machine time

(x = space)

x

x

machine time

x

repeating numbers

for today

ones and twos

the sun is shining

angled beneath

clouds

mist that has risen

and such

above it could be blue

and then the black of space

with all our trash

and earnest vehicles

in orbit

x

look down

and there’s the floor

to the left

is cooling coffee

right in front

is this machine

with a screen that challenges

endurance

still so much easier to use

than typing through

a master’s degree

on Olympia, Corona,

and my sanity

x

remember paper?

that’s what we used

for turning in assignments

before the imposition

of electrons

paper, sticky stamps

other adhesives

it was a world, then,

that we could touch and hold

and know we’ve used

x

c l couch

x

x

photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

x

Time and Again

(x = space)

x

x

Time and Again

(for J. R. R. T. in the birthday month)

x

Sometimes

We know it’s happening

Far away

By powerful people

National leaders

Soldiers with weapons firing

Or

A catastrophe

That has not befallen us

Specifically

And like parades

We know they and these are passing by

x

Sometimes it’s here

Still not for us

Our role might be

To observe

Or like the chorus

Comment on events

But this is not our stage

We are not the players

Not the principles,

At least

When there is news

We will know more

x

Sometimes it is our time

The light might be on us

Maybe not

But it is our time

The actions

And the consequences

Our place in the world

To secure

x

Perhaps I mean

The deaths of kings

(inclusive)

Then a fire in another part

Of town

Then maybe no more than

A birthday celebration

To have with grace

And thanks

x

Or maybe our time

Is more important

However to us

It seems

To the people

To the planet

To the cosmos

Believe me or not,

It could happen

x

It happened to the hobbit

Most of us are hobbits

Even without the provenance

Or wealth

(before the treasure is acquired)

Of Bagginses

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Look Up Look Down Photography on Unsplash

Hobbiton, Mata Mata, New Zealand

x

Counting Back

(x = space)

x

x

Counting Back

x

Those who lived long ago

Did not count their time

Backward

We do that for them

With B.C. or B.C.E.

While in their time they lived

Counting forward, adding years

Toward forever

As we hope to do

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Murray Campbell on Unsplash

x

Leaf-Taking

(x = space)

x

x

Leaf-Taking

x

Leaves change

As time changes

As time changes

Green becomes memory

Until green times

Return

x

Leaves of pages

Change

As time changes

As time changes

The memory of reading

Reading now

x

C L Couch

x

x

x

x

x

Photo by Chinnu Indrakumar on Unsplash

x

Photo by Roman Trifonov on Unsplash

x

Hurry Up, Please, It’s Time

(x = space)

x

x

Hurry Up, Please, It’s Time

x

Time to pray

My God, you are here

Sometimes your presence

Seems so thin

Like vapor

In the morning

Then sometimes a

Numbered weight

Sometimes a fire

That frights

x

It’s how we imagine you

Though you are manifest

As you are manifest

Not invisible

Not hiding behind a tree

Awaiting human mischief

For a peak

You are not voyeurish

x

As it is, you’ve seen it

Heard it

Touched it all

Our antics are not of interest

Unless we should please you

x

That would be

A forest of content

With scenes of love and action

(love in action)

That would delight

In fact

And in fact

Of all the constituents

Of nature

And believers

x

Animals might pray

Might live in prayer

We must talk

Must confess

Must ask

Though, yes, we may

Keep it in the mind

Just behind

Or just inside our tongues

x

You hear us

Remarkably, some time

And every time,

Which is the miracle

The need

Even the requirement

To pray

For us to mutter something

You to hear

x

Sorry

Thanks

Love

Amen

x

C L Couch

x

x

(I take the title from T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”)

x

Photo by Alex Wing on Unsplash

x

Wounding Time

(x = space)

x

x

Wounding Time

x

Hot, rainy day

I could be in Brazil

Except for lack of

Verdure

Did you know that the

Big mark of the equator

In Ecuador

Is wrong?

There is another line,

A smaller line,

A ways away

x

I’ve never been

To Greenwich,

And I don’t know

What might be wrong

There

Or in Geneva

x

In the planetarium

When I was young

(it has been

moved),

There was

A Foucault pendulum

Enormous,

Knocking down pegs

So faithfully

Marking through collapse

The hours in the day

x

Atomic clock?

I’ll take a sundial

But then

I don’t need

Tactical precision

In my day

Microseconds for transactions

Bids and buys for Wall Street

Testy parents

Watching watches

x

Olympics

Boats skimming water

Shoes on tracks

So many things need

Measurement

Of time

I’m sure

I hope

The athletes have joy

In their work

Pleasure in the wind

Running under the sun

x

There is a tower

Somewhere,

Where four faces are

Four clocks

Each clock noting time

Each clock a little off in minutes

From the other

So that

When people meet

There,

No one is late

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Goodwood Festival Of Speed , Chichester , U.K.

x

Salutation

(x = space)

x

x

Salutation

(meaning health)

x

I hope this is

A good day for you

You deserve it

I know it’s Monday, but

It is as full of opportunity

As yesterday

Tomorrow

And the next time

x

I’m not saying

Everyone has the same

Opportunity, because

In no way

Do we all have the same

I wish we did

x

But the hours are

Ahead of us,

And the moments of now

Have arrived

What shall we do, not

To pass the time

But to make it

Into something that is

Prosperous and peaceful,

Ancient wishes

Rendered imminent

For all of us

Here and now

x

C L Couch

x

x

There is a good book by Henri Nouwen entitled Here and Now.  And by Jean-Pierre de Caussadethere is The Sacrament of the Present Moment.  Each book is brief, imperfect, yet brimming.

x

Nobility of Time by Salvador Dalí

(photograph) by fabiolah, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51922306

x

Antiphon

(x = space)

x

x

Antiphon

x

I hope it’s

A good day

You might be at dawn or

Well into tomorrow,

However the sun

And moon

Are moving

One place or another

On the world

x

Our count of day

Is relative,

While the actual

Ebb and flow

Of tides and

Of day and night

Move in

Real relationship

Without

Our measure—that’s

The way it is

x

And it is good

As I’m hoping for

Your day

To be

Or, in the uncounting

Time of Genesis,

Become

x

C L Couch

x

x

Groume – Le Cadran de Dalí, uploaded by Paris 17, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23114485

Cadran solaire de Salvador Dalí sur la façade d’un immeuble de la rue Saint-Jacques, réalisé pour des amis qui y habitaient.

(sundial by Dali)

x

Finite

Finite

 

When we exhale

Things go out

We no longer need,

Which is all right because

Parts of the world need them

That, in turn, give up what

We need

And so inhale

To say the least, it’s a good arrangement

We should keep it going

Oxygen doesn’t come from

An artificial tube

We borrow it

And sometimes

Too often, really

Don’t give anything back for it

Let’s not begrudge astronauts

Someday maybe

We’ll make our own sustenance

For breathing

Though really everything we have

Is borrowed, molecules from

Someone else

Call it Mother Nature

Father Time

Or random, hexagonal arrangements

In the universe

Finally, it’s what we’re lent

Of substance and of time with

The energy to use them

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Moses Lee on Unsplash

Richmond, BC, Canada

Comet NEOWISE over Iona Beach through tall grass.