(x = space)
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Eras of Antiquity
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I like to collect things
That are old
Someone else’s using it
The first time
Effort rubbed into
The corners
The physics of depression from
Simple movement
Over time
Any substance
Any shape
Is worth it
Only the criteria
Of use
And lack of destruction
Without the hope of
Being remade
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C L Couch
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Photo by Peter Pryharski on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Bring All Your Failures
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A line in a gospel song
I’d say that’s right
As an invitation
To the altar
Bring what’s wrong
Don’t worry about
The Sunday best
God will take you as you are
That kind of party
Come as you are
Forgiveness and the feast
Are especially for you
When you are
That way
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C L Couch
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Psalm 141:2
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
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“God So Loved”
Written By: We The Kingdom, Andrew Bergthold, Martin Cash, Franni Rae Cash, Scott Cash and Ed Cash
Album: Live At The Wheelhouse (2019)
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(x = space)
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Split Light
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Lord,
What if I had gone
The way that you had chosen
The way that you had shown me
From the start?
I can’t chalk up misdirection
To youthful energy
Or ignorance at any age
Or indiscretion
As a peccadillo
I was wrong
That’s it
Except the thing is, Lord,
I was told by other people
People with agendas
Before I understood my own
I think when we were quiet
We got along just fine
And I was learning something
Of your way
But there were intrusions
With everything awry
I lost my way
With you
With everything
I didn’t know what or whom
To count on
Or to latch onto
I tried to lead myself alone
Well, you know how that goes
So I am here
All the distractions are the same
I’m not that much different, either
Sometimes I can hear you calling
Call to me, now
With pardon
Even with revelation
Speak through my broken hearing
Tell me
I will try to listen
Break through the sullenness,
The perspective problem of the child
Yet with a child’s bearing
I may hear
Then follow through
In an awkward, side-stepped way
Made out of mistrust
This time
Lamed somewhat by the world,
Which I’ll take
As my fault
For having gone in, first
With willfulness
Break will, too,
Without breaking me
Reknit into something straight
With my permission
And my consultation
Let new will prevail
With a team of mates
Upon the ship
Sailing not to glory
But to glory’s home
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C L Couch
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Photo by Bruno Thethe on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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No Harm in Asking
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Let’s hope for a good day
You and I
Friend
Stranger
I don’t care
In a good way
If you are deserving
And who isn’t
Let’s hope for a good day
We can supplicate
It’s not a trick
Then wait while it happens,
Itself reveling in hours
Waiting
To let us in
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C L Couch
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Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Runaway Psalm
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God, lay the morning
Down on us
Softly, unless there
Must be a storm
Give our senses
Easy labor
Except in greater need
Then call us out
To work the needs for people
Who should have
A day in which
To praise you
By still waters
To take breathing lessons
For whatever comes
In the next hour
And forever,
Cherishing each moment
And the way
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C L Couch
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Photo by Inés Castellano on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Signing Up
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I’d like to pray for you
I know I don’t
Exactly need your
Permission
But there is some respect
Involved
Discretion
You might be bothered
And I won’t expect
Gratitude
x
Maybe I’ll pray badly
With too many
Starts and stops
And stutters
Maybe an angel-coach
Will nudge me
To desist
Stop dissembling
Get to the matter
To the reason for this natter
x
The Spirit might say
Please,
Let this one alone
To try
Resist evaluation
Put the book away
This one has faith
Help the unfaith along
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I won’t ask
The prayer is up to me
And to the hearing
Once received
But who is on our side
Is not to worry
In the world
When
The one who made the sides
Who allows
Is listening
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C L Couch
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Photo by Pedro Lima on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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The House Not at Pooh Corner
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Your story
(see above)
Puts to mind
The mother of
Christopher Robin who
(I may have said
something of this before
don’t stop me
if you’ve heard this)
Took a walk around
The hundred-acre wood
From time to time
And when asked
By her son
Should he join her
She said, no,
But when I return
Greet me as if I had been gone
For a long time
And am returning now
From being away
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C L Couch
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Photo by Grayson Smith on Unsplash
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x = space)
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While I Was Writing
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On the news just now,
A hypersonic missile
Purportedly in China
China denies it
We want the same thing
China isn’t evil
Though sometimes
Sometimes we are evil
We all should know better
And we do
We do what we hate
Give it a name,
Security
Secure would be
Not to have these things
In Xanadu,
Kublai Khan decreed
An extraordinary place
And I hope everyone was fed
There
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C L Couch
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Alhambra de Granada
Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Momentum
(for friends)
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You know,
I write several things
A day
And then choose
One of them
Some days I only write
One thing
And I use that
I tell myself that if there’s
Nothing, then I won’t
Have anything
To share
And that has to be
All right
Occasionally, that happens
Not so often
If I have access to my
Small machines
Among them the device
Inside
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I say this because
This is where I am today
Not quite Pooh Corner
I admit
I cannot do everything
I want and like the apostle
Sometimes I do
The thing I hate
Though I think it’s more
That I don’t do
The thing I want
Even love
To do
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I could ask
Where is the energy
Of youth, that
Sweet bird,
Though I think we know
That energy is finite
Like the push-pull
Universe
And that we always tire
So we
Run the race we can
Then rest
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I know
You’re at the
Starting line
With me each day
I want to be with you
We go
And if we’re smart
We’ll rest
When there’s been enough
Join me today
Won’t you
In the race
That for us
Is cosmic laced,
Spiced, intertwined
With spirit
(or have spirit
laced with cosmic
thinking the spirit understands
either way)
The cosmic race
The spirit race
The human race
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C L Couch
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Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma in the evening light
Photo by Frantisek Duris on Unsplash
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Romans 7:14-15
(Hebrews 12:1 et al)
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