Prayer for Me and Everyone
(and everyone who needs to pray this way)
O God
Our help
Help me
Keep me safe
And sane enough
For jazz
Or really
For the world
Largely indifference
But with those
As we say
(as I say)
Who’d just as soon
Cheat you
As smile at you
(who cheat you
first
by smiling
at you)
Really
Though
I need your company
And to feel it
Please
As companionship
If I may ask
Not so much
As a judge
Even though you are
And shall
And woe to me
When that business
Comes
And
Yes
I’m thinking
Like the Amish farmer
Who when asked
If saved
Replied
For all this faith
And service
I hope so
And I hope so
Though there is a world
That needs you
Even for orneriness
And even
Scorn
And hatred
For the differences
It fears
While some of us find
Difference
Interesting
And how did I evolve
This way
Conservative
Yet believing
In the prismatic way
One light becomes
Well
Help me
Lord
Please
I am too poor
Without resources
To do much
But I am I
Such as that is
And it seems
According to doctrine
And the smallest
Mustard-seed
Like
Miracles that happen
You persist
Somehow perfectly
In loving me
And keeping me
And I’d like to ask
And will
About my friends
By blood
And choice
And happenstance
And for a world
That’s cracked
And losing air
To please give everyone
A chance
And then another
We need you
In unknowing
We are a cloud of witnesses
If a stormy
One
You made
And let become
Over ages
Where is Eden now
Where are the rivers
And the perfect
Vegetation
And shall
We ever
Know such things again
As at the start
If that
The angel on assignment
Could step down
And lowering
The sword on fire
Raise the other arm
Then say
The trialing time is over
Welcome back
C L Couch
Photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
simplicity for
haiku in and of itself
so much undefine
c l couch
photo by Viviane Okubo on Unsplash
for once
(please or is it pleas)
if God
then God
come down
not only from the Christmas tree
but from every tall place
we cannot reach
or only with precarity
and up from every
deep dark place
we can imagine
not to mention woeful places
we cannot
and from left
or from the right
and then from the inside
where our own spirits
reside
with or without alliances
from the spirit
that moves everywhere
and with our will
might live
within us
God come from every place
every point
we measure
and beyond
and realize
please
for once
a real form
that we can see
from which we hear the voice
that we could taste
and close enough to smell
even to touch
with or without piercing points
for remembrance
or for proof
and be here for a while
we could have coffee
with or without
an armageddon
after
c l couch
photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
“Christ Climbed Down” is a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, which I thought of when writing about God climbing ("come down")
the right hand doesn’t know
(sometimes left people have it right)
God
I haven’t mentioned you
though I know
you’re there
we are in dialogue
it seems
I hope it is an angel
who negotiates
like the bush that burned
and spoke
and the angel who held
Abram’s hand
and changed him
in the harshest lesson of
obedience
and mercy
and not the voice of one
erstwhile
who cackles now
so subtly
so quiet-like
to say
do this
do that
my master calls
and through it
we will ruin everything
‘til everything become
inferno
and subservience
without the pleasure
from a lord
who gives none
which is a lot
to parse
while deciding
to go right
or to go left
listening to one
the angelic
and other one
the sinister
like the shoulders
in cartoons
only the stakes
though small
could become a trend
of listening
to one leaning
or the other
I might have let the demon in
so long ago
and while want the angel-voice
alone
have struggled ‘tween the two
two wills represented
and how long
‘til we know better
easily
domestically
or cosmically
while the stakes are only
turning right
or left
the angelic
or the sinister
which makes a left hand
of theology
and will
to work
and to believe
and within these
grace
to have it right
(or left)
and so be saved
c l couch
photo by Nguyen Minh on Unsplash
time and temporality
(for dreamers and for planners)
we look
we hear
we wonder
as we wander
like the song
out under the sky
or being still
having gone nowhere
perforce
or by design
the need to have some time
an hour or a day
in which we do not move
but traverse everything
inside
and inside
where shall we go
what shall we
hear
what shall we
see
what shall we smell
or get a taste of
what is the other sense
what shall we taste
though we may
also travel throughout
time
slip into other states of being
as our possibilities
visit other worlds
that we make
for moments
that never happened
though we may go there
for the possibility
the changes
the resolutions
never having taken place
except there
in what we visit
on the inside
that time and life
under the sun
never allowed
waking issues
that are not solved
out here
but we should
do this
this is good
a friend of mine might say
about ideas
when we planned things
together
in the day
this added time to dream
might engender
visions
three dimensions
only
but good experiences for
our constituencies
starting with
those of
one
then two
and who’s to say
the dimension of the spirit
or the spirits
will not be joining us
the outer life
the inner life
somehow touched and satisfied
through dreaming and
then
through waking
c l couch
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,
how Jesus the Savior did come for to die
for poor ordinary people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.
adapted by John Jacob Niles
photo by Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash
"Sunset in Vancouver"
I Do Confess ’t
God
I feel fat
Like the fat
That Gertrude
Said of Hamlet
Meaning
Tired
Or unprepared
Or
You know
Fat
I think
You’re with me
On the inside
And guide me
From there
The presence
Of your
Spirit
Prompting
Poking
Whatever motion
Works
And I
Recalcitrant
(and fat)
Do not get it
Push back
With my own will
‘Til near
Destruction
Sometimes
And
Sometimes
Even after
You’re with me
When I’m
Slow
And wrong
Through the thickness
Of my flesh
That hides
Everything I want
To hide
Awareness of the harm
I cause
In all directions
To all souls
And do I do
So much
Or
Take too much credit
With vanity
Somehow
In deprivation
When
I know
You can ameliorate
Reach out
In dreams
Or more directly
Touching the vibrations
Of heart-wisdom
In the hurt
And maybe
For the moment
Lost
C L Couch
QUEEN He’s fat and scant of breath.— Hamlet 5.2.313
Photo by cal gao on Unsplash
here is a chapbooklet, as it were (and to have made up the word), a small series of poems it won’t take long to read or, please and naturally, read how much however, whenever
From Psalm 51
It’s past the sabbath time
And the spirit
Of the Lord
Stays with us
Create in me a clean heart
O God
And renew a right spirit
Within me
My favorite psalm
And it’s a good one
Anyway
Because there is a promise
It can happen
Like the washed sins
Becoming like the snow
Though I like
The sense of plea
In this one
We reach out
To God
Invoke God
And ask for God’s involvement
We may ask for this
Each time we read
And think on it
(words with thoughts, Claudius)
Though
The Lord might say
I’ve done it
Clean heart
Right spirit
All is well
Be at peace
And the Lord
Will listen to our plea
All our pleas
Time and again
As much as need
To send over to
The perfect listening
Of the Lord
God Hears Us
Should I shout to God
Or splutter words
Between sobs
Or ask
While sitting on a chair
Before a meeting
Or whisper
God hears me
Every time
God can do that
And hear the prayers
Of everyone
Who speaks
Or thinks
Into that extraordinary network
Where angels might be working
Fast
At fever pitch
We could think
Though they must be even-handed
Being willed to perfection
But beyond fancy
Really
Or what really happens
We don’t know
God hears us
And responds
With reason
And attentiveness
Yes
With a modicum
Of mystery
God’s timing is not ours
More so the wisdom
As we are heard
And loved
Each time
Re-Tool
I wish the news were better
Stabbings in New York
After guns
We’ll have to outlaw knives
Stabbings in many places
I guess they are
Cheap guns
The wars go on
And now
We missile Houthis
And I can’t say
We shouldn’t
Though we have a State Department
That’s pretty big
And pretty busy
I think on the tall trees
And want them to remain
Or to be moved
With the kind of skill
We have
In such things
Rather than topple
Cut down
And cut apart
For tables
Spoons
And toothpicks
And so go our forests
And our oxygen
For ages
Though we might find it hard to breathe
Today
There are wonders
In the woods
And in the animals
No matter where
But so many things that live
And maybe nearly all
Have pain centers
And something for a thought
If only impulse
In something
Like a mind
We could try to relate
Before the slaughter
I really think
We could
I know it would harm industry
Though industry’s
Industrious
And should find something else
As it has
At least when successful
As it can be
Re-think
Re-tool
Re-train
Get governments
Communities
To help
While we get
To keep a world
With more
Positive prosperity
That might engender
More
Good feeling
So we keep
Our knives in drawers
From Out of Town
I am a visitor
More spectator
Than participant
These folk
Know their world
And I am visiting
Without a ticket
Except for love
Saturated
In the invitation
C L Couch
Photo by Jigar Panchal on Unsplash
Worth Keeping
I keep
Thinking
About
War
And war-like things
Like drugs in trade
And
Trafficking
Because one life
Is worthy
Even intensely
And intensely
Valuable
And who are we
To say
We’ll keep this one
Let that one
Go
By paperwork
The gold slip by
Aghast
Or sigh
For boredom
In our sins
We’ll bank another
Somewhere
Else
Conquer
Or imprison
Until
Or while
Each of us is caught
The flesh
For opportunity
Whatever else
Inside
Stays in the boxes
Where we keep
Supplies
Aside
To keep us going
Yet each
Might be a savior
No
You’re wrong
None of us
Shall save
Or even aid
To saving
Through an invention
Or a discourse
To change minds
Toward
New understanding
For a race
To have
To change
For the better
As we could have said
Even
Fantastically
To say
And have
Amazing
Opportunity
If we let each one go
To growth
And with assists
And then so much
Better
For a life
Not an investment for
Money
And for blood
Let each one
Live
Who came into this world
As we say
And say
By mortal hands
And by the Lord
As promises
To planets
And to galaxies
Home
And away
And for each other
One
Two
Keep going
Make a world
And then another one
Worth keeping
C L Couch
Photo by Aman Chaturvedi on Unsplash
practical peace
because
we won’t have peace naively
or stupidly
it must be practical
to be lasting
needs
wants
hopes
desires
visions
futures
should be secured
or all the awful
bloody
tiresome effort
will be wasted
good words
define
a map
could help
actions will prove
peace right
that we deserve it
and should have it
starting
with the victims
made before
we got to this
august place
and really mean it
by defining
by mapping
by our doing
it
the peace
we practice
everywhere
this time
C L Couch
photo in Berlin, Germany
by Norbert Braun on Unsplash
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