What’s petty
What is meaningful
Too often
I don’t know
I pick up a stone
It’s not a park
There are no regulations
I take the thing with me
Becomes an artifact
At home
x
I am reminded
Of the Earth
We are set on
So many layers
To the center
Countless to go out
Again
To try to count
x
Clueless
It and I
While it’s supposed to be
And I think I should know something
About the atoms
The formation
Its place
Near my fingers
When I found it
When I take it up
Look upon it
Now
x
x
Read Me
x
Not unlike the words
Commanding
Alice
To forward
Her adventure
x
Words
Well
Words have
Such value
So the lines are short
While
Reading slowly is advised
Going slowly
Generally
x
Yours should be read
This way
As well
x
Time is a treasure
Though we should parse it out
Surrender it in particles
x
Not worrying so much
About the measure
Since the bill
Of sale
Is not our own
But investment the creator made
Inside creation
x
So let’s take our time
As said
Although again
It’s not our own
But lent
At best
And for our use
Simply
As use
x
Please take time to read me
I’ll take time
Reading
You
And then there’s
The needful time
For vital
As in lively
Response
x
x
War and After, After
x
The wars go on
Again
I can’t imagine
The explosions
The dust
The rubble
And the blood
Beneath
x
And the things of blood
Of bodies
That once held the lives
Of souls
While here on Earth
x
Now stolen
As if by gods
Self-styled
With machines
Black and pretty
Smithed
In hell
x
And this is metaphor
Impressions
The real thing
For those alive
Is all about
The running
Avoidance of more anything
Like that
Again
x
And then it happens
There is more
It’s worse
Nothing inside ourselves
Ever
Really
Gets used to it
x
And then
Maybe there’s a moment when
The silence rings
Notes of nothing
Anymore
While looking
Touching
For flesh containing life
We might embrace
To take
And to offer
What we have
x
And there might be people
Come from
Too short a way
To find us
For ourselves
To treat us
Representing
Something clean
And institutional
Away
x
We might be taken there
Where
Objectless walls
Close in
With noises in the distance
Or have we brought them with us
And is it noise
That closes in
The distance
x
We need medication
Sedative
To leave all this
Except for bodies
That have names
xxxxxWe cherish both
xxxxxWe want them
xxxxxHave to search for them
xxxxxTo know them
xxxxxAnd to have them
xxxxxOnce again
x
Though we might have to settle
In without response
While life is measured
Sometimes
Without
The power to the building
And their efforts
And the dust
And rubble
That came in with us
x
The war
The damning war
The reason we say bloody
For the worst
Things we can think of
x
Fleshly containers
Holding flesh
Until they must
Let go
x
Who are they
What are their names
Who are we
Where are we going
x
War take all
Peace for the remnant
The ghostly revenant
Left over
The dust
Of everything that’s taken
For what’s left over
To remain
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Ansia Lasa on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
(sorry, this is long—and rather existential)
x
x
World without End except It Ends
(a kind of rhapsody)
x
And how are things
In Ukraine
And how are the Rohingya
The indigenous in
Amazonia
(where it
turns out
no tall women
cast like
Gal Gadot)
And in NZ
And the USA
x
And how are they recovering
From earthquakes in India
And Pakistan
(and give thanks for rescues
from the mines)
Plus the quakes before
In Syria
x
Dealing with the aftereffects
On Maui
And now a new spill
Of a million gallons
In our
Gulf
x
We go to war
Nature beats us down
And yet I’m quiet in a minute
(coughing slightly)
With the morning sun
And branches
Scraping a Hallowe’en hello
Against the window
x
And the kitchen sink
Is stopped
And there are fruit flies
From the bananas
That I dared to buy the other day
And sinuses
And heart disease
That go on
x
And there is not a feeling
Of assessment
Or of judgment
Things are the way they are
It is what it is
We are dust in the wind
Qué será
Será
(every generation
needs this lyric)
x
I am safe for now
That’s why
I don’t feel bitter in the world
Except sometimes
When the thought is thought
Or something happens
Even though there’s faith
x
And there is faith
Nothing extraordinary
One might think it
Feel it
Commonly
And every day
Through prayer enforced
In every hour
x
Faith in God
More than each other
Though in each other
Too
And even in the world
God help us
(and God will)
While we have the world
Not each for each one
But
(Dumas
D’Artagnan)
One for all
x
But faith
But hope and love
That’s how it goes
With the greatest
We are told
Is love
And have I love
Have you
And does it keep us
From the Trough
Of Despair
x
And to correct
That’s ancient Greek
And economics
While the giant is
Despair
And there is challenging
For Pilgrim
The Slough of Despond
(funny how some college readings
don’t stay with you)
x
Right or wrong
We have the world
And ourselves
We breath
Sometimes in contemplation
Seeking mysticism
Or simply get us through
The day before us
As we dread it
Or we fear it
x
There is a war zone
Though I don’t face
Maybe with you
Blood and disaster
Lack of reason
All of explosions’
Randomness
But there is a war zone
One big one everywhere
It’s spiritual
(big deal
you might say
in which
there are
no broken bones
no wishes
for a ceasefire
in so many other places)
Though it is real
x
It wants to pull us down
To smother
Or to drown us
So that we cannot
Look out clear
Or up above
For quotidian metaphor
Since underneath miasma
Or on the other side
Of despair
There is source of faith
As well
Reason to hope
Impetus to love
x
Shantih
I’m nobody
Too
Let’s not advertise
Keep it simple
Keep it quiet
Layer the world’s noise
Above
On all sides
Below
x
For on the breastplate
It is etched
That the source is everywhere
(like Savoir Faire
je ne sais quoi
and so stay
chez lui)
x
Hurry up
Please
We have no time
The Rider’s on the loose
The Dark is rising
Look for holiday scenes
Also in
Roll of Thunder
Hear My Cry
And even
Murder mysteries
(looking at you
Louise Penny)
x
And how have the spirits
Told us over ages
Still listening
By the adept
God blessing the dispossessed
Living within
Unjust environs
x
We devalue
The supernal
Yet look for it
In seminars
And everything
That tells us about God
Without God
Which is okay
I guess
Money that’s wasted
Must be wasted on something
x
Set God aside
(God is used to this)
How are we knit
Regardless
Well
Through capillaries
Synovia
All the ways our bodies
Work
More or less
x
In floors
Between skyscrapers
(yes
I know
‘til they fall)
In rivers moving through
The plains
To make grand canyons
x
Through overlays of roads
We lay of web
There are great potholders
With a better need
For infrastructure
But look at the lights
From space
The synaptic pattern
Of our world
x
For now
We got one
We have each other
x
And how are things
In Glocca Morra
I feel
I have to say that
And the tune go through my head
All day
And what is yours
x
We sing
If only through our brain cells
Maybe through memories
Or if we must
Out loud
x
As many say
(and sing)
The extraordinary
In the ordinary
We must have this
It parallels
The things made not
By us
But for us
After all
x
What crowns creation
Us or sabbath
And besides the heads
With angels dancing
For a count
Who really cares
Since God wears the crown
And that is that
x
A crown of Earth
Some think
Though it isn’t
There
x
Worlds of all kinds
Aren’t crowns
Or bear them
We visit
Truly visit
And we know
x
So let ambition
Have a better end
Reach in all directions
For what’s
Next
What is today’s
What’s in the hour
All the hours we
Are given
And have left
x
Let’s not be
Moribund
In attitude
Not while there is
So much
For us
And that we make
To make
To last
To prosper
Even in
Disposable economies
x
There is grace
With
Gracia
In the world
And intrusions of miracles
All the time
And we medically
Constructively
Artisanally
Make our own
x
What shall we make
Though
As we know
We don’t take it with us
Even cells
But leave things behind
That in eternity
Is dross
But become
Legacies
For those still
Living here
x
All the names
All the actions
All we own
Or think we own
They matter
Though all matter
Be reformed
(as in re-informed
and in
the usual kind
like Protestants
now let’s all cheer like Protestants
which is in the movie)
x
Nothing lasts
And everything lasts
It’s our memory
And God’s computer
Accounting angels
Excused from the heads of pins
To do the real
Work
In magnificent
And terrifying shape
Which is why
They’re always saying
Do not be afraid
x
Don’t be afraid
Though
There are fearful things
We can resort
To faith
Hope
Or love
Or simply
Painfully
Endure
x
Enduring’s good
(so’s faith)
For keeping us
Around
‘Til something better
Happens
And maybe resolution
For what has hurt
Has wounded us
For so long
Or a day
x
Hang on
Hurry
Or don’t hurry
We have the hour
Candlelight
Inside the mind
And with our bodies
Move ourselves
Whole or partial
Through the day
x
Dear ones
God is here
And we are here
Our touch is easier
For flesh
x
So let flesh
With spirit bless
The first
A mortal blessing
Less to bestow
But we can do it
The second
From an origin
That is not us
But like us
We are like
x
And let there be amen
If this is prayer
Or in another attitude
Say grace
That isn’t grace
But the best
We might do
x
C L Couch
x
x
(bye, bye, M—, well, you know who)
x
Photo by Justin Wilkens on Unsplash
The Yazoo River out of its banks near highway 61 North. Flood waters up to the levee road.
x
(x = space)
x
x
Grow Us
x
Will you grow us
God
Give us the chance
Even with tense peace
Our contribution
To the means
x
On an Earth
That has its way
But
We push against
For what we think
Advances us
x
Maybe with some relenting
Rather
Enjoy the Earth
As is
The wisdom
In the higher places
Thin air to breathe
For penance
x
The living in the valleys
Towns and farms
For habitation
And for food
That daily bread
We talk
About
x
Also forgiving
Tempered in forgiven
x
So that
As is
As defined
Ain’t bad
Especially when
We’ve changed so much
x
We could stand
(like plants)
To remember
Even renew
With
Re-expression
The peace in what was made
And is
And still is
The promise of return
From no investment
Save faith and some respect
For having
All this wonder
Bestowed
x
Plant us
As in Eden
And water us
For life
Not to keep us
Stuck
But to grow us
Free
Out into the world
Anthropocene
For now
Maybe better in alliance
With the one who planted
First
And still
Tills with real peace
In
Genesis dynamic
x
Amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Maggs
x
Yesterday or recently
(depending on
the rate
at which cop blotters’
notes move on
to general news)
A boy
Who was 7
On a scooter
(child’s fit)
Treading the thing next
To his mother
Was hit by a truck
An NYPD
Tow truck
The driver on his cell phone
When it happened
x
This could be the news
Of the day
If we wanted things
This way
Then move on to pestilence
To wider crimes
To war
x
(sequel)
x
Is there more to say today
Beyond small tragedies
Small hopes
Perhaps
What happens if
Remediation
Anyone who seated at
Any round table
x
Good news
That’s strong and wide
And numerous
Throughout the world
We would talk about these
Too
x
(d.s. al coda)
x
There has to be the larger news
As well
That’s normal
Becoming all the media
In circles
I mean cycles
To see and hear
x
But sometimes
We keep it small
A fire here
Some thieving there
Small
Local tragedies
With ads surrounding
x
Maybe a fundraiser
For a smaller while
Highlighting
Human need
Addressed
x
It’s a mishmash
And
Yes
The larger
Overwhelms the smaller
(the whale that subsumes
the krill)
We might say
The way of the world
And who sets that way
The Earth
God
Or us
Or even us as
God’s
Program directors
x
Well
Signing off
Let’s find out
How things might be arranged
To settle heart and head
Into priorities
Of one day to the next
x
(now d.c.)
x
We must do the things
To do
Address the wicked
Heal the wounded
And remember
x
Remember Lewiston
Tree of Life
Parkland
Columbine
x
Elevate each spirit
In our minds
That has already gone to God
While our ongoing care
And remembrance
Go on
Here
x
And do we learn
Do we get better
Fuller
Sometimes
Sometimes it takes a trend
Some public outrage
Sometimes
Some public mourning
x
We can change
We can grow
What is the main thing
What are
Side things
Which is first
Then second
In our lives
x
How do we moralize
With wisdom
Restraint
Humbly working it out
As if about
To kneel
Before a divine
Committee
That keeps knocking
That keeps asking
x
(30)
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Mike Hindle on Unsplash
x
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