Set the Table

(x = space)

x

x

Set the Table

x

We need a deal for

Christmas:

x

• Cessation in the

Holy Land

• Bring children to their

families (everywhere)

• Maintain a different kind

of readiness

(everywhere)

x

There, that should do it

For this year

x

Maybe there could be

Codicils

x

• Let snow fall where it

will, again

• Give something to the

Earth not to forget each

other

x

It’s not the triumph of a

Sect,

Though tradition’s strong

x

We are given again

A God-given chance

To revel in some revelry

With rules

x

• Give everyone a

turn

• Give everyone a song

as in karaoke (and as

is often badly),

x

Remembering that birth

Is the only way

For any generation,

x

Any Earth,

Peace on Earth

x

C L Couch

x

x

By דן וינקלר – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68503689

x

note

In the original, the bulleted sets of lines are indented. I still can’t get WordPress to let me cut and paste the way I want. Grrrr. I mean, uh, I hope we all have a grrrr-eat holiday! (Now I sound like Tony the Tiger.) I hope the reading’s clear enough.

x

Through and Through

(x = space)

x

x

Through and Through

x

Francis would say

I think

That God is in the split

Between the seasons

x

That God knows

When it happens

And is there

To bless

The ending,

The beginning

x

The solstice has passed:

God bless the solstice

x

God bless new time

As gift

And chance

To get it right,

To let the garden

Sleep where

In Eden

Seeds of love were sown

x

We rest over this

And what may grow,

Some of which

Say half,

Say maybe more,

Is our side of the promise

With the gardeners

x

Keepers

Turned farmers outside

And warriors

And slaves

And liberators

x

Inventors,

Criminals,

And movement-starters

x

So much has happened

In the seasons;

Here’s a season now

x

Decide,

Go to it

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by John Hult on Unsplash

Smedjan, Tollered, Sweden

x

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

Doctrine Inside a Mask

(x = space)

x

x

Doctrine Inside a Mask

x

Grace is sufficient

It is miracle

It is salvation

x

It is surprise

Totally untimed

Kairos, never chronos

x

So what shall we have?

Salvation’s disguise

They seek it here

x

They seek it there

We have a

Pimpernel

x

A small, red flower

Maybe a Z against the wall

A bag of gold

x

Tossed through

My window by

Valentine or Robin Hood

x

Or with Meg

Atop the seeing stone

After cosmos-saving

x

Or while the saving

Happens (I doubt that

grace is averse to

en media res)

x

Stories for our souls,

Enough awareness

For our

x

Noticing in time

To say thank you

And our hero’s

Gone,

x

Because

Another rescue’s

Needed there

x

C L Couch

x

x

the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle

x

image by fabrice Verrier – originally posted to Flickr as Mouron rouge Anagallis arvensis, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11333678

anagallis arvensis mouron rouge Seine-Port avec racines jardin

x

…Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.…

Berean Study Bible · Download

(Second Corinthians 8-10)

x

Hard-Going

(x = space)

x

x

Hard-Going

x

The metaphors

Should be everywhere

x

The land should be

Replete with them,

North and south

x

Here is the quiet earth,

There the earth is passionate

With green,

The seasons are alive

Either with slumber or with

Breaking through

x

Both are organic states,

Necessary,

And beautiful

x

In the human world,

There should be holidays

And there are:

Hanukkah enjoys a full menorah,

Christmas is but days away

So all is anticipation,

And the colors of

Kwanzaa adorn

x

Not to mention, anciently,

The solstice is tilting toward us

More and more;

There will be festivals

Set on stone

Or rather around them

x

The planet

With or without our help

In counting

Shall split into seasons

x

What is compelling?

I don’t know

x

The virus,

The ugliness of politics

In the USA,

Danger in so many other

Places

x

There’s room for verse,

The call is clarion

But heavy goes the craft:

Can you feel it?

x

Questions deserve answers,

Most of them;

Brittle is the monolith

The keeps on moving

To allow a phallic message

To be realized

x

Brittle yet taking

Many hits until it has a

Home or many homes,

Leaving scooped-out earth

So that the

Female has a say

x

Though one has to ask

Why the say is always second,

And there are more options

In the day

x

It is difficult;

Next time might be typical,

Greeting cards make

Silly sense again;

And the metaphors that

Make the text

And move the world be

Open from the cupboard

Of the Lord

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

x

Snow Living

(x = space)

x

x

Snow Living

x

The snow fell several times

in the night.

Now the sun is out on

x            

ground that is too white,

under blue that is

relief

for clouds innocuous.

x

Trucks with blades

but already parts of roads

are closed

because of accidents,

x

no doubt caused

by those who think

the weather makes no

difference.

x

Stay inside if you can—

advice cast

through

the air and over wires. Yet

x

we know how to

live inside,

thanks to

our mutual situation.

x

Turn away, perhaps,

from uncurtained

windows.  At least wait

‘til dusk.

x

Look inside (instead) to

think about

holidays, vaccines.

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Bogdan Cheșa on Unsplash

x

2 poems about the snow

2 poems about the snow that’s on its way

(and now is falling)

x

x

Happy Weather People

x

The sky is full

Nothing surprising there

It should be snowing soon

x

I don’t like where

The car is parked,

Though I suppose anywhere

Along the street

It’s going to be plowed against

When the trucks with the

Big blades go by

x

Records will be broken,

So they say;

The forecasters actually are

Excited on the TV screen

With big maps projected behind

Them—well, sure things

Probably don’t

Come their way so often,

Lucky them

For now

x

x

New Testament

(December, MidAtlantic USA)

x

Yes, it’s cold

For now, I’m not worried

Should I lose the electricity,

I might die

But I’m inside

Not everyone gets to be

And some are inside hospitals

Too many, in fact

Because the disease

Is moving toward a spike, again

x

There is a better message

Still to be sworn in

And better methods in the offing

We’ll all get our shots,

Eventually

And deal with side effects

The chart will have point

And then slide down

The other side

x

At least, that’s the plan

Many people

Even when silenced

Or at least shouted down

Have worked on this

And we need

To trust their skill,

Attested by the numbers

Going down

x

And we can say

This was

Our generation’s 1918 influenza

To count

To bury

And to weep

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Andrew Ridley on Unsplash

Cairngorms National Park, Ballater, United Kingdom

National Park, Ballater, United Kingdom

Pile of Leaves

x

Fear of Visigoths

(x = space)

x

x

Fear of Visigoths

x

Now is the penultimate:

The warning

On a moving map,

Digitized attesting to

The storm that’s on its way.

x

There is an open sun

Just now

Belying all aggression in

A strategy of sky—thank goodness

That we know

x

We have a day

To run through all

Remaining shelves

That might have inventory.

x

Barbarian invasions

Of the nervous system—what

The virus doesn’t take,

White digits

Of snow warning will.

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Scott Walsh on Unsplash

Toronto, Canada

Night Job

x

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