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Mystic Coffee

(x = space)

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Mystic Coffee

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What does God say

Today?

Not in the mystic sense

Or way

That I do not understand

Bur in a parochial,

Five-senses fashion

Over the sink

Or at the table

In front of this machine

Not to take over

As in a speculative episode

Simply to be here

I could try to keep

The holy fear

At bay

In order to entertain

If only with companionship

Unless God would like

Some coffee

Or cold water

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Maybe so

Maybe God would like

Coffee or some water

In water, there are so many

Lessons

Though water can be water, too

x

As for coffee

It has been created

And remade

(we may ask how)

And so also has provenance

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The day, the day

The hour

Without counting

We are here

God speaks

I listen

God asks me questions

Though God knows;

Shall I say anything,

I would not know

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Maybe this is mystic

My senses would be frozen

Like the frost before the sunrise

God is God

Though God could warm me

I could try to talk,

Be thankful for

The perfect listening

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C L Couch

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Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

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Quiet Victory

(x = space)

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Quiet Victory

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There is yellow sunlight

On things this morning

Or is it gold

Or is it wishful thinking?

Church is going on

I’m trying to listen

The advantage and the irony

Of virtual

If I’m distracted

If I distract myself

It sticks

(the distraction)

x

(Saint) Paul is confessional

I think that’s good

I was thinking yesterday

Of (Saint) Peter

And his qualities to lead

That are pretty awful

He leads anyway

Jesus said so

Called him foundational

To a new movement,

A new church

x

We are flawed

And at our best

We do not deny our flaws

Because that is honest

Because vanity

And ego

Won’t win anything

The battle

Or the day

Or the age

Or the world

Or the cosmos

Better to be the silent planet

As Lewis has created

Until we speak in power

Due to love

And lead the battle

And the world

And the age

In love

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C L Couch

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Solar Eclipse

Photo by Obed Hernández on Unsplash

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Autumn Liturgy

(x = space)

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Autumn Liturgy

(layperson’s)

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Just a little gray

Is creeping in;

It might turn into

Another color

Later on

x

I may say

The point of dawn

Is nearing

Just after the moment

When night and day

Are shared first time

Then several

Hours later

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The week has passed

Its sharing time

As well,

Being Thursday

Counting Sunday

As the first day

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Maybe because

It’s autumn season

There is more

Preoccupation

Over what has passed

Than what is coming

x

Summer’s over

Growing’s done

Up here;

We count the harvest

And rely on it

To nourish us through

Winter

When dark is even more pronounced

In shorter daylight days

And longer nights

Even a solstice

For beseeching

Everything we lost

To return again

x

It’s all right

To think on loss

Not fun but necessary

So many things are shed,

Leaves off trees

And skin cells

Off our bodies

We lose things

Too many things, we think,

On the course of normalcy

x

And yet there is

The lesson of the harvest,

The gaining of so much

To see us through

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The bears do this, of course:

We’ve had fat-week

Pageantry for them

Seeking winners among

The ursae

Who will be readier

For winter rest

Under their stars

Beneath the paler sun

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We need our things

And we should have them;

Things are lost,

And often we must let

Them go

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Gain and lose that is

The way of things

(we gain, we lose);

It has to be all right,

And it is

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C L Couch

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Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash

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Simon Says

(x = space)

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Simon Says

(based in part on verses)

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Is that the pie-man

Or Simon Peter?

Anyone

Who’d rather simonize

A game

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We know what Simon Peter says

He wrote letters

We have two

He fished

One kind and then the other

It seems he went back and forth

Between despair

And inspiration

His is a good cause

For reconciliation

Saying the one thing

You are Christ

Then falling, failing

Into water

(he is rescued)

First refusing foot-washing

Then wanting it all over

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Yet somehow he is the rock

A name

A metaphor

For church

Jesus says so

Then there’s the episode

Chapter and verse for us

When it is night

And his rabbi, his leader,

And his friend is arrested

xxxxxtaken away

xxxxxto the authorities

xxxxxwho can determine

xxxxxtemporal and real

xxxxxcontinued life

xxxxxor death

And when he’s near

To everything

And asked about it

Says he doesn’t know

He doesn’t know the man

And upon the last

Of three of these

He curses

And the rooster crows

And he sees

Maybe in every way

The savior

Who was his teacher

And his friend

And it’s over

No paradox remains

The holes have been dug

Into conviction

Into faith

And practice

In some new ways perhaps

At least on the inside

Where it matters

Unless feeding others

That is an outside matter

x

What faith,

The joy he had

Have gone into the void

Like mortality

Into the entrance of a tomb

He goes away

He’s out of everything

For a chapter

Or two chapters

His own story

Torn out by the tearing actions

Of denial

Help my unbelief

He could have remembered

The cry of the parent

For the healing of the child

He could have wept

For Jerusalem

And for his friend

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Peter, Peter

Denier

Pumpkin-eater

Follower and friend

He said so

Jesus said so

Then everything was gone

He was gone

With the other one

Sometimes we lose our way

With the other

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C L Couch

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Matthew 26:69-75

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(the letters that are 1 and 2 Peter)

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nursery rhymes that are the stuff of ages, now

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Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

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Rhapsody on Umber

(x = space)

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Rhapsody on Umber

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Orange

Nothing rhymes with it

(I’ll try syringe

sometime,

hydrangea-a?)

Who cares

In the better way

It’s wonderful

And add a little brown and yellow

Is that burnt umber

The lost crayon?

x

But it’s just

Right for fall

Add red on its own

For leaves

And all the shades

For possibilities

Cast them under clouds

On a cool day

When walking

In the countryside

Is right

A quiet celebration

A season in the season

If you live around

Here

If not,

In the mind then

Or online

x

It’s fall

The very best Pooh weather

There should be

Tea and honey

For Christopher and friends

The roly bear

The donkey with the usually tail

Mama kangaroo and child

Tiger with springs

An owl of storied wisdom

As far as a child’s genius go

Long-suffering rabbit

And the pig

Small

Always counted on

Like needful stories

To be there

x

thanks for A. A. Milne and to my mom who really liked the stories

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C(hristopher Robin) L Couch

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Photo by Valentina Ivanova on Unsplash

Ukrainian Village, Чикаго, Иллинойс, США

Published on October 19, 2021

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LoveSpeak

(x = speak)

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LoveSpeak

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What does God’s love say

In the face of danger?

Through many dangers,

Toils, and snares

God’s love says

I’m here

The love is here

The source is here

The host is here

We’re here

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Though there be anger,

Scorn, and fear

From enemies and friends

Alike

Because doubt and unbelief

Might have to have

Their way,

The love of God is first

And follows

Like the currents inside Earth

And over,

The moving pillars

Cloud or fire

That are before

And after

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Alongside in

The truth of companionship

But I can’t see that

You can

It’s more than senses

With which we perceive

As best we can

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Presence and love are better

They are inside

And out

They speak without words

Until it’s time for words

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When we have ears to hear

And cannot hear,

Count on the company

Of the divine

To know us better,

Pick us up

If fallen,

Go with us onward

Leading, should we ask

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C L Couch

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Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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“Amazing Grace” (the hymn) referenced above

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The Killings in Thailand

(x = space)

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The Killings in Thailand

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They were brought

Juice and popcorn,

Dolls

Everything they’d need,

The children at the daycare center

x

But this was funereal

The children had

Died

Killed by a madman who killed

Others, too

Killed his family

Lastly, himself

x

The families brought juice and popcorn,

Dolls

Snacks and toys

To the daycare center

For the children to enjoy their day

x

Everyone had been to the temples

Then they came here

x

Come back home

Come back with us

x

The parents

Parents and the living family members

Said

Pleaded

Cried

While exuding dignity,

Respect

For everyone

x

Come back home

Come back with us

x

They were there

At the daycare

Leaving presents, organic things

Symbolic things

The children would have used

At their age

For their lives

In the daycare

x

Everyone had been to the temples

More to follow there

Now they are here

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Come back home

Come back with us

x

They can’t;

Insanity

And criminality

Has taken them

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Spirits

Journey

Hard

But shall be

Reunited

Wrongful death

Owns no victory

The children

Other victims

Know this now

They shouldn’t have to

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C L Couch

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Photo by Charlotte Seo on Unsplash

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Shaping the Word of God

(x = space)

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Shaping the Word of God

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You know,

It didn’t come with numbers

Chapters and verses

I guess the whole thing was recited

As a book, we say

x

Then we moved on to another

The community

x

The interpreting community

Setting doctrine

As a group,

A denomination

Or on our own

Without a magisterium

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Tricky doctrine-setters

How do they avoid a lie

In designation?

x

Maybe with the humility

Of Pietists

Or the Amish who

Set salvation as

A conditional process

We hope we’re saved

x

Meanwhile, we have

A book of books

Providing order,

Which is fine

Except when God is wild

In the wilderness,

Awaiting Moses

Beside the symbol and reality

(one comes first)

Of the burning tree

That will not consume

x

Remove your shoes,

Moses,

This is not a nine to five

This is a place above the desert

Thin blue air

For food

And doctrine from a flame

And from the words

One hears

Through the host

That is speaking

x

And if the order is to play,

Then be grateful

For bare feet

x

And we believe?

Our committees

And our meetings

All things gilt or burnished

For the Sunday best

To be best?

x

Might we go to Sinai

In a Thoreauvian way

Take all the time we need

Outside of shoes

To think it through

The bush will burn

There’s time

x

If need be,

Chronos will slip into kairos

For a while

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C L Couch

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Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

Saint Catherine Monastery, Mount Sinai, Egypt

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two poems for young people

(x = space)

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two poems for young people

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Youth

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They (you) look so young

Not like those near altars

Of antiquity

Who are forever beautiful

But cannot move

x

These might be cared for carefully

That youth might be preserved

Youth cannot be preserved

x

Youth might invest their own

(your own)

So that the coming days

Are rich

With age and wisdom,

Maybe things put by

x

But (you) run without avarice

Or even long ambition

Become parts of a transitory mural

That is bright

All colors

Shapes

At least three dimensions,

Which will have no museum

Save in memory

x

x

Locksmithing

x

Who holds the keys?

Why are there keys?

Why are their locks?

What is kept?

What must be freed

Up with which

From being locked?

x

Behind the door

Once opened

Nothing might be withheld

But secrets of the arrogance

The avarice in

Withholding

Private parties

Boring,

Frightening without joy

From the absconded powerful

x

There might be secrets

For the young to own

(they, you

should have mentors)

If taught or teach themselves

(yourselves)

How to

Break out

x

This is the story

Of the end of age’s

Generation

The beginning of another

An ownership

That could calcify

So-called in privilege

Or turn around

Turn everything around

Toward all the growth

In revelation

And unwithheld resources

For life

With invention

Food, that is, and challenge

x

Keeping democracy

(boo say some, but)

We need it

x

x

C L Couch

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Burned Out at the Salton Sea

Photo by Tina Rataj-Berard on Unsplash

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