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Nicene Intention

(x = space)

x

x

Nicene Intention

(universal method)

x

God is God

And God becomes

Human

And as God and

Human

May serve as the

Mediator

Both in between

And on both sides

A sacrificing

(needn’t be done)

Remarkable

Negotiating strategy

To be in the middle

Also moving

Through each side

x

It’s real

It’s blood-won

It involves an intimate

Awareness of

Divinity and

The temporal through sin

And loving everyone

Inside everyone

Bring to bear

Reconciliation to the table

All parties

With a nod

That meant

I died for this

For you

For everyone

And everything

On sides

And at this table

One way or another

Now

x

Call it an altar

Or a cairn

A memorial

A space

That existed with all spaces

Before Sarah

Before Abraham

Before Buddha

Or Mohammed

(bless the name

and bless all names

approved)

And we have much to do

Then and now

Though now

For the mortal side

Is fair

x

Earth shall be fair

As a result of this

Mortal and divine

Working out

What is good

What is victory

What shall be the means

To believe in

And proceed from there

Toward Earth and us

In paradise

In time

Now

Then tomorrow

Breaking time

In fact

So that we have primal

And evermore

Perfection

With all wonders

Wonderful things to do

Each moment

That bears

And shall express

Forever

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C L Couch

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Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

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By Gosh

(x = space)

x

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By Gosh

x

God

Sorry

God

You’re not sorry

In this way

I am

And I presume upon

Your

Intimateness

I seek your pardon and

Too often act

Assuming it

x

There is your mercy

For intention

And grace

For your means

And these are bestowed

Free of us

Our institutions

Our intentions

All of them

x

What we might do

Or think

And shall you always love us

Yes

You will

We are nothing new

And always new

Oldly

And newly

You forgive us

Even direct us away

And it helps

When we cooperate

x

Forgive us now

Forgive me now

Your will be done

And all or ours

Somehow

Beyond our doctrine

And the statements of our creeds

We need them

They compass-point us

We need you more

Who are

The magnetism

Earth and sky

And everything

That follows you

For being made

And not for looking

For you

For they know

You’re there

And frankly

You are here

x

We have to know

We have the will

That took us out of Eden

In the way

Of will

As we shall have it

And while the evidence

Mortally is lousy

Still

We come to believe

With everything

We are

x

Wow

A paradox of understanding

And enactment

Fortunately

There are the words

And there is revelation

In the words

And truth worth following

Unto the last

x

But wishing

Wishing

We could have more

We could meet you

And you’d take us

Hand in hand

As metaphor

More like cell to cell

For real

x

What is real

What is truth

You are both

You give us both

And more

And should we be

Grateful

x

For all we know

And must sigh into

What we don’t

And let that be all right

It is faith

After all

By definition

And by will

x

And how do you want us

But by will

Without the concrete obligations

In our love

But our love

With the best evidence we have

Or more important

Anyway

x

C L Couch

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Photo by TopSphere Media on Unsplash

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Halfway Home

(x = space)

x

x

Halfway Home

x

The sacrifice

Of your shed blood

He said

On our behalf

In prayer

His words the surrogates

A shadow

Of the death itself

x

Horribly

A bleeding body

Shed of its spirit

At the last

A life too pure

A sacrifice

For us

x

Yet there it was

In expiation

Half redemption

For our sins

x

The weight of everything

That hates

Crushing his body down

Pushing out his spirit

On to Hades

Or Valhalla

To Gehenna

Or to Sheol

As it’s understood

To name it

x

Half the promise

The brutal

Ugly

Barbarous part

Complete

And it is over

He said it was finished

Maybe it is

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C L Couch

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Photo by Didssph on Unsplash

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Around

(x = space)

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x

Around

x

I keep thinking of God

By that spring

Of water

That typically looks blue

Though sometimes clear

Showing all the

Pristine things below

Rocks and fish

You know

The lying and the creeping things

x

God offers

Some to share

For thirst requires

First attention

There is no speaking

There is no clear thinking

‘Til the molecules

Have

Cool and oxygen

Through water

Then we may talk

x

God looks a person there

And still

What might I

I

Have to say

To God?

x

There is no altar

For obeisance

And a sacrifice

No worship

As there is no priest or choir

Anyway

Nothing of a temple

Or a church

x

It is we two

A spring

A living tree looks over

Green and perfect flowers

I wonder

How long I might be there

Sit there

(slaked)

Trying out one script and then other

Out of my head

Over my tongue

And yet hello

Croaked upon arrival

Before drinking

Is on the line

And nothing over

x

God will speak

Of course

To say the perfect thing

To try my tears

Now that I have water inside

Or press joy

Upon the mind

Maybe to evoke

Those kinds of tears

The happiness

Companionship

A now

x

And I cannot worry

About how long

There is a forever

In this moment

And what might come after

Is conditional

Subjunctive

Doubts that do not matter

Suponemos

(we suppose)

Suponíamos

Supondríamos

x

I should not wonder

For in this encounter

Is enough

Is wonder

For eternity

All I can bear

There

And now

x

God

Does this

There is your own place

That might be the same

And there might be numbers

One

Two

Five thousand needing food

Two upon a cross

Or all the slaves crucified

For wanting to believe

We can be free

x

All shall come

All shall arrive

God shall welcome

With cool water

And-or

Whatever might be needed

A nosh

A deck of cards

(for Rook)

Play

Play for work

And then to let them go

x

The stream

Or what we need

For this place

Remains

A place to meet the Lord

Where the Lord is always waiting

(angels attending)

‘Til we come ‘round

Whatever has been bending us

From clarity

Eternity

A drink with God

Some words

Enough to save

To secure what we have believed

Or identify what we have not

To keep the good

Let go the rest

As service to the Lord

And the peaceful

The dynamic

Plains and courts

Skies and outer space

Transomed

With transparent streets

To clarity

The dark let go

Except in perfect shadows

x

All of which to say

We meet the Lord

Or don’t

But there is waiting for us

And it’s delight

In faith

And comfort for the ragged

Parts

From life

From confusion

By the barbarous

Now we turn

Now here we are

Hello

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash

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2 poems—a dragon and the presence of the Lord

(x = space)

x

x

2 poems—a dragon and the presence of the Lord

x

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A Dragon Calls

x

Sigh

A dragon calls

With a harness

For a human

And a land

To fly me to

Or bring me back

As I might choose

x

Thank you

Dragon

I’m sorry if I can’t

Pronounce your name

Though I think it time

To say yes

And fly away

x

A wizard might arrive

With a great horse

On the porch

Though that is the final story

For another day

x

x

In the Presence of the Lord

x

I’m thinking spiritual

The presence is

Well

Everywhere

I’d like to think

Imbued in everything

x

But after making

And our due to credit

The rock does not have you in it

Though the storm

However much we feel

The preternatural push

x

I might find you

In the molecule

Or on the comet

Inside Leviathan

Or in the upholstery

Of the seat

Next to mine

On the plane

x

But that’s because

You are in my own

And everyone’s

You make it

And your own it

And you lend it

x

And inside the nucleus

You are there

In each one

You are there

Not a pantheistic impulse

But to say here’s love

In each particle

Sub-particle

Don’t miss it

x

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Laith Abushaar on Unsplash

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all of us

(x = space)

x

x

all of us

x

God loves us

don’t forget

never mind classic

four spiritual laws

there are hundreds

and there are

only two

love God

and each other

x

and try live in peace

one planet

after all

one set of resources

one people

other species

ready to take over

should we fail

x

eschew greed

its systems

destroy everyone

no one escapes

outside

its paradigm

anyone left

who escapes

theft and hoarding

is a victim

x

is there a war

outside the Earth?

who knows

we’ll find out

no need to rehearse it

here

the war in heaven

or inside the cosmos

might be timed

to be our own

once we know

what it is

to have a world of joy

joyful accomplishment

practical

at peace

x

accomplish these few things

and the world

among the worlds

has a chance

before

heaven’s disposition

and ending to its war

on our plain

x

try joy

try pleasure without consequence

not an invention

a relative impossibility

but touch

the sacred

the proper and the wild

(chronos and kairos)

because the sacred’s there

and we may have it

even in

the smaller

simpler things

x

and as a world

rise to affirm

the glory of the Lord

that we don’t make

but finds us

when we’re good

when we’re complete

when we’re sanctified

agreeing

that the better parts of heaven

should be explicit

on the Earth

x

love God

love each other

that’s really all there is

these two

the starting point

the terminus

and all we need to know

x

c l couch

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Photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash

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3 poems of encounters

(x = space)

x

x

x

3 poems of encounters

x

x

x

Love, NOAA

x

Emily

Franklin

Gert

Harold

x

The writer on

The wuthering heights

The character from PBS

Maybe the nickname

For Ms Stein

And I heard one forecaster

At least

Call it Harry

x

Our alphabet

Our panoply

Of names for the destruction

Small gods as small pilgrims

Manifesting through the portal

Moving away at last

To foreign altars

x

And what they do to us

Who would be faithful

If we knew the rites

The saints

For weather and

Forfending the destruction

Of an age

Each time

x

x

x

Grocery Store Evangelists

x

I met two evangelists

Last evening

After I got all the pills

That I needed

Well

Nearly

(the count after

means I need to order

more

silly

heart disease)

And was shopping

For a little more

When a tract appeared

x

Do I believe in God

How about Jesus

And the Holy Spirit

Am I saved

Do I read my Bible

x

I could say yes

And so we had

A pleasant conversation

In the spirit

We invoked

As two and three were gathered

(that’s in the Bible

too)

x

Their work is urgent

And actually

They’re happy

In it

Still the greater task

Not to take on faith-attackers in the forum

But to reach

The dispossessed

Who are indifferent

x

The lukewarm dogs

That Revelation says

Are the greater challenges

To see

To hear

To taste

The need for faith

x

Through all the rings of Earth

The rounds

Of worldly agendas

x

I wish them well

I wish no violence

I wish smooth rhetoric

All love through

Everything

They are

And move

And have their being

x

x

For through God we live and move and have our being.  As some of your own poets (Aratus, say) have said, “We are God’s offspring.”

Acts of the Apostles 17:28

NIV with paraphrase

x

x

x

These Girls, These Women

x

I wish I were more

Like Meg

But I don’t have a seeing rock

And I’m not that faithful

Though my feelings

Toward my father

Moved

Evolved

As well

x

I wish I were like Angharad

But I’m not a warrior

And have not won

A blue sword

x

Or the young women in

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Who was running

From her persecutors

Turned

And beheld

Her ship of rescue

x

I have the managerial acumen

Of Mom

Some of her anger

Too

And there’s my sister

Who does everything

So well

x

Maintains a jungle

In her home

While I take my few plants

To turn them brittle

Though

The pots look nice

x

These girls

These women

We should learn so much

About being boys

And men

And girls

And women

And scions of great literature

Ourselves to qualify

Among them

Should someone tell

With fictive elegance

Our stories

x

x

A Wrinkle in Time

x

x

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Vlad Frolov on Unsplash

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a course in homiletics

(x = space)

x

x

a course in homiletics

(to talkers from the hearers)

x

what preachers call

the inexorable return

of the sabbath

x

this is regarding preaching

that in the life

does not go away

until that part of life

is done

x

a homily

a holy guess

its own divining thing

at least once a week

with time off

not for behavior

but

well

time off

x

a chance

an opportunity

to say with some authority

of text and the community

that God exists

and God is love

and God through Jesus

saves the rest of us

while the Holy Spirit

guides us in an amazement of

an inward way

x

lectionary

maybe

a series to a theme

the season

and the calendar

of sacred time

and secular

x

an aim toward a generic kind of prophecy

an affirmation

but don’t unhook

a line of challenge

that shall run throughout the day

into the week

x

those six days

when most of us

are out here

and this is our chance

to take

something from here

x

greed systems

risking the right and wrong of things

in the world

and inside us

x

we’re only human

after all

which excuses us

maybe by degree

factoring age

existence of faith

with accountability

x

(now

don’t be sly

to think

if I don’t believe

then I’m off the hook

for right and wrong

and the discomfit

of the judgment

and the book

some book

maybe the one up front

and in the racks

corresponding)

x

our job

is to listen

and respond

and if we want

something more interactive

we may say so

x

even the magisterium

allows

for dialogue

in proclamation

x

the average size

non-Catholic

congregation

in the USA

is about two hundred

good for acoustics

and a range

of microphonic possibilities

x

a number to reach

and to reach back

while we’re all here

when we return

and in those six days

while all of us

are out there

x

a message

three points

twenty minutes

(what the Presbyterians provided)

really

though

allow for some elasticity

for as someone else has said

(might have been me)

you cannot program

the Holy Spirit

or what stirs inside

the tabernacle

and all consecrations

sabbath day

and time

x

your time

our time

God’s time

we might say kairos

though

yes

we know

some congregants

are bold to check their watches

for some (ersatz) sanctity

we believe

chronology

bears better

x

we’re all here

let’s have a time of it

let’s seek the Lord

who presence

is not hard to suss

or sing

or dance sometimes

or testify

each time

x

so that the talking

and the hearing go

and more importantly

the doing

before

during

and after

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Luiz Eduardo Alves da Silva on Unsplash

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Absenteeism

(x = space)

x

x

Absenteeism

x

Parents have to leave

Or leave us go

As we leave them

Which by degrees

Admittedly

Works out

x

Sometimes perforce

The orphan Jane

At Lowood

Or the orphan Arthur

Growing up

Near Tintagel

x

Or what simply happens

As a course in time

Experience must study

x

My mother fifty years ago

My father twenty-some

Naturally

And counting

x

Except for cancer

Preternatural

Or do we kill each other

With our poisons

In the water

In the air

x

Well

Finally

It is the time of children

And shall we

Improve upon the time

And did our parents

Tell us to

And does it matter

If they didn’t

x

Goonies

Say this is our time

And they are right

(we’re right)

And now we have their story

What is yours

What is mine

What is ours

x

Take the time

To have the time

Let it chapter well

With abundant energy

And smidgeons

Of the vision

And ideal

x

Everything is augury

But more important

Is to act here now

With everyone

Available

(don’t worry counting generations)

To build the present well

Into tomorrow

But crucially

The now

Into the work

The sense

The accomplishments

That make today

x

Done writing

You’ve been on deck

You’ve five-sensed the pitch

Now batter up

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by Colynary Media on Unsplash

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