rest in God
(the habit)
rest
in God
and what does that mean
to rest
and sleep a little more
a little more in depth
and
to have dreams
and to dream well
or to dream of true struggles
that by
daylight
we must live through
and
where’s the resting
maybe it’s to nearly nap
to lie down
or lie
back
think easy
find the divine though easy
almost
fall asleep to thank
and then go down
in safety
for a while
or maybe
it’s
an attitude
for decision-making
to be at peace
even
in this meeting
of a board
or with a family
one person
two
or twenty
and in the situation to have
still-thinking
thinking through in an allied way
not
alone
but with others
who might not all
in the room
yet still
still
we know are present
rest might mean embrace
an arm around
and how can God do that
though
the maker of embrace
without doubt
has a way
to make it
think
make it feel
make it hope
and make it love
(also the inventor
of
love)
so rest in God
and maybe in each other
rest in God
c l couch
photo by Squids Z on Unsplash
“Lotus”
Jiediaosha, Shenzhen, China
Prayer in Search of a Liturgist
And if we pray
Should we find a service
Or something
A box
As it were
In which to keep it
Give it
A liturgical home
A formal place
To live
Like a tabernacle or
A reliquary
Or may our prayer
Rise to the trees
And that’s
Enough
Not even to find a nest
But leave the tree’s tendrils
To aim
Even for soaring
Blue then white
Then to the black of space
Or
Un-Claudius like
Might it be helpful
For a prayer
To descend
Into the ground
To talk with
Seeds
Or to the ocean floor
For octopi-like things or
Expulsive vents
Or to go down
To a kind of nothingness
That you are Lord of
Too
Directionful
Directionless
Might prayer go where it needs to be
Where it un-needs to be
For your approval
And
Somehow
For application
Even without much more
Than itself
By itself
To consider
By us
By tree
By space
By Earth
By depth
By you
C L Couch
Photo by Bogomil Mihaylov on Unsplash
(Claudius in Hamlet declares “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;/Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”)
The Riddle of the Day
My eyes aren’t fully open
Neither
Is my heart
With all the feelings
Either
While
Of course
Fuzzyheaded
And the day starts
Anyway
You know that this is so
Up for hours
Many
While third-shift people
Earned the right
To sleep
Just now
Yet in
As in yet in thy dark streets shineth
In the last half-moments
Everything
Seems a little
Gold
As if to say
That we pass through every day
A screen
Made particulate gold
You barely feel
Yet
Sets your heart toward me
Then you wake up to me
And then
Decide
How to feel the gold
If at all
To ignore
Or
Behold
The everlasting light
C L Couch
(as with the ancient form, the solution to the riddle speaks
and cited, not as riddling but referencing, is “O Little Town of Bethlehem”)
Photo by N I on Unsplash
Typing Calvinist
Relationships
I’m not good with these
At these
Look at me
Alone
While typing
Word of Earth and faith
As if
I know
At least I have good sources
To go to
And
Yes
This is a solitary act
Traditionally and
Typically
Insofar as that is an operable excuse
But what
Do I know
Whom
Do I
Know
And I don’t know and this
Is doubt
Or course or sometimes when
I refuse to listen
To God
Or you
Or anyone
Too busy with that log in my eye
To see
The virtues of
My sibling people
(who are
all
people)
And while the log means a good challenge
It can be excess
Self-preoccupation
Too
But
Finally to set this down
To set anything on an electron page
Nonetheless
To be
Picked up in an archetypal way
To read
And to respond
This must for you
For all of you
And all for you
There is no reason
Other
Self-expression
Sure
But not enough as we might say
That we are good
And that
Is not enough
C L Couch
(Protestants like work and Calvin liked grace and also Mary; I don’t know enough of Hobbes to say (hah), though I do think most good things go together--say, spirit and flesh; faith and work; readers and writers (when both are good or trying good); voice and text
and with apologies for abstruseness)
Photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández on Unsplash
the familiar way we used to speak
God
you’re here
but there is such a dullness
between you and me
could be an unmoving field
I put there myself
even
unknowing
then to wake to it
and wonder how the barrier
got there
maybe it’s mortality
maybe it’s greed
I’m not sure I know
maybe it’s difference
as in
I’ll come over to you when it’s easy
when the way is lit
thy word
is a lamp
I’ve heard
and are the thees and thous allowed
the ironic use of you
we have let go
the intimate
the way one would say
and has
said
how do I love thee
thou dost prepare
and I should let thee
love
allowing that thou
loves
for creation’s thine
and love's
and so is
mine
c l couch
it used to be that thee was the close way to say you, which is why thee was used in making the Authorized Version and in language overall; ironically, we think of thee and thou and thine as a formal way if at all, and we really don’t, to write and talk and such
references to the Old Testament, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Shakespeare allusion in the photo
photo by Landon Parenteau on Unsplash
Aspen Trees Growing in Saskatchewan Summer [given title]
In the House
I hate the tension in
The house
Do you ever feel it
Does it matter to you
And
Because we never speak of it
I or we
Shall never know
C L Couch
Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
Maybe at Mizpah
In other
Words
Why don’t we favorably dine over unity
Uniqueness
Feast
The sameness and the differences
If
For interest
Curiosity alone
While we are together
And with
A Mizpah kind of pledge
On parting
If we
Could
To regard each other well
And
Not steal
Or
Swindle
Or politick against each other while apart
Join
Know
Negotiate
Celebrate
Who we
Are
Who we’re
Not
With each other
Risky
Business
Maybe
But the only business really
Whose profit comes in lives and which might
Have
God approving
Waiting
C L Couch
Photo by Paul Blenkhorn on Unsplash
permission to pray on our own
I might not have said of
God
directly
how many pages should be read
and then
recited
for the people
what colors robes
to match the season
or may I say somewhere
dear God
say what is real to me
and
then
amen
however I should say that
given language
dialect
or situation
and between these
will you hear my love
of others
and
respond
accordingly with my knowing or
unknowing
what
or how
c l couch
photo by Roman Melnychuk on Unsplash
Dragobrat, Драгобрат, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine
we love like winter
days that underneath the cold
are warm with home
c l couch
photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
clcouch123 
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