HTTP/2 301 server: nginx date: Wed, 28 Jan 2026 02:23:19 GMT content-type: text/html content-length: 162 location: https://clcouch123.com/feed/ strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 x-ac: 4.bom _dca MISS alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=86400 server-timing: a8c-cdn, dc;desc=bom, cache;desc=MISS;dur=235.0 HTTP/2 200 server: nginx date: Wed, 28 Jan 2026 02:23:19 GMT content-type: application/rss+xml; charset=UTF-8 strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 vary: Accept-Encoding x-hacker: Want root? Visit join.a8c.com/hacker and mention this header. host-header: WordPress.com link: ; rel="https://api.w.org/" vary: accept, content-type last-modified: Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:54:21 GMT x-nc: HIT dca 165 content-encoding: gzip x-ac: 3.bom _dca BYPASS alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=86400 server-timing: a8c-cdn, dc;desc=bom, cache;desc=BYPASS;dur=230.0 https://clcouch123.com I talk you talk we'll talk Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:11:18 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.com/ 21871989 https://s0.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.png https://clcouch123.com https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/27/dearest-friend/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/27/dearest-friend/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:11:18 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=18001 Continue Reading →]]>
dearest friend
writing from a land-locked place

God
I turn to you for love
and I bring it
with me

not like yours except as a shell
with hopeful and stifling
stuff
inside

we could walk on the beach
early in the morning
while the same
seems most
shiny
and firm

and we could listen
we could
talk
we could listen

and would you hear me and appreciate
my hesitations

so that what is unsaid
could
finally be sent

and then the day would have to start
I guess
and we in it
though we could meet now
and then
even
on a bench to watch
the beach get
walked on
while
the shore erodes

then
night
and we could talk then
too

c l couch


photo by Ibrahim Rifath on Unsplash

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/27/dearest-friend/feed/ 1 18001 beach with steps toward clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/26/picture-imperfect/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/26/picture-imperfect/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:41:56 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17997 Continue Reading →]]>
picture imperfect

snowy castle
in a picture

I guess there are snow castles
made by snow like sand
though
I guess clouds are
easier
depending on the day
and the sky and who
might
be looking
up

an Aurora castle
from the original that’s in
the picture by
the way
or a fortress as a series of blocks
forboding with the arrow slits
in made-
up
stone through which to shoot

or
whatever the imagination
wants to invent
then
guiding the body to make
maybe with a follow with whom
the vision
could
be
negotiated

or you know the fort
large enough
for two
and
to set up against another
to
let the snowballs volley
and never mind the winner since all those
win
who get something warm to drink
once
back inside

and this for some could make
the snow day
that
we
well
the children are having
today
Monday after Saturday’s
and Sunday’s
storms

c l couch


photo by Tienko Dima on Unsplash

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/26/picture-imperfect/feed/ 1 17997 Neuschwanstein Castle over snow clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/25/how-are-you-god/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/25/how-are-you-god/#respond Sun, 25 Jan 2026 14:19:20 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17993 Continue Reading →]]>
how are you God

how are you
Lord
how are your angels
how is heaven
these days
ten thousand years a day
our songs could
count

transparent gold and as a metaphor
or actual
I don’t get
it
and
don’t need to

so much about eternity
honestly
it can
overwhelm of course by normal reckoning
though
you understand our senses
having you know
making these
and
eternity to ponder

thank you
Lord and I might ask
for
help with the imponderables
not
only to apprehend but
to carry
by
the muscles
outside
inside
that we have

c l couch


The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
Revelation 21:21
(NIV)

photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/25/how-are-you-god/feed/ 0 17993 walking toward a tower clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/24/water-through-the-pipes/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/24/water-through-the-pipes/#respond Sat, 24 Jan 2026 18:41:08 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17984
water through the pipes
warm trick for winter metal
an old-house problem

c l couch


photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

(based on storm forecasts)

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/24/water-through-the-pipes/feed/ 0 17984 snow with elk clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/23/friday-like-any-day/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/23/friday-like-any-day/#respond Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:42:30 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17974 Continue Reading →]]>
Friday like any day

I’m nodding
without sleep except
to doze

being sick sucks
doesn’t it

and for
some
for many of us sickness becomes
conditions to
endure without an ending
that
we know of
for this life

and
I’m not sure what else to say
since waiting pre-
Valhalla is
what we have with my understanding that Sheol
goes the same plus wherever Thorin says to
Bilbo
must be where the chief of Dwarves
is going

in the passage where
he also prophecies about the world
he’s
leaving
our world
our own Middle-Earth
which would go
merrier
with respect for simple cheer
from food and
drink
and with companionship

and
how these substances as issues must
be hard-won
at
times
as there are hungry
thirsty
and harassed who
must endure and invent measures to take
to have
what’s needed
basically
and
for that cheer that Hobbits know
and
certain Dwarves prognosticate

c l couch


“There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
Tolkien, The Hobbit

for children as well of the East and North with researchers and penguins to the South
me (as Gandalf means)

photo by Valentin on Unsplash

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/23/friday-like-any-day/feed/ 0 17974 hobbit-like in Denmark clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/22/the-poet-friend/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/22/the-poet-friend/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:08:04 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17969 Continue Reading →]]>
the poet-friend

I heard it from a poet
once
that there was no following
because
grace was dispensed
by
those who claimed authority
to give it
and
by their terms

I’m imagining a water-cooler with
a foreign hand on
the tap
a line that goes away
from
there of those to drink
who
are bestowed with an upside-down
triangle of a cup
inside
of which are stips of official
pardon and
toward
the price of another metaphor
a ticket
to
the show

while grace if free
and
has no agency but God
if I may say
three parts to
one

with grace soaring everywhere
and everywhere it’s
needed

to cover and to heal as
that song-balm
the sin-
sick soul
and why not fly by music
of
the spheres
an angel chorus to announce
and
to remind us

freely given is the love and salvation
of the Lord

and
is the vision made
the poetry
perverse
and I don’t know but that it’s better than
the tyranny of will that despots
try
and yet prohibited by better will
and inside each
of us
a part
as if to fuse with our own
elements
our spirits to
save

grace
angels
our own will
and we are saved
if
against the world
and
those disillusioned and me
angered in
their
favor for who dispenses
grace
and blessing but
the Lord

and not the red
and black
the gold of breaking majesty
while
what we have
on our own
even alone if need be
faith
and love
forever

freely
grace like justice flowing
even better

c l couch


photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/22/the-poet-friend/feed/ 1 17969 wildflowers clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/21/love-god/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/21/love-god/#respond Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:20:42 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17964 Continue Reading →]]>
love God

out of love
things happen
things
are made

by hate
destruction
agenda of a nothingness pervades
since
hate can’t build a thing
except for stone
of an illusion

love
then

closer to God
closer to substance
if
without which
material
any sense of material
goes empty

choosing faith
then
by belief and so response
to invitations
at least
two of these to start

c l couch


photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/21/love-god/feed/ 0 17964 envelope red on yellow clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/20/then-whose-earth-and-who-decides/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/20/then-whose-earth-and-who-decides/#respond Tue, 20 Jan 2026 15:05:23 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17958 Continue Reading →]]>
then whose Earth and who decides
rated S for sad

1

cold or hot
the future is
uncertain
well
of course
it is
there might be winter forever
after cloud cover ironically
from heat should shield
us
tragically
from the sun

or we could heat
so fast
a melting Earth
with
torching skies might be
all
there is

it’s the unnatural future
of concern
we cannot escape or
even
evade
not really

it’s the planet
after all
the one we have affected
are
changing now

the profiteers believing there is more
to eke out while
the Earth
is
held together

more
and much more
and
a little more

before things crack for good
and then
things crack for good

2

leave the Earth go
a billion years
or so
leaving time to build
allowing time
to heal

the Earth will crack eventually
on its own
in
relation to a dying sun
all that we’re doing
so adversely
here
happen
naturally and by then we will
be ready
we’ll be somewhere else
by
then
happy to be there
too

as we can imagine if we cooperate
with the planet
now
rather than take
a few make money
leaving the consequences to
the children

unmindlessly

a consciousness to let the world
die
here and now
with
the suddenness of
a generation against Earth’s
own ages

our children
or
maybe their own
maybe
left with hard gold
to chew

c l couch


photo by Daniel Christie on Unsplash

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/20/then-whose-earth-and-who-decides/feed/ 0 17958 scope clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/19/resignation/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/19/resignation/#respond Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:52:56 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17951 Continue Reading →]]>
resignation
there might be a good kind

God
where are you
I mean
in the flesh
please

in the God
or whatever form you take
to bring your presence
to us
to talk with us as you talked in the garden

or if a bush of
fire
is needed
well
the unconsuming kind doesn’t burn anything else

does it
I guess I’m asking

and we could talk
and if I deal
with abject
terror
I might remember that you talked this way
in a garden
with a naked couple
who were unashamed

and
I know a great deal has
happened
since then
but
God
I’d really like to know you

I’d really like to have
you know
a real conversation

my needs
well
they feel sharp today
and
you know there are problems elsewhere
too

and if we talked
and you gave me directions
then
I’d know how
to follow
though
I don’t how to build an ark
or lead anyone through any kind of
desert

but then
the orders you gave were new
to Noah
and
to Moses

or Deborah or Judith
who lived by calling and by prayer
and maybe found one through the other

which
I guess
means
something
for disembodies prayer
and
I so wanted to say
the books
the formal worship
aren’t enough
and
they’re not

but openness to ask and then to listen
or to listen to myself then ask
of you
I guess these could be enough
they would be like talking
like a conversation
after
all

sigh
all right
I’ll try
and though I could not wrestle with an angel
maybe
we could talk a little plainer
time to time

and I won’t ask for garden miracles
though
in the clouds or something
I could guess at least
in
something of
your presence

c l couch


photo by Alistair MacRobert on Unsplash
]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/19/resignation/feed/ 0 17951 rainbow via sprinkler 2 clcouch123 https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/18/delight-by-angels/ https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/18/delight-by-angels/#respond Sun, 18 Jan 2026 19:14:43 +0000 https://clcouch123.com/?p=17946 Continue Reading →]]>
delight by angels
(on and in a wintry day in the Northeast of here)

God
and
do your angels like the snow
do they runnel along branches
covered
are the trees
and they

make snow-themselves
upon the ground

or
do they slide through nebulae
on a break from
helping in the birth of stars
and
then to mourn the passing
of those
dying

even if there’s balance in the energy
and mass
you know
of
star-stuff

do angels delight
and
I so deeply hope they do
for
all their service
over eons
between Earth and heaven
and the war besides
which
they endured

genderless or genderful
they know
the universe
in
which they work by assignments
and I hope
on their own to play

c l couch


photograph by Klim Musalimov at Unsplash

]]> https://clcouch123.com/2026/01/18/delight-by-angels/feed/ 0 17946 tree clcouch123