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Lent 12

Lent 12

The disciples number

A baker’s dozen with Matthias,

An added treat

According to the lot

The dark or the light mark

That selected him

But in our story,

There are Marys

To teach us about calling

And a cause

The mother of Jesus

The Magdalene who first told of

The second life of Jesus

And was not believed

Mary the mother of disciples

These three count for much

And more

Yet often go uncounted

If not in symbol

Then in leadership

Who is the disciple

Who is my neighbor

Who shall rule among us

More lots

Or let God do the casting

If we notice, we might see

It’s done

Call Mary to be mother

Call Mary to be mother and to keep

Things in her heart

Until a time

Call Mary to be testifier

To correct the doubting

And give hope to those who are

Falling, collapsing from inside

Terrified, isolated, waiting

For nothing good

To happen anymore

Marys offer differing words

Of discipline, inner strength, and

Capability

No other

When other men have run away

C L Couch

File:The Three Marys at the Tomb LACMA

Domenico Piola (Italy, Genoa, 1627-1703)

Italy, 17th-18th century Drawings Brown ink and wash Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Blanke (M.72.124.2) Prints and Drawings

March 17, 2019 1

Lent 10

Lent 10

First, though,

We must have him

In the wilderness

Forty days because forty’s

Important

In a place for unbelievers

(for heathens dwell upon a heath)

Nowhere to rest well

To drink, to bathe

To have the food that comes

From green and ready plants and trees

He is there, and

The wild

Must consume him

Yet he is so vast inside

He has room for it and so much more

The space of all the world

And the needs for which it

Cries

He is not alone

One other must be there

An adversary

Who must tempt the man

And the child untested

In the world

Make bread out of rock

Throw your tired body headlong

Into nihilism

Worship me so I can give you

Empire

Of the strong, such as

Alexander took

We know how it ends

Jesus cites

Adjures the tempter and

His own need

The thing must depart

The entity, the plan

(wile away another)

Angels visit angels

This act is done

There is no more to say

Or learn

Time to visit other withered places

C L Couch

Hotchkiss, Jedediah, 1828-1899 – https://www.civilwar.org/learn/maps/sketch-battle-wilderness-position-2nd-corps-anv-thursday-may-5th, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63245863

March 16, 2019 0

Lent 9

Lent 9

We place Christ in a journey:

Celebrate his birth at Christmas

His presentation at the

Temple plus his

Baptism by his cousin John

Upon a bank of the Jordan River,

Then consider now

The earthly ministry

Ending in Jerusalem,

The next part of the calendar

What notes the work just now but

Miracles and teaching

And many encounters, one by one—

A woman by a well

A man who climbs a tree

Bemused to see this person

A woman who breaks

A vial of perfume to wash

His feet

A leper out of ten lepers

Who must return

With thanks

There is teaching

Answering the quandary, Who

Is my neighbor

A question about government

The discipline of a warrior

Who, though not a Jew, respects

The way of Christ as he would accept a

Commander’s prerogative

The woman who begs for scraps

Of mercy, who is rebuked

Before she astonishes him

With a reminder for whom he’s come

He comes for the Jews

He comes for Arabs and

For Romans

Even the pirates of

Parthia

He comes for the savage Britons

And the unknown Asians

He comes for them

He comes for then

He comes for now

He comes for you and me

Oh, how he loves you and me

And it never stops,

The arrival since creation

Life upon a troubled plain

The departure into earth

The return in keeping with

Prophecy and promise

C L Couch

Fritz Geller-Grimm – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1690920

Fritz Geller-Grimm – Own work

Saint James’s shell at a well of the Way, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

(Camino de Santiago)

“Oh, How He Loves You and Me” by Kurt Kaiser

March 14, 2019 0

Lent 8

Lent 8

Though the dates change,

The days remain the same

Lent’s first week dawns into

The second

Let’s not tally

What was done each day

Though there are calendared prayers

And practices

This might work best as

A time that doesn’t have

A record book

Keep a journal, fine

(but) sit still and think

Afterward, have a smackerel

A spoonful of sugar

Yes, Lent is its own reward

Understanding quiet

Knowing the noise

That greets us later on

But if there is a little treat, enjoy

Maybe the next hour will be good

Maybe the new week will be patient discovery

Senses a little more alive

Than they were, even yesterday

C L Couch

Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay

March 13, 2019 0

Lent 7

Lent 7

A week from Mardi Gras

(fat Tuesday, )Shrove Tuesday,

Fastnacht that in

Pennsylvania (USA) is a doughnut

And the observance

What did we shrive,

We shrove the house of fat

Of everything extravagant that might

Distract us

From the discipline

Of remembrance and devotion

For the coming days

Okay, so what did we really do:

We might have had our fun on Tuesday

But who’s to say the next day was

Somber

It should have been, I guess

A mood for taking ashes if for nothing else

Though there was something,

Something not to miss

The start of a new season

Not as fun as Advent

Without the fire that comes with

Pentecost

Let alone the triumph that is

Easter

There is an odd coupling as well

Since spring is starting now in northern climes

There are signs

Today there has been sudden warmth outside

There are springs of a green kind

Winter-washed

There are signs

Of nascent life

What shall we own, then

Of dust or seedlings?

Maybe we take both

To have a time of stillness and of energy

A quiet dynamo

Fueled for the change by fragrant remembrances

In growth

C L Couch

DeFacto – Own work

Warwick Castle water-powered generator house, used for the generation of electricity for the castle from 1894 until 1940

March 12, 2019 0

Lent 6

Lent 6

The season is like mourning

A dying of a kind that takes

Weeks to be fully realized

The only kind of death that might be safe

Because following

Still keeps us here

The consequences are mollified by

Our remaining mortal

If something else should happen,

Well, that’s something else

It’s dying on the inside, isn’t it

The gradual release of things

That might do better elsewhere

Attached to other life preservers, say

Dying to ego

And to vanity

Fleeing what we think we need

To embrace and then let go

A gift, a conversation

Uneasy service that

Needs doing, anyway

We have days now

Negotiating will,

Arriving at a knowing place

Of spirit

From which to act

When it’s time

C L Couch

Official Navy Page from [the] United States of America[, ]Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Ryan J. Mayes/U.S. Navy

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22662531

Attaching distress marker lights to flotation devices used in the event of a [person] overboard[.]

March 11, 2019 0

Lent 5

Lent 5

Why do we swim

I guess for recreation

Maybe for competition

Sometimes for exploration

We can at least explore our muscles

Get to the depths of us

“All asymmetrical

All beautiful”

I just heard someone

Say that into the room

And it’s true

In the smallest of ways, we are

Wondrously imbalanced

Floating around in freedom

Might free us of

The need to count with calipers

What is not exact

Yet can be so compelling

(not correcting)

In ourselves

In each other

Circle-comfortable

Yet more like an amoeba

By grace, unforming

C L Couch

A pod of narwhals. Note the spiral configuration of the single tusk.

Dr. Kristin Laidre, Polar Science Center, UW NOAA/OAR/OER – NOAA Photolib Library

(public domain)

March 10, 2019 0

Lent 4

Lent 4

Swimming is fine

Be careful not to go so deep

There is no air

Unless you have an aqualung

And a buddy

Yes, God is there

Above, beneath, within

But scuba gear exists for a reason

Even inside a metaphor

Remember the old saw

About the person in a house

Surrounded by a rising flood

Who had a warning from the radio

To leave,

Then offers from neighbors in a boat

And a helicopter pilot who had espied

This captive on the roof

And lowered the machine

And this person, trapped, then was drowned

Then was mad at God in heaven

I thought you’d protect me, was the

Complaint—and the response?

I gave a radio warning, a ride with your

Neighbors, a seat in a helicopter:

Why are you here?

We can help each other

Share old sayings and

Find a new of saying things

Today

We should let that happen

C L Couch

Hard rain on a roof covered with felt and tar paper in Gåseberg, Lysekil Municipality, Sweden. Original version. The yellowish dots on the roof are lichen.

W.carter – Own work

March 9, 2019 0

IWD ‘19

IWD ‘19

Today has been (to

announce it)

International Women’s Day,

And in my country

Women have said they

Own the responsibility

For women’s status not only here

But also in the world

To me, this is amazing

It’s sisterhood

(you decide how to say this—)

Yeah, it is

C L Couch

Public Domain

With nearly 1000 [African-American] women employed as burners, welders, scalers, and in other capacities at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, California, women war workers played an important part in the construction of the Liberty Ship SS George Washington Carver, launched on May 7th, 1943. Welder-trainee Josie Lucille Owens plies her trade on the ship.

Huffington Post

Most U.S. women see gender equality around the world as their shared responsibility.

March 9, 2019 0