Gall
Oh
I feel bitter
And there is no sense in it
Because
There is no end
But more
And gall
Who wants
To drink that
Anyway
Drink fit for a cross
It seems
And only when a savior
Suffers there
Who can’t be receiving
Anything approvable
Anything
With savor
Lest
It’s awful
And I can’t
Go that far
You know I can’t
Because there’s only one
Who could
And that is done
And there is
Triumph now
And it’s not
The bitter kind
But is for friendship
From a god
To the rest of us
Done
For companionship
In fact
So heaven won’t be lonely
Anymore
And so where is gall
It isn’t mine
Even though the world
Tries to recreate
The vintage
From blood violently spilled
And from
More corruption
And yet
It stands there
Wasted
On the ground
No need for the symbol
Except to be reminded
(that can be done
with two dimensions
only)
Anymore
C L Couch
Photo by James Garman on Unsplash
Brave Peace
It’s Friday
I don’t want
To talk about the war
Ain’t gonna study war no more
Especially
The war inside
That causes all the troubles
On
The outside
We let the inside
Get away
With so much
Nonsense that is
Nonsense
That gets
To destroy so much
That we were counting on
The way
We count on
Things
Such as air
And sometimes
Heaven help us
Boredom
Why do we let
Invisible
Get away with so much
To say
There’s a war on
And it means so much
Because
A life is gone
And then another
In a heartbeat
Save there is
No more
A heartbeat
And everything’s in pieces
Gruesome pieces
(if you are not
there
but have read All Quiet
on the Western
Front then
you know something)
And also
Walls
Machine parts
That we counted on
Like air
And I guess
That is the thing
There’s no more breathing
Or there’s
Barely breathing
While the world after
Might remain
Quiet
For a half an hour
Or so
And then resume
A way to war
(to study war)
Or maybe
With diplomacy
Or blooded on
The face
eventuality
A way
To rebuild
After war
Though too often
Then
To knock it down
Again
As if hell’s game
Should never end
Except
In final judgment
When the children
(of all ages)
Of beatitude
Shall own
Peace-making again
Outside
The sermon
For the fact
Of sight and sound
Of war
And having chosen
Anyway
The one
Not taken
As the narrow way
And shall there be an echo
For an echo
Inside heaven
And on
New Earth
I don’t know
Here’s one
I note
And now another
To be counting
Or
Not counting
Might be overwhelming
All the believing gates
Regardless
C L Couch
Photo by Shamoil on Unsplash
the promises
I will not die
and in faith
not have that the ending
I guess that’s the biggest one
promise
of promises
there are others
more earthbound
the oaths
we take as families
and citizens
before the flag in school
the vows
that in infant baptism
the parents with the church say for us
and we break these
even with guns sometimes
to emphasize
the bloodiness
in going rogue
against what had been promised first
thank goodness for
that first one and
we need it
a promise of a heaven
when the world has failed us
as it is bound to
and what we resort
to but remembrance of
that first thing
that was its claim
that became its oath
it’s good
the one from the beginning
slipped inside our code to be opened
at the last
I’m not sure there’s more to say
hang on
when it’s impossible
to change
yet work at change
there’s a promise in working today
that’s not so bad
for we are
loved from here into the next
c l couch
photo by Prashant on Unsplash
An Alligator on the Runway
And how shall the pilots
Deal with that
Instinctively, they might say
Into headsets
There’s an alligator on the runaway
Ten-four (or whatever)
Please advise, perhaps
Then waiting for an answer
There are rules,
After all
About animals on runways
Regulations
And what are they
Now?
I suppose an airplane
Running over animals
To keep a schedule
Would not go over well
Should anyone besides
Whoever’s in the cabin
In the tower
On the field
Should be watching
And there’s the clean-up, after
Poor alligator
Poor airplane workers
Poor plane
Poor schedule
We’ll all have to wait
While the wildlife authorities
And referees
Are contacted
And they come with easy loops
Which with to catch the alligator
Then to take it home
And the schedule
All our lives
Resume
And now we’ll have to wait
On their waiting
‘Til it’s shared
What happened
After all
Since I only saw the headline
afterward
Well, they arrived
And wrestled, so to say
Then the beast (the alligator)
Was taken to a river
Then all procedures, even the gator’s,
Resumed
C L Couch
USA Today via MSN (headline teased to start the day)
Photo by Shelly Collins on Unsplash
We’ll Need New Articles for Einstein, Too
(23 April 2024)
Is it
Today
That’s Shakespeare’s birthday
That is
The christening day
By record of
The fact of birth
And if a construct
Then a construct with some very good
Actual
Details
A birthplace
A church
Parents
All the poetry
For
A first reputation
And some munificence
With which
To fund
Some future
With
Plays
Also a theatre
That burned
Down
And that they could
Build a stage again
A favorite of the queen
And then the king
Respected
No doubt also scorned
For envy
By
Peers of verse
Especially
Also of drama
A family
And a burial
Back
At the church
Near the altar
As a deal
And after checking
Mini-eons later
To find the skull
That held
The face
The
Mind
Like Yorick
Isn’t there
(proving something
proving nothing
Macbeth-
like
sound and fury)
Maybe to be set aside
Become
Einstein
Someone whom
We’ll argue for
In the same way
For
For future
Academics’ sakes
C L Couch
n.b. (I think well)
My christening
By the way
Waited a year and
A half
Oh
No
Grist for more
Speculation
Photo by Dalton Smith on Unsplash
23 April 1564
(looked it up—twenty-three score years ago)
The Passing Over
Passover
The saddest of all miracles
And by the evidence
The history
Something that was absolutely
Called for
By the Lord
Against
The forces of the world
Extant in Pharaoh
We think it
Antique now
Perhaps
Since Egyptian is a style
And a history
To follow
With romance in thought
And purchasing
But it happened
Slavery had happened
The people lived
But poorly
The struggle for identity
After basic needs
The worst of all
And one of Egypt
Then of Midian
Was called
And did not want to come
But with his brother
And his sister
Called to lead
At least to take
The people
Out of there
No longer straws for bricks
Requiring miracle
To build
A miracle
So many miracles
To have a leader
To being
A prophet
Holding and excoriating
The court of many kings who
Also thought
In the lack of perspective
Once it had grown
They might as well be gods
And rule
Like their
Personalities
With their
Agendas
So there plagues
And again
We style these
And our imagination
Counts them
And the reason for their order
Is guessed at
But Moses said
There is only one reason
One plan
At work
As we sing
Today
To let the people go
Brutality
Built on
Presumptions to power
As well as
Divinity
The plagues persisted
(COVID is like these)
Until one last
Wave of pestilence
Invited
Unless Pharoah
With a practical heart
Against the magic
As they called it should
Let the people
Go
And it did not
The power could not relinquish
All it meant
To lose these people
Scared of them
For all their number
And maybe
Of their God
Unless
Unbelieving
Simply considered all of them
Moses
Who had been one of theirs
Another slave
Who had tasted of the best parts
Of the fertile land
Appearing by the Nile
And now that
Was a miracle
The gods who favored us
Each year
And there was back when
We don’t remember
The one who was
One of them
Whom we brought
To our side
Having predicted famine
And their God
Become one
Among our gods
To save us
So who is this person
Now
Whom we receive
Who would break free
And leading
All the others
And their God
Break free as well
And so lessen
Our treasuries
And pantheons
I will not release
I am Pharaoh
I am god
It cannot happen
And so the Passover
The first
And awful Passover
The angel pestilence
Save for protecting blood
Above the door
While the blood ceased in the firstborn
In every other house
And in the court
‘Til Pharoah
In new and tragic
Loneliness
Relented
And there was release
For who knows how many
(yes
God knows)
And then
Commemoration
As we have
With an empty chair
Should another prophet come
C L Couch
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash
Color Our World
(Earth Day)
Tomorrow is
Earth
Tomorrow is
A day
And it will be Earth Day
Shall we have an Earth tomorrow
Shall we have
A day
For green understanding
And gold wisdom
On our
You know
Blue world
Jazz understanding
With the waves
And sudden rushes
Both of wind
And water
The shoreline that
Behind which there is land
Before which
There is contemplation
Also the depths
That bring us danger
From both
The thrill
Of discovery
And the danger
Of encroachment
An Earth that should balance
In its orbit
Where all the planes
Should touch together
A turning point of miracle
And a starting point
For life
And as life
We hope
Should continue
By all means
Celebrate
For she is worthy
Of our partied
And our treasured
Wisdom
And emotion
And pledge perhaps
That we’ll do better
By this day
Next year
And there’s the doing
And the learning
And the doing
So that the blue and green
And gold
And the transparent air
Of what we know
Shall be preserved
Also enacted
For the present
And the future
The future comes not
On its own
All of it
In seeds
We plant today
And also leaving parts
As fallow fields
As the wilderness
Should teach us
By example
Not to say
That civilized is bad
It’s what we here for
Why we have the Earth
To begin with
And the inevitability
Of growth
But there is growth
And there is growth
What we should remember
Of the wild
And of the planned
And to keep both
And all
That is good
In blue and green and gold
And the clear parts
That keep us breathing
And inspiring
Together
C L Couch
Photo by Tim de Groot on Unsplash
Meaning Esau Have I Scorned
(a Bible study)
Jacob was
Preferenced
To set the course of Israel
To become a people
Who shall live
The same
With an identity
Moses having gotten the name
Of God
Or as close as we shall get
(being I am that I am
not unlike Popeye
in our time)
To have a name
And also laws
Carved in organic stone
For living people
And these
Are not as hazy
As a name that needs no name
The laws are clear
And shall become
A code
A compass
And a litmus
Who readings shall prove
Judgment
In favor or against
This people
And
In fact
Jacob shall become
Israel in name
And in that amazing purpose
Claiming certain tribes
Marked from the children
And eventually
A homeland
For the twelve
With all conviction
And the foibles
That this people carry
While God must bear with them
And so
With all of us
Called Israel
Or something else
But now this matter about
Jacob loved
And Esau
Even hated
We know that Esau was the older
And so
Should inherit
The identity
And naming
Of the family
Should be in charge
Of all things
Of Esau’s own
And the family that shall grow
And the nation that shall
Grow from the family
And it seems
That Jacob was called
Already having
All the mother’s favoritism
And so t
Plot
Works tricks
Sarah with Jacob
To set
And own
Israel
At last
And tricks they are
To use a situation
In which
Esau says
Out of exigence
Yes
My younger brother
You may have the birthright
And inheritance
And then to fool the father
To fool Isaac
With tricks of wool tied to an arm
So that Joseph would be taken
For Esau
And so
As we say
Seal the deal
And in an eon later
The Apostle Paul
Confirm
That not only was a providence
At work
To found then nation
But that the founder
Was
In truth
Loved by God
While the official candidate
Was hated
My
What had Esau done
And I think
The answer might be
Nothing
Paul asked for the assignment
And got it
To kill the followers of Christ
The ones who in Antioch
Were for the first
Time
Called Christian
And yet
Paul came to be a founder of that
Church in Antioch
And several other cities
In the region
Going north and east
And west
From Jerusalem
And finally ending his evangelistic travels
Inside Rome
Itself
Peter was brash
(we shouldn’t be surprised
if he pushed Andrew
around)
And he consistently said
That wrong thing to Jesus
Showing a rhetorical
Tendency
To go too far
He also maimed
A guard
When Jesus was arrested
And for the all the wrong things
He said
He did
That showed mismanagement
Among other things
He was called by Christ
To be the church’s rock
Once the movement
As it were
Solidified
Peter would become the first leader
Of the church
First pope
First “papa”
So to say
The first in charge
In the days when
Such groups
Can go under
Often do
And Moses
Well
We know
That he had grown
Inside a lie
Through childhood
That should have ruined him
And nearly did
Upon disclosure
And Moses
Murdered an Egyptian
And rather than face justice
Chose to flee
Seeking to live away
From the court of Pharaoh
Also maybe
God
For all the years he might have
Remaining
In Midian
As it
Turned out
But
No
This murderer
And coward
Who on top of these
Offered excuses
To the Lord
Why it could not be he
To free the people
And to lead them
Though that is
Through many chapters
Precisely
What transpired
So shall we say that
Jacob got in
And Esau was out
Because God favors paradox
Maybe mischief
Like an association with the raven
Or the spider
Which he made
After all
The creatures as well as mischief
Or is there
Something else
A reason for one sibling
Technically
The wrong one
To be raised
While the right one
Was put down
Sigh
So much deception
By the way
Especially
Even over generations
To get the broad
Extraordinary story
Going
Adam and Eve
And the blame over
Who did what
Between the people
And the serpent
And the casting
Out
(or down)
Regardless
Then the Nephilim
Who were not supposed to exist
By order of
The Lord
But through rebellion
Of some sort
(the kind that angels cause
as well as we
might foment)
Well
Happened
Anyway
With Abraham
The futures of two nations
Were at stake
And so at risk
Through the faithlessness
Of those who heard the prophecy
About numberless
Family
And
Specifically
A child
Sarah laughed
We know
And sent a servant to become
Pregnant by Abraham
And so secure
The lineage
As if the word of God
And God through angels
Could not
Be enough
And there was
Ishmael
And then there was Isaac
And the younger Isaac
Had to be favored
Over Ishmael
Who out of lack of mercy
And of jealousy
Was
Cast out
To die somewhere
With the mother Hagar
And they did not
For God
In fact
Is higher
Than the mischief
God said
To Israel
The nation
You don’t want a king
Who will take your youth
And crops
And wealth
Inside the palace
To feed decision-makers
Also idlers
As always happens
And to people up an army
That means
The young ones that are taken
Might die
More so than if
They stayed at home
Or rose to fight
As volunteers
With will
You don’t want a king
And Israel said
Yes
We do
And God said fine
And what a pair were set
To rule
Saul
And then David
Before the long prosperity
And peace
With Solomon
The first two realms
Indeed possessed
Strength
And beauty
Also corruption
Broken faith
And politics
Without perspective for the
Welfare of the nation
More paradox
More
Mischief
I don’t think so
I think
Rather it was
More than Esau being negated
Was that Jacob
Was uplifted
Like serving on a search committee
And we find ourselves
Talking down some candidates
When the job is to
Cite the reasons why
We should hire
The one
We think well
Should be hired
Which is to say
Jacob was favored
Maybe not because
In life
Esau was not
But in the naming and the keeping
Of the people of the Lord
Despite officialness
Jacob
Was the one
And that might be all
To be the one
For good or ill
Like Moses
Or like Miriam
Like Abrahaham and Sarah
Like Peter
And like Paul
Somewhere within these
And without
Inside the region
And the age
Certain ones are needed
And God shall have that happen
Though our will
Be predominant
More so
Is the widest will
And way
Of God
Don’t like the limitations
On our discretion
And
I think
Our pride
Well
That is understandable
Since the choice for faith
Is paramount
And determines
Afterlife salvation
On our part
Because God’s part
Is done
And is reliable
Unchanging
The love and judgment brought
To bear
On people of the Earth
Past and present
But
Things are
You know
The way things are
And we must hold the limitations
Of the worldly way
On us
While God is unlimited
To own perfection
To impose a will
Unfaulty
And unfailing
The timelines
And the composition
Might seem strange to us
Though we are not celestial
Yet
And there is enough
To manage
Through our foibles
And the things that seem like foibles
From the Lord
But are
As Narnia might say
Deep magic
With rules that came before the rules
The foundation of commandments
And of all experience
To come
And then light and dark
Were made
To overcome
Not chaos
But the void
Rather than nothingness
We have so many things
And we are loved
And there is
Indeed celestial
A hope
That goes with love and judgment
That the world
Through that part
And that person of God
Be saved
c l couch
coda
One might say
Well
Esau himself was brash
He threw away
Birthright
And inheritance
To satiate
An immediate need
Which we could argue
Was not a need
So much
As we might have needs
At all
But
I don’t know
How should Esau
Be called to task
So to say
On this
Moses was not hooked
For murder
Or for cowardice
Or even for the several excuses
He gave to God
Very God
In order to bow out
Of his assignment
I think
Rather
We have to say
There is the will of God
And it is positive
So that we do better
Than excoriating Esau
Lifting Jacob
As the one
Even with foibles
That could complement
Those of the other
Matriarchs
And patriarchs
Genesis 25:19-34, the story of Jacob and Esau in the Bible
Matthew 5:44, the injunction to love our enemies
Romans 9:13-15, the part in Romans about loving Jacob and hating Esau
This poem could become the substance of a Bible Study or even a sermon, if one doesn’t mind reading poetry for a sermon (I’ve done that).
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
the reason for the prophets
(and the poets)
yes
and how crazed
am I
isn’t
that something
beautiful
and practical
might be done
in pottery
an
effect designed
before the
fire makes
it hot
and changes it
to beauty
practicality
as both
might be
desired
then designed
intentions
can be good
as are my wishes
wants
efforts
for you
and keep the prophets
fed
by ravens bringing bread
and in the wilderness
internal
where the song is written
then is raised
for an inauguration
to the Lord
then maybe
others
take the song
to raise
back in the city
in the forest
on the farm
over the ocean
all the oceans
between
planets
all the worlds
we are
and even those we cannot
see
or hear
or smell
or taste
or touch
or take up time
and matter
and un-matter
in the choosing
in the personhood
of God
and maybe us
when we are in tandem
by example
when the prophet shall
come back
from
the wilderness
unto
the courts
of the world
c l couch
photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash
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