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Lent 33

Lent 33

 

Gray light filters through

A window pane that should be cleaned

For spring

Porous curtains reach to the floor

The house is yellow

There is a Lincoln emblem on the front

This is where I live

Welcome

 

You live somewhere else

I hope it is a good place for you

If not, I hope that changes

I hope that you are well today

If not, I hope that changes

 

The season turns toward conclusion

We didn’t make that happen

We didn’t even have to count

So many things inexorably

So many things we change

If we can,

If we want to

 

Maybe what you have is good

I’d like to think so

Though I know too many patterns that

Imprison and a lack of catalyzing

Will

Maybe this has been a waiting time

There are several days left

Maybe you’re learning to

Lengthen your breathing in one way

Or another

Maybe you can count

And it doesn’t keep you in

Maybe freedom with rules

Is understood, at last

 

These passages are ours, you know

As all seasons that we have

Belong to us

We could turn the circle over

Beholding nothing that we own

As well

That’s all right

We know what we can take

It’s not much

And it’s the most important

 

Have what we have

And enjoy the passing

 

C L Couch

 

 

Muhammad Mahdi Karim – Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13092558

A dhow in the Indian Ocean, near the islands of Zanzibar on the Swahili Coast.

 

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Lent 32

Lent 32

 

Is there a mood for Lent?

We could light a candle

Or set a dancing flame inside

A lamp

We could cross ourselves into

A meditative frame,

A shape that’s somehow both

Relaxing and attentive

(from yoga, we might learn options)

 

We can clean our minds

Dust out the mental bunnies

That distract with

Rapid-fire hiding

Leave the nightmare-horses go

That otherwise fence our thoughts

And predilections

 

A prophet might say

Make straight

The roadway to the Lord

Monarchs might proclaim

A day for silence and in

Contemplation find peace within

Oneself and in the realm

 

But kingly days are done

(we have the prophet’s words)

Except for self-styling

Which days should be numbered, too

Leaving us with our unbloodlined

Selves,

Choice and determination

Know thyself, someone says

(sooner or later in nostalgic king’s English)

It’s a democracy of souls

To find direction

 

We are free

As we are

To seek out something

That we need

In and for each season

That we have

 

C L Couch

 

 

Michelle Kinsey Bruns – Mood LightingUploaded by Fæ, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23015762

Meals are by candelight on Great Gull Island. The candleholders have been around the block a few times.

 

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Lent 31

Lent 31

 

I’m sorry

 

Just then, did I seem weaker?

I shouldn’t have,

Though I struggle with confession, too

 

I don’t know how good this is

Balm for the wounded soul, I guess

Maybe a strengthened bond

In the community

 

Necessary, I don’t know

For all the secrets that die with

Persons who left unspoken

Matters of regret,

Even tragic

I might do that

You might

 

It isn’t peril for our souls

Since all is known by

One who judges perfectly

We won’t escape a reckoning

Though there’s a bias in our favor

 

It is cleansing act,

I think

Not until the next time

But for all time

Technically, it’s preparation

For worship, life in spirit in

A fuller way

 

Open for distraction

Into heaven

 

I think I sang in dreams last night

In daytime, it takes practice

Rites partake in that

A life open to soulful beauty in

The music, as is said, of the spheres

 

But it can go ugly, too

Rough, tear-scoured

Anger exorcised against the

Truth and amelioration

As apology works its way

Through tears falling

One side or the other

(meaning inside or outside)

 

Confess

Forgive

Let sunlight be cleaved unto the darkness

Patchwork living

At its best

This side of things

All sides of things

 

C L Couch

 

 

by ‘Speculando – https://www.flickr.com/photos/lbarreto/2231876206/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3504753

Songpyeon, a variety of tteok, Korean rice cake

for Chuseok, celebration of the autumnal equinox

 

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Lent 30

Lent 30

 

We could say

We’re three-quarters through

Here are problems with that:

We’ll make it into an accomplishment

We’ll worry we’re not as far along

As we should be

How much time is left

To get it right?

 

When days were years,

The Israelites in the main could not say,

We’ve covered seventy-five percent

Of this

Twenty-five to go

We should still pace ourselves

 

Markers aren’t so bad

Such as stations on the pilgrim trail

They note achievement and

Places to pause

Before we say, What’s next?

 

When they are spots in

Which to moan

Or to say, Look, what we have done

Better purposes are mollified

Maybe overwhelmed

In brittle ambition

Or vaunting pride

We’re left inside

A roof without an apex as

The sureness of shelter

 

Don’t be afraid

Be ye not anxious

Don’t be over-eager

The desert has an ending

And there is always more

(that will not have to be

a desert)

Mark the way, maybe

Take in the sight

Adjust for course correction

 

Who are we now,

What have we learned?

Refresh

Now move

 

C L Couch

 

 

Philippe Chavin – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1134168

vaulted grottoes called Taq-e Bostan, located in Iran, Sassanian era

 

Philippians 4:6 in the Christian New Testament (cited)

 

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Lent 29

Lent 29

 

In the stillness

In the wilderness

In the pagan place we go

To live in wildness for a time

Away from city shapes

Away from the shadows of

Everything right-angled

 

At night, we might see stars

We might hear the planet

Touch a texture we have never touched

For all the times we’ve tried

Taste something in a cup

We’ve brought along

 

Taste and see

Taste and be aware

Taste and delight

Taste and share the joy

That had it gone differently

We might have tried in Eden

 

C L Couch

 

 

the Expulsion illustration in the English Caedmon manuscript, c. 1000 CE

Public Domain

 

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Lent 28

Lent 28

 

We learn

That we have toes

They are small

And essential,

Keeping the rest upright

We might lose the toes

Or never have them

 

All right,

Other parts are trained

 

With the impulse of surprise

A finger can be worked until

It learns to raise the rest

 

New balance

More exact

 

C L Couch

 

 

Nicholas A. Tonelli from Pennsylvania, USA – Floored

(Tonelli photographing toenails)

 

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Lent 27

Lent 27

(1 Corinthians 12:17)

 

We learn we are not an eye

But thankful to have it

I am many parts

So are you

So are we

And with others

Together

 

It is a body, yes

It has many strengths

Many colors

Many purposes

It cannot be judged

By standards of perfection

Unless we understand

We accept

That diminishment comes with time

That disabled happens

Sometimes from the start

 

Don’t add an automaton

To thinking

If it’s there,

Remove it

We are splendid

Like a galaxy

The galaxy of us

If not grace,

Similarly amazing

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash

Petaluma, United States

I took a short 20 minute drive the other night to one of my favorite spots to see the stars. It was exceptionally clear this night. What you are looking at is the core of the milky way. This photo is made up of 30 photos stacked and stitched together to produce this shot. I hope you enjoy it and that if you get a chance to look up at night and view the stars. I’m on IG @bryangoffphoto Stop by and say hi!

(characteristics of a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud)

 

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Lent 26

Lent 26

 

Sometimes, when I’m afraid

I write

Or when I’m sad

Indecisive

Or frustrated

But if I looked back through my journal

(I haven’t done that often)

I’d find, I believe, expressions of

Thanksgiving

Sometimes for sleep that didn’t go so badly

Sometimes for coffee in the morning

Sometimes for cold water, when

I’ve arranged it

I don’t know how much happiness I can have

But it seems I can have gratitude

Which has pieces, if only whittlings,

Of the larger parts

Of joy and peace

 

I think somewhere in there

Might be an invitation, which is

Why I write about this now

 

Because maybe

You’ll find something in the formula

I didn’t plan, and

I didn’t plan

 

Simply saying thank you

To the universe, to God

To a spirit, to an angel

For some measure of something

That will, if only as a single pea

(sorry if you don’t like peas, for

I know those who hate them),

Yet add nourishment to the day

 

A pea can accomplish something

It makes a whistle work

And disturbs the sleep of the

Princess

 

Something small can move along the tale

If only silent thanks

 

C L Couch

 

 

Mateusz Tokarski, ca. 1795 (National Museum in Warsaw)

Mateusz Tokarski – cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26953289

(still life with peas)

 

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Lent 25

Lent 25

 

It’s a paradox

Unorthodox

 

This is a long time for slowing

Down, and yet

We must prepare for

Coming jubilation

There will be speed in that

The coming and the going

And the getting

 

And it’s spring

 

So what kind of spoil-sport

Must we be?

No kind, really

Work goes on

Of every kind

And there are families

And parochial festivities,

Which must be all right

 

So where is the season, then: where

Is our Lenten heart?

Well, in the heart, we say

Yes, it’s there

With other precious things we

Can recall—can reinvoke, if desired

(reorder to reorder)

Those times, those persons

Those happenings, those feelings

Discoveries

Then and now

 

We can keep the season

Let it work inside the mind

And maybe let it course

Through other organs

 

We can have Lenten lungs

A Lenten stomach

Pick something

 

We are so many parts to come

To know and to

Have everything done

 

C L Couch

 

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