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When Great Pain

(x = space)

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When Great Pain

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If God exists

And God does exist

And if God loves

And God does love

And if God has power

And God has the most

Then how

Then why

I don’t know,

Why are things so messed up

So screwed up

So damnably awful?

We could ask this and these

On calmer days as well

It’s fair

x

All things of substance are good

Really

You move toward evil and the devil

Then you move toward nothingness

And nothing

These will increase, day by day,

Until that’s all

(so much worse than Porky Pig)

There is nothing

Not black

(black is good)

But a void

Out of which God has created

But not us

Nothing we have will last

Except as legacy

Then memory

Then

(let a couple of beats go by)

x

We are on the side of flesh

Who value flesh

(I am ignorant about

mortification)

And what’s inside

Flesh is not bad

It is ours and was made for us

By the true owner

Of the universe

Who keeps with perfection

From the smallest moment that we know

And smaller

To the next

x

And what of pain?

Why is there pain?

How can there be a God of pain?

Well, there is

Who is the God of love

Who promises alleviation

And for you

Family

And friends and neighbors, too

For a broken

And a splitting-further world

x

Pain is a stake

(and stake)

It is on the table of the world

It is not ours

Though we can wield it

The way we can

Wield healing and solutions,

Too

These are realities and means

And we have so much to do with them

For now

We can move with

Pretty much anything we want

Inside

Outside

Toward ourselves

Toward our neighbors

Toward the world

x

Persist

Sometimes is all there is

When pain is great

The next moment

And the next

One moment

Two moments

Enough accomplishment

Until everything’s incorporated

And we stand up

And move

Not move on as in forget

Move on as in everything’s a part

Of us now

x

And I know

It’s hard

To say we’re not alone

When we are alone

Without the peace of it

But we’re not

A lesson for the speaker, too

We’re not

There is companionship

And company

For life

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C L Couch

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Photo by Conor Sexton on Unsplash

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, United States

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Infinite Pleasure

(x = space)

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Infinite Pleasure

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There are things that

Enthuse me:

People learning

Youth ascending

Good things to read

With sight to see them

Pleasance in sounds

Or none

Peace in the small things

Peace in the ideal

x

The spirit of God

Moving across the water

Separating night and day

But keeping both

And rendering them

Necessary

x

Brownies with walnuts

In them

Someone said it’s popular

Now

To talk about the smell of Jesus

(that smells like Jesus)

I think Jesus

Smells like brownies

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C L Couch

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Photo by Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash

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A Child’s Precocious Prayer

(x = space)

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A Child’s Precocious Prayer

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Help me

To be good;

Help me to be good

Again,

When I am bad.

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Keep my family safe,

And show up

More

When we are not.

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Help your poor world

To be rich,

Because you give us everything,

And we should share.

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C L Couch

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The Moon and a Tree

Photo by Andy Henderson on Unsplash

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Switchback

(x = space)

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Switchback

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God is love

God is God

Of social rites

And more

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God is God

Where there’s war

And wounding

In the midst and after crimes

To help the victims

In other disasters

God is there

You might not think

x

When it’s difficult

And heartbroken

The story has not ended

Though we’re sure

That everything is done,

Finished and badly

x

There is light

Not to say that dark is bad

But that light on its own

Is necessary

A better word

Small illumination

Also call it wisdom

There is another page

The story proceeds

Call it hope

And we may hope

Sometimes there are heroes

Sometimes we must own heroes

As ourselves

However flawed we believe

Ourselves to be

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Carrying light

Can do so much

To find the wounds

To treat them

Pray away

Fight in other ways

The devastation,

Frankly aware

When there are

Evils

x

There are more pages

And our storybooks are kept in heaven

Keep going, here

Don’t forget to rest

To wake

To drink

To eat

And then

And then

To rise

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C L Couch

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Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

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Wonderful Counselor

(x = space)

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Wonderful Counselor

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Should we meet with God

I shall be glad

I might become chagrined

At what God will tell you

While I’m there

But I’m sure the conversation

Will be necessary

There might be understanding and

Reconciliation

Our lives on Earth an untrue experience

Now washed and cleared

The dark glass clean

Through which, if we all will,

All forgiven

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C L Couch

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Photo by Susan Mohr on Unsplash

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Prized

(x = space)

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Prized

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God’s will

I treat it like a puzzle

A mystery

A riddle

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The prize

For being smart enough

For endurance

For cleverness I don’t really possess

Is success and later on

Salvation

I win at last

x

Except I think, liturgically,

That the truth is not in me

Or anyone who thinks and contrives

Philosophy this way

x

God is not a puzzle

(I like puzzles

and I hope you do)

There is a clarity

Like the still waters

God takes us beside

Willing

To point out the deep parts

x

Skywriting isn’t necessary

(relief for Dorothy)

Read the code for life inside the books

Or listen

Listen, anyway

It’s easy

As it’s easy

x

There are commandments

There are two prioritized

There is a parable of sheep and goats

(poor goats)

x

These are enough

To take us through the day

A season

A life

And should we like to choose

Life after

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Mysticism, symbolism

Are for other verses

So to coin a phrase

That serves the here and now

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That’s all, folks

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C L Couch

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Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash

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There Could Be Light

(x = space)

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There Could Be Light

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Lord,

I have not listened

I have not loved with a loving heart

But with a larcenous heart

Love for sale

I kept it mercenary

And in other matters

I know I’m not rich

I’m not talking about money

But the other ways in which we thieve

Each other

When we’re tempted

When we’re frightened

When the need is so deep

Or so it seems

Could be illness

Could be we make it so

x

I do not know the path

Before me

Even that there is one

For I have left the way

That had light for

The one walking

In anything like truth

x

There is no light

I am lost

x

I have stopped

I cannot move

The lack of light feels like

A weight,

Though that might be delusion

For how can nothing weigh us down?

How did I feel substance

In the light,

Which did not weigh me down?

x

Well, I’m speaking to you now

There was a spark

Left in my mind

I can’t talk of value with

The one who gave me life

But there is life

Maybe you’ll show me

Speak through one sense

Or all my senses

Correct my course

Give me one

Since I have no direction

And it seems no power

And I have a need

(real need)

To find my light

To find my way

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C L Couch

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Moody Forest

Photo by Branimir Balogović on Unsplash

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Teachers and Soliloquies

(x = space)

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Teachers and Soliloquies

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Something kinder today

There is kindness in the world

“A kinder, gentler nation”

Is derided as a message from

The Republican President

Of the USA

x

Prosaically,

I wonder if we couldn’t have

Kindness and gentleness

And the like

And use more today

Or ever, really

Looking back (supplementing history

and stories),

Having today,

Looking ahead

x

The reaction is to see these things

As weak,

Yet that love that lasts

And joy after sorrow

Are the strongest

And if we can care in a divisive,

Bitter world,

Then we are strong

x

Hate is easy

We yell or spit or hit or stab or shoot

Then avoid the consequences

All sounds pretty cowardly

To me

And if I do these

Then I am that coward

x

Mercy “is not strained” (neither forced

nor artificial)

it drops (behaves) like “gentle rain

from heaven”

Our heatwave is breaking

We could have more of that

The literal kind

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As for the metaphor,

Mercy

(kindness, gentleness)

Is something that we all

Could try

To bring relief

Like rain on dry ground (metaphor)

To change the world (not a metaphor)

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C L Couch

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Mother’s Love

Photo by Sandy Kumar on Unsplash

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Impromptu Earth

(x = space)

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Impromptu Earth

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What is needed

For the timing, Lord?

Order or chaos

Either has its charms

The opposite of order

Is nihilo

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Creation can be wild,

Order can go crazy,

Chaos the odd anchor

Keeps us safe

x

Is it a magic thing

Or science?

These and more

Are real

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We need chaos

God allows:

Sarah laughing

When a pregnancy announced,

Leaving fire

Or clouds to show the way,

Accepting

Ravens bringing bread

So the prophet lives

To challenge bastions

x

Responding

To the r.s.v.p.,

Jesus cooking fish

At the shore

x

I know the void

You know

We call it chaos

In translation

Maybe there are biases

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Maybe like weekly money

We children benefit

From allowances

x

From contraries

That complement

Our sure things and

Our mysteries

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C L Couch

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Photo by Nikolay Hristov on Unsplash

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