A People of All Seasons
(to the accomplishment and memory of President Jimmy Carter)
Sacrifice
And service
Duty
As love
All of these
Impulses
And choices
Be love
As in
Love of country
Love of each other
Preference
For peace
And everyone be fed
And living safely
In
Unconscious readiness
For something from an outer circle
To round in
Provide the next challenge
For
A species
Shall we care and
Shall
We lift each one
Diversely
And also through
One principle
And let that principle
Of course
Be that
Of love and growth
And so earn
That readiness
Even while
Simply
Learning delight
In the energy
Of ourselves
Sponsored
And
Grown of ourselves
While
Naturally enough
God might
Approve
Then leave us as in let
Us
To what’s next
C L Couch
Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash
Aver
Affirm
As if
To make a pledge about it
We might aver the Lord
And all the works
Therein
Therefrom
Vocabulary
Syntax
Devotion to one’s homework
Enough so that the computers
Might stay running
In
A way the machines might
Talk to us
Share everything
After inputting
At least
Translucently
For spell-check and search engines
Sigh
School is worthwhile
After all
Establish
Learning all the time
As the model
For the way
As
Even Genesis
Continues
Certainly
The love
Made
And spoken of God
Go on
C L Couch
Photo by Sam Loyd on Unsplash
Remember the Good People of Plains then and New Orleans Now
I don’t think I’ve said anything yet
To post
Or what I’d prefer
Briefer
Thoughtful
Something for all or most or many of us
To share
This might be a day off
Though I’m unsure
Why
I mean
I didn’t get much sleep
And the difficult situation locally
Around me
Occurred last night regarding sleep
And about the situation
Generally
These days
But what have I for you
A good word
Maybe
Could be
Think
Or could be
Love
And
Yeah
How ‘bout
We go with these
Today
We go with both
C L Couch
Photo by iSawRed on Unsplash
Promised Responding
And what
Shall
Happen
When we hear
Like Horton
(only
louder)*
We are here
Meaning
The host of heaven
Small and gargantuan
Depending on
Dimension
And
Dimension’s need
Ready
When we beckon
Or soaring ready
In flight mode
Or on the ground in
Angel
Ranks
Maybe loving us
On fine days
Merely
Or to have to march
(or land)
Upon
Megiddo
To realize apocalypse
And fight for us on
Our side
Meaning the side of all
The believers
Not through possession of
The pride
Of
Victory
So much as that love
By appreciation on
That fine day
C L Couch
(Horton Hears a Who is cited)
Photo by Katarina Dodig on Unsplash
“My favourite street corner in Dubrovnik” (photographer’s caption).
*(still, still small voice)
A Christmas Season Message
(anytime)
So once it’s proclaimed
That
God loves you
And a presumption
God loves
Me
Then
We might consider
For ourselves and the world
God loves us
It’s not an easy love
Because the world
Isn’t easy
Rather
Selfish
And destructive
You know this
And the presence of God
Is not made so visible
Or at all
Though there are stories
And what does
This love
Mean
To ask catechistically
Well
It’s the strongest fragile going
Because the world and the devil
Seem
To have their ruinous say
And rule over
Temptations
Ready to wreck us
When we’re turned
Ignoring
Keep from us notions of
Redemption
With reconciliation
Back
Into the body of believers
And so much
Too much
Is hidden in the world
Like treasures found
In mines
As well as ancient
Tombs
That were new once in grief
And now perhaps
Remembrance
Truth hides too easily
Secrets used
To cover truths
Of course
And there’s a pushing under of
Open justice
That restores
By a greater interest
In control of
Rules
And closed-over until-
Declared
Tyranny
Meaning
Sinful attitudes and strategies
Allowed
Through good things bent
Too often by
Prosperity
And punishment
Which warps the understanding of
What’s fair and
Openly
Respectful
In favor of shaded interest
And is this real
Well
All of it must be
Making
Sad sense out of what
Explains
The way things are
And love is hard in this
And some would say impossible
As a human
Reaction
Understood
While love itself might go
Underground
Deeper than the superficial world
Knows
Love might have to hide
Rising when it’s risky
But
To seal the deal on planet Earth
And who knows where else
That better
Vows
Mean something
And we must take the chance to say
And sometimes write so
And say so
From a podium
Until repudiation of such public love with
Podium
And church or temple
Fired by hate
With worldly agendas behind
‘Til what is good
To hear
To bring us together
Is then ashes
Love is strong
Even when assailed
And it shall
Last beyond
But
Oh
It
Takes a beating now and then
Or all the time
Depending on who’s
Or what’s
In charge
But love regardless
God’s behind it and in front
And is invisible
Irascibly
It seems
Even to allow great danger to
Adherents
But love is
Called for
Anyway
And we should love
Each other even more visible than
God
‘Til God more obviously shows
Keeping the understanding
Learning
And the living that
As we might
Know
Singly and together
God loves us
C L Couch
(for its own lectern maybe, serving a sermon or another kind of message in a hall or other place or kind of gathering)
Photo by virkelighet on Unsplash
Seasons’ Reasonings
(or is it reason’s seasonings)
What do I really want
To say today
And shall I break
From
My agenda
Even of pressing needs
For aren’t they all
Seeming-
Exigent
I want
To say
Simple and plain
I guess
As folk
As others
Say
And it’s
God loves you
And
While God loves you
In
The strength and practicality
Of love
Without the pink and lace
So much
Until it’s time
For these
In my land
After the groundhog wakes
And the better President
Is born
And then
Another tussle for
Too many
With
In fact
Pink isolation
Like
Too-often
Christmas green
While all of it
We know
As blue
(though
yes
Elvis’s Christmases
are blue)
Until and in between
These times
That is
Most of the time
And
Yes
And even then
(the betweens of in-betweens)
God loves you
God before us
God behind
Us
And God beneath
With God above
And also
On
Our way is
God beside us
And is there more to say
With hope of heaven
Interesting
But unknown
‘Til it should be happening
And
It hasn’t happened
Though love has occurred
And on all sides
Of time
And will
Exists
And does go with us
Inside
Outside
Everywhere
There’s where
And love
You know
The reason for creation
For creating anything
We know
C L Couch
(Saint Patrick’s Breastplate is cited; sorry, the pun of the title and subtitle, I imagine, only works in English)
Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash
merry
there was a creche
and a lamb
was
part
of that with other sheep
and it seemed the
lamb
had looked
at me
that was Christmas Eve
enough
for Christmas day
and for the world
each
in the world
a merry day
a happy
season
of
whatever kind
for you
and should nature nod at you
find the joy
live in
the joy
c l couch
photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash
a study in ambition
(working on it)
a study
in ambition
because I think it is
a one-by-one thing
and not a group
thing
except by change
now and then
the space race
a national ambition
and was it
I was a child
I don’t recall contributing
except with attitude
and I was
child
someone spent a bunch of money
making things
sacrificing
lives
so we could
go to the moon
and I was there
before the television
for the launch
then on the day
to see
the landing
then the steps
and would say
that was great
and was it
even then
as
I wondered
about people starving
wherever
trick-or-treating
for UNICEF
and all
the smaller things
good for the economy
the space race
microwaves
ballpoint pens
tin foil
(well
aluminum)
okay
and now it’s easier to see
that vanity
is pushing us
back to the moon
and higher
on to Mars
wanting
to respect that
and then wondering
again
about the starving people
and maybe we won’t have
any safe water
or a safe Earth
with no space on the moon
or Mars
for all of us
I do think
Pangloss is wrong
and that it’s good when we
consider things
together
but the dreams must be owned
and we must have them
one by one
and study us
each one
learning
growing
getting
each thing owned
by one
and then we can think about
negotiation
and a kind
of communion
maybe
if we
simply had a planet
whole
each one satisfied
to live
and to consider
as it is
we will go
we will do anything
beyond the one
for money
for politics to win
for
another one
claiming to be a party
let alone a nation
or a national
ambition
ambition is good
not the way
that fictively we say
that greed
is good
because it’s not
but in the way
that use of us
by one
by one
and then we’ll see
is good
that energy is good
and its
expenditure
even a joy
sometimes
that use is good
and better when
compelled by good
dreams
virtues
and such
but that what is Earth
is finite
and each one
in our systems
and so there’s saving
even caution
to employ
so feed us
end our thirst
let each one work
and also
dream
envision something real
for a dream
c l couch
energy is eternal delight (William Blake)
who also wrote of embracing contradictions
photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
god of what’s next
there is a
temple
toward which
all temples point
all
temples belong
there is a myth
toward which
all myths
belong
and have a share
in truth
there is a story
of all earth
we do not know
because the earth is wide
and old
and layered
with one chapter
on which
another pressed
open
the lore of earth
to find that
we’re all there
heroes
and villains
as we choose
or were conditioned
or those
who load the guns
or apply the salves and bandages
after
who plant
who dance
who seek approval
for good food
in a harvest
and safe water
for
the seeds
of plants
and also of the children
all of earth
someday
perhaps
to be children of mars
or proxima
where our myths
will go with us
and be transformed
toward
the temple
and the truth
we’ll need to take with us
as us
sorry
no need to reinvent the lord
more than we have
though we might find
a thoroughness of mind
and heart
to keep
a civil altar
and a loving congregation
of humanity
with whom we meet
we hope
to accept us
and new names
for one
in the lord
it gets
confusing
and confused
we guess
but we will have to learn the points
of truth
with light
the meaning
and the words
before
all of us
may and
shall
sing together
c l couch
photo by Mitch Gaiser on Unsplash
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