People Need

(x = space)

x

x

People Need

(we need)

x

Work

And salvation

Food and drink

Both safe

And a revival now and then

Safety itself

And companionship

Light in darkness

Not blinding

Not enigma

Shows the way

Only some direction needed

x

A place to go to sleep

Maybe with others close by

To wake up in a medium

Of security

Here, we call it democracy,

x

Which begs the first

And final matter

That is freedom

That we paid a paradise

To own

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash

Plano, TX, USA

A water drinking fountain with water flowing from it | Check out my blog: matthewtrader.com/unsplash

x

Petition

(x = space)

x

x

Petition

x

God is good

(it’s how we start

a certain prayer)

And God must bear

What’s evil

Not for lack of love

But for the gift of will

That was

A gift of love

x

We think angels

Don’t have it

Yet there was a war

In heaven

They will match up

At Armageddon,

The last ranks

And those who last

Will join us in

New heaven

x

Creation is broken

We have stories

We can mend it now

Imperfectly

But make a circle

Others know how

And would show us

If we bring down

The barriers

Yes, the real walls

x

There is legacy

In circles

Protection, celebration

The will to live

Because there’s love

Unashamed

Enduring

Persisting when

That’s all there is

Because the rest

Feels on fire

If only for a time

x

Wait as in be patient

Wait as in attend

But we have one gift to give

Give it now

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Buzz Andersen on Unsplash

Kalapana, United States

I was visiting the Big Island of Hawaii with some friends and family, and my brother convinced the group to take a lava tour by boat. I always kind of balk a little bit at overtly touristy stuff like that, but I think everyone was a pretty shocked when we got our first look at the Kalapana Lava Flow after about a half hour boat trip down the coast. It’s such an awesome, phantasmagorical sight and, since they actually get surprisingly close to the spots where the rivers of lava meet the ocean and throw up sulfurous steam clouds, also a pretty visceral sensory experience.

x

We’re Sorry, Monday Morning

(x = space)

x

x

We’re Sorry, Monday Morning

x

I have some toast

I’ll have some coffee soon

And there’s nothing like cold water

To begin it all

Libation and consumption

Lead to liberation

(with les jeu de mots)

We need water

Mine goes through filters

Because we cannot drink what

We have ruined, only

Stave against pollution

Does anyone on Earth

Or above the Earth

(the ETs who are watching)

Think we are lunatics,

Invested of the moon

In an invented way?

And what can we do?

Fix all the water

Apologize to Earth

Tell Gaia that

We won’t do it again

x

C L Couch

x

x

Itto Ogami, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53127564

Piazza del Campo!

(Fonte Gaia, Siena)

x

Attending Nuclei

Attending Nuclei

 

The spirit of God

Moves across the water

In the bathtub, not because

It’s trivial but because

It’s everywhere

Breathing, laughing, cajoling

Cleaning

As a spirit of God should

 

Present at creation, making

Things happen, here

And there

Inside the tree but not the tree

 

Taking part in everything

That’s made

And with us when

We’re washing dishes

More water

 

Water and air, we need them

Nothing lives without them

Except maybe anerobic cells

That might still cry out

From time to time

For a sip

Adding a speaker to

The microscope to hear

For all the cells

 

For all the grocery lists

For prayer at breakfast

For flat tires and new children

New cells on everyone

Everything that every second frames

 

Here endeth not so much

A lesson;

Here starteth—starts–a

Day of days worth knowing

Because when we want,

We find

The day and knowing it

Astounding

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Camilo Fierro on Unsplash

 

The Cup of Cold Water

The Cup of Cold Water

(“I was thirsty, and you gave me drink.”)

 

There’s nothing like cold water

If you’ve forgotten

Allow me to remind you

The aqueducts of Rome

Spiral wells in the Atacama

Oases here and want to be there throughout the world

 

The lack of it in Flint

According to recent studies

Not trusting my tap water, either

 

That’s all right, let them drink from plastic bottles

(we can have it with our cake instead of bread)

Tell that to the lack of wells in western Africa

And those who only have the wherewithal

For thirst

 

Other than the vine

No greater metaphor in Scripture

Yours or mine

Or simply keep the paperwork

That says we cannot drink

Or of the warlords who say,

I have water

So I win

 

I once drank water through the ground

Artesian promises

But

The pressure of the

Earth is not

Enough alone

To make it clear

To keep its savor

We have ruined all of it

 

I don’t mind filters

I’m glad for Brita

But too bad I cannot trust a spring

In the desert

It’s not the suddenness of romance

But the assurance of a poison

 

I’ll take my filters now

As long as I can

I’ll arrange fundraising for

Wells in real wilderness

But for the suburban places that were made into our own

We can buy

We can vote

We can find the difference

In the basics of thirst

The right to hunger

 

C L Couch

 

 

bb20_pt10

https://pixabay.com/en/flowers-cup-plastic-water-2690276/

 

A Tale of the River People

A Tale of the River People

 

I made a hole in my neighbor’s water

So that I could build a palace,

But the hole sucked my own water away

So I built a dam

 

Then I had my water, but it would not move;

It became still, and disease broke out

Along the shores that were unburied

When I made the dam

 

So I made a spillway and balanced just right

The movement of the water;

But my neighbor had no certainty of water now,

And while I was quarrying

 

And dam- and spillway-building,

My neighbor was amassing an army

And it attacked:

My palace was destroyed

 

And now along the water, a mass of rapids

And still pools, all in chaos,

There are two holes where once my neighbor lived

And with the scarred place I am left

 

C L Couch

 

 

By rheins, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56242794

 

The Big Quiet

The Big Quiet

 

Was everything else

Set here first

Slathered on by gravity

By passes and twirls

Of heat and carbon

Round an axis circling a

Toddler sun

Looking for a place to stay

Bending away

From solar majesty

The attendance who wants

Some sovereignty if

Only in degrees

 

Something presses in the middle

Like clay inside a fist

And round and round

Flow minerals

Red and black turns of

Earth that

Slip-slide curved, over and

Under

Until there is a kind of magnetism

From constitution

Settling, not settling

And over which

Into

Water arrives

 

And after managing an arrangement

Between the land and sea,

It’s time for seething

Into untoward life

Tomorrow there’s be more

For now, it’s just a cell or two

That impulses into

The world

And now will rest to take a breath

Throughout the darkness spell

For now it is decreed

A night and day

 

C L Couch

 

 

primordial soup – daily doodle 046

March 29, 2018

Brain Blinks

by Don Whitaker

 

Visit to a Third Planet

Visit to a Third Planet

 

Who’s hungry

Raise your hands

Now those of you who have

Extra food

There are millions of you

And we’ll take it one by one

Find an outstretched hand

Take hold

Place food in it

If need be, help with preparation

Then be pleased to sit

At the table

 

Anyone who’s cold

Millions of you with extra blankets

One by one, gently and firmly

Place them

Around

 

Anyone who’s thirsty

Is a bigger deal

Because we keep poisoning the water

But for now there still is more

Pass it out in safe containers

To those for whom

Answering thirst is life

 

Who needs shelter

Millions of us know how to

Build roofs and walls

And bridges that will get

Each one security

To home

 

Now who’s lonely

Who’s afraid

Who needs countries that provide

They’re here

They can help

 

Can all the multitudes

Nations and people

Provide assistance

Well, we can

I think we know

That we can

We shall

 

C L Couch

 

 

http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.com/2014/12/tiny-planets-inspired-by-little-prince.html

http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.com/

Welcome to The Helpful Art Teacher, an interdisciplinary website linking visual arts to math, social studies, science and language arts.

image (kindly) used with kind permission

 

Jazz Tribute

Jazz Tribute

 

Water

Spoken oddly in some places

I prefer my

Waters

Muddy

Not to drink

But to drink in

 

C L Couch

 

http://www.vivascene.com/wp-content/uploads/