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Lent 30

Lent 30

 

We could say

We’re three-quarters through

Here are problems with that:

We’ll make it into an accomplishment

We’ll worry we’re not as far along

As we should be

How much time is left

To get it right?

 

When days were years,

The Israelites in the main could not say,

We’ve covered seventy-five percent

Of this

Twenty-five to go

We should still pace ourselves

 

Markers aren’t so bad

Such as stations on the pilgrim trail

They note achievement and

Places to pause

Before we say, What’s next?

 

When they are spots in

Which to moan

Or to say, Look, what we have done

Better purposes are mollified

Maybe overwhelmed

In brittle ambition

Or vaunting pride

We’re left inside

A roof without an apex as

The sureness of shelter

 

Don’t be afraid

Be ye not anxious

Don’t be over-eager

The desert has an ending

And there is always more

(that will not have to be

a desert)

Mark the way, maybe

Take in the sight

Adjust for course correction

 

Who are we now,

What have we learned?

Refresh

Now move

 

C L Couch

 

 

Philippe Chavin – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1134168

vaulted grottoes called Taq-e Bostan, located in Iran, Sassanian era

 

Philippians 4:6 in the Christian New Testament (cited)

 

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Lent 29

Lent 29

 

In the stillness

In the wilderness

In the pagan place we go

To live in wildness for a time

Away from city shapes

Away from the shadows of

Everything right-angled

 

At night, we might see stars

We might hear the planet

Touch a texture we have never touched

For all the times we’ve tried

Taste something in a cup

We’ve brought along

 

Taste and see

Taste and be aware

Taste and delight

Taste and share the joy

That had it gone differently

We might have tried in Eden

 

C L Couch

 

 

the Expulsion illustration in the English Caedmon manuscript, c. 1000 CE

Public Domain

 

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Lent 28

Lent 28

 

We learn

That we have toes

They are small

And essential,

Keeping the rest upright

We might lose the toes

Or never have them

 

All right,

Other parts are trained

 

With the impulse of surprise

A finger can be worked until

It learns to raise the rest

 

New balance

More exact

 

C L Couch

 

 

Nicholas A. Tonelli from Pennsylvania, USA – Floored

(Tonelli photographing toenails)

 

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Lent 27

Lent 27

(1 Corinthians 12:17)

 

We learn we are not an eye

But thankful to have it

I am many parts

So are you

So are we

And with others

Together

 

It is a body, yes

It has many strengths

Many colors

Many purposes

It cannot be judged

By standards of perfection

Unless we understand

We accept

That diminishment comes with time

That disabled happens

Sometimes from the start

 

Don’t add an automaton

To thinking

If it’s there,

Remove it

We are splendid

Like a galaxy

The galaxy of us

If not grace,

Similarly amazing

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash

Petaluma, United States

I took a short 20 minute drive the other night to one of my favorite spots to see the stars. It was exceptionally clear this night. What you are looking at is the core of the milky way. This photo is made up of 30 photos stacked and stitched together to produce this shot. I hope you enjoy it and that if you get a chance to look up at night and view the stars. I’m on IG @bryangoffphoto Stop by and say hi!

(characteristics of a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud)

 

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Lent 26

Lent 26

 

Sometimes, when I’m afraid

I write

Or when I’m sad

Indecisive

Or frustrated

But if I looked back through my journal

(I haven’t done that often)

I’d find, I believe, expressions of

Thanksgiving

Sometimes for sleep that didn’t go so badly

Sometimes for coffee in the morning

Sometimes for cold water, when

I’ve arranged it

I don’t know how much happiness I can have

But it seems I can have gratitude

Which has pieces, if only whittlings,

Of the larger parts

Of joy and peace

 

I think somewhere in there

Might be an invitation, which is

Why I write about this now

 

Because maybe

You’ll find something in the formula

I didn’t plan, and

I didn’t plan

 

Simply saying thank you

To the universe, to God

To a spirit, to an angel

For some measure of something

That will, if only as a single pea

(sorry if you don’t like peas, for

I know those who hate them),

Yet add nourishment to the day

 

A pea can accomplish something

It makes a whistle work

And disturbs the sleep of the

Princess

 

Something small can move along the tale

If only silent thanks

 

C L Couch

 

 

Mateusz Tokarski, ca. 1795 (National Museum in Warsaw)

Mateusz Tokarski – cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26953289

(still life with peas)

 

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Lent 25

Lent 25

 

It’s a paradox

Unorthodox

 

This is a long time for slowing

Down, and yet

We must prepare for

Coming jubilation

There will be speed in that

The coming and the going

And the getting

 

And it’s spring

 

So what kind of spoil-sport

Must we be?

No kind, really

Work goes on

Of every kind

And there are families

And parochial festivities,

Which must be all right

 

So where is the season, then: where

Is our Lenten heart?

Well, in the heart, we say

Yes, it’s there

With other precious things we

Can recall—can reinvoke, if desired

(reorder to reorder)

Those times, those persons

Those happenings, those feelings

Discoveries

Then and now

 

We can keep the season

Let it work inside the mind

And maybe let it course

Through other organs

 

We can have Lenten lungs

A Lenten stomach

Pick something

 

We are so many parts to come

To know and to

Have everything done

 

C L Couch

 

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Lent 24

Lent 24

 

In our time together,

We might travel far

In one way or another

We might hear sounds

See new sights

Enjoy new tastes

Feel the air and mist

That ribbon other shores

Smell the clarity of salt

 

It might be walking

Or a plane

Some other vehicle that gets us there

A conveyance of our bodies, yes

Our senses

Though must do

The harder work

It’s how we’re made

 

We give ourselves the data

Via input from our lives

(first machines)

What shall we learn, one by one

What shall we learn together?

 

So much to learn

So little time

But that’s no way to operate

We must value what we have

Each mote, each moment

Singly or together,

We can learn

While traveling far

In one way or another

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Nicola Nuttall on Unsplash

 

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Lent 23

Lent 23

 

I’ll look at it again

Often I don’t

Sometimes I do

It is the way of things, I guess

Conceit, deceit

To give us time and

An excuse for time

And a belief

Not misguided

That our contributions matter, which

Lends credence to our

Putting something off

With a promise

To return

 

Because the thing needs us

Maybe it does

If not, maybe we do

And that’s our need

 

C L Couch

 

 

agenda by Guilhem from the Noun Project

 

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Lent 22

Lent 22

 

Sometimes we might think

Of Lent as a dry time

We’ve rid the house of sugar, after all

And cooking fat

Everything that takes away from

Arid concentration,

Which is spiritual, we say

To ourselves

 

But there are Easter baskets

And an Easter dinner we are waiting on

These are good, aren’t they—

And they are

Even to the blessing of the baskets

Along the altar rail

On the day before

(early Saturday morning)

Everything we’ll use to

Split the difference between

Faith and easy living

 

But don’t we need both sides?

There will be Easter Sunday, after all

And we’ll have gone to church

Taken part in singing

And the sunshine that’s been made

From Easter matter

 

But don’t forget the Easter eggs to hide

And something about rabbits

 

Good things, all?  Goodness, yes

But there is the desert thinking

Our origins in western Asia,

Northern Africa

Those we call the mothers and our fathers

Who lived dry Lenten seasons

Every day,

Whose wisdom aids

Our understanding spirit,

Which then prompts

Everything we’ll do

 

They are right,

The mystics and the everything

And there is something right in us

To be involved

Today

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Dean Ward on Unsplash

Before chopping down one of the trees in our garden we did an inspection to make sure there were no nests in it. This gorgeous little nest was in one on the lower branches so it looks like the tree is staying.

 

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