unbelieving Sunday best
I
think I should go
I have some coffee
to ready me
chemically
and maybe throw enough together
there is hot water
with some handsoap
nearby
and clothes
that should pass muster
one
more time
and so acceptably for an hour or so
then
back to exile
and the loneliness
but have had the hour
for faith and companionship
while keep
the faith
let go of the rest
as illusion
I
belong
enough to hope to find
other
than I the healthy
perfect you
and
if unbeknownst
you could leave with me
then
who knows
sometimes I could enter
faith and love
not needing to believe in these
or
that they are for you
yet also
me
coda
sip the coffee then
ten minutes to get ready
ten to get there
eight
and eight
c l couch
photo by Creab ThePolymath on Unsplash
Accra
it’s day though so dark
taking sun and then moonlight
need new ways to see
c l couch
photo by Josep Martins on Unsplash
more: https://gumroad.com/josepmartins [from the photographer]
Barcelona, Spain
psalmist confusion
so we look to the hills
not because God’s there
rather
because God is everywhere
yet
looking to the hill
is a relief
and sometimes romance of a surprise
that help we need appears
into the troubled valley where
we try to keep
our
something good
or at all
going
so to look anywhere or
look inside
not because we save ourselves but
because
we may confess and not look for God
for
knowing openly
that God is here already
to rescue even or
otherwise
to
provide
you know
by the rim or by the valley
c l couch
Psalm 121
121 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
(KJV)
photo by Alin Gavriliuc on Unsplash
untimed or mistimed time for prayer
(maybe in broken time)
God
I’m sorry
and I love you
not
sorry that I love you
and
you know what I mean
so that
should I need to say
and yet
the saying
matters
it’s on all the papers distributed
at church
so our participation
then
seems to be important
an issue of the following
to say
that we should say
or maybe think along
shall do
not
as a riddle or another game
but interaction
that is
serious as
sin
more so redemption
also
to pray for peace
from any state
of
readiness to ask or even
pledge a plan
we may or may not
have
ready to go
God
be with us wherever or
whenever
might
have to be as good as it gets
though
it’s in our purview alone to be thankful
for
small favors
while you have
the everything of everything to
care for
and to manage and should
our
words
ever mean so much
and
yet for love
and habit in the faith
it seems we carry
off
some
meaning in our making
and then our expressing
with
intention
as I
or we offer to you
now
c l couch
photo by Eugene Tkachenko on Unsplash
Egypt
the all right in the worst of us
what may I say
that
isn’t I love you
or
is everything a variation
of these words and
all
the meaning
even should I speak of
God and
then more so os love
to say
Swtzerland
Venezuela
Somali
Ukraine
Gaza
more names and let
the people mean more than the places
closer in
my mildewed apartment
and what is happening with
you
the worse things are happening
around
with concomitant escapes attempt
that
because there is a rim ‘round Earth
the tries do not succeed
except sometimes
in
ultimate
destruction
the kind I shouldn’t wish on
anyone
certainly not
on you
for you
rather
I wish for fullness
living
breathing
as we may
by love with each other
practical and
difficult
sometimes expressing
and
enacting
and yet
of course
worthwhile to try
reconciliation
we have such need in
the world
if
we could only stop the killing
and blaming for the killing
on
anyone but the enactors
who
can be ourselves
perhaps
and should we kill
then what
to believe
it’s over
and
God is reasonable to respond not
so
as there’s hope in belief
and grace remains
free
as freely given
so receive
c l couch
photo by Danny Greenberg on Unsplash
all is bias
(all is leaning)
the eyes are too big
in
the portrait
but
everything is bias
everyone
we lean
as the body’s not symmetric
neither are we
in
our views and
causes
and this is what we have
with
no objectivity
rather
wondrous in diversity
no weight to give to false claims
of
reference or authority based
on who we’re not
and
how the world
isn’t
find and claim
our bias
let it matter
then
together
all our views with all our
angles
add up to three-sixty of a planet
of ourselves
and
yes
to know the cosmos better
in the health of all
pluralities
nothing to win
or lie
rather
let an honest process have us understand
express
and progress
toward what’s distinct
and
what’s the same in
us
as
well
everything
when bias is applied
of course
to gain points
or
win the day
we could lie about our biases
to say
I’m with you when
not
as in
politics
or the political
way
to accomplish
anything
until it changes is made
up
and for a style of
lies
c l couch
photograph by Juan Cruz Mountford at Unsplash
church and Venezuela
prayer
and a song for peace
and
how much more to say except
a war without
our Congress calling it
and certainly without invasion
first
so we’ll need to be praying
all around
in
mourning for the losses
frankly
against the greed
and
vanity involved
with something about more terms
in
office
deceptively in play
wartime culture to manipulate
while in the church we’ll pray
and serve for
cessation
by the forgiveness and repentance
of
a nation
c l couch
photo by Eduardo Juhyun Kim on Unsplash
Morrocoy, Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Falcón, Venezuela
more than Camelot
(31 December)
I tend to think
at
this moment
the long moment of the final day
of
Tennyson
(yes
Tennyson)
who has the last of Camelot
fallen
surrendered by Excalibur
the end of the year
with
the last
knight on the last steed
without a castle
or
a realm
riding into what is timed as the first day
of the new year
meaning
a new age
perforce
Tennyson’s own age
perhaps
our own
modern age
in which we must live
with machines
ending relationships
empire without nobility
but
greed to drive itself
and we are left
without
romance except nostalgia
of a time
we cannot know
and
so
happy new year
and that’s
all
and isn’t all
we are driven by sensation
cast in ego and in
vanity
it’s true
but
that’s nowhere near
the all that is
since we can do better
choose better
and
that’s it
that’s all if by capacity
somewhat relative
we decide how
we will be
and could we do better than
the phenomenon of resolutions
interesting to voice
and
then inevitable to fail
by
forgetting
and who knows might be forgettable
rather than making calls
for the day
for today
for now
and we could
through better means
re-understand sensation
ego
vanity
as good and even needul things
parts
of us
and choices
too
though except in urgent moments
consider
safe
consider health
consider love
and
yes
in taking such stands
consider what we stand against
the machines of vaingloriousness
that
influence
and keep a bodyguard of lies
enforcing
working inside-out
the cause that cannot last
the hypocrisies
that
will be exposed as crimes
or simple folly
to have followed
we can do better
should
do better
consider what is small
free
to do
say
in deciding love
then go from there
into the year
c l couch
(started with Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
photo by Godz1 on Unsplash
libretto
God is a funny old thing
which I suppose
has not been said so often
and
maybe should not be said again
old
though
well
because you know
and funny because
there’s the ostrich
and the platypus
and auk
and us
and we’re funny when we’re not
tragic
such goodness and also
such corruption
and what to do with funny
old
us
not so ole
though we have tried the Earth
over ages
as an image
and are there parts of
the model we’re forgetting
the eccentric
parts
the kind
the giving when the bottom line says no
a resistance to build monuments
and let art live in
other places
other ways
that let stone breathe
and
even plastic we might build with
even to take the things with
which we poison
Earth
flora and fauna and let them speak
creative
while we go creative
first and also practical
because all
our strengths
are
strong out of
belief in ourselves
and
that’s the model
too
for God is all that’s good and also
useful
also beautiful
in all the ways we have been made and not
to judge so much as
dance
remembering the first inspirator
in
our notes
and in our steps
c l couch
photograph by Hans at Unsplash
clcouch123 
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