this is Owl Awareness Day
North American freedom
250 years ago
count
further back to Plymouth
to
Columbus
to Lief Erickson
and others still to discover since
not
everyone can leave a home behind
for
evidence
and Rome a thousand years
half as a more-honest
republic
with occasional tyrannies assigned
to lead
local forces against foes
then anything like dictatorship
resigns
returns to farming
and this isn’t
to describe usual elections but when
the weapons clash
blade
against sheld and armor
so close
the threat
as we don’t know these days
in
a supremacy
that’s voted in
in
order to remain
self-styled demagogues
who
aren’t so good at demagoguery and yet
we let them
in and
should know better
and
we do
we know that emperors have new clothes
and what the raiment’s made
of
while honest work’s unnoticed
and
there’s building only on
fragile clay
no virtue to congeal
without doubt
to fall
the school in heaven
philosophy must fail
as all analogies unravel
as
schools let out for life and though we must be something
on the inside
we
never are done deals
in spite of all the arguments
and heaven is philosophy
I guess
all done
and giving over
the last class
and
sorry
if you were otherwise so glad
never
to have to learn in rows again
and yet the brain
the mind
the learning
goes
goes on
this
side as well as maybe
and I think over
there
coz
at the zoo
I said
hi
cousin
to the monkey
simply to upset you
yet
I prize our species closeness with
the animals
and don’t know except
by adaptation
over
generations
evolution’s proven
and so our God is
God of
that
as with all creation miracles
and as for missing links between ourselves
and branched-off
primates
or
to have it that we are branches broken
from the tree
well
I wonder sometimes
if
the link is the intrusion of the Spirit
to move us on and especially
to
know
and to bear wisdom in the keeping
of the rest
c l couch
photo by Jeremy Hynes on Unsplash
“Great horned owl Please tag @hyneseyes on Instagram for credit, thank you :)”
Ontario, Canada
it’s a lovely day
gray if dull by promising
should the heart select
two enormous birds
predators of tan and brown
over the perished
nature doesn’t judge
often the quake or flood by
our instigation
amoral nature
save that flora and fauna
anywhere might weep
participation
nature allies death with life
relents the day’s night
creative life calls
work and play quotidian
sponsor something more
progress of haiku
no more than eased scenes required
nature bears wisdom
c l couch
a kind of progress beginning with looking outside (each should stand on its own as well)
photo by Manish Shah on Unsplash
(real) wrongway satisfaction
empty
how to be filled again
pearls cast
wise as doves
gentle as
serpents
which works the opposite
of the truism
though maybe doves have wisdom
and serpents may
have
wisdom
and things work upside-
down
or in and out of time
the way the faithful claim that
foolishness is wisdom
the backward
take
look another way
from the world into eternity
c l couch
1 Corinthians 1:21
photo by Fredrik Öhlander on Unsplash
have or have not
yesterday we have
in pieces
today is a whole thing
from now to now
confusion
when we’re tired
or bemused
notwithstanding
leaving the partial thing
like yesterday
tomorrow
also
in pieces of
guesswork
and expectation
well
the wind outside
is blowing thoroughly
on the branches
and I’m pretty sure
it’s cold
from the time
and the narrative
of
the season
what we have
is what we have
and what we know
we know
and I’m thinking that
control
profit
agendas
that are hidden
really don’t help this moment
that we have
and to expect
though it’s honestly a mystery regarding
next
but mysteries
have joys
if we allow
and maybe disallow
the heavy things
that
keep the letting go
down
and
down
as if
to Goblin-Town
or worse
only shadowy things for real
we think
we have to own
and wield
to own
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title swiped from Hemingway—an homage of, I mean—who might have swiped it—been inspired—from Ecclesiastes, Donne, or a sociologist
[sociology about the haves and have-nots]
yesterday’s image was of a bridge at or in New Orleans, picked because of the city and the recent tragedy occurring there (plus bridge as a metaphor)
photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash
“Hand holding keys to a new house. Real estate residential.”
2 poems about thoughts and feelings post-election
About Electing Lies
Well
I am disappointed
So I guess
If I’m convicted of
Many crimes
And I’ve committed fraud
And broken promises
In marriage
And other relationships
So that
In fact
I break faith with everyone
And if I do not pay my bills
And if I want
To accuse people I’m afraid of
Of everything that isn’t
True
If I make a style
In fact
Of lying
And don’t pay my bills
And
By the way
I take everything that’s wrong with me
And say it is another’s
And not me
Though
It is
All I have to do
To get away with
All of it
Is to run for President
And get billionaires
To buy my way
For
Their own
Agendas
The same folk who
By the way
Won’t welcome
Me at
Table
Otherwise
It’s 17 June 1972
Another
Day the music died
And what we learned but that
We cannot
Trust the government
And should stay away from
All such things
And have
So much easier living
Through
Indifference
The Topsy-Turvy that Has No Playfulness in Topsy-Turvy
There are those
Who learn about the Holocaust
And take notes from
The evil side
So that the lie might be acknowledged
That some good things
Happened
Then
In Germany
Not
To say we can’t be academic
Though the filter must be moral
Or we are pursuing nothing
Human
Or has a place
On righteous Earth
We should be
Rhetorical
Understanding something of
Our honest discourse
With each other
And
We should study flaws in that
Tradition
You know
Straw people
Post hoc propter hoc
Gilding the lily
Though
Again
The point is not
To strategize to use the flaws
To dupe each other
Though
Some will
It’s
Sad to know
And one more thing
That should be
And that isn’t
Is that
Politics
Means good government
You know
The pursuit of by the people
And yet
Like taking notes
From the wrong side
And
Going for the
Discourse flaws
Not
To mention
Spewing accusations
In
A puerile attempt
To escape one’s
Own
The codes we could live by
Like good governance
And topsy-
Turvy
Fun on Ferris wheels
But good and evil upside-
Down to try
For ways to live
Simply act against
The deeper
And the shallower things we
Really know
Those presuming leadership who
Act against all virtue
And all wisdom
Though
Might
Try hollowly
Merely to use the worlds
Invite the citizenries
And
Congregations
To subscribe to indifference
To endure
C L Couch
(sorry should there be any ranting parts but not sorry for any easier-living-wisdom parts)
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
Kind Brief Invocation
O God
Be our Tuesday help
Forgive us our
Mistakes
Our other-side-of
Edenness
‘Cause
Sometimes
We let fall
Or we forget
Without malice
But our flaws
Pervade
There is
The Kintsugi of wisdom
Help us fix
And even beautify
The scars
By
Gold understanding
C L Couch
Photo by Brian Pappel on Unsplash
[sun and dew transform—goldify, as it were]
gifted
I’d like to give you each
a present
though I’m poor
and not the kind of poverty
that saints admire
for I have little
mystic understanding
and what I have
is tied
to nothing like
how much
how little
I have
I’d like to say
go slowly
as the Buddhists
say
especially
when parting
I’d like to say
remember all your loves
made up of
reason
practicality
and balance
not that passion
doesn’t count
it does
but there should be a measure
in most things
of what is right
and what is easy
(like
Jack’s pieces
well
maybe not so much)
which is
(really)
to say
let all good things
have their place
and do not rearrange
from the heaven
of creation
and the philosophy
inside all things made
for there is
certainty
as well as confusion
the way this world works
and don’t deny
the sure things
that you
and others
who are smart
and might be trusted
might ally
I’d like to say
think God
(like another movie)
though I know
that’s not enough
or I could say
love
and let love
not frilly silly
(‘til the day)
but steady
and trustworthy
have its say
and guide
however trite it sounds
each day
I guess
some things are cliché
like the way we use
iconic
meaning not a symbol
but celebrity
believe
and love
so common
(a cliché)
and yet maybe
we can still ourselves
and our sophistications
to accept
that some things
important things
the most important things
are commonplace
no secrets
no requirements
but to accept
what is instilled
(installed
as it were)
within internal palaces
or offices
or bungalows
(I’ll take a wooded cabin)
in the mind
in what we call the heart
in what really is
the spirit
might be
an alliance of the spirits
one by one
within
between
our groups
our nations
for an errant world
on its quest
our quest
to grow
to acquire
and to save
good things
and we could have rituals
and easiness
(not mindlessness)
in what passes
from the Earth of now
into
the next
of now
c l couch
photo by Luca Pennacchioni on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
but choose any day
x
and it’s Friday
how are you
really well
I hope
(well and more
that is)
here the sun’s out
and it’s cool
the best of both
heat and cold
for a while
and when it changes
as it must
the sun and sky
wind and air
decide
choose any day
there are its merits
good parts
that don’t need the bad
for understanding
but take us through
until we’re back
to just
or mostly
good for a while
x
the bugs
prefer the sun
when it’s gray
they tend to stay away
meaning
I think
that sometimes bugs are smart
and I mean to say
they might augur
how we might be
today
and further equipped
depending on
and if
we read the signs
x
new days
should follow
and I hope this one
knows you well
or gets you better
with its attributes
and gifts
some might say
miracle and grace
I’ll say that
for you
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Crusoe
x
It took me years
And years to come
To understand
The need
The requirement
To have a life
To have a life to offer
x
Then there is a story
Pages
Chapters
With an ending
That might satisfy
A larger world of woe
And grace
Even rescue,
Notwithstanding
x
What is left
Is little time
The gift grows smaller
Like some things
In other tales
But we have time
As is
On this side
And choices
That are not invisible
In fact,
Are rife with potency
x
The grace of God
Love and understanding
Growing up at last
The tragedy
The humor
The finality
Of wisdom
On this side
Then to another shore
An irony for Crusoe
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Jordan Steranka on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
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