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Lent 24

Lent 24

 

In our time together,

We might travel far

In one way or another

We might hear sounds

See new sights

Enjoy new tastes

Feel the air and mist

That ribbon other shores

Smell the clarity of salt

 

It might be walking

Or a plane

Some other vehicle that gets us there

A conveyance of our bodies, yes

Our senses

Though must do

The harder work

It’s how we’re made

 

We give ourselves the data

Via input from our lives

(first machines)

What shall we learn, one by one

What shall we learn together?

 

So much to learn

So little time

But that’s no way to operate

We must value what we have

Each mote, each moment

Singly or together,

We can learn

While traveling far

In one way or another

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Nicola Nuttall on Unsplash

 

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Lent 23

Lent 23

 

I’ll look at it again

Often I don’t

Sometimes I do

It is the way of things, I guess

Conceit, deceit

To give us time and

An excuse for time

And a belief

Not misguided

That our contributions matter, which

Lends credence to our

Putting something off

With a promise

To return

 

Because the thing needs us

Maybe it does

If not, maybe we do

And that’s our need

 

C L Couch

 

 

agenda by Guilhem from the Noun Project

 

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Lent 22

Lent 22

 

Sometimes we might think

Of Lent as a dry time

We’ve rid the house of sugar, after all

And cooking fat

Everything that takes away from

Arid concentration,

Which is spiritual, we say

To ourselves

 

But there are Easter baskets

And an Easter dinner we are waiting on

These are good, aren’t they—

And they are

Even to the blessing of the baskets

Along the altar rail

On the day before

(early Saturday morning)

Everything we’ll use to

Split the difference between

Faith and easy living

 

But don’t we need both sides?

There will be Easter Sunday, after all

And we’ll have gone to church

Taken part in singing

And the sunshine that’s been made

From Easter matter

 

But don’t forget the Easter eggs to hide

And something about rabbits

 

Good things, all?  Goodness, yes

But there is the desert thinking

Our origins in western Asia,

Northern Africa

Those we call the mothers and our fathers

Who lived dry Lenten seasons

Every day,

Whose wisdom aids

Our understanding spirit,

Which then prompts

Everything we’ll do

 

They are right,

The mystics and the everything

And there is something right in us

To be involved

Today

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Dean Ward on Unsplash

Before chopping down one of the trees in our garden we did an inspection to make sure there were no nests in it. This gorgeous little nest was in one on the lower branches so it looks like the tree is staying.

 

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Lent 21

Lent 21

 

Have you ever run the sponge

Along the bottom of the sink

And felt the satisfaction?

Knowing that the dishes cleaned

Are in the rack

And the quiet from the running water

Now turned off

Is a pleasure of pressure

On the ears

 

I’ve done that today

You have your own form of this, I’m sure

A small act always needing doing

And for a moment, when it’s done,

A small, small part of the world

Feels right

Feels righter

For being cleaner, a little more at peace

For a time

 

I don’t know if it’s a model for anything

That’s larger

It is its own peace

 

But access to hot water isn’t everywhere

Even soap can be hard to come by

Against a savage promise of starvation

Looming like an open maw, nearing

The family

The one

 

And so might there be peace in this:

That we must invite assurance

Of all things lent us,

Partnering

So the jaw of need is shut

 

For this time and in our keeping

Our maintaining

And our growing

Enough for God’s pleasure in our own

Because we’ve done it right

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Jim DiGritz on Unsplash

 

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Lent 20

Lent 20

 

Where are we now?

Somewhere in a season

Let’s not count

But let slip a moment, here and there

To find a new way

To breathe and not to worry

 

To accept something familiar-feeling

And not be surprised

That something new can feel this way

And, yes, it feels true

 

C L Couch

 

 

Hildegard of Bingen – Hildegard von Bingen: ‘Werk Gottes’ (Codex Latinus 1942 in der Bibliotheca Governativa di Lucca?)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1823924

Medieval depiction of a spherical earth with different seasons at the same time (from the book “Liber Divinorum Operum”).

 

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Lent 19

Lent 19

 

And in a Lenten hour

Maybe we’ll get some things

Out of our system

Distractions we can live without

Pursuits that take us nowhere

Things that bother us

That really don’t

So that

 

We can have up front

(or close behind)

What really should be closer

To the mind

The heart

Or anything that prompts the rest of us

To move

What should nick us

Like small cuts

What should we pay attention to

What needs changing

We can change

What we must keep living with

For now

 

C L Couch

 

 

Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49408494

Tikkoja heitettynä tikkatauluun.

 

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Lent 18

Lent 18

(synthesis)

 

I romanticize

Apologies for that that

I think we need to give ourselves

A pause

And a chance

For something good

 

Deserving of so many

Repentance for the rest

Then everyone can have

 

Color, sound, texture

In life

To have it fully

With safety in

Awareness

 

There’s more, of course

And that’s all right

Ask not what the heaven’s for

But how is life on

Earth today

 

C L Couch

 

 

Suburbia ved Tranberg på Gjøvik

Øyvind Holmstad – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48486425

 

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Lent 17

Lent 17

(city life)

 

Then the mouse

Visits the cousin in the city

There is noise

Fantastic noise

From machines and gravelly

Human movement

Friction protesting air

There are scarves and neckties

Inside collar buttons

And closed sleeves

And shoes will never be the same

 

There is energy in mass

Sometimes it’s a push against

The lack of complementary understanding

 

There is metal

But there’s metal everywhere

There is plastic that has become

A universal challenge

 

All forms might matter

All substances invite

All cities are a marvel

And all this only on arrival

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Thomas Habr on Unsplash

Empire State Building, New York, United States

I was in the US for the first time, I have visited all the places and that includes Empire State Building, I’ve been waiting for the sunset 4 hours there, I was freezing but it was worth the shot. Hope you like it.

 

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Lent 16

Lent 16

(village life)

 

In enclaves

In clusters

We persist

Small-town living yet with

All our senses

 

We hear the seasons overhead;

Molecules of air

Have time to light on us

There might be swans

Upon the river

Lights under the bandstand

That switch on at night

Having charged by day

Through solar panels

 

And we might sit

On chairs filigreed in style

Sipping coffee as we like it

In a café set along

A narrow street

Beside a water’s edge

Redolent of all scents

Mostly fair,

 

Where we might talk

Or simply stop

The moments

Silently using

All we are

 

We might have work to do

Outside

We will

This could be a day off

Or after chores

Or some time we manage

By our own

An hour we must have

Somewhere inside

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by Jörg Peter from Pixabay

 

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