a poem from pre-dawn with a request of mine, below
look up
who can and may
dark
rectangles
white
nothing else to be seen there
the lights are dim inside
waiting
like Lent
like Advent
in fact
for dawn
and a kind of dawn
that lights and then illuminates
the mind
after some moments by the spirit
alone
first
to know tht something extraordinary has
happened with the normal
change
still impressive
every day
break
from night with day
as if
the dark were ominous
as if there had
been
say
three days’ worth
and soon
surprising all the first
time
though there had been cues
that some could note who heard
and
made good guesses
amazing
guesses
of guards and a great stone
and a new emptiness inside
the kind that says
the world is dry
and clean
and might be filled again for the first
time
with just amounts of white and black and
all colors
and no colors
in between
a dawn to come today
far
as we know
as any other
with more promise as that new day had brought
and
new days each some different
now
c l couch
next week, I will have a procedure done near my heart (then in a month another); I am skittish over matters such as thin blood and claustrophobia and, well, heart disease overall
any prayers or good thoughts you could send my way for a smooth operation and a smooth me would be truly appreciated; prayer (and good thoughts) have power, and a blanket of such over me would help, I know; the procedure is Thursday (Maundy Thursday) April 2; I won’t know the time ‘til the evening before
thank you so much
Christopher
photo by Declan Sun on Unsplash
on reading a passage from Madeleine L’Engle’s journals
there is the moment
when
the medal has been shot
that had been
placed in the V of the trunk
of a tree
out in the country
at the place where they stayed
and how outraged
the narration
turned
toward that phantom crime
become a waking travesty
and
my wondering on reading
if too much were being
made
and in time to wonder
were it enough
because I’m thinking now if each
took to small destruction
in this way
then
there should be a movement
to take domestic and then global interest in
anything that should
remain
whole
c l couch
The Crosswicks Journals
photo by Mantas Sinkevičius on Unsplash
a democracy of clouds
cool
cloudy
promising a sleepy sun
palely then
coloring the day
and
it’s all right
sky-wide pastiche
all easy tones
to
take down aggression into
thoughtfulness
the invitation
request from
Talowa
or
Changing Woman
to take this day
to share it
earn it well and then
to have a portion
lent
to us as any power
any part of
what’s created
to us for a time
until
a reckoning with final dispositions
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photo by Fiona Murray-deGraaff on Unsplash
our time
empty the house
of sugar
and of yeast
or
do that mentally
I guess
even to sit and ponder Lent
and
Lenten matters
emptied so filled up
with
promises remembered
priorities
regained
the lives
to consider
and how precious they might be
and
yes
through flaws and
difficulties but
to live regardless
until heaven gained
then
after
to live with faith in only what
is good
not relative
but good
refocused some
re-anchored
or
whatever inner action
might
be needed
simple
renewal
as each day renews
yet
by what is good ongoing
as
are the teaching and reminding
of the seasons
learning to love
what’s new
and
lovable
and what should lovingly remain
a Lenten time that can be
for this
homely light
in shadowland
c l couch
photo by Yash Patel on Unsplash
the green blade riseth
a hymn to merge the natures
divine and human
c l couch
photo by Aniket Bhattacharya on Unsplash
I sing if I protest the electric body
it’s artificial
that I breathe by moving air
and the heartbeat
is
machine-aided
too
and all the other metal
in there for help arteries
be arteries
with marks of sutures past
holes
or for scars bumps and ridges here
or there
and we could say
see the other
guy
to sound beyond it all while inside
it all and
is there pain
phantom or daytime
maybe
encroaching as protest
in
aging
so I am old and I am new
and
there are operations
offending all the freedom-wish
inside me
someday to cease
to relent
set down
and know the better source from which
all decent quickening is
always
by cosmic grace
and will
c l couch
(“the body electric” crafted and used by Whitman and then Bradbury)
photo by David Levêque on Unsplash
teachables
learnables
a week from now is Maundy Thursday
I believe
antique name made from mandatum
meaning command
because they were not suggestions Jesus gave
at the Last Supper
but
orders
ours to obey
if we’re going to follow him
the savior with indwelling spirit and creating God
three
one
God all the time
who
John 3:17
sent Jesus here not
to condemn the world but that the world
by Jesus
would be saved
we might be saved
in present
tense
the price paid
made into grace that is free for us
not because the cost was weightless
in meaning but because
God
dying is what God may do
and then once
first
victorious
over death offer eternity to us
as by that grace we may
choose
to live
if after the irony of mortal death
which doesn’t change
sigh
so on Thursday
we had a dinner at the church each year
cooked and
served
by deacons
elders
many meal volunteers
what followed then
was a service of worship with
Communion
special ‘cause it was at night
and
I don’t know even the child of me
felt the community
gathering
first
in the hall and then the mullioned
beamed and genially beaming
room
c l couch
photo by Geda Žyvatkauskaitė on Unsplash
playing favorites
in the ninth chapter
my favorite Bible story
when the parent
comes to Jesus
for
the child who needs healing
who is thrown by fits
into fire
such an extreme for healing to
which Jesus
says
believe and the child be renewed
to
which the parents
must reply
I believe
and help my unbelief
the formula presented
yet
before Jesus especially
even to doubt
but must
be honest
and the response from Jesus is
that
the child is healed
not that epileptics must be healed
though sick children
from whatever
reason
should be
and for all we are and all we aren’t
we have to open all our hopes
and fears
before the Lord
versing
my second favorite
is a cluster of
verses
from the Psalms about a third through
the verses about
creating a clean hearts
a heart that
is in me
by God
by God
in fact
to renew
as has been made
create in me a clean heart
O God
and renew a right spirit with me
and
cast me not away from they presence
and take not
thy holy spirit
from
me
again
an honest plea
for healing of the self
I guess
even to be close ‘mid all the snares
outside the circle
working in
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(for the series, from Mark 9 and Psalm 51)
photo by David Trinks on Unsplash
starting on Saint Patrick Day
for the Irish family
what if God tends to clay
atop a color wheel
smooths hard at first
in
dealing with the ground
of dust
then gestures artful and tender
giving shape
and then some drying and some glazing
even
through a fire
so tempered then
to set on Earth
for
beauty and for usefulness
beauty
in the spirit
and so inspired living
was
turned
tempered
having been crucibled
at
first
perhaps
against adulterations like those that somehow
infiltrated Eden
anyway
now
on an Earth of love
and also peril
sometimes one turned to the other
and
yet throughout the hope for
aging
maybe patina or to fall cracked
and thus required by
reconciliation
gold in the cracks in the Japanese
way
that shows the way
all a metaphor
except
the ground is real
so is God
so are we
so is the process that
repairs
and bears us home redeemed
c l couch
photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash
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