Search

clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

Open Search
Category

Liturgies

Revival

(x = space)

x

x

Revival

x

Litany

Reading and response

Perhaps an antiphon

Might it happen in the forest

Where leaves are hymnals

And the altar

Is a clearing?

The supplicants

Are independent creations

Of all kinds

Petitioning for food, water,

Or the succor of the soil

x

The forest as cathedral

Is nothing new

As metaphor

I wonder if each clearing

Is a parish

While alongside (in

earthly terms)

The desert

Is a church so vast

That all the Notre-Dames

Might fit within

With room for more

As if to invite

A wider awe

By people

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Thomas Ho on Unsplash

x

0

At the Table

(x = space)

x

x

At the Table

x

This is Tuesday

I hope this is

Will be

Or has been

A good Tuesday for you

(or across the world

might have been will be)

Even splendid

You are entitled

One of nearly eight billion

People

Your choices, well, that’s

Up to you

And not a matter for

Anything not like a tribunal

Present

If you are a despot, stop it

If you are a lousy neighbor,

Be a better one

But while the sun is out

(and when the moon is out

and that bemusing time

of dusk or dawn)

Take in free breaths

Let them out with gladness

And, dare I say,

Thanksgiving

For sometimes it is an easy Earth

When and where it’s not

Good breathing’s still required

With assistance added,

When needed

x

And, by the way,

Honey gets in everything

At table

I’m sure there are tricks

The bees know

Maybe through their knees

x

C L Couch

x

x

orange gradient fluid art

Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash

x

0

Civil Conspiracy

(x = space)

x

x

Civil Conspiracy

x

If everyone had what they want

Aberrance aside

I mean a place to live

That is secure and likable

Food

For need and a little more celebration

The chance to learn

Some might say we have those things now

We don’t

Water that’s safe and without fear

A measure of peace

In our days and nights

Would this be a better world?

Of course, it would be

How otherwise?

A job

That’s not a dream deferred

So that we rise

Oh, yes, we rise

x

Join me a campaign, will you?

An open conspiracy

To find the smaller and the larger

Ways,

Practice them

To meet the needs of others

And ourselves

That’s it: no more profound than that

x

C L Couch

x

x

Extinction Rebellion September 2020 Protests for the Launch of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill (CEE Bill) across the City of London

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

x

4

Erev Yom Kippur

(x = space)

x

x

Erev Yom Kippur

x

Grant us mercy

When we cannot find it in ourselves

To give one another;

Show us kindness

When we’ve forgotten how to show it;

Forgive us

When we forget the value in forgiving

With the newness of life, after

x

CLC

x

for Christians, there is the sibling and the altar (Matthew 5:24)

and reconciliation in most other traditions, hopefully

x

x

F/GURA PROJECT #1

Photo by Norbert Kowalczyk on Unsplash

x

0

Gaze

(x = space)

x

x

Gaze

x

Give me a

Small piece of Earth

For a while

With dust swept in the corner

Without perfection

A hard floor

Some stones for walls

A ledge from which to look

While I can look

Out upon, well,

Everything you’ve made

And the uneasy alliance

You have with

Your creatures

Maybe all of them

Certainly the ones who

Made it out of Eden

Not unscathed

And how much we took with us

No one knows for now

And it’s been a while

And in this place

I’ll ponder you

And us

And our place with each other

In the grander scheme

Of things,

Which for now is

Still a guess

Though sometimes

We think we’re getting closer

But I won’t care about conclusions

Rather the sacraments

In each moment

Normal, mortal

Materials

Turned

Taken inside

To serve a spiritual purpose

However far

A thought of you

And us

Might take us

x

C L Couch

x

x

The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre de Caussade

x

Photo by Brigi Uhrin on Unsplash

Budapest, Budapest, Magyarország

x

2

holy and holy

(x = space)

x

x

holy and holy

x

one priest one day a year

I wonder if it were cleaned

maybe by the priest

how dusty would it get

without a cleaning

over time

would the priest walk through dust

to find the glorious container

in which was God

maybe a walk through dust

reminded the priest

of mortality

on the way to what is glory

and shall never change

such a day it might be

when splendid robes

are marred

walking through the dust

accumulated

by passing time

by mortality

by forbidding rules

with eternity beyond

how tempting it might be

to stay

not have to walk back

through the particles

of death

reminding everything unclean

but the assignment ends

other rules pull

back through earth

back to earth

changed

moving faith

for another year

x

c l couch

x

x

Photo by Andy Køgl on Unsplash

x

0

Bring All Your Failures

(x = space)

x

x

Bring All Your Failures

x

A line in a gospel song

I’d say that’s right

As an invitation

To the altar

Bring what’s wrong

Don’t worry about

The Sunday best

God will take you as you are

That kind of party

Come as you are

Forgiveness and the feast

Are especially for you

When you are

That way

x

C L Couch

x

x

Psalm 141:2

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

x

“God So Loved”

Written By: We The Kingdom, Andrew Bergthold, Martin Cash, Franni Rae Cash, Scott Cash and Ed Cash
Album: Live At The Wheelhouse (2019)

x

0

Split Light

(x = space)

x

x

Split Light

x

Lord,

What if I had gone

The way that you had chosen

The way that you had shown me

From the start?

I can’t chalk up misdirection

To youthful energy

Or ignorance at any age

Or indiscretion

As a peccadillo

I was wrong

That’s it

Except the thing is, Lord,

I was told by other people

People with agendas

Before I understood my own

I think when we were quiet

We got along just fine

And I was learning something

Of your way

But there were intrusions

With everything awry

I lost my way

With you

With everything

I didn’t know what or whom

To count on

Or to latch onto

I tried to lead myself alone

Well, you know how that goes

So I am here

All the distractions are the same

I’m not that much different, either

Sometimes I can hear you calling

Call to me, now

With pardon

Even with revelation

Speak through my broken hearing

Tell me

I will try to listen

Break through the sullenness,

The perspective problem of the child

Yet with a child’s bearing

I may hear

Then follow through

In an awkward, side-stepped way

Made out of mistrust

This time

Lamed somewhat by the world,

Which I’ll take

As my fault

For having gone in, first

With willfulness

Break will, too,

Without breaking me

Reknit into something straight

With my permission

And my consultation

Let new will prevail

With a team of mates

Upon the ship

Sailing not to glory

But to glory’s home

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Bruno Thethe on Unsplash

x

4

Momentum

(x = space)

x

x

Momentum

(for friends)

x

You know,

I write several things

A day

And then choose

One of them

Some days I only write

One thing

And I use that

I tell myself that if there’s

Nothing, then I won’t

Have anything

To share

And that has to be

All right

Occasionally, that happens

Not so often

If I have access to my

Small machines

Among them the device

Inside

x

I say this because

This is where I am today

Not quite Pooh Corner

I admit

I cannot do everything

I want and like the apostle

Sometimes I do

The thing I hate

Though I think it’s more

That I don’t do

The thing I want

Even love

To do

x

I could ask

Where is the energy

Of youth, that

Sweet bird,

Though I think we know

That energy is finite

Like the push-pull

Universe

And that we always tire

So we

Run the race we can

Then rest

x

I know

You’re at the

Starting line

With me each day

I want to be with you

We go

And if we’re smart

We’ll rest

When there’s been enough

Join me today

Won’t you

In the race

That for us

Is cosmic laced,

Spiced, intertwined

With spirit

(or have spirit

laced with cosmic

thinking the spirit understands

either way)

The cosmic race

The spirit race

The human race

x

C L Couch

x

x

Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma in the evening light

Photo by Frantisek Duris on Unsplash

Roque de los Muchachos, Spain

x

Romans 7:14-15

(Hebrews 12:1 et al)

x

1

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑