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August 2022

The People Walked

The People Walked

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God announces

God’s own birth

An absurdity of prophecy

Things bang together

Light good

Dark bad

(for now

for often dark is good)

People in darkness

Who understands?

God is coming

But God is here

God has been here

From the start

Before the start

God was

And is

And shall be

And now, what,

A child?

A virgin birth,

Come on

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A working together

Of generations,

Places

So that everything

Comes together

Complements

Too much

It is too much

You try the words too much

The documents are old

And sacrosanct

We keep them in a temple

Leave them be

What we believe

Is in the temple

Leave it be

We sacrifice flora and fauna

We dedicate

Our children

We don’t need another child

Or of such scandal

Leave us be

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We are specific

We are everyone

(analogous)

We have freedom

In measure

We hate the other measure

But taxes

And armies

Are the world

It could be worse

It has been worse

We plot

Inside the darkness

In our own planning time

As we say,

Leave us be

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So God is coming

And it’s taken centuries

Ages, if we count

From the beginning

And before

The God who answered nothing

With creation

And now a child

Without instruction

For our training

As a Caesar

(any Caesar)

This is too much

We have our own children

And for Caesar

Charges and complaints

From Spain and France

Morocco, Egypt

To Iraq and Israel

Rumors in Russia, India, and

China

All the world

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Everywhere

And everywhere we know

Is burden

Don’t weigh us down with more

Words and promises

And obligations

Expectations

You expect us to believe?

Unlikely

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C L Couch

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I don’t know how I got to thinking about Christmas while summer is hot on.  Maybe it’s wishful thinking, though I like the seasons as they happen.  Maybe I need a charge of faith, like a CO2 cartridge making soda pop in the soda fountain.  Maybe I need some soda pop.  Maybe I’m preparing what might seem way ahead for liturgies in Advent (the good news and the difficult).  Or maybe a little future holiday (of any number of holidays) is okay for the present, that is, right now.

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Photo by Alistair MacRobert on Unsplash

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Hebrews 12

(x = space)

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Hebrews 12

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it’s all right to run a race

it’s all right to win

it’s all right not to win,

which happens to most

in the experience

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it’s all right to want a prize

running a race is hard

not to mention training

and practicing

your prize is in heaven

might not sound good enough

not satisfying

but it’s true

there is a prize for each of us

for all of us

by heaven

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keep running

yes, with discipline

also with rest

and if possible

with joy,

Mister Liddell

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C L Couch

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(photo by) KarlGaff – own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113379539

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Switchback

(x = space)

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Switchback

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God is love

God is God

Of social rites

And more

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God is God

Where there’s war

And wounding

In the midst and after crimes

To help the victims

In other disasters

God is there

You might not think

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When it’s difficult

And heartbroken

The story has not ended

Though we’re sure

That everything is done,

Finished and badly

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There is light

Not to say that dark is bad

But that light on its own

Is necessary

A better word

Small illumination

Also call it wisdom

There is another page

The story proceeds

Call it hope

And we may hope

Sometimes there are heroes

Sometimes we must own heroes

As ourselves

However flawed we believe

Ourselves to be

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Carrying light

Can do so much

To find the wounds

To treat them

Pray away

Fight in other ways

The devastation,

Frankly aware

When there are

Evils

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There are more pages

And our storybooks are kept in heaven

Keep going, here

Don’t forget to rest

To wake

To drink

To eat

And then

And then

To rise

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C L Couch

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Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

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Play Dates

(x = space)

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Play Dates

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We should have

a good weekend.  We

deserve it.  Not everyone

will have one because

those will work

to keep the power

on and

other things.  So

there’s the possibility

for rest and joy in

good and homely things.

We should permit

Our gratitude.  Happy

Saturday and Sunday,

friend.  If

not free, then

when you have

a long break later on.

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C L Couch

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Photo by Shannon VanDenHeuvel on Unsplash

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Wonderful Counselor

(x = space)

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Wonderful Counselor

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Should we meet with God

I shall be glad

I might become chagrined

At what God will tell you

While I’m there

But I’m sure the conversation

Will be necessary

There might be understanding and

Reconciliation

Our lives on Earth an untrue experience

Now washed and cleared

The dark glass clean

Through which, if we all will,

All forgiven

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C L Couch

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Photo by Susan Mohr on Unsplash

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Story Time, Please

(x = space)

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Story Time, Please

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Oof, I’m tired

Aren’t you tired?

If you’re energized, please

Let me know

Maybe chocolate

Inspiration from a movie

Or a book

An entertaining story

From someone who

Tells stories well

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I like storytelling

I like listening

I like to think of people

Gathered ‘round tended fires

From ancient times

To hear from a bard

(roving poet)

Some other teller

Adding historically to lore

More urgently, to move us

With the tried

Or taking chances

Now

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C L Couch

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Photo by Obed Hernández on Unsplash

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Prized

(x = space)

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Prized

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God’s will

I treat it like a puzzle

A mystery

A riddle

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The prize

For being smart enough

For endurance

For cleverness I don’t really possess

Is success and later on

Salvation

I win at last

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Except I think, liturgically,

That the truth is not in me

Or anyone who thinks and contrives

Philosophy this way

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God is not a puzzle

(I like puzzles

and I hope you do)

There is a clarity

Like the still waters

God takes us beside

Willing

To point out the deep parts

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Skywriting isn’t necessary

(relief for Dorothy)

Read the code for life inside the books

Or listen

Listen, anyway

It’s easy

As it’s easy

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There are commandments

There are two prioritized

There is a parable of sheep and goats

(poor goats)

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These are enough

To take us through the day

A season

A life

And should we like to choose

Life after

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Mysticism, symbolism

Are for other verses

So to coin a phrase

That serves the here and now

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That’s all, folks

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C L Couch

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Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash

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Contemplatives Are Due on Maple Street

(x = space)

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Contemplatives Are Due on Maple Street

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God speaks to me each day, though

I must admit

II don’t know what that means

I mean

Sometimes I hear the words

Sometimes it’s a nudge

I suppose a shove would be too much

I’d lose the love in that

And think it

Something else with chagrin

(and from the gravel)

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I’d like to be an everyday sort of mystic

The kind a hobbit might accept

Have food,

A glass of wine,

Smoke a pipe

Then listen for the words that the

Spirit dictates

And hope I’m not sent to Mordor

On assignment

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A contemplative with wide windows

Sunlight, nighttime

Time for clouds

All through which to contemplate

World enough and time

As the saying goes

From Andrew Marvell’s poem

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This would do for a style

It would keep me in the suburbs

Or small towns,

In cities or on farms or

Or in other places near

Or far away

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ali Inay on Unsplash

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There Could Be Light

(x = space)

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There Could Be Light

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Lord,

I have not listened

I have not loved with a loving heart

But with a larcenous heart

Love for sale

I kept it mercenary

And in other matters

I know I’m not rich

I’m not talking about money

But the other ways in which we thieve

Each other

When we’re tempted

When we’re frightened

When the need is so deep

Or so it seems

Could be illness

Could be we make it so

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I do not know the path

Before me

Even that there is one

For I have left the way

That had light for

The one walking

In anything like truth

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There is no light

I am lost

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I have stopped

I cannot move

The lack of light feels like

A weight,

Though that might be delusion

For how can nothing weigh us down?

How did I feel substance

In the light,

Which did not weigh me down?

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Well, I’m speaking to you now

There was a spark

Left in my mind

I can’t talk of value with

The one who gave me life

But there is life

Maybe you’ll show me

Speak through one sense

Or all my senses

Correct my course

Give me one

Since I have no direction

And it seems no power

And I have a need

(real need)

To find my light

To find my way

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C L Couch

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Moody Forest

Photo by Branimir Balogović on Unsplash

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