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Liturgies

Start with a Star

(x = space)

x

x

Start with a Star

x

Stars

Start with our own

Star

It’s wonderful

And gives us leave

To try for now

To reach

Another one

Before

A billion years

When we must go

There

To survive

Further

To strive

And also

Thrive

x

Which is the hallmark

Of our single race

In cooperation

With all other matter

x

Strive

And thrive

x

Until we meet

Another race

That thrives

By staying in one place

Those who explore

By sending tentacles

Or other metaphors

Out there

Out here

x

We meet them

And someday

We really meet them

And might be friends

For different ways

Our differences

Enhances

x

Then cooperatively

We reach

Out and in

Some more

In fact

Throughout a galaxy

And then

Beyond the rim

x

Stars we make

And then we make

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by Anshu S. on Unsplash

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You and You Will Be There

(x = where)

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x

You and You Will Be There

x

I haven’t mentioned you

Today

Though you are intertwined

Threaded

Through everything

Like gold inside a tapestry

Running to be seen

Or rediscovered

Later

x

You were there

Of course

You were

Our time alone

Is really for companionship

And when things are like Fatima

Well

That’s obvious

But when the world is busy

With phenomena

Broadcasters don’t find you

To interview

Preferring mortal leaders

And settling

For pundits

x

Well

How may we ask questions

Of an invisible God

On the scene

Or even chez lui

In a church

Or temple

Or where you’re really home

x

I guess

We can’t take our wires

There

Until we can and may

Maybe at Megiddo

Maybe at the gates

Or just inside

For justice

x

Given a chance

To know the words

The one word over

Under

For salvation

Ticket

For a journey

To the other side

North

And south

And west and east

Of Eden

With new promises

Across the world we’ve known

Pushed

Riotously

Perhaps

With celebration

And good humor

Among angels and the saved

New grace

New creation

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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God Help Us

(x = space)

x

x

God Help Us

x

God help us

Everyone

And God will

We only have to ask

And sometimes

Not that much

We call it grace

And miracle

Held and dispensed

By no one

But the Lord

x

So light a candle

Safely

Or do not

Really nothing is required

No tired rite

Or something new

For invocation

And our supplication

x

There is no order

Memorized

Say help into air

Or at the ground

Or leave it to the mind

A receptable

For meeting

x

God is here

God is there

God waits

On our interest

And our need

x

Ask

Receive

Try not

To fret the timing

There’s an answer

Every time

That serves

That aids

That loves

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C L Couch

x

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Photo by Christophe Maertens on Unsplash

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corn was a gift

you know

for those who landed

from those already here

x

maybe we could greet each wave

from ships

at borders

in this way

x

a generation

and a kind

welcoming the other to new worlds

as our own

x

0

Normal Prophecy

(x = space)

x

x

Normal Prophecy

x

And shall we live today

In late fall

To the north

With spring away

Beyond the line

And before the others that

Define our place

For seasons

Though in the middle

I suppose

There must seasons

Too

x

And shall we have our fall

And then our winter

Not discontent

On sledding hills

And over frozen ponds

Our temperate zones

Replete with

Different-feeling times of year

Weather for planting

And for harvesting

As well

The mere tilting of the Earth

And shall Goldilocks

Be tilting

Too

Elsewhere

x

The seasons to survive

With food

And beauty

Too

Both for our survival

In a changing world

Until the day

We walk through the valleys

In all zones

And in all zones

We walk in peace

x

C L Couch

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“We Shall Walk through the Valley” is a hymn and anthem and is referenced here.

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Photo by Robert V. Ruggiero on Unsplash

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prayer in a circle

(x = space)

x

x

prayer in a circle

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prayer in a circle

at the table

or

while standing

anywhere

x

it’s beautiful

attaching words

to statements

supplications

even

questions

with our doubts

x

the prayer is over

we are stronger

knowing

something to affirm

and in a kind

of pledge

to do the next thing

with spiritual

aplomb

and just plain niceness

(yep)

to each other

as the circle visually

fades

to purpose

x

c l couch

x

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photo by Igor Surkov on Unsplash

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Don’t You Know There’s a War On

(x = space)

x

x

Don’t You Know There’s a War On

x

Yes

I do

And in too many places

x

Stop it

There

That’s that

x

(but)

Real war

The awful

Bloody king

That rents bodies

Families

Homes

And nations

Sometimes underneath

The quick

Where there is no fire

For warmth

For life

After the explosion’s fire

That roared

And then ceased

Under nothing

x

Is there a rubber drive

A paper drive

A drive for metals

After their first uses

No

There’s money

Certainly

And drives for that

All sides

Wanting

Naturally

Humanly enough

x

But closer in

Flesh is required

Holding weapons

Fired into the right direction

No protests

Allowed

Obey

Or be added to the fodder

We might not count

For service

Or for loyalty

x

Safely apart

We play games

Watch them

Eating food we do not need

Though it is ours

And the point is

To bring the world up

To peace

For play

x

How do we answer these

The tragedies

The questions

I don’t know

We could stop

The wars

Encouraged by contemporary versions

Of the Lysistrata

Reason could invade

Rather than

Atrocity

And greed

Reason could finish it

If somehow most of us

Agreed

x

I don’t know

Do you

Stop

Right now

Forget the rest

Leave it half-done

(half to stay alive)

Keep the warring general in Russia

Let Hamas keep to itself

In the basements beneath hospitals

Then move the hospitals

x

Let other

Designing warriors

Anywhere

Take note

x

Who erstwhile

Or present

Future

Makes these happen

There’s God

Who’s waiting for our minds

Maybe what

There’s reason

There is conscience

And goodwill

On Earth

Come out

To work

To grieve

To build

And then to play

The game on Earth

No brinksmanship

Anymore applied

x

We go home

With others

Searching homes

And to rebuild

x

note

x

I know I speak

From safety

That I wish

Then pray

For you

For everyone

Who needs it

In certain places

Even kinds

For whom war must

As all wars do

Like (and with) pre-judgments

Victimize

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Pop & Zebra on Unsplash

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1

Grow Us

(x = space)

x

x

Grow Us

x

Will you grow us

God

Give us the chance

Even with tense peace

Our contribution

To the means

x

On an Earth

That has its way

But

We push against

For what we think

Advances us

x

Maybe with some relenting

Rather

Enjoy the Earth

As is

The wisdom

In the higher places

Thin air to breathe

For penance

x

The living in the valleys

Towns and farms

For habitation

And for food

That daily bread

We talk

About

x

Also forgiving

Tempered in forgiven

x

So that

As is

As defined

Ain’t bad

Especially when

We’ve changed so much

x

We could stand

(like plants)

To remember

Even renew

With

Re-expression

The peace in what was made

And is

And still is

The promise of return

From no investment

Save faith and some respect

For having

All this wonder

Bestowed

x

Plant us

As in Eden

And water us

For life

Not to keep us

Stuck

But to grow us

Free

Out into the world

Anthropocene

For now

Maybe better in alliance

With the one who planted

First

And still

Tills with real peace

In

Genesis dynamic

x

Amen

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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0

staging, Open Range

(x = space)

x

x

first poem led to the second

x

x

staging

x

orange-pink

next to the tree

in the distance

deep blue sky

mostly

with the morning star

small and white

looking far-off

nova-like

in the waveless sea

predawn

it’s dawning now

only started

when I looked through

the blinds

hearing nearly nothing

on the street

in the tree

the usual outside

the window

absent

muffled

however everything prepares

so early

for the normal noise to come

x

x

Open Range

x

God

I wondered

If you ever might

Be surprised

Like us

Because you are in part

Like us

I mean

It goes that way as well

Made in your image

Aren’t we then

Like you

And if it’s on the inside

Then emotions

And sensations

Might be attributed

To you

Pleasure

Perhaps

And passion

Love

Even the fragile feeling

And do you feel sad

x

We say you’re angry

(it’s in

our books)

It was the impetus that

Forbearance

Allowed enough

The ark

With some people on it

To survive

The keel-less journey

x

Some say Gilgamesh

As well

While some and others

See and hear

Your anger in extremities

Of nature

(outside nature)

In the storms

Lightning fires

And eruptions

Even in

Quakes

That certify your condemnation

Or our use of land

x

Or that you stretch

Because you do

Your might because it is

Inside the

Cosmos

And must have its say

In addition to

The munificence of creation

x

So if

Everything’s available

Every aspect

Then you might mourn

And be taken

Unaware

Be satisfied

And disappointed

Have a plan

And have it moved

Knowing both parts

Are approved

x

And there’s the qualifier

Maybe

Whatever happens

Happens

In your sight

And your hearing

The smell

The touch

The taste

Of your omniscience

So that

Fragility is held by strength

Options are

More or less contained

And unaware

Might be for fun

Except for earnestness

Part of the plan

Somehow

You feel it

And you know it

Then move on

So you could say

With justice

That you knew it all along

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by César Couto on Unsplash

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0

Fake Peace, Truth Waits (2 poems)

(x = space)

x

x

2 poems

x

x

Fake Peace

x

We negotiate in air

While the real war goes on

The numbers we’ve collected

Make for

Phantom outrage

x

We’ve learned to gather narratives

To help

Though hardness of head and heart

Like Pharoah’s

Or the safe distance of the Czar

The junta in a bunker

Technical commanders at the switches

For computers

Will not help

x

Stop it

We want to say

Though justification

Rationale

To go on while we’re winning

Think we are

Further compels us

x

There are sides

There are protests

There are groans

From hurt

And even dying people

More explosions

Inside walls

Bursting through

That might have been

Our homes

x

And now collateral

More numbers

Say we’re winning

Why negotiate

x

Come home sometime

What will there be

Rubble in defeat

(there’s rubble on the winning

side as well)

Enough to say

For losing

(and for winning)

We are done

With so much of our spirit

Surrendered over to

Waiting

For even a surer end

Damn the legations

x

Everything

Is over

Negotiate the absence

Of our families

(both sides)

Release the pain

And fill in all the losses

Like a journey through

Bomb craters

And we have no shoes

Only garments rent

From running

And now mourning

x

And you

Winners

Want negotiation

Naming the terms

If you can

Through all this

Forget it

I need food

And walls

And separation

From everything

And all of you

Even my own

x

And this is war

Universally

With tense peace

After

And new hopelessness

To feel every day

Upon waking

Sensing

And recalling

So much blasted

So much gone

So many

Even those we argued with

Now gone

x

Gone people

Name locations

Redraw

The lines

We do not care

The dead

And now

The living victims

Anyway

In war

And after war

x

x

Truth Waits

x

And what is true

Knowing that Pilate

Doesn’t wait

For an answer

But consigns the one

He asks

To a rabid crowd

Festered

And fettered

By the empires

And wasted doctrine

Rituals

That do not work

Make nothing better

But a promise

That the next world

Will be better

x

Ready to

Tear the one apart

And is consigned to this

By the one

Who asks for truth

And doesn’t wait

For an answer

x

The rhetorical question

But for a moment

Left unsaid

By further one

And then the other

x

Truth

Suspended in the air

Wafting uselessly

Too far above the crowd

And a governor’s

Own house

And how we govern

Waiting longer

For an answer

Not from Rome

But re-released

From above

Where Pilate’s truth

Was captured

And let go

Refined

And can be received

By him

Had waited

And the crowd

Had it been stilled

Like the truth

Over the storm

In Galilee

x

x

John 18:38

John 4:24

x

x

C L Couch

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x

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

(THIS IS WHO I AM)

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