The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

 

And if we remember

Anything,

Let’s remember

God is love

Even inside the pit

Whose floor no one

Above has found

God is not only

On the floor but also

Underneath,

Propping up the Earth

Until all prisoners

Are released

Until the harrowing

Is done

Until what remains in hell

Is nothingness,

Defeat

 

The devil without a job

Receives an invitation

To go above,

Below

Wherever devils

Have met with God

Before

No victory lap

No dumping Gatorade

The winner loves the loser

There is a reckoning

And everything

Has mattered

This is no rehearsal

 

And it can mean something

If not all

For God to offer

To the devil

Forgiveness on the way

To freedom

Knowing such

Practiced usurpation

Could turn it down

Remain there, alone

Waiting for a

Final confrontation,

Reading

And misquoting Scripture

All this time

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Aida L on Unsplash

 

Look

Look

(listen)

 

Creation’s green

And blue and yellow

And by extension

Brown the tree

And gray in shadow

Black the city street

Red the bricks across

Silver steel

On buildings, too

I’m not sure what to say

About the color glass

No colors

Or all

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Jessica Ruscello on Unsplash

Treasure Island Flea Market, San Francisco, United States

 

Attending

Attending

 

God speaks

Through storm

And through the rising flower

Listen

For the goodness

And, if it has to be, chastisement

Before all love returns or

So it seems

From a place it never left

The human will and mind and spirit

Love of all

Excelling loves

Perfection so near

In moving water and the fire that for now

Is contained

Inside dissolution

Ruin or old age

Waiting for will to turn so that

The paradox

The ears to hear will hear

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash

Comet NEOWISE seen from Rio Rancho in New Mexico, USA.

 

It Doesn’t Toll for Thee

It Doesn’t Toll for Thee

 

Wrong people get the message

Wrong ones think they’ve

Wronged—

Things are so awful,

What did we do?

 

Those who ask typically deserve

Nothing of an answer, for

Nothing did they wrong

God does not wring the faithful,

Even if grayed

Might be the faith

 

Those who have worse-wronged

The people and the planet

Rarely ask after

What they’ve done

Or realize the reckoning is for them

While the faithful, like

Lazarus,

Own paradises, now

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Ashwini Chaudhary on Unsplash

Bell at Tungnath temple – highest Shiva temple.

 

The Year When We Do Nothing

The Year When We Do Nothing

(pandemic time)

 

This should have been

The year when we do nothing

When we live with fear and boredom

And are resolute

When we soberly keep up with the news

And mourn the passing of so many

When we sing from window to window

As was done in Italy

Finding all the gestures that we can

Safely to say we’re here

We’re counting

We weep

And we maintain hope as bravely as we can

 

A year when we remember

Prioritize

Keep perspective

Love each other, those who are leaving us,

All who remain

As carefully as possible

In a year, we can have expectations

We’ll be smarter, then

About how to live

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Artur Aldyrkhanov on Unsplash

Valensole, France

Bokeh in Lavender

 

Conversation with a Pop Star

Conversation with a Pop Star

 

You don’t like pop music?

Not so much

What do you like?

I like jazz

I like the symphony, too

But jazz brings music to life

So you don’t like new things?

No, I like them

 

Experiments in jazz are cool

As long as they aren’t atonal

Jazz already masters

Notes, half-notes, and dissonance

Not to mention syncopation

 

Jazz accepts chaos in the world

To wonder why

In saddest beauty

Do you have a favorite?

The one I heard last night

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Sash Margrie Hunt on Unsplash

New York, USA

New York Subway Jazz Musician

 

Loving Cup

Loving Cup

 

Is there more to say?

Certainly, every day

Let’s keep on talking

And let the silence speak as well

All the moments in between

Grace for punctuation

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Thanuj Mathew on Unsplash

Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, India

Tea makes everything better. This photo is from a trip to Tamilnadu during November of 2017. The cup always used to fascinate me, as an object that keeps the liquid and helps us consume it.

 

Only Wednesday

Only Wednesday

(in pandemic time)

 

I think we need a good day

And being sensible

About it

Try to avoid the stupid world

And wrap around the smart one

Our friends, I think, are

Counting on us

Not to build a platform

From which to sell whatever

Made wherever

 

I think they want to count on

Honesty

While in politics none is expected

Maybe because cheating

There

For too many is like breathing,

Reaching for a wallet

To spend

Someone else’s money

 

The rest of us

Can be smart

In real daytime life,

We can take precautions

We wash our hands in life

Every day

Masks are hot to wear

But we can breathe through them

If we can’t,

Then that’s an exception

 

We can still drive and ride

We’re fortunate not to be stopped

At borders,

Locally

As and if we’re well,

We can get out of cutaneous shells

To make or remake ourselves

Aware of those who will take help

With the means

For

All the troubled places

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Mélissa Jeanty on Unsplash

Haiti

 

The News

The News

 

There’s a vicious edge

On everything

Jobs, relationships

Jokes, games

Living in our neighborhoods

 

Like adding blades to shoes

Not for skating

But for slicing into Earth when

We walk or run,

Until the planet bleeds

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Isi Parente on Unsplash

Banff, AB, Canada