(x = space)
x
x
Leaf-Taking
x
Leaves change
As time changes
As time changes
Green becomes memory
Until green times
Return
x
Leaves of pages
Change
As time changes
As time changes
The memory of reading
Reading now
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C L Couch
x
x
x
x
Photo by Chinnu Indrakumar on Unsplash
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Photo by Roman Trifonov on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
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Before We Leave
(or stay at home)
x
Keep us
Safe at home
Safe far away
Safe in a crowd
Safe on our own
x
Fed
Watered
Like valued plants
We also sometimes
Talk to
Sheltered from
All evils
All extremes
That cruelly stretch
Reason out shape
For decent use
x
Help us to use
Our senses
As we have them
To expand
And justify
And celebrate
Your placing us
On Earth
Inside the cosmos
Our greater purpose
Serving you
Two great
Commandments
x
C L Couch
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Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
An Odd Prayer to Share
x
God, help us
As we must know you
Something besides us
For people fail
They go away
Often for normal reasons
We are inside
And something should be known
Outside the skin
Of each of us
x
We breathe
And that’s good
What is breathing for
And other pleasures?
And when it hurts
And they
What then?
Where is the reason
Who’s the reason?
x
Nature is good
We can humanize
When we’re not exploiting
Its indifference
With our indifference
We can worship it
It will not specifically respond
We can destroy it
But then
We can destroy each other
Too
(not recommended)
x
There is something
That is not us
Someone
Who is not us
We are talking to you
Unless we’re sure there’s nothing
And we’re only talking
To ourselves
x
Either way, something more
Is needed
Not that each of us is bad
Or useless
Not that self-destruction is a choice
And we’re committed
(or we’re careless)
In which case
There is no talking
To oneself or anything
And we choose that way
x
Or talk us out of it
(and here is a conceit
if not a cheat,
for this is a collective prayer)
Set us on paths
Toward light
Toward life
Toward righteousness
Not the indignant kind
Not ego-driven
But has illumination
As a cause
x
Beyond self
There are so many things
So many people
There is much within us, too
Even the storm
And we are enough
For that
For them
For us
x
C L Couch
x
x
a prayer to say together, on behalf, or one by one
x
Photo by Erika Giraud on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
For a Sad Time
x
God gives
We say
God takes away
It’s true
Especially
If we accept Job
As a template
Loss for what seems is
No good reason
If reason
Loss arrives
What shall we do
But keep
The good we know
The hope we have
Say
In other stories
Our own
That we compose
As best we may
x
C L Couch
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x
Photo by Jules Marvin Eguilos on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
In Kabul
x
Nine hundred twenty dead
Early counting
Now over a thousand
In Kabul
x
The Taliban has asked
With urgency
For aid
The people in the city
Are receiving help
From local sources
People, groups
And from outside Afghanistan
Organizations
Other nations
x
So many dead
The faithful will mourn
Accept
The will of God
While they mourn
x
C L Couch
x
x
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing at least 920 people and injuring 600 others in the deadliest temblor…Read More
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Photo by farin sadiq on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
By and By
x
The circle won’t be broken
Let’s say again
Let’s sing again
Let’s dance again
Wonderful rings
That only break
To let someone in
Newcomers
Those returned
From the field
One kind or another
Outside there is potluck
Everyone bring
Something
While without doubt
Those without
Are so very, very welcome
Honey, too
x
You take my hand
And come along
All are welcome
Don’t worry about
That other thing for now
If you’re tired,
Rest first
Hungry, thirsty
Take care of that
We’ll be watching over you
Like angels from
The other song
Our circle is strong
We get the idea from the sun
And moon
And heaven
Heaven knows
x
God there
God here
Welcome, child
No, we do not care
About that
Come as you are
Heh-heh
Come eat
Come drink
Come dance
x
C L Couch
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Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
3 poems for summer solstice
x
x
Merry July
x
Solstice
It’s summer now
Summer weather smacks us
Here
Temps aiming for 90
I guess in Australia
New Zealand
New Guinea
Little America
Winter is begun
Throw logs on the fire
Sing winter carols
Withholding Christmas and
The other holidays
‘Til the start of summer
In December
Christmas in July
A custom mostly mercantile
In the north
Could be the real thing
With trees and
Were it high enough
Some snow
Ornaments and lights
Certainly
Merry Christmas in
Alice Springs
Wellington
Tierre del Fuego
On the Falklands
At the southern pole
Santa’s summer home
Like winter
x
x
Intentions
x
God, what shall I
Say to you?
I worship you
In contemporary ways
I’m sorry for sins
You have seen in me
And known for centuries
I thank you for your presence
Having made all good things
And the ways to deal
With the bad
I ask of you
To welcome home
Those who die
And heal those who live
Cure cancer
End war
Well, I can ask
x
x
Siblinghood
x
It’s like science fiction
Slipping out of time
Our of normalcy
Eating meals on time
Cleaning on a schedule
Ingrained expectations
Instinctive, conditioned
Responses
x
To fall outside of these
To live with fewer clothes
To hope for decent meals
In penury,
To dream of trips
But only travel like Thoreau
Walking to and from
The town
x
Everything else happens
On the inside
How sad this is
At least how strange
But there’s a purpose
Those who fall outside
Will look back
And when not wistful
Will prophecy
In art
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
Saint John’s (Midsummer) Fire at Dragør Beach (Denmark)
XSimon, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53634435
x
(x = space)
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So Much on One Day
x
Yesterday was
Father’s Day
Juneteenth
Corpus Christi
My
The body of Christ
Evidenced
Manifest
In Eucharist
This is important
This is my body
Christ said to disciples
This is my blood
Do this in remembrance of me
x
A priest once explained to me
That the change is not molecular
That substance
To the medieval minds
To the makers of the doctrine
Did not mean flesh
As in meat
But substance as in essence
As in presence
Belief and purpose
Inside, all around
x
These were believers
And philosophers
Not alchemists
(so much)
x
The reason for the bread and wine
Is changed
Our reason to be there in the moment
With a bell
Is changed from bread and wine
To faith
And even penitence
The salvation of the world
At hand
And hand outside as well
As inside we take and ingest
And move with nourishment
Into the world,
After
x
A professor told us
Once in class
Of her being in line
At a holy place in western Asia
Then in
Chatting about faith
With a stranger there—she
Was asked
(if not told)
Are not you Christians cannibals?
You believe in consuming
Flesh and blood
x
And my prof remembered
As I remember
With remembrance
The details and essence of
Her story
x
And is there physicality?
Yes, I think so
Bread, wine
And there is more
And the bell changes things
Things are changed in substance
For the better
Christ isn’t changed
Bread, wine
We are
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
Father
x
As in the fathers who are there
Who show up
Who have been there from the beginning
And those who are not there
Who left
Who might return
Might be changed
Might stay
And that be good
x
God is father
God is mother
Jesus is the child
Fully grown and forever
The Spirit is inside
As well as moving
Through the world
Through the cosmos
A crazy family
Three in one
And one
But in each
And altogether
We have our learning
Our understanding
And our living
x
Reasons and purposes
Wills and resolves
Choices
Actions
Parents are good at actions
Fathers are adept
At doing something
When they would do something
And they do something
Often
x
They act
They build
They love
The best ones listen
The best ones speak
Knowing with whom they speak
Skills vary
Loving intent doesn’t have to
x
A father is remarkable
A mother is remarkable
A family
Is remarkable
Even though
There are so many
Constructed, reconstructed
Precious not for diamond absence
But for the abundance of love
We reach in
We reach out
We share
x
Fathers do this
In the USA, this is their day
God bless fathers
Fathers turn to God
They may turn to each other
Turn more so to their partners
To their charges
And their charge
x
Amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Federico Di Dio photography on Unsplash
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