Ecumenically Yours
I believe
God
Jesus
And the Holy Spirit
If you don’t believe
Believing in
Another way
Or not
At all
Then that should be all right
With me
Evangelism
Notwithstanding
For
What good
Readiness to speak
When
There is no Earth to stand on or
Breathe through
Our lack of respect
Having led
To the destruction
Of
It all
C L Couch
Photo by Mario Häfliger on Unsplash
First time ever to see the monks temple Otagi Nenbutsuji in Kyoto. 1200 different monk statues are straggled over the area and sometimes you see once who are upside down or in remembrance of a cat. Hidden gem in my opinion.
[photographer’s caption]
We Do This
I’m not really satisfied
Are you
I mean
I sit here
In an illusion of
Muscles
And health
And time and safety
To do this
And you are where you are
By
All that you have
And we express
Or try to
We make many drafts
Call them rough
Then save
Them for another time
Or we
Discard
And it’s not only writing
But
A wish for peace
Beyond the writing
Yes
Success
Even a wishing
Or a dreaming
Of prosperity
With support
The encouragement
Of others
We respect
Even
Who give over all the time
And space
For us
Or we keep writing
Anyway
(regardless)
We keep saying
We keep corresponding
And so
Change the world
While
No one else is watching
C L Couch
Photo by Lindsey Elsey on Unsplash
Unlikely Sabbath
(a kind of call to worship)
We
Understand
Misunderstand
(together)
The sabbath
As a time to go to church
To pray
Officially
For things we might remember
Afterward
Then be free of all of it
For food
For games
For preparing all the real time
To follow
The next day
Or
Instantly
As we might be driven
Driving
That is
Ourselves
But is the sabbath more than services
And really
Was it ever
Well
Ancient reminders
I suppose
The priests to the people
Saying
Or as if to say
By the tent
Then by the temple
In here is the
Holy of holies
Don’t forget it
Don’t forget
Our dedication
So
What is the sabbath
We might
Wonder
Being first
A seventh day
Created
A day for God to rest
And so
A model for
Ourselves
Modeled after God
After all
And so
First week
Completed
And so
Laid out for us
Six days of creating
Then a day
This day
To keep it holy
As in set apart
For
A spiritual reason
Like the fruits of
Field and vine
Set apart
For spiritual
Remembrance
And
I don’t know what
To say
Anymore
Except that it was
Said
Thank goodness not by me
To remember
As in have
The sabbath
It’s a discipline
To rest
An invitation
To play well
To remember
The source
Of love
And everything
That’s good
C L Couch
Photo by Sai De Silva on Unsplash
Child No More
The end of childhood
Clarke tells us
In a story
It’s about evolution
And we change
We develop
And someday with help
Maybe
Dramatically
Or drastically
We’ll grow beyond our knowing
Into something
New
And sometimes what is new is
Frightening
At the least it’s
Inconvenient
Packing up old things
Sometimes
Unpacking
The new things or
Waiting
For delivery
Depending on who’s helping us
Depending on resources
That maybe have arrived as
New capacities
Already
New
Ways
Of seeing things
Of understanding
Goodness
It’s a sci-fi story
After all
Speculation into future
Possibilities
I guess we have to grow
We can’t stay still on
Earth
Forever
It’s doesn’t work that way
For even Earth
Will change
And we won’t stay
We can’t
The Earth and us
Are changing now
C L Couch
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Photo by K8 on Unsplash
n. b.
Which doesn’t
Mean
We destroy the Earth
While we’re
Here
The cosmos will not welcome us
This way
And those who think to
Hurry Armageddon
Are close to a lunacy
Of strategy
And should be walking back
Any notions
Of playing God
Or playing
God
you know that thing
you know that thing
that
someone had said
about insanity
meaning
doing the same thing
(not working)
and expecting something different
(successful)
next
time
I don’t mean
the tungsten thing
you know
when
Edison tried a hundred filaments or so
to light a light bulb for
a while
‘cause
each time
he tried a different substance
and
in fact
could say he found
he found a hundred ways
not
to light
a light bulb
of course
then what happened
maybe not with Edison
was that
light bulbs were staying lit
too
long
and so they were
changed
to stay lit for
shorter lengths of
time
(like Shakespeare’s brief candle
meaning length
of life)
and so
less lengthy
so to say
light bulbs were re-invented
re-provided
thus
securing
among other things
our
disposable society
then there was
the Stanley Steamer
which
is
if similar
another story
c l couch
photo by Félix Girault on Unsplash
max
there are rough edges
next
to polished ones
rough things unattended
unattending
not worth much
except attention by
the way
of splinters
on the fleshy parts of fingers
or maybe
with greater pain
underneath
nails
we sand these away
work them over with varnish
and right angles
taking them
down
using nail guns
then attaching labels
with squiggly squares
(QR?)
promising of prices
and that’s wood
but it applies to fabric
too
and even bricks
so many things
in fact
in order
(and ordering)
to have a smooth
and gilt
world
without rough
except for sex sometimes
which in the morning
is forgotten
over
coffee
served with euphemistic language
and we shop
and look for
the next smooth things
to wear
c l couch
(not advocating hair-shirts at all—only a thought about rough edges, say, on trees)
photo by Lili Kovac on Unsplash
Where the Train Track Ends
(in spirit for Shel Silverstein)
Train tracks seem
Not
To end
And I suppose
Sidewalks
Don’t
Have to end as well
Though it
Seems
They end more often
Or at least we get
To see
Or maybe trip over
If we don’t
(or
someone says
to us
hey
it’s ending)
But train tracks end
Unless in a roundhouse
In a city
Where they end
But the trains are turned around
To go another way
Or the same
Way
They came
But
Underneath our trees
At Christmastime
(or for another reason
and
you know
there could be)
The tracks don’t end
Unless
There’s a reason
Meaning something’s broken
That
We need to fix
And we fix it
And our train goes on
Around
And for variety
Perhaps
We may
If we can
(if the train came with this)
Sound a whistle
Or
In the old
Days
Make some smoke
So I should confess
Perhaps
Our sidewalks were at least
A block away
From our cul-de-sac-ed
And sidewalk-less
Neighborhood
But I had
Train tracks in the basement
And then
To be precise
(and personal)
There was a flood
Down
There
Which was
An end
Though not
The end
Of
Train tracks
C L Couch
Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash
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