Epiphanaeity
It’s pretty
White and black
I don’t think
I’ve said that yet
The new snow for a while
Outside the second-story
Window
And might last
A while
C L Couch
Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash
(x = space)
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Poetry and Senses (3 poems)
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Upstart Clay
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God will help us through
By being quiet
Leaving all the noise to us
Except the wind
Maybe the water that descends
To strike the surface
Maybe on the ancient
Mountaintop
That moans
Or the young one that must explode
Or pushing geysers through
The scalding
Earth
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So there
God might be noisy
After all
To take a part in all this
And remind us
Of the presence
And natural participation
Of the maker
And the making
Which is us
Fashioning our noise
Into making something
Too
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The Color Wheel
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There is yellow
There is red
Then blue
There are the colors
In between
Orange
Purple
Green
And there we are
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No white
Or pink carnation
For a crayon
No black to see
Though depending on perspective
Black might be suffuse
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We love our color wheel
Couldn’t get along
To see
Without it
And the colors might turn concepts
To explain
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To touch sometimes
Though there is no distinction
Doing that
To smell the color
Which is to smell the paint
Nothing to hear
Unless the wheel
Be turning
And there is humming from an engine
Or a supplicating gear
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Imagine Earth the wheel
Us the fashioners
How are we doing
Are we colorful
Do we six colors
Bordered
Unattended
Or do we mix and blend
And have a globe
Outstanding
Then when turning
Make a noise
Send a message
To the others
Here we are
Introduce us to yourselves
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Wheels within Wheels
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Wheels within wheels
That had been said
As it’s been invented
With clay
With metal
In the mind
Over centuries
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As a metaphor
Plots within plots
Every smaller
Going out
Ever larger
So that families
And nations
Are affected
Even over thrown
Reinvented
From parts left over
Rounded
And toothed
To have new rhythms
And redesigned
Noise
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Wheels that press
Or parts caught
Inside gears
Or there’s so much pressure
So much lack of space
That something crushes
Unless so difficult itself
Breaks the gear
Breaks the wheel
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And someone
Victor
I suppose
Must rework everything
So that we’re round again
And might make music
This time
As we turn
Through space
And time
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C L Couch
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Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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today is Father’s Day in the USA, and I wish happiness for fathers; since I have no earthly Father anymore (and for some time) and got to thinking about tomorrow; and not stopping in thinking about tomorrow, I offer this
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tomorrow is Juneteenth
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tomorrow is Juneteenth
when in Texas slaves
no longer slaves
and who were never slaves
by the will
that was creation
nonetheless are told
they are no longer slaves
and by legislation
for two years
or so
x
you are free
but they knew that
they knew there was an enemy
that kept them down
that weighed the legs and feet
upon stolen ground
to earn crops
for another’s coffer
(boxes in the bank)
they knew
they would rise
they knew this sometimes
on occasion
while chains and fields
and white men’s whips
beat another message
upon backs
of backs and faces
on the legs
that did the work
that carried wealth
to a master
who was not a master
or an owner
but for thieving
against God
and integrity
who cared not for blood
that spilled on blossoms
as long as they looked white
in the sacks
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such evil
Lord
and why did you allow it
why is our will
so important
that we are enabled
to grab weapons
to split human hides
to take the rest from Africa
stuffed like oranges
in ships
to the infantile
and erstwhile
USA
and late give up the practice
through a war
a reckoning
for what all of us knew
was wrong
was evil
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we cannot imagine
who were not there
though at least
we may tell stories
and send messages
through generations
to the future
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do not do this again
live a kind of sorry
if need be
and if recompense
be needed
well them
pay it
from those boxes
of the profiteers
whose gold inside
still shines
still funds
still mocks
the rest of us
for color
and all colors
x
let freedom ring
we hear
well
let it ring
ring bells
ring all we have
that makes a message
and response
with decibels as words
that say
yes freedom
we must have it
we must try it
we must make it known
to all the Earth
and all the worlds beyond
and all the worlds
that are inside
and all the worlds
that we must share
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c l couch
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Photo by Wasil Ahammed on Unsplash
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Myriad
(watching it on TV)
“sorry, kid”
Wilson College to a Black woman wanting to attend and qualified, until the interview
“dream deferred”
going into Woolworth’s
I liked Woolworth’s
singing while being arrested
Rich’s Department Store
“it wasn’t about the food anyhow”
Morris Brown College
“I can be smart, I can have curly hair, I can be whatever I want to be”
student at Spellman
it’s so exciting to hear young Black people, excited
FAMU
#HBCURising
(plot)
I don’t want to do anything to
You know, intrude
But I’m so thrilled
Because I’m a stupid person, I guess
Untrained in the ways of prejudice
If there’s a better choice, it’s so easy to make
It goes something like
Of course, of course, of course
I never learned to hate someone whose
Skin color was not my own
I know my own, it’s dull
I find other skin colors so interesting
It’s marvelous—I can’t do that!
I suppose some will call me traitor
Probably do
I suppose I do not care
Except for sadness that the myriad
Cannot be loved
Have I been passed over so that
A Black woman could be preferred
Probably
Yes
I understand
I mean, I want work, too
And I know I didn’t start it
But really
What does it take for anyone to get a job
It should be the work
But I find too many places with those who
Do not care in the wrong way
(benediction)
Get them up, then
Those who need the rising
Rise over me
That’s all right
Don’t worry, anything I might feel by way of
Patronizing is compensated by the pain
Of loss
But it’s not only my own
It’s yours
And I’m sorry
For a change, let’s all take the chance
To bleed
C L Couch
Tell Them We Are Rising | History & Impact of Historically Black … – PBS
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/tell-them-we-are-rising/ Tell Them We Are Rising explores pivotal role historically black colleges & universities (HBCUs) have played over 150 years in American history and identity.
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and … – IMDb
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333094/ A haven for Black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries-and path of promise toward the American dream-Black colleges and universities have educated the …
A black man goes into the “colored” entrance of the Crescent Movie Theatre in Belzoni, Mississippi, 1939.
Marion Post Wolcott – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.12888.
Chess Pieces
On the local television news,
A black man and a white man
Share half-jokes with each other,
And they chuckle
It’s good to see the black man and the white man
Having fun
How much of it is scripted? I don’t care
It was real enough
For local news
And my heart, today
The monarch of what I am
And what I want
Thinks and feels protected
And a little rested
C L Couch
https://pixabay.com/en/users/hans-2/
Look Outside
Sunlight is white
Emanating from
A ball behind a veil that
Covers everything
Might take dissolution
Some going away
Before real colors return
C L Couch
By Nick Nijhuis – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47363213
Prismatic
It’s math, you know
Yellow on blue and green
Make joy
Black and white equals
Good
All the colors are from God,
And they are gifts
That harmonize
The promise of a rainbow
The sign of Noah
A pledge not to
Destroy but leave things
To build
C L Couch
The Ashburn Old School “on the edge”
of Washington, D.C., Vandalized Last
Night
Might I apologize for an entire color?
I can’t—I didn’t make it, nor do I feel
intense affiliation. But whites (I figure
whites) have defaced an old school on
the cusp of finished restoration. An
old school that had been inhabited by
black students and, I guess, an all-black
staff. The problem in apologizing for
criminals is that I don’t know them. I
don’t know that kind of ugliness in hate.
I don’t get the relish manifest through
stupid, destructive action. I am sorry
though in a general, human way. I
apologize for all of us who are blind
when we can only see one color. I can
praise and thank you who are of color,
as all are, and who make strides by reaching
in and lifting up learning and the story,
however dismal certain chapters must
become. Learning is triumphant and,
we know, shall overcome.
an opinion expressed potently
in a White House meeting about
murdered Blacks, the living
marginalized—here’s my response
Black Life Matters
Do I even need to say it
Yes, I do
My best friend was Black
He died too young—
Complications from surgery
What a teacher
And a humorist as well
At least, to me
I am not Black, part
Native American according
To a family historian,
Which is good, though
Looking at me, I doubt
That you could tell
I am not female; I am
The enemy: an older,
White male
I eschewed the ol’-boy
Invitation and have
Often paid the price
Not in my life (though
Maybe there, too)
But in my work
In which I’ve lost the
Favored political place
Maybe each one has
A circle drawn around
From fear and politics
Leaving that (or never
Entering) means that
Protection from the
Core is not available
And some measure of
Persecution too easily
Is acted on
“Loving Engagement”
From a better Black-drawn
Circle of union and
Society change—I don’t
Know if I’ll be let in,
Resembling and, appropriately
(Regrettably), perceived
I’d stay in the back
And write my verse
In which I argue that
All are free
And should be free
That to usurp the job of
God in assessing human
Worth is about as wrong
As this world can get
Black folk (Black discourse
Uses that word; and,
Being from Kentucky, I like
Folk and folks, though I’d
Change the old state-song
Lyrics, too)—Black folk are
Self-determining, of course
I cringe to have to make the
The claim, as all persons,
Being made, are free and
Free to choose
clcouch123 
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