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clcouch123

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clcouch123

In conversation, I prefer Christopher. My mom named me after Christopher Robin, after all. In writing, I use “C L Couch” (or, more simply, “c l couch”) because the form is genderless and also frankly easier to use. I have awful writer’s cramp. I am an educator more or less retired, more or less due to disability. At present, I live in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (USA). My writing here I mean to be occasional and also devotional. Either or both. The banner and profile photographs are by my friend and peer Debra Danielson. More of Debbie’s work to be enjoyed is at debradanielson.org. Thanks to each of you and both and all for coming to my blog.

Narrative Liturgy

(x = space)

x

x

Narrative Liturgy

x

My eyes and stress

Aren’t doing so well

The limitations come up shorter

Than they used to

It doesn’t take as long to

Make the fence

The metal one

The metal fence with metal signs

About trespassing

Access or the lack thereof

x

On the other side

Is twenty-twenty

And easier living

The kind that happens in

A Gershwin summer

Though maybe

That’s not so easy, after all

Prejudices

Production values and the process,

Overall

Whatever money and material

Involved

x

My dad has a barn

My mom can make costumes

Come on, gang,

Let’s have a show

Easy times

And black and white

Because so much youth was involved

Thank you, Rooney

Thank you, Garland

x

Thank you for who made the barn

And wrote the music

We’ll find the instruments

Keep practicing

I hear the backer might

Show up anytime now

For a matinee

Or evening show,

x

Which is good

Because the talent

And the crews

And the producers might be

Getting tired

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Rob Laughter on Unsplash

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2

Declared

(x = space)

x

x

Declared

x

Here,

There’s food for energy

And water

I know, for many

An easy trip to the store

x

War ruins this,

Of course,

There and by extension

My shopping receipts attest

All our bills

x

There has been the war of greed

There and here

x

Though

Away from war

Except for greed

I don’t have to fear for bullets

Or wait for other missiles small and large

Cry the air,

Find my flesh

Find yours

x

The planet will reclaim

The Earth to wait

And us to judge

Well or poorly

The killing of each other

Loss

Hardship

And disease

x

Our tries everywhere

To build

To know each other

Energize the world

Food

Water

Safety

A just ambition

Peace

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Антон Дмитриев on Unsplash

Sunset in the exclusion zone.

x

4

Eligibility Requirements

(x = space)

x

x

Eligibility Requirements

James 1:22-27

x

What does the Lord

Ask of us?

Many things, I think

That Noah build an ark

That Abraham sacrifice

His son upon an altar

Made for animals

x

That Rahab should save

The spies of Israel

In Canaan

That Mary should conceive

Without her affianced

And then give birth

x

That Cain should confess

That sinners should confess

That we should be

Doers and not hearers only

Of the word

x

That we should seek justice

And do justice

That we should love God

And each other

Be generous with enemies

With material and with prayer

x

I’d like to say it’s easy

As salvation is

Through grace

And belief

But frankly it’s the start

Of a grown-up life of faith

In which there should be joy

And humor, too,

And if there isn’t

Then we have been told

In someone’s catechism

Something wrong

x

C L Couch

x

x

James is a brief, epistolary work in the Christian New Testament.

x

Photo by Taras Chernus on Unsplash

“I am from Ukraine, there is a war going on in my country now. Your help is more important than ever.”

x

1

the blast of war

(x = space)

x

x

the blast of war

x

God

grant not my will

but yours

yours and mind when

we’re allied

but if it’s you or me

better to be you

and yours

I know

I’ll be there, too

that sometimes frustrates

when I want something

all my own

and maybe

you would not agree

all the way

better for your will be done

and mine left out

you’ll remember me

and several billion

while caretaking

all who are asleep

a world that’s cracking

you will let it crack

split into pieces

that we insist upon

who says

my will be done?

yours will keep the planet

and humanity

behold what

our will has done

and save us

by your modest will

gentle

or ferocious

x

the quiet desert

and the storm at sea

are yours

watch over these

and the tame or wild places

of the mind

the heart

and spirit

we should ally

keep us from all tyrannies

with a will

for freedom

x

c l couch

x

x

photo by jonathan bowers on unsplash

x

0

Shadowlands

(x = space)

x

x

Shadowlands

x

Plato

C. S. Lewis

My hand by

The computer light

Shadows with shadows,

I suppose

With something firmer

On the other side

That could be relied on

For an eternity

Something waiting

Something inspiring

An ideal

A world of ideals

That’s what we learned

In school

So what have we here?

Which world shimmers

For the other

Though we presume

The other world’s better?

What do we sense here?

What do we make?

What lasts?

We have our treasures

And we try to keep them

We use guards

We have alarms

Things might fade anyway

Or break

And we keep making

Stockpiling art

With care

In both kinds of caves

Like those who aren’t so well-

Obsessed with money

Or better

With a hope for all

The way we might stockpile food

And why not

Against the day

Except for exigent hunger

(there should be enough

for both)

x

Yet if they’re right

We’ll have it all again

Art and food

Anything of profit

By virtue,

Perfect there

And permanent

And with ourselves, perhaps,

Polished and redeemed

As on this side

We sometimes polish

Precious metal with

Satisfaction after

That self-effacing

Might be and become

A shimmering

Evangelism:

Grand art, you see,

And easy,

Arduous science

For both

x

C L Couch

x

x

the verse alludes to Plato’s allegory of the cave

x

the title is a term that is a metaphor for mortal life

x

Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

x

1

Humility Blues

(x = space)

x

x

Humility Blues

x

(verse)

Virtue’s gone away

Vanity is here to stay

x

(chorus)

O, Christians, I got the

Humility blues

x

(verse)

Cool cats keep it humble

Don’t want to rumble, stumble

x

(chorus)

O, Christians, I got the

Humility blues

x

(bridge)

Vanity’s a bummer

Winter, fall, or summer

Wake up into spring

Humility’s the thing

x

(one more time)

Cool cats keep it humble

Don’t want to rumble, stumble

x

(bring it home)

O, people,

We got the humility blues

x

C L Couch

x

x

(I misread the title to something as “Humility Blues”—what the title was supposed to be I can’t recall)

x

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

x

3

right-angle shadows on the moon

right-angle shadows on the moon

x

before the multiverse

occurred

the universe is infinite

all possibilities

here

x

there might be variations

upon our everything

slipped

through dimensions

frosting on creators’ cakes

x

a calculator without ending

solving pi

a Rubik’s cube offered of

galactic proportions

x

the other side of black holes

is an upside-down that we get used to

once we’re there

where Amelia Earhart

and the crew of the Mary Celeste

found solace

in their time

and what is time

when only numbered four or five

in a mult-dimensional count?

x

here we have questions

there

there are the answers if

upside-down

x

go far enough

to find the portals

to what

might be

the multi-elsewheres

x

c l couch

x

20 july 1969

x

x

photo by nasa on unsplash

x

0

And, But, Or, Nor, For, Yet, So

(x = space)

x

x

And, But, Or, Nor, For, Yet, So

x

What do I do

When God is gone?

A question I don’t have to ask

Because it doesn’t happen

God doesn’t go away

I do

I go away when I want

To think of someone else

Of something that I want

That I shouldn’t have

When I need

Or presume to need

Enough to bump out God

From my awareness,

Which qualifies the need

As something else

x

This is straightforward:

I choose to have God in my life

Closer to me, anyway

Since God is there

Creating

Maintaining

Weeping or laughing at

What we do

Preparing for Parousia

Yet

Cherishing each moment

The now we have

We linear beings

Meaning for us

It’s a saving moment

To a saving moment

x

God is close

God is inherent

In electrons

And cellular nuclei

God will become more obvious

As we wish

As we choose

As we ask it so

(the asking’s prayer)

The devil has many ways

To snare us away

It is agenda

Of the kind that pushes will

And understanding

Inside a frame that illustrate

An attitude

Against people and the

Environment

The Earth we stand or glide

Or rest upon

All of which, the devil says,

Is unimportant

When favoring

Profit

Unhuman strategies

(inhumane)

That only matter as

Winning so that the rest

Are losers

x

Who is lost?

The burden’s hard

The burden’s easy

It’s paradox

Of faith

Of belief in God who’s only known

Through evidence unseen

Who wins a case through this?

x

Such contradictions

Such opposites

The world we love must be eschewed

If we would live, there is first

The inevitability of dying

Sheesh

No thank you

Or thank you

Our will to embrace

To choose

To live in love

With the good in everything

With faith

And hard belief that has gentle edges

In what we show each other

(as in manifest)

In what we sense

And how we deal

With everyone

With everything

By which and in which

A spirit accompanies

For good

For upbuilding

For faith

And, yes, for love

x

We live in hope

That God is there

That God is there when we return

Or when we turn around

In attitude

Repentance

Sorry and a new embrace

Of faith

Gove love this Earth

And the extraordinary creatures

That you’ve made

That is each of us

Not that we are perfect

Or perfectly anything

But in everyone

And everything

The three remain close by

The three remain close by

x

C L Couch

x

x

By Finoskov – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109525350

x

0

benedictus

(x = space)

x

x

benedictus

x

we could be pleased

with what we had

and sad for what is missed

we could love what there is

let go the hate for

what was taken

who took it

we could love with a love

not pure, because there’s always

imperfection

we could correct and sigh

sigh and correct over faults

x

we could love

because alternatives shall drive us

into places where

no one really wants to go

or stay

more so, we could come home

to the dwelling of our hearts

and smarter thoughts

inside the land that God more fully made

that shall remain

when the rest

the doubt, the pain, even scorn

shall fall away

while love remain

x

c l couch

x

x

hoto by savvas kalimeris on unsplash

x

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