Don’t Listen

(x = space)

x

x

Don’t Listen

x

I’m sad is all

And maybe I may say

Who wouldn’t be

It’s raining

There are feet of snow

Out west

And that’s dangerous

x

In the south

There were tornados in the night

Can you imagine?

Too many don’t have to

You wouldn’t see it

You hear the train

If you can hear

The sounds of what you know

Changed into splinters

Horrifying

x

You might go dark

Deeper in, that is

Or might be missed

(tornados leap this way)

Or under things

That fell

But living

Needing to be found

x

And a factory nearby

Exploded of all things

Also last night

And people inside

Sorry

Some were killed

Others hurt

And people missing

While searchers search

Press conferences are held

Because

They have to be

x

Another factory

Not so far off

Went this way

Some days ago

I don’t think

It’s a conspiracy

But these destructive

And frightening

Severities

Must be taken seriously

x

Last night’s inferno

Costing

Families

The ones torn up

For good

And those in the community

Losing, too

x

You see,

The people in this factory

Made candy

Of all things

In fact for decades

And should have been

With all the chocolate offerings

Just in time for Easter

x

Now associations

Snow-driven winter

Romantic Southern nights

Anticipation of confections

Well,

The fears will have to go somewhere

Coping mechanisms

Mechanized

(as in ready to go)

Let hope

Like grace doctrinally

Abound

x

So I’m sad

Maybe I don’t know how

To take it in

To breathe vicarious

In addition to my

Own intake

For, well,

My own

Somewhat depressed

I deal in this

And have had counseling

And medication

x

The day’s been gray

With rain

Not life-threatening here

Persistent

Cold and dull

Is all

And enervating

x

I thought about errands

And such

Then thought better

Thinking it better

Or maybe better would have been

To go out

Get wet

Do something

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Peter Jan Rijpkema on Unsplash

x

Live from Punxsutawney

(x = space)

x

x

Live from Punxsutawney

x

Knob

Hollow

Gobbler

Turkey

Groundhog

Burrow

A manufactured life

Goes on tour

Speaking engagements

What is its thesis?

Moved in a cylinder

Men in hats

With groundhog faces

Thousands and thousands

I guess they have

Places to stay

TV, computer cameras

How it can it not

See its shadow?

Phil is not that accurate

Need we wonder

Why

Enjoy the day

Laughter

Celebration

Into spring

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Ralph Katieb on Unsplash

Groundhog didn’t like the late April snow (she was in the middle of nest building when it hit).

x

Let Angel Minds Inquire More (two poems)

(x = space)

x

x

Let Angel Minds Inquire More

(two poems)

x

x

And Can It Be

x

The stakes are doomsday,

The life of the world

There are sides

There is disbelief

There is, as people have,

Denial

x

What comes next

Is mystery

The greedy hope to outlive everyone

At the cost of everyone (else)

There is delusion

All around

x

Maybe we’ve given up

On bomb shelters

Except the big ones no one knows

The war is still blue

With cold

There are madmen all around

Maybe madwomen

Maybe not

x

x

That They Should Gain

x

There are those who gain from this

While the bombs are kept at bay

(in bays)

Accruing

At the cost of someone else

Reducing supply,

Raising prices

Getting us used to

Three dollars a gallon

Against the early day

When it was thirty-five cents

Or the day

A while before

To fill the tank on two dollars

x

Should we lose it all

Maybe not in war

Maybe in destroying Earth

In other ways

(we know these, too)

We won’t believe

It is that bad

Or we shall gain it all

Back again

And more

x

In less

We think there’s more

A trickster’s game

The raven sometimes has a plan

To teach us

Something

There is hope

In its cry

It cannot be

Too late

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

with thanks to Charles Wesley, brother of John

x

By © User:Colin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48615973

x

Good Medicine

(x = space)

x

x

Good Medicine

x

Ukraine

Gaza

Indifferent use of the Fifth Amendment

Shots fired

People pushed in subways

Toward the tracks

x

Pollution

Bhopal

Valdez

Sins of the fathers

And the mothers

x

Greed

Envy

Sloth

Get someone else to do

The awful work

x

We’ll get high

Easy to drug

Our lives away

x

Bestsellers

Out of certain patent-medicine truths

Snake oil so to say

Sorry, snakes

We use you for good medicine

After all

x

There’s hope in this,

Good medicine

(though we can go easy on the snakes)

Finding it

Making it right

In all its forms

For all the ills

x

This is hard

Hard hope

We’ll take it

x

C L Couch

x

x

By Przemek P – https://szarada.net/okreslenie-z-krzyzowki/np-waz-eskulapa/, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71246119

x

Give It Up

(x = space)

x

x

Give It Up

x

How childish

I sound to myself

When I think

Cynically

Cynical is futility

We have

Que será será

It is what it is

For defense

A shield from

Reality of change

Rather settling

Into the world’s wisdom

Trying on

The burden of

A chain

That has no chance

For change

No hope here,

Thank you

Only resignation

You want change,

Talk with

The cult meeting over

Somewhere

One side of the Galilean

Waters

Or the other

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by james ballard on Unsplash

Sea of Galilee, Israel

x

Everything Is Listening

(x = space)

x

x

Everything Is Listening

x

It is a fallen world:

Fallen people,

Fallen nature,

Maybe primal good

As in

Genesis

Until the fruit is eaten

Then everything is

Changed

x

What kind of universe

Allows such a fall

From the marrow

To the skin

And in the air

The slough above the skin?

x

A universe that’s made

With allowance

From its maker

x

Everything made

Real

With real alternatives,

Real consequences

x

Real joy

x

Real loss

x

The chance for one thing

Or the other;

Chance matters

Choice matters more

x

What we choose

Moves the Earth,

Maybe heaven

A little

x

Heaven malleable enough

For a third

To fall away,

The Earth more so

Affected by our choices

Mortal

Inside mortality

x

Save the Earth,

Save each other:

This can be done

With faith

And better choices

After faith

x

We believe—help

Our unbelief

x

What shall we say?

What shall we do?

How shall we live?

x

We are fallen;

Our choices mingle

With the dust

Of ages;

We have an age,

This age

x

We have flaws

x

We have hope

x

We know a better way

x

The prophets and the angels

Tell us

Of repentance

And good news

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Mohsen Samimi on Unsplash

x

Releasing Hope

Releasing Hope

 

There should be hope

The only thing left in the box,

Which means it lay with

All the evils for who knows

How long

I guess Pandora knows

And what were the evils?

Envy, sloth, gluttony?

Yet there’s nothing wrong in

Wanting, in ease, in eating

Maybe those evils were

Culture-specific

Mesopotamian, Egyptian

Greek

Maybe a foe

Such as Carthage

Or allies, such as

One city-state to another

Maybe it was treason

The treachery at Thermopylae

False promises that might

Surprise for being small

And murder

These are harder to analogize

Disloyalty, betraying one’s own

Taking lives

 

Unless hope might be

Dispensed without

Letting it go,

Then she should open the box

Once again

Let the creature rise

And take the Earth

Then the mission might be

Re-collecting evils, placing them

Back in the box

Maybe with an intern

From Olympus

(an intern team)

Who could

For and with them

Re-think the evils

Remember goodness before

The ruin

But then the gods

Would need to learn about

What is good against the pettiness that

Snapping or a wave

Can wreck for mortals

Mortals, too, once freed up some

Might receive reminders, too

Goodness and balance

Golden means on a silver path

The final thing

For the Athens school

For the Lyceum,

Let everyone in

To give the good a chance

Democratized

As was their theory, after all

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by David Becker on Unsplash

 

The Opposite of Magi

The Opposite of Magi

(for Epiphany, for any old epiphany)

 

The gift of the fools

The young who pay too much

For love

The old who believe there is too little

To be paying for at all

The city street is harsh for both

It’s only for transition

But because we feel the wind

Or the heat of summer,

We hope too much there’s something here

Only for us

And there is

The Earth remains a gift

And cities an invention

Not to mention farms

And small towns at crossroads

The roads themselves

The way that can only be felt

Across the desert

Through the forest

Choosing the strand to take

In a web of waterways

 

All ages have a chance

Must we always give

As in lose

Or in surrender?

Maybe so—if so, let’s make it

Worthwhile

(comes to mind is something about

aphoristic pearls and pigs,

sorry, pigs, a metaphor forwarding

the story)

Money, time, muscles, potential

Whatever it’s going to take

For betterment

One life, two lives, two and a half

A million

Can we count what matters,

Can we take it one by one?

The old response comes to mind

From the teacher trying to teach:

I don’t know if you can,

But you may

 

C L Couch

 

 

“The Gift of the Magi” is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal … en.wikipedia.org

Photo by Linh Nguyen on Unsplash

 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Please

Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Please

 

God, what shall I say

Of you today?

You are exasperating

You are all hope

You are the center of my faith

You are the labyrinth

I mean to cross

I take my comfort from you

As I take sustenance from food

You are my food

There are no empty calories,

Which on occasion is my deal

I will die

I am afraid

I think I shall meet you there

Or someone from your office

I had an episode last night

To remind me

Though there’s fear

There will be relenting, too

A last litany with Earth

A first step toward

What you deem is next

 

C L Couch

 

 

Froaringus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7633775