love and power
Lord
who is love but you
and
who is true power
you are the source of
everything that’s
good
and the way through
anything that’s
bad
yet
love us
and lead us from inside
and over parts and all the world
from
each in a place
offering by love and power
mercy
as a measure
in justice
a way to
meet
and so live with
each other
amen
c l couch
photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
“FOR ALL” (for translation)
snow and God—only one is white, the other all colors (2 poems)
the ends of Earth
in the north
though not quite there
we tend to think of
snow
this way
so we flock the marketplaces
with lists
for liturgies
and we might need these things
if
not for the not
we shall be
snowed in
hoping not for enough
but
honestly
for more than
with enough
perhaps
electric
and electrons
to share
folding chairs in parking
spaces
that should be public
though the chairs
are in an attitude of waiting
by
the doors
an encroachment on
an agenda to stay
clear
first inside the head
remembering
(or
maybe first)
the heart
the
spirit
to follow
then in the summer
those of us
not
south of south
shall fear the other
extreme
heat
with all the heat we might become
and that hear
on the inside
even
now
(based on being told the snow shall fall at midnight)
shall
and how shall God
love us when
we hate
whatever beside evil
with evil’s
agency
injustice
we may scorn these
and all the rest
be love
thoughts
emotions
plans
the new instinct once we
have faith
to love
when dangerous
or fragile
at the least
and God shall
love
yet somehow never
on condition
but
to love
which might make
salvation
a condition
as
decision
binding us both
with an amazing fear
not
comprehending though
we all somehow agreed to
live and
after
life
c l couch
photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
Manic Monday
(and don’t panic)
God sang
The song into creation
The lion did as much
And our holy words
In works
Imply
We are created
We are that song
Or its interpretation
In darkness
And in light
And the bestowal
Of a garden
With the first object lesson
For the teachers
That the garden
Stands
For something we
No longer have
While we must work
In labor
And in labor
For
What we got
Each era is a lesson
We could say
And maybe they progress
The human ages
Which is why
We say
They’re ages
(we get older)
We grow
Some
We adapt
Physically
Some
Though not as much
As one might think
For as long as we’ve
Been here
And this might not be
So much by us
As by
The touch of God
God knowing
We’ll need adaptive parts
As we go on
(grow on)
What do I know
It’s Monday
And I’m feeling existential
With the blues on electric pages
Making less sense
To me
(than could it be
our music style)
Than paper
With its white
And off-white
Receiving of
Our pen strokes
Painting
With black ink
C L Couch
[note to me and now to us
so what’s this poem about?—it’s about thinking and writing, yes, really about both]
I am having trouble with the blue lights on computers. Or the part of the lights that are blue. Or maybe feeling blue. I think it’s both.
The result is that I’m even more recalcitrant in using this thing. This vital thing. I’ve had to use it for a while then rest my eyes. Rest my eyes upon the rest of the world.
So if I’m worse about responding than is typical (and typically it can be pretty bad), then I’m sorry. But as the emperor said quite uselessly, there it is.
--Christopher
Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash
Nous existons. Vraiment.
(x = space)
x
x
New Song
x
Sing to the Lord
a new song
All right
A new song
And what shall make it new
New arrangement
Instruments we rarely
Have in church
Maybe there should be dancing
Like
The king’s before the ark
As it was taken
Across Jerusalem
(risking disapproval
of the court
the queen)
x
Maybe not
A psalm
Of normalcy at all
By that I mean
New words
Phrased by us
And our understanding
A gift today
And as a record
Kept in legacy
With the music of
The music master
(female
or male)
x
What we keep
Because we made it
With a notation
Of the first time
It was read
It was played
It was sung
It was danced
x
C L Couch
x
x
Psalm 46
x
Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash
x
(if you want a story of the queen risking the disapproval of the king, then read Esther)
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Certain Psalm
x
Songs to God
Confess
Mourn
Celebrate
Some ask where the Lord
Even while addressing
The Lord
x
Which is the way of doubt
Spiced with pain
Salt and bitter herbs
For the wilderness
Inside
The heart a desert
Reason wandering
Where is God but here
But we must
Over hills
And under earth
Search as if
Not to find
Or find in a new way
That answers doubt for all
And always
On this side
Through what we know
Has been dark glass
x
Sing
With a single voice
Or ask an orchestra to play
By composing
All the parts
And a message from humanity
Over the ground
And to the sky
To say
If anything might bless the Lord
Then bless the Lord
If any offering
Might be good for many voices
And an intention
Of authenticity
Received
Then receive the large psalm
Attempting to be thunderous
From us
x
To recognize
To thank
To let everyone have voice
In song or silence
Whatever might senses allow
Or to participate
By turning pages
Or only
Dutifully
Showing up
x
Locusts are a host
The killer bees
We can be a host
Though our precedents
Are angels in the sky
Nonetheless a human host
To try
x
Presenting such a psalm to you
From many people
A human host
Before the court
Of the Lord
x
C L Couch
x
x
recollecting themes and purposes of ancient psalms for the here and now
x
Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash
x
Lord,
I don’t know what I’m doing
I know I often act misdirected
But where is the magic
The spotlight that tells me
I’m in the right place
And on the good way?
Came out of nowhere
I just heard that phrase used to
Sell something
A cliché, but it’s poetic
Really
Out of nowhere, ex nihilo
Philosophy
But isn’t that how you create?
Out of nothing appears
Matter
To set new flesh upon a wound or
Fill a gulley in the desert with
Water unheard-of in the
Season
Out of nothing I was made
The spark in emptiness that fused
A spirit to new cells,
And I am here
Though you’ve always been here
And I can’t say I understand that
How you are in the charges
Of my neurons
And the pulses of my heart
And over Earth
And through the universe of chances
Although I still feel useless
And pathless
For the Gethsemani contemplative
It was enough to know
Random instincts somehow speak to
Providence
That isn’t me
I’m not so smart
Or self-sufficient
Maybe
He wasn’t, either
We both want to know
And what do we find out?
We wander an agnostic landscape
Step toward uncertainty
An answer in a
Moment
And for the next,
Maybe
Will that do?
For us, it has to
And bold enough, if cautious
To go beyond the mortal shell
To tread in a fossil sea
To take a walk on Mars
C L Couch
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040628.html
Psalm 51
(one more song)
Create in me
A clean heart,
O God
And renew
A right spirit
Within me
Cast me not
Away from thy
Presence
And take not
Thy holy spirit
From me
Transliteration
And some remembrance
My favorite part
Of psalms
We number at
One hundred fifty,
Paradox in fame
And intimacy
This are teaching,
Which means
Learning
We need God
For new creation
To point to
Art
That in practice
Becomes science
I need God for more
And cannot
Question merit;
Good work matters
But grace invites
Salvation
The chamber
Of my soul
Has many parts
Open for
Parousia
I don’t know how
Spirit of God
Invests
And infiltrates
But my soul will take
Arriving,
When a spark of you
Is born in me
C L Couch
Psalm 50
(a song about un-ending)
hours
sing monastic
song throughout
the night
how do we
sing with
what’s not
been heard
in heaven’s
day
we practice
with tentative
skill
for you are
excellence
our unto
the Lord makes
sense
when on
an uneven
way
pleasing you
we are free
to turn
it is enough
for you
you are delight
we know
the joy
Psalm 48
God Breaks Through
The day comes
When God breaks
Through
When an open hand
Will not be
Withheld by grace
Or by design
We cannot bring
It down—release
Or entice it
Our timing has no
Meaning here
We should leave
It all alone
A mind ordains, a
Host obeys
The earth will be
Complete
Ready to be
Apprehended in
Capture and in
Understanding
Day time and
Night time
Without time
clcouch123 
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