Hearing a New Commandment
Bread and wine
For body
Wind for spirit
Earth
For creation
These show the nature of
The Lord
In closest metaphors
Like mustard seeds
For faith
And there are other metaphors
For appreciation
And
For learning
But these are things we have
And may know
Easily
Even rather thoroughly
That any might believe in
What they represent
And so
Have faith
In the intimate way
The better things are and have
Been made
Bread
Wine
Wind
Earth
Learn
Believe
Love
Live
C L Couch
for Maundy Thursday
John 13:34-35 (and in Matthew 22)
Matthew 11:15, 13:9
Photo by Assad Tanoli on Unsplash
in waiting
waiting as in stillness plus
waiting as in serving
stillness
and serving
the God beside us
in waiting
is waiting
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Revelation 3:20
Revelation 21:5
photo by Yucel Moran on Unsplash
bitter
the herbs of Passover
or what
sin-eaters eat
when it’s more than salt
with bread
though
salt is pretty bitter
on its own
and then there’s the attitude toward
life
after
disappointment
even within
unscaled perspective
we don’t get what we want
so life is
bad
it’s wrong
it’s bitter
although what we may want is exactly
what is needed
so maybe what we want’s
the issue
what
for whom
and how
nothing new in this
in that
life goes this way or that
becomes
quite trite
in fact
(and pardon rhymes at
times)
and still we want life
I want mine
you should want yours
so hang on through
the bitter
please
self-determined or pushed
maybe dropped
on
heavily
by the world
there’s more
and it could be challenging
maybe with
a way to see
to bear
the bitter
and-or
who knows
a time in life
(life time)
could turn sweet
if
and most likely not
forever
yet
which is why we have and own the term
for terms
the times
the joined word that is
the lively paradox
of
bittersweet
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photo by freestocks on Unsplash
house of affliction
it’s a hard story
and an odd
one
about Lazarus
who died
and Jesus delayed in coming
to the family
while Lazarus was ill
so Jesus was not there in
time
to Bethany
maybe
to heal Lazarus
while alive
and
didn’t we know by now that Jesus could
do this
though now he couldn’t fix
even with mud
or adjuration
because
Lazarus was beyond
even extraordinary healing
but his
spirit gone
the body wrapped and thus entombed
and when
Jesus got there
did he not receive some scolding
for his
lateness
though such comments borne in love no
doubt
and Jesus moved now
toward
the tomb of Lazarus
regardless
and
even though he was warned
away out of
practical considerations of
how might be the body after time
had
passed
but Jesus
as if all could know
was
sad
as if stricken for the life of Lazarus now
gone from Earth
and
we know
Jesus
wept
and then turned from crying
toward
commanding as
he might rebuke the storm at sea
or take on the Pharisees
of the day
ordering the gravestone to be pushed or pulled
away
and then
more stentorian
I think to call
to
shout
that Lazarus should
come out
and
still wrapped
in
shroud cloth
did
Lazarus
appear
and there should be fear
with reason
and then after the certainty of life
the certainty of
joy
and
for those who think
only a God
if God
can return to life
even on
Earth
well
here’s our story
of a human only human who
got to do that
not
to show us how but
to return
and then to show us how
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John 11
image provided by Europeana at Unsplash
Kermitage
I’d like my alone place
To have
Green
I’d like to sing
And ride a bicycle
And live
Some parts of animated
Miracles
I’d like some time to contemplate
And then I’d like my green self
To find
Company with others
Maybe on a sunlit street
Or on a grander set
Or if a pond
A pond
That might be a homecoming
Anyway
Some place small or large
With people small
And large
Who look like me
Or never shall
And so be wonder to me
Maybe to
All
All the time
Green
And otherwise
My being green
At
Least in part
Forever
C L Couch
on Palm Sunday
Photo by Jack Shen on Unsplash
The Explorers
Gagarin
And then Shepard
And all those who strived
To fly
And couldn’t
Because the experiments were
Unsuccessful and
Also
Something untoward happened
Loss of life so that others
Of us could go
Up there
Frank loss
Before Gagarin
After
Shepard
The cost like that paid
By
Icarus
To soar toward the sun
More than
The waxen body’s made
And yet
Crazy
And extraordinary
We go
And keep
On going
‘Til the satellites
Than the ships
Then
Space stations
Now
Moon
Once down though now
To live there
Now Mars
Inside our time
Our
Reach
It’s danger clearly
Also
Vision and new
Industry
Even good for business
(tin foil
and the microwave from the moon
race)
Though more the skill of hands
Pushed by minds
And hope
To take
Us there
And there and there
C L Couch
International Day of Human Space Flight
Photo by Planet Volumes on Unsplash
fanciful yet intentional verses about night
vampyr
the life I live these days
as one
no sleep at night
but rather after dawn
insomnia
stress from above
the hours at night are clear
and
frankly
I want them
so no pointy things around me
please
I’m still so tired all the time
I’m sure I’d pierce some part of me
with those
at 11:11
a time for me and God
a time
that
God approves
a small thing between us
two
something the world shouldn’t
mind
or try to
take away
maybe you have your times
throughout the day
that
read specially to you and the one
protecting
all
our intimacies
evening drive
the rain is romantic
I can go by houses lighted for night
pretend the yellow lines are clear
drive past the occasional
driveway
sometimes pretending one
or another
could
be mine
c l couch
photo by Amir Borhan on Unsplash
Heat
(a kind of review)
Fire burns
Which means that for survival
Fire’s good
And yet fire destroys
The fuel we place
But
Everything that gets away
The flames that ruin homes
For animals
For us
And everyone
And everything
Of course
That burns
The spirit of the Lord
We equate with
Fire
And I don’t know what is means
By denotation
To fire as in to separate from
A job
Still
It is ubiquitous
It seems
Like “they”
And though its forms seem drastic
As in warming
As in cooking
So we live
And by heat often through the night
And yet
To take away survival
Too
There being the matter of its
Wildness
That is the problem
That makes the thing hideous to
Destroy
Without fixing as much
As only to build over for
Recourse
Yet there is God
Again
Whose spirit is not wise the way
We think is wise
And is not
Tame
The way we think only in formal matters
Should God
Be relegated
Rather
God is wild
Even in wildness
You know
The wilderness
Which we won’t like for lack
Of building
Compartmentable
Purchasable
Convenience
(and the promoting of a market)
And
Who knows how God might feel but
Uses such heaths and
Pagan places
Anyway
Tame and wild
Which shall we have
Of course
But both
Let God normalize
And let go
If lovingingly
Amok
Like fire
In a frame
And who sets the flame
(out of
lovingly flammable
inflammable materials)
But the tame
The comfort in
The very God while also dwelling
In the zealous flame that both
And must
Love
As well as
And often even as
The heat
And I guess we must mean
The heat of all kinds
C L Couch
Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash
“Bonfire Night”
something to say to God, something to you
say what
I think I should
say something to God today
not about
the weather
which is
fine
about the tree out the window
and across the street
that looks as if it’s bearing
snow
that are the blossoms back
for spring
I should say thank you
for
new growth plus
reminding winter in
a romantic way
thank you
a wish is all
I hope this is a good
day
for you
maybe a day of extra goodness
in the eccentric
way
I thought it was Thursday
when it’s
Wednesday
an extra day in which all sorts
of added goodness
might
take place
and I hope it happens
for you
c l couch
photo by Paran Koo on Unsplash
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