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April 2019

Lent 38

Lent 38

 

Today must be the day

After a season of surrender

Otherwise, loss becomes a vacuum

Other things that we don’t need

Will come to live

Because nature will otherwise abhor

We cleared out distractions

Others are in line

 

But what do we want inside?

A virtue of busyness awaits

Preoccupations that are less than healthy

Frankly old sins, patterns of

Destruction that laugh like imps

Want to be reinvested there

 

We turned out the fat and sugar

Turn out some devils, too

Let them abscond with what they have

Escape into the darkness

Where exorcism

Or psychology might reach them

 

Some battles are beyond us

Some are right at home

The war at home

 

C L Couch

 

 

the chariot driven by Norse deity Freyja for whom Friday is named (in consideration with Frigg—yes, the chariot is drawn by cats)

(Detail) from the Fresco Cycle “Aus dem Sagenkreis der Edda” in the Neues Museum, Berlin. The fresco was damaged in WWII and abandoned until the unification of Germany.

(fresco by) Robert Müller, 1850

http://www.germanicmythology.com/works/FREYJACATCARART.html

 

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Lent 37

Lent 37

 

After rain,

Sometimes the closeness of humidity remains

And sometimes the world feels washed

For a while

It’s a good feeling

In autumn we might call it crisp

Though that is more for morning air

Cold from night, first breathed

The seasons turn, we know this

The watery rush of spring

Becomes the lush, rising life of summer

Before the time for

Earth to prepare to rest again

I know I say this for the northern part

In the southern, it’s reversed

 

But we share the notion that

All things are passing

Everything moves or is moved

And it is not in the nature of molecules

Or constituent atoms

To cease in function

Stop, whenever

 

Do you have a craft?

I think you do

Something you make or on your own

Pursue to make the time

Your own

Don’t be discouraged if the only thing you see

Is need

It is sadly that way for too many

And where does need allow for contemplation,

For an unhurried gaze into the world

On all sides?

 

Whether it’s need or want of need,

We are made for giving and receiving

And while so much is in motion

Newtonian claims notwithstanding

A part of us must stop

From time to time

To orient the brain and other organs

Where we are,

In what direction we might be going

 

Have a care for all seasons

Try them out

Let’s try ourselves

In patience and in

Openness for recollection

In spirit, an attitude for gathering anew

All the better parts

Gifts to receive

So many gifts to bestow

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by illustrated Cottage from Pixabay

 

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Lent 36

Lent 36

(for storytellers)

 

Do you have a storyteller?

I mean a good one,

One who dives into the past and

Brings it to the surface as a treasure

I hope you do

I’ve only met one from time to time

 

Her name is Esthelle

I shouldn’t wonder there is

A star in her name

She is a teacher

More, an educator

Learning- and learner-committed

And when it was time,

The story changed to song in medium

And temperament

She’d pass out the books

To have us sing along

 

We have good stories

God bless the tellers

So that words might live in mortal ways

To make us good

 

C L Couch

 

 

David Bradley, White Earth Ojibwe Storyteller, 1980s ink on paper New Mexico; United States Gift of James and Margie Krebs Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

Peabody Essex Museum – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32540349

 

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Lent 35

Lent 35

(a reverie for stories)

 

It’s Tuesday, day of Tiu

A Nordic personality

Part of a family that respected

Power and defeat

And waiting after for

The judgment of all nations

Beautiful and terrible,

The people and persons of

The Norse

The stories cut into the center

Of all mortal talent and ambition

 

There, in all, is a lesson

One no single person’s written

It shared by people first and

Then in song, finally in letters rendered

We have these gifts now

 

The gift of story

Testimony, opera

Thanksgiving in the moments of the telling

God sends us song

And frames all telling inside nature

Praise God today

Thank God for all gospels

Good news that grows us into

Better people

Workers, players, servants of the day

 

C L Couch

 

 

name of Týr in its rune form [in English, Tiu]

Moshroum – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1393824

 

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Lent 34

Lent 34

 

I hope you find a place

It doesn’t have to be upon a

Tor, stone and tall and spare, near an agitating sea

(though we read some heroes like this)

It doesn’t have to be

A lonely place

And you may welcome others

When there’s an occasion

When there’s none

 

Be at ease, if possible

Sometimes life is contrary

Bring a drink, a few words from a book

A tablet and a pencil

Have the liberty to write

Whatever

(you be judge of what to keep)

 

Be in thought

And when you’re ready

Or before

Say something like

A prayer

In case you want to know that

Someone’s there

 

But it’s discretion all around

Be as alone

As required

Sometimes the way

To figure something out

Or simply be

 

To remember

Find out more

Of what we’ve been

Who we are

What is desired of

An audience of one

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Rebecca Georgia on Unsplash

İzmir, Turkey

 

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Lent 33

Lent 33

 

Gray light filters through

A window pane that should be cleaned

For spring

Porous curtains reach to the floor

The house is yellow

There is a Lincoln emblem on the front

This is where I live

Welcome

 

You live somewhere else

I hope it is a good place for you

If not, I hope that changes

I hope that you are well today

If not, I hope that changes

 

The season turns toward conclusion

We didn’t make that happen

We didn’t even have to count

So many things inexorably

So many things we change

If we can,

If we want to

 

Maybe what you have is good

I’d like to think so

Though I know too many patterns that

Imprison and a lack of catalyzing

Will

Maybe this has been a waiting time

There are several days left

Maybe you’re learning to

Lengthen your breathing in one way

Or another

Maybe you can count

And it doesn’t keep you in

Maybe freedom with rules

Is understood, at last

 

These passages are ours, you know

As all seasons that we have

Belong to us

We could turn the circle over

Beholding nothing that we own

As well

That’s all right

We know what we can take

It’s not much

And it’s the most important

 

Have what we have

And enjoy the passing

 

C L Couch

 

 

Muhammad Mahdi Karim – Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13092558

A dhow in the Indian Ocean, near the islands of Zanzibar on the Swahili Coast.

 

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Lent 32

Lent 32

 

Is there a mood for Lent?

We could light a candle

Or set a dancing flame inside

A lamp

We could cross ourselves into

A meditative frame,

A shape that’s somehow both

Relaxing and attentive

(from yoga, we might learn options)

 

We can clean our minds

Dust out the mental bunnies

That distract with

Rapid-fire hiding

Leave the nightmare-horses go

That otherwise fence our thoughts

And predilections

 

A prophet might say

Make straight

The roadway to the Lord

Monarchs might proclaim

A day for silence and in

Contemplation find peace within

Oneself and in the realm

 

But kingly days are done

(we have the prophet’s words)

Except for self-styling

Which days should be numbered, too

Leaving us with our unbloodlined

Selves,

Choice and determination

Know thyself, someone says

(sooner or later in nostalgic king’s English)

It’s a democracy of souls

To find direction

 

We are free

As we are

To seek out something

That we need

In and for each season

That we have

 

C L Couch

 

 

Michelle Kinsey Bruns – Mood LightingUploaded by Fæ, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23015762

Meals are by candelight on Great Gull Island. The candleholders have been around the block a few times.

 

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Lent 31

Lent 31

 

I’m sorry

 

Just then, did I seem weaker?

I shouldn’t have,

Though I struggle with confession, too

 

I don’t know how good this is

Balm for the wounded soul, I guess

Maybe a strengthened bond

In the community

 

Necessary, I don’t know

For all the secrets that die with

Persons who left unspoken

Matters of regret,

Even tragic

I might do that

You might

 

It isn’t peril for our souls

Since all is known by

One who judges perfectly

We won’t escape a reckoning

Though there’s a bias in our favor

 

It is cleansing act,

I think

Not until the next time

But for all time

Technically, it’s preparation

For worship, life in spirit in

A fuller way

 

Open for distraction

Into heaven

 

I think I sang in dreams last night

In daytime, it takes practice

Rites partake in that

A life open to soulful beauty in

The music, as is said, of the spheres

 

But it can go ugly, too

Rough, tear-scoured

Anger exorcised against the

Truth and amelioration

As apology works its way

Through tears falling

One side or the other

(meaning inside or outside)

 

Confess

Forgive

Let sunlight be cleaved unto the darkness

Patchwork living

At its best

This side of things

All sides of things

 

C L Couch

 

 

by ‘Speculando – https://www.flickr.com/photos/lbarreto/2231876206/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3504753

Songpyeon, a variety of tteok, Korean rice cake

for Chuseok, celebration of the autumnal equinox

 

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Lent 30

Lent 30

 

We could say

We’re three-quarters through

Here are problems with that:

We’ll make it into an accomplishment

We’ll worry we’re not as far along

As we should be

How much time is left

To get it right?

 

When days were years,

The Israelites in the main could not say,

We’ve covered seventy-five percent

Of this

Twenty-five to go

We should still pace ourselves

 

Markers aren’t so bad

Such as stations on the pilgrim trail

They note achievement and

Places to pause

Before we say, What’s next?

 

When they are spots in

Which to moan

Or to say, Look, what we have done

Better purposes are mollified

Maybe overwhelmed

In brittle ambition

Or vaunting pride

We’re left inside

A roof without an apex as

The sureness of shelter

 

Don’t be afraid

Be ye not anxious

Don’t be over-eager

The desert has an ending

And there is always more

(that will not have to be

a desert)

Mark the way, maybe

Take in the sight

Adjust for course correction

 

Who are we now,

What have we learned?

Refresh

Now move

 

C L Couch

 

 

Philippe Chavin – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1134168

vaulted grottoes called Taq-e Bostan, located in Iran, Sassanian era

 

Philippians 4:6 in the Christian New Testament (cited)

 

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