applying what is read to the realities outside
the poem appeals
to hope
to strive
to find
to yield
we should be so lucky as to call a final voyage
and then at the dock find
the ready ship
thinking “Ulysses” by Tennyson
Frodo departs
the wound never healed
did it
Weathertop
nice name for tn outlook more than
a small battle
in
the night when all we hoped for
in our travel was
food cooked in our fire
and rest
after
but they came
and not
for the sullen hero on our side
would
have prevailed and did
so far as to lave a wound
that
has not healed not in the land behind
these shores
and so after
all the travail even of
victory
it must be time to go for now not qualifying
anymore
if
ever was to stay
to live through future parties
beneath the large tree
now
a park
as all might grow anew after the war
and yet
departure for
the ones who bore the most
it seems
with
promise of a haven
behind blurred lines
as
surf and land compete
even for the sure place behind of
healing
and
other blessings
near the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
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photo by Ray T on Unsplash
on Easter Monday
day after Easter
Easter
Monday
and
must I give up the feeling
I understand doctrinally and for
and for an attractive metaphor
we
might
call ourselves the Easter people
meaning
more than attendance
on
the day
however that might go
and how deeply from the hear
and
do we look to the weather for comfort
and alliance
that Earth is on our side for
our
beliefs
except there was a flood
and much later
storms
on Galilee that had to be rebuked
and
stilled by one who was divine
and
human
too
we may live in Easter
now
the air of resurrection
which might be good for anyone
to breathe
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photo by Alessandro Guarino on Unsplash
Kfar Nahum National Park
“Sunset on the Sea of Galilee”
rosemary
on Easter
1
oh no
what shall I say
for it is Easter
and I don’t feel Easter
at all
I can think the stories
hear them
more
and hope that they are true
though there are images
so real
inside of me as I
so many stories
believe so many storytellers are
not wrong
and now
church is done
I am
alone
and silent as so many noises
that are inside
allow
and I’d wish for company
regardless
someone for chocolate
even
for ham
[please ungreen]
2
let Easter be a verb
I guess from a substance
a meaning
to the action
and
if I am alone and that’s a problem
for
how much to do
I could acknowledge there’s a presence
beside my own
to help
that
gave me my own
the spark
however done
and there is
faith
and love
from that source
that made
and is
still making making all
for
our collaboration in the Earth
and by the spirit
invested
in so many
things
not the source
but
sanctioned and even given us
for use
though with accountability
but back from cosmic
to just me
and am I just
that
means so many things and are they lost
in translation
idioms
truisms
first
and final meanings
in order to employ
to apply
who we are
and
what we’ve been given
though
at the moment
is
alone
and Easter resurrection
that does not happen every
year
for having happened once
and we’re the versions
ever since
not because we
save ourselves
we don’t
as
that was
you know
once provided
and so for this love
shall I love me
so shall
we love each other and each other
to keep it
healthy as
a change
thus and
so not
to have earned my loneliness
but stone rolled back
for me
too
and we’re
released
God imprisoned first
releases
us
so Easter with baskets and with paper grass
with rabbits who do not reproduce
by eggs
that are candy or
the real thing
if
striped
eccentrically
for me
let me have the silly ways
for
remembrance
and let’s have them now
in
the now
for delight
if
for forbearance
sometimes as other matters
problems
press
even the lonely state
and try to see the joy with inward
sight
as with outward longing
by
the interest and investment
realized
in
safe as well as expanding
fire
in each
from each spark
as
today
emblemizing real from the source
given
through sacrifice
as love for
you
for all
as we are served and toward our
service
c l couch
photo by Bernard Faure on Unsplash
trees a softer green
struck thunder to surprise us
spring paradoxa
c l couch
photo by Stefan Lehner on Unsplash
bad Friday
1
it’s pain
pain everywhere
though it’s localized
but
feels everywhere to overwhelm
normalcy with a wish that
it would all
go away
and how much all
new limbs
new organs
new
life
or to end this life
which is extreme
of course
except as another wish
this one doctrinal
promise
of paradise
in time
Job persisted over
all
the losses
the agonies far away
and closer in
even
to the body
but
the spirit persisted
and that matters more
over matter
as
the seat of will
from which to rise
for
faith
curse God
and
die
how awful a direction
and I’m thinking how
pathetic
a moment funny
grim
for
what was left
what had been there
from the start
affirming
prosperity
and now affirming poverty
as if
to wonder
as Job wonders in a scouring of soul
yet
stays where he has been
if
for no good reason by the mind
or body
but the thread to embrace
slender when tried
yet
invulnerable somehow
and to hold
maybe in thinking
that another thread
that of hope
shall
be restored
to help both hands
not out of reward
for
anything that had been good is gone
but for remaining
Job
believing God
even when the last thread is tried
and was the offer to
let go
and is it an
allegory
a lesson in curriculum
how
to hold on
no matter what
when all the reasons in the world have
failed
along with one’s own predetermined sense
of things
as
a new kind of faith if called for
if tacitly
since we don’t know that God or anyone celestial
spoke with Job
for
explanation or
for comfort
a faith that lives regardless
that
is chosen
and keeps one going through everything adverse
not
to judge but have extraordinary love
persisting
oh
persisting
in camps
in whatever prison might be made of life
in war
and whatever’s left after
the missiles
launched by sin
have done their work
2
pain
too much
a prayer for healing
or
the prayer for telling
as
the rational fails
while the telling drama must go on
and
we might question motives and
with reason of our own
but
have to hang on
anyway
so it goes in our own book
of loss
and faith
not in loss but in what might come next
to aid
and at last
to resolve
now
a new day of broken land
fabric torn as if to judge
or mourn
and
yet a curtain that is
torn
to challenge what had been
worldly
religiously decided
as one died who
had
taught life
for learning God is close and God’s
realm
now
Earth splits and by a guessed-at storm cries
while darkness forms or
furnishes
the question
and
faith might be done
for most
with that one
nailed
planted on a heap
announcing death the moment
before
signs
not determined yet
beyond tragedy
and irony
for
who rules now
and where is hope on Earth
maybe in space where the intrepid
might conceive
whereas the instinct here
to cover
and to hide
and
yet in love
to bury first
and moan
and keen
with Earth’s
screams of fracture
for
a while
now
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Job 2:9
photo by Maksym Tymchyk 🇺🇦 on Unsplash
Kyiv, Ukraine
the one
funny how we take the names
without
the origins
Christmas
Easter
today for Maundy Thursday
and then there are days whose words we know
outside
and could wonder why they’re used in here
thinking of what’s good
in
Good Friday
Maundy is the shortening of the word
that means command
not given
as
suggestion or option
though our wills must be involved
to have our ornery way
if nothing else
will and ego
some
days to think we could do without these
submit to good before the start
and use the spirit of our drive
only
in accordance
with the virtues of creation
no
falling needing or
have happened
Perelandra
while the directives were not hard
or even
new
but given by God’s child
all grown up
to people
all grown up
that you
that I
that we love each other
and
by the way
we’ve given a new rank with God
to be called friends
now
and know our faith in God this way
as a relationship with feeling
as in mind
and spirit
the mandatum
the command
mandate
to
love
and to remember we are friends
before events that follow
that are awful
not
the prayer but bleeding perspiration
intimate and earnest
lack of interest to take up the hard parts
of the world
to bear
and for which to sacrifice
one
of these
anyway
the one of us to save
the rest
beyond the human part
to God
and model perfectly what we might do in life
to
take on imperfection
as well as pardon
to try
to love that way
one savior
whom
and with so much
simple and profound
to follow
love one another
you are
my friends
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photo by Piotr Łaskawski on Unsplash
Holy Wednesday homework
sigh
Wednesday of Holy Week
a nothing day
third of
unfamous days
before
the rituals old and new
determined by a world or one’s
parish
or the way one has developed
over time
of expectation or endurance
of obligation
sigh
good
meaningful days if added
to the rest that must
go
on or goes on
anyway
add in hopes for chocolate
hardboiled eggs
and
ham
green artificial grass
that’s all
suburban passing but
might prayers go more intentional
for
the wars on
diseases
thieving of all kinds
among
these
theft of spirit of one kind
then
the other
pray for me
but while I’m praying
pray
for you
for needs I know
or
have kept away
by gesture
and
by habit
pray creatively
why don’t we
awkwardly
for lack of use applying our own words
but
it is Easter week and God’s hearing
might be understanding
flexible
and
you know
God gets it
anyway
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photo by Mathurin NAPOLY / matnapo on Unsplash
the holy day
for Tuesday in Holy Week
too confusing
it’s Tuesday
like any
and it’s Tuesday set apart for holy
and shall we catechize
to ask
what this means
since any day is God’s
and
ours
and we title this one
rendering unique and yet
is not
the same
and what might be transsubstantive
possessing what
is new
astounding spiritual
and yet retain the ordinary quality of
fields
say
for Communion elements
like God in us
for us to be in God
to have what is amazing
and
plain
so what is in a Tuesday
for this day
in a week of days we say
we
have decided
is
set apart
good
day for thought
to re-read stories
better
hearing them anew
as reading sends gospel
good news
in
the mind
to the heart
not bad for a Tuesday
what
we know
and what we set apart
maybe
to know first
or anew
c l couch
photo by Irina Chishkova on Unsplash
still Monday
Bible study, pedantry, sorry
sigh
so however counting
today liturgically
is Holy Monday
if mostly
which
is
a Monday
to acknowledge spiritually
to slog through as with any Monday by
perception
of our culture
aiming for
Friday
Jesus is in Jerusalem
by
tradition
clearing out the Temple
having
final meetings with
strangers
maybe those who
came
to meet him
and what kind of take is this
on meetings
in
our culture
intrsansigent gatherings in
blank rooms to
variously
go through an agenda
then
leave in secular gratitude
maybe with ideas
for
the next hours
next days
or
religionless season
we also read
hear
of an encounter Jesus has
with the leaders of the day
not
Romans so much
as Christ’s own and it goes
badly
really badly
to reinforce a conspiracy
that bad
there will be a meal
later
shared momentously
founding Eucharist
Communion
and
impose a focus on command
to love each other and to be called
friends
who follow Jesus
then more final things
happen
with bitterness and
danger
in
fact
condemnation
increasing
so here we are on Monday
how to have it into
unmarked
by
attitude
Tuesday and Wednesday
what to do
how
to do it
how to have these hours and these days
if
in the spirit of one kind
or another
the spirit of the age
claimed by a few
or
the spirit of all ages claimed by one
then
offered to the rest
like and as
the choice for faith
and
to change the rest so that
the law
the code
come
through and all the love that is
in fact
commanded
c l couch
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