May 2025

Grace Fully


Grace Fully

So believe
If you will
And only as you will
Grace
That makes faith real
Is offered freely
And
Exists regardless

Believe in God or do not
Same
With the life of faith
After and
With belief

And
Don’t let any tell you
Another person
Anyway
That he or she dispenses grace
If only you subscribe

Grace
And also faith
Don’t work
That way

The first need being only
You and God
Should you choose
And
Should you accept

Then there is the life of faith
In which you might choose
Healthy
Earthly affiliation

And while to have and keep
Sadly
It’s not
To say the faithful life is easy all the time
While
Through it all
The obstacles
Worldly
Self-styled
Do promise
Spiritually
Well
The Spirit’s ease
And even peace and joy

Be the judge of grace
And faith
To start with God or
Not
And
Don’t let any other take the judging role
Except God
And then remember God is truth
And also
God
Is love


I heard once that church should be rejected because it claims to dispense grace—and also, as such, the church charges something (membership, money, doctrinal adherence) in order to receive the grace if offers, if not dangles.  But grace is not or ever owned this way.  (Or owed, either.)  Grace is from God, and grace is free.  It is the free means to receive the saving favor of the Lord.  As means or to exist at all, grace comes at no cost of ours, the price for grace, so to say, having in fact been paid by God.  We are saved by faith in God.  And as if faith were great art, grace is the frame.


C L Couch


Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash 
“In the Park”
Kyiv, Украина

May 13, 2025 0

brass buttons
(like other tokens by good stories)

I think Peter Rabbit
as well as
Bilbo Baggins had them
as
I think both beings
lost their own

one set to a fenced farmer
while
the other
to the great door
of a goblin
lair

brass buttons
then
might be a trinket and
a trophy

in addition to staid usefulness
to fasten

but the brightness of small things
to have
to lose
by farmers and by goblins
and other
taller foes in the world

and shall
new
gilded circles be given
or
otherwise arranged
so that vests and coats might be
fastened
against the cold and rain
or other depredations caused
by
great and closed cropper fences
or
Orc doors

as also shining things for
pleasures
be
restored

maybe to the reader
to match with likened
tokens
treasures
too

and
hey
even with their
losses
the rabbit and the hobbit
respectively
escaped from
their foes

c l couch

(Peter, whose jacket is classically depicted with bright buttons, actually loses the whole jacket plus his shoes in escaping from McGregor; Bilbo loses his brass buttons squeezing through the back door of the goblins’ mountain)

photo by Tyler Lastovich on Unsplash
(pretend the door is green, which, in fact, it is)

1983

my mother died that year
only in her
fifties
I suppose I’ve dwelled on this
with words in
verse
before

maybe last year
to
think about each year

not in acrostic
too real
and I’m not clever
when
she
was young
that is
in her fifties

cancer took her
diagnosed too late

n.b.

so cherish

love on Earth
what there is to love of Earth

love one
and if possible
love more

c l couch

photo by Bill Kucera on Unsplash

2 weekend haiku

Saturday crowds green
back and out front glisten ‘round
wider spring’s sunlight

city slides from hill
bushel claims the under-light
weekend gospel press

c l couch

photo by Ruslan Zh on Unsplash

nostro papà
(as from one faithful)

papa
we welcome you
we hope you will address
the things
that wound our church

peace
be with you
and we shall pray for you
as you ask and will
you
pray for us

and we think you
will

things need changing
and
things need to remain the same

how do we
both
and yet we must

we are ancient church and
modern
too
how to be both

well
there’s much to do
be safe
be love as
Jesus says
as we should love our neighbors
too

may
all the sins be cleansed
as only God might
clean
and may good and true
believing
and the living
take over as we
love God and we love you

hear us
please

please lead the church
with hearing
along with pronouncing where
(and
what)
there’s need and so

we pray for you
yes
we do

go with God
maybe
God
with all of us

c l couch

remembering Francis

photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash

Strikes

Only
Military targets

And is there such a way

A war in one’s land
Won’t
Only affect
Military forces and machines
Yet even
So

Military means soldiers
And support
Meaning people

While an oath to serve is fine
(and it is)

To serve
Defend
And if need be die

The oath or service doesn’t
Detract from
The reality and worth of
Soldiers and support

War might be metal

Regarding two or more it could
Go nuclear

Though
Mainly

War is human
That’s it

C L Couch

What Were the Targets India Says It Destroyed in Pakistan?
by Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/what-were-targets-india-destroyed-its-strikes-pakistan-2025-05-07/

Photo by imad Clicks on Unsplash
Srinagar, Kashmir On Dal Lake

What Kind of Country

The Constitution
A grand response to the ancient notion
Of democracy

Preamble
Principles
And rationale
And then how to operate a nation

Amendments
Laws to address exigent
Inequalities

And is all this worth defending

It’s worth repeating and
Defending

We could say
Defending to the last
We could say
Defending for the first

If the first is a child
If the first is First Family
Is the first was a slave
If the first
Lives and by living
Is mistreated

That’s the first
She is the first
And all
Who by birth and by the way
Are here

Only one of us was here
To begin with
The rest of us have
Come in waves
With each wave unwelcome

Scaring
The preceding wave as
A single ocean
Never acts

C L Couch

photo by Sean Oulashin on Unsplash