Search

clcouch123

I talk you talk we'll talk

Open Search
Category

Uncategorized

Praying from Democracyland

Praying from Democracyland

 

Okay, God

You and me

Don’t you have

The poor end of the stick

I can rely on the other end

That’s you

I treat you as a friend

Sometimes as a phantom

Sometimes wish you down

Upon my enemies

With fire and menace

But then consider

Those for me

And cease

I have to

That is doctrine

Sigh (a real, stage, and

spiritual direction)

 

You are the source of power

Start of majesty,

I know

I treat you like a pal

I shouldn’t do that

But you are the source of love, more so

And I don’t know how to deal

In that,

Snubbing all formality

In wanting easy terms

For us

 

As a suggestion, let’s read your gospel

Much of that has clarity, I know

And honestly the fuzzy parts

Are interesting but not compelling

Either way

 

So I’ll rely on truth as

I can get it from

A reading and a prayer

You’ll be there,

I know

As in everything you started

The skies

The world

And me

Anyone who listens

Or does not listen

Who hears but does not hear

Sometimes like me,

Though now

This is about you

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash

Portland, United States

Condensation and fresh raindrops against the window of our car during a trip to get donuts in Portland, Oregon.

 

13

Thank You Very Much

Thank You Very Much

(a gratitude of winter)

 

I don’t have a winter home

No fireplace to sit by and

Wrap up

Wheel a television set close

By (before the wrapping)

To play an old, old movie

Maybe in black and white

(scandalous! I know)

To have a cup of something hot

A book close by for cheer—well,

These things I could arrange

(book and hot drink, even reading

glasses)

But how to have some company

To share the story of

The story and to

Talk of other things?

 

For the half I do not have,

I have a half of other things

Some of which might do

The book (and reading glasses)

I can heat up something

And I have the time, I believe,

For now

 

For what I have and what I don’t

And what you give me to believe,

For with some snow

And not too much (I hope, I ask)

And for all who are with me

Now and again,

I can say, only and best,

Thank you very much

 

C L Couch

 

This is inspired by a song in a family-favorite movie, Scrooge.

 

 

Photo by Headway on Unsplash

Lake Michigamme, United States

Our nights were filled with conversations by the fire, singing songs, and lots of laughs. It was a great way to unwind and grow together as a crew. See more about our team retreat on our blog. http://headway.io/blog/headway-winter-retreat-2018/

 

4

Testimony of a Winter Day

Testimony of a Winter Day

 

Snow has fallen

Like frosting on a cake for now

Is that where the baker’s

Term came from?

The sky is featureless

Any sunlight is diffuse

It’s Saturday

So in the USA timing is not an issue

For the weekend-minded

And privileged

It’s a setting for a winter’s day

Appropriate for the Mid-Atlantic

If there’s a storm somewhere

Beaches will be closed for walking

Ships will hopefully take caution

As an exigent criterion

 

At present, I live in a small town

And testify only to a noisy neighbor

I would rather live without

Maybe he will leave

But not today

Today is a day for inside

For those who have fireplaces

To light a fire in them

Read by another light

Next to the firelight

Wrap up in something

Liquid hot or cold close by

Or if there’s someone else, have

A conversation

 

About nothing in particular

Or what’s been keeping in the rush

Of sunlit, navigable days

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by invisiblepower on Unsplash

Norway

The Early Morning

 

3

Inventing Peace

Inventing Peace

(in three small acts)

 

1

Peace comes from within

And also without

It’s an invention, a discovery

A state of mind

It’s an accomplishment

Takes years

Something always just ahead

Out of reach

Of mortal hands

Means

 

But we make it happen, yes?

It starts and ends with me

All right, maybe another

A small circle

Dedicated to agreement

But that’s it

We get a place of comfort

And we decide

We have it

 

2

And then the big barns of the wealthy

Look useless for God calling up

The builder before

Any more was put inside

Oh, so someone must be involved

That person

I should pray

And go to church, now and then

And give something to the poor

That taken care,

I’ll have earned

Beatitude

 

Well, no

In this dialogue with me

Since you’ve gotten me involved

Through invocation

I must tell you

Peace is not for you

It never was

What!

 

3

Peace is for the poor

Don’t worry, the poor can own many things

But they can’t be you

You disqualified yourself

Almost at birth

That can’s be

You’re not fair!

 

Not all the time, no

But I’m just

You’re human

You, your people, asked to have it so

And so it’s been

You live in will

That means you live with sin

Beneath the skin

Your parents might have done it for you

But you owned it, soon as possible

Oh,

 

Okay, I see

What do you want?

Much

But that’s another conversation

Call it prayer, call it confession

I’ll call it pardon

Repentance and then reconciliation

Look there, I’ve given it all away

You want peace?

Do that

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

Sparrows on the Snow – pictures edited with my presets that you can find on my website in BIO

 

0

Patmos Day 10001

Patmos Day 10001

(Revelation 21 1)

 

I am here alone

Surrounded by the world

Or so it seems

 

The world tan and blue

The building bleached

In which I rest

Waiting for another vision

 

Testimony

That will not come

I fear

After all

I all learned about

The end of things

 

But there was so little said about

The new

Too brief

The new heaven and new

Earth

How they might be conveyed

For life in the eternal

I want to know

Not as if apocalypse were not enough

It burns the parts of me that

Sight things

Still

 

So I scratch on paper

When I can

A finger in the sand

When there is that

I wait

For them to come

The agents of the Savior

Telling me

 

In perfect love and fear

What to record

That might slip through the web

For all of you to hear

Theophilae

 

C L Couch

 

 

photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

night sky over the church

 

0

See and Taste

See and Taste

(Psalm 34:8)

 

When there was communion,

Four times a year,

Small cups

Were distributed,

Clear and plastic

Warm to touch

 

I would take my cup,

Tilt its smallness just a little in my favor

To see four lights reflected

Four yellow dots floating

In and as

Four corners

A square inside a circle

 

One dot for God

One for Jesus, for the Holy Spirit,

And for me

And when I’d turn the plastic cup

Those little lights would merge

To make an errant twirl,

An artwork of gold

 

A swirl on top

A small pool of grape juice

At room temperature,

As if to say

 

Even to the child,

We’re all in this together

You’ve eaten, now drink

And with us

Seal the season

Outside, inside

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Erica Viana on Unsplash

São Paulo, SP, Brasil

 

0

A Game

A Game

 

There is a game

To play now and then

It’s called the future

Something blank is all that’s needed

Not even paper

An open book

Or tabletop will do

But keep it empty

Then place a thought inside

And then another

You will lose your way, and that’s all right

You’ve won by then!

Maybe play again

Or realize

Tomorrow

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Wolfgang Rottmann on Unsplash

 

5

If God Then God, If Not

If God Then God, If Not

 

If God is good

Why is the world so bad?

This is not a child’s question

Only in simplicity

And it has taken faith from many

Over time

There will be some number today

 

There are two things, as is

God and the world

And while we eschew puppetry

We take it right in judging

God by what we do in freedom

 

Nature’s indifference

I can chalk up to a fallen world

That fell with us

Depravity a Calvinist discretion,

How widespread

(the narrator had it slice through Jupiter

Out of the Silent Planet)

So it’s the need to fall

The interest to

That is decided

 

Have faith because

The world is falling

Henny Penny, Chicken Little

All the birds that find they cannot fly

By nature or by nurture

(Chomsky, Skinner)

Or by how thick the sky

Has become

 

We are not the world

And we are

We take it with us

Into our decisions

Which is to say are we at the root of evil

More than the devil?

I don’t know

I cannot notebook hell

But we are pretty bad

And can be pretty good

And, if to be allowed

Either say or way,

Then discretion is not valor but

Needful as air

 

We don’t make heaven or of hell

But I think we can contribute

And each essence must matter

While we do

Come home to one or the other

The invitations must be that dire

Life must be that real

Real choices

We know

Real consequences

 

Choose faith

Sometimes in something

Or release it

Take something or walk on

Must be breathing as an option and

Have muscles

No excuses but our own

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Paul Carroll on Unsplash

 

0

Jesus Tells a Joke to Make a Point

Jesus Tells a Joke to Make a Point

(brief Bible study, Matthew 7:3)

 

It’s a joke

A pun

The sawdust in the other’s eye

The log in one’s own

All seeing devices marred

There is no clarity

In judgment

Not without remorse for one’s own,

First

 

The log, however

Maybe Jesus is laughing, who

Would know how to do that

The log is so difficult to see

Around

Much less through

To start

 

Might all these wood parts

I wonder

Come from

The tree of good and evil?

If so

Or if not

The stakes are high

The sanctity of sanctity

The holy qualities we have

But might surrender

So much easier to find

(without clear sight)

The problems with another

 

And I’m confessing, too,

Which does not make me readier

For judgment

That is, to do it

Not yet

(I laugh a little, sigh),

No

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Tim Schramm on Unsplash

 

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑