No Amens Required
(prayers, devotions for occasions)


reach

thank you
God
for today
as it is
in these smooth hours
even before
everything gets difficult
again


Say

God
What shall we say that you
Provide
And is the cost
Belief
Or does
Grace mean
That everything is
Free

And
Do you love us
Anyway
And
Do you love the ones we know
Are evil
Or merely corrupted
Even in their prosperity

Good
And
Evil

We may not think on these
We might
Instead
By getting by
Or
Trying to
And could we
Ask
We’d only ask for this

And leave the larger matters
Maybe
Well
Maybe
Up to you


Sorry a Tired Prayer
(if not fed-up)

Lord
You made me this say
And the world
And my own
Mistakes
I guess
And I don’t know

Not that I wouldn’t own
But what should I
Own
And what is the fault of
Something else

And
I don’t know
Except
I’m tired of the way things are
Thinking
Peace
Would be preferred
Even over love
For an ambition
Even
A dream from which a plan
To get me
There

A confession
Maybe
An asking
Without doubt
Because
I hope
At least
You’ll do it
Grant me what I need

I don’t mean to ask it
As a wish
Before a genie
Having
Shined a
Lamp

You are not Loki or the
Raven
And yet
Christ might inherit all the qualities
Of
Fools
Which might mean tricksters

And
Who knows
Maybe the world is a trick
From which we wake
Or which is
Ours
To change

And yet
Sigh
Maybe I have some peace
Maybe too old
In age of spirit
Too
Exhausted to
Ask for
More
And yet I’ll pledge
To take
My part in it somehow


shall I say to you
(even daring to assure)

what shall I say to you today
dear
reader
responder

to hang on
or to glory in prosperity
(the second maybe
I don’t need
to
emphasize)

but God smile on you
anew
if it seems not ongoing
be with you
and love you through everything
the easy
and the strong
that seems against
you

the stable
if it’s good
or that which shatters
we must believe
because
it must

God be with you through it all
and God is


C L Couch


Photo by Dmytro Bayer on Unsplash