Search

clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

Open Search
Tag

winter

Tactics

(x = space)

x

x

Tactics

x

It’s not as if we haven’t

Heard of war before

x

It’s all around us, if we look

Around as a world

x

There are civil wars in Yemen

And in Syria;

We have sent weapons to these

For the profit

And the power

x

They fight each other in Lebanon,

In South Sudan

x

Soldiers and often terrorists

In their own uniforms

Barely removed from uniformity

x

And there the war

Of oppression,

Fought inside nations such

As those in Asia

And in the USA—

Call it something better,

If you wish,

If you must

x

It’s not a peaceful world

But know peace:

We’ve heard of it,

We learn it,

And we teach it

x

We negotiate

As if we deal with children

And sometimes with children

x

There is an age

We have an age

When will the prophecy

Be Monday

x

C L Couch

(from the USA)

x

x

Photo by Foad Roshan on Unsplash

x

3

Heliopolis

(x = space)

x

x

Heliopolis

(for the solstice)

x

The Earth is torn today like

The veil in the temple;

The ground might not move

More than

Mountains explode and

Ice retreats

Anyway,

x

These days

In the climes especially

We are half-making,

Maybe more than half

x

We still don’t have it right

To count,

Though we’ll more or less find

The moment when the Earth

In contract with the sun

Leans the other way

x

We’d do just as well to consult

Ancient sources

x

A new season to begin,

The longer light graduated

Like a cylinder

(remembering the lines

are part of measuring, too)

Or a class of learners

Marked into life

x

We try to know:

Julian and Gregory have tried,

And now the atom

(also split)

And the nanosecond try

x

But we know

There is a cycle,

And it’s always new

x

A new season is born

That will have its dog days,

Some somber days,

Some driven

By some of us on either side

x

There are sides now,

We must admit,

Between the foe of nature

And of us

x

But we know that

There’s a cycle,

And it’s always new

x

C L Couch

x

Photo by Ryuichi Itakura on Unsplash

Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom

Stone Henge

x

1

Introductions

(x = space)

x

x

Introductions

x

Snow on my small town in

The MidAtlantic of

The USA,

Nothing dramatic—

x

It falls and stays

On quiet places

Such as grass

And parked cars,

While on the things that

Sponsor movement

There is only wetness,

Dark and clean:

x

On streets and sidewalks,

Moving cars,

And such

x

From the waist up,

It seems November

x

Today we’re met

With winter

(here and now)

Not in discontent,

A week before it’s due by

The saint’s calendar

x

We should take it

A decency

In an indecent year

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Aditya Vyas on Unsplash

x

3

Cenobite

(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

Northwest Territories, Canada

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

0

Thank You Very Much

Thank You Very Much

(a gratitude of winter)

 

I don’t have a winter home

No fireplace to sit by and

Wrap up

Wheel a television set close

By (before the wrapping)

To play an old, old movie

Maybe in black and white

(scandalous! I know)

To have a cup of something hot

A book close by for cheer—well,

These things I could arrange

(book and hot drink, even reading

glasses)

But how to have some company

To share the story of

The story and to

Talk of other things?

 

For the half I do not have,

I have a half of other things

Some of which might do

The book (and reading glasses)

I can heat up something

And I have the time, I believe,

For now

 

For what I have and what I don’t

And what you give me to believe,

For with some snow

And not too much (I hope, I ask)

And for all who are with me

Now and again,

I can say, only and best,

Thank you very much

 

C L Couch

 

This is inspired by a song in a family-favorite movie, Scrooge.

 

 

Photo by Headway on Unsplash

Lake Michigamme, United States

Our nights were filled with conversations by the fire, singing songs, and lots of laughs. It was a great way to unwind and grow together as a crew. See more about our team retreat on our blog. http://headway.io/blog/headway-winter-retreat-2018/

 

4

Testimony of a Winter Day

Testimony of a Winter Day

 

Snow has fallen

Like frosting on a cake for now

Is that where the baker’s

Term came from?

The sky is featureless

Any sunlight is diffuse

It’s Saturday

So in the USA timing is not an issue

For the weekend-minded

And privileged

It’s a setting for a winter’s day

Appropriate for the Mid-Atlantic

If there’s a storm somewhere

Beaches will be closed for walking

Ships will hopefully take caution

As an exigent criterion

 

At present, I live in a small town

And testify only to a noisy neighbor

I would rather live without

Maybe he will leave

But not today

Today is a day for inside

For those who have fireplaces

To light a fire in them

Read by another light

Next to the firelight

Wrap up in something

Liquid hot or cold close by

Or if there’s someone else, have

A conversation

 

About nothing in particular

Or what’s been keeping in the rush

Of sunlit, navigable days

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by invisiblepower on Unsplash

Norway

The Early Morning

 

3

Uneven Day

 

Uneven Day

(winter solstice)

 

What did Merton say?

I don’t know where I’m going

I don’t know what I’m doing

And Frodo something like

I will take the ring to Mordor

Though I do not know the way

Indecision is a funny thing

Because it doesn’t have to stop us

We can pray

We can wear the ring

As a blessing or an onus (as in probandi)

We can go to Gethsemani

(Kentucky)

Then on to Mordor

 

Tomorrow the day and night are split

Their most unevenly

It won’t be a celebration, then, of symmetry

Rather infinity, for we’ll be wanting

Hoping

 

We’ll want longer days

The chance for life in light

Maybe a bargain,

If we do our part

We’ll say

And many of us mean it

 

How do we move from darkness into light?

Shouldn’t that happen, anyway?

What if we stand still?

Sit in a quiet place

Where we won’t be noticed

Won’t be bothered, either

 

Well, we don’t where we’re going

And we might stay in place

Though ongoing inaction doesn’t plumb

Right in the sounding of our nature

I don’t mean not rest

By all means, rest

But take care for the new year

That for many starts tomorrow

When division is uneven

When balance won’t accomplish much

For months to come

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Kamesh Vedula on Unsplash

Cupertino, United States

 

0

Lent 15

Lent 15

 

It is a sight to see

A last cold day in winter

Green is trying

To work its way through

It only looks like moss and lichen

Now

In the south, it’s autumn passing

I think I’d have to be there

Really to get it

Such is my brevity of sight

Only used to sensing northern climes

 

I don’t live in a desert world, either

I’d be just as likely to romanticize

Though it must be hard

 

to live a metaphor

When it strikes the covered face,

Threatening to upend

A breathing life

 

The world is extraordinary

Our world

It’s hard, it’s soft

It gives, it takes away

It inaugurates

It keeps away for good

A mean game

Except that it’s not meant

 

What we shall have here

What gained, what lost

Anything ponderous

Or discrete

Anything at all

 

C L Couch

 

 

gert jan degroot / 66 Images

Pxhere

 

0

Paean

Paean

 

I don’t know what time it is

I mean, it’s mid-morning

Not in an hour of

Dramatic dark or anything

The sky outside’s a wash, in fact

Enough light for movement,

Nothing added

 

But I have slept, at last

And feel the thankful fullness

That comes and lives inside

For a while,

When the right kind of unconsciousness

Has happened over hours

 

There are images of nature on TV

Some kind of early-winter story

In March, I can afford

To let it be romantic

All the layers

That they wear

And that nature provides

 

(later on I look;

it’s ten fifty-nine)

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Jaanus Jagomägi on Unsplash

 

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑