To Serve with Love
(and what more)
I am very tired
Lord
And what do you have for me
Anyway
To try
And in the promises
Accomplish
Until the will is to move
Something else
Along
And there is a part
To play in
That
And with unknown others to complete
And so
Let my service for you
By
Your will
Maybe have
In part
Divine surprise
And if I suss well
Be
Satisfied
With the enormous will
I do
Or will not know
If in
A cloud
Of unknowing
C L Couch
Photo by Daoudi Aissa on Unsplash
(The Cloud of Knowing is a medieval text of Christian mysticism.)
how about haiku
seventeen to mend with gold
broke to kintsugi
c l couch
photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash
As Honestly as Able
(praying)
God
As honestly as I am able
I do pray
For people
As in
As for
The thumping child upstairs
With the thumping
Mother
Keep them
And I’ll try to mean not as the Czar
So far
Away
(the rabbi’s prayer from the musical)
And
Yeah
I’ll pray for politicians
Too
And try to think of something loving to ask
For them
If not
Of them
And
Yes
The secret world
Behind the visible where people
Meet and think
To plan
To execute
The running of the rest
The visible
Unhiding world
God
Be with all or us and we should say
According to you will
And
Of course we should
I’m sorry
That’s confession that I think
So hard of things sometimes or wish to
Re-create if
Never
In my image
Yours being
Glorious enough
I hear
Because how glorious is
Perfection
Friends
Families
My own adversaries
Keep
Them all wherever
However you
Deem
Because you’re deeming’s good
Being
In fact
The best
Amen
C L Couch
Photo by Javier Ortiz on Unsplash
after the beginning end of the story
good wins
the evil loses
love has the chance
to win
even more that what was won
through the war
with evil
in peace we love
we have the chance to build
and everything that’s good
to grow
with evil gone
we might still have flaws
this
side of heaven with the better selves
there
and yet with flaws
well
we’ll make mistakes
even learn
openly
to tell a sin from a mistake
to understand an error
isn’t sin
but a part of anyone being human
even after
evil’s been defeated
and
good
shall be in charge
of us
c l couch
photo by Joyce G on Unsplash
No Amens Required
(prayers, devotions for occasions)
reach
thank you
God
for today
as it is
in these smooth hours
even before
everything gets difficult
again
Say
God
What shall we say that you
Provide
And is the cost
Belief
Or does
Grace mean
That everything is
Free
And
Do you love us
Anyway
And
Do you love the ones we know
Are evil
Or merely corrupted
Even in their prosperity
Good
And
Evil
We may not think on these
We might
Instead
By getting by
Or
Trying to
And could we
Ask
We’d only ask for this
And leave the larger matters
Maybe
Well
Maybe
Up to you
Sorry a Tired Prayer
(if not fed-up)
Lord
You made me this say
And the world
And my own
Mistakes
I guess
And I don’t know
Not that I wouldn’t own
But what should I
Own
And what is the fault of
Something else
And
I don’t know
Except
I’m tired of the way things are
Thinking
Peace
Would be preferred
Even over love
For an ambition
Even
A dream from which a plan
To get me
There
A confession
Maybe
An asking
Without doubt
Because
I hope
At least
You’ll do it
Grant me what I need
I don’t mean to ask it
As a wish
Before a genie
Having
Shined a
Lamp
You are not Loki or the
Raven
And yet
Christ might inherit all the qualities
Of
Fools
Which might mean tricksters
And
Who knows
Maybe the world is a trick
From which we wake
Or which is
Ours
To change
And yet
Sigh
Maybe I have some peace
Maybe too old
In age of spirit
Too
Exhausted to
Ask for
More
And yet I’ll pledge
To take
My part in it somehow
shall I say to you
(even daring to assure)
what shall I say to you today
dear
reader
responder
to hang on
or to glory in prosperity
(the second maybe
I don’t need
to
emphasize)
but God smile on you
anew
if it seems not ongoing
be with you
and love you through everything
the easy
and the strong
that seems against
you
the stable
if it’s good
or that which shatters
we must believe
because
it must
God be with you through it all
and God is
C L Couch
Photo by Dmytro Bayer on Unsplash
heart transplant
sometimes when we’re in
too deep
we think of someone tells us
we must come up
for air
because the heart
the body
cannot live
without it
cannot live without the other thing
as well
call it by the many names
in many languages
I think each tongue has
more than one
word for it
it isn’t God
though close
and I don’t want
to leave you with a riddle
though
you show know it or
can find someone
to tell you
to remind you
nothing so deep
but this isn’t deeper
more
lasting and
in fact
the core
of each
and
dare I say of all
and I don’t think
(by the way)
that God will mind
not really
supplanting
but
investing this again
if need be
in
our lives
and if Giod minds
I’m sorry
no fault of
your
own
c l couch
photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
The Smallest Moves the Mountain
Faith like a mustard seed
Among
The smallest of the
Seeds
For
That distinction
Not
To say that faith is a small matter
But
To say that maybe it is nearly
Weightless in
A way
To believe in it
To take if on
Perhaps
It might be easy
Though the convert might struggle
Over time
And with the knees
At
The last
I mean
The start
C L Couch
(Matthew 17:20)
Photo by Gursewak Singh on Unsplash
First and Last Resort
I pray
And maybe I don’t know how
There is the famous prayer
To pray
And I pray that
Though am prone to leave it
To formality
In
The attending crowd
But how about from
Me
To you
I can pray anything
I know
I can say anything
You hear
You love
Even forbear
And shall be disappointed
Even angry
Maybe even punishing
On this
Side
(like the claws on her back
in
The Horse and His Boy)
I now it’s not a trick
A puzzle
To get right
One
Way with all the right pieces won
As at a contest
Or a fair
Hit with the hammer to show
Enough strength
Water
The clown
‘Til the balloon above should
Pop
Not a
Competition
Not at all
Like
These
May I say
I love you
And I need you
Don’t know
How
But anyway
And will you help
Even teach
To love and need
The
Others’
And my own
And is it bifurcated
The other’s wish
And
Mine
Fate even
Direction
What is shared
And what must be
My own
Though God
I have been on my own
Enough
(and
maybe the other
has
or hasn’t)
How shall I pray for these
Except
To keep it simple
Even humble as in
Without the dross of vanity
For
Distraction
From what’s true
Like the
Unencumbered arrow
And the target
Might be
Resolution
Shot with grace
The arc toward the center
Near
Enough
Perhaps
Being a newbie always
So it seems
Even practiced
For I pray so much to you
And
Still it seems
I only start
And if we mean it
Should be good
Amen
C L Couch
Photo by Isabella Fischer on Unsplash
Arundel
It’s
Larkin
Captures the detail
In the stone
That the couple’s hands are touching
Throughout what might be
The long life of
Statuary
Isn’t that the thing to
Leave
And who they knew the message
When flesh
Was intimate
The lord and the lady considering
The tomb
And a commission
To have their hands joined
After
Death
While
Uncommissioned
Beyond wedding vows
They had the life deserving
Of the clue
On the monument
For keep observers to be
Noting
And who knows
Maybe corresponding in their touching
As well
While on Earth
And promising celestial
Closeness
Too
Larkin’s message might be hard
(like
the stone)
Until the end
And it’s after I am thinking
Since his hands are in a posture too
Just now
And for how long
By bone
Or ash
There's knowing
C L Couch
a response to “An Arundel Tomb” by Philip Larkin
(can read at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47594/an-arundel-tomb)
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
graves in Arundel
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