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A Little Hermeneutic for a Saturday Morning

A Little Hermeneutic for a Saturday Morning

(1 Corinthians 12:17)

 

If all were an eye

Which is a phrase I heard

(maybe in translation)

Then the body would have

Nothing else to do

Beyond looking

 

Sounds dull and

V R notwithstanding

Two-dimensional

 

Only when the body is all active

Is there interest and

Engagement with all the creation

That’s around us

 

And with the Genesis maker

We can say

(we have mouths)

That this is good

 

C L Couch

 

 

By Edgar Degas – High Museum of Art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28897481

 

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Leaving Church

Leaving Church

(all souls day)

 

The living church remembered

Now in the season

Hallowtide

We can recall who’s gone ahead

Who maybe holds a door

For the rest

Whatever our next jobs might be

 

I’ve lost too many

Witnesses

Pillars

Walking prayers for me

While mostly they were they

More than an idea of a person

Or a symbol

Or an inspiration

 

Beyond living day to day

Flawed

Moody

Qualifying me for our companionship

Until one gone

And then another

 

C L Couch

 

 

By Klearchos Kapoutsis from Santorini, Greece – Zaduszki, uploaded by Yarl, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25289705

The Catholic church celebrates Zaduszki (“All Souls Day”) one day after the All Saints Day. Photo from the Polish cemetery of Osobowice in Wroclaw.

 

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Living Church

Living Church

(all saints day)

 

I sing a song of the saints of God

Small s people

Some of the names we know

Many, many, many

We will not

But this is their day

Your day

A day for living in the church

For the church

The kirke

The iglesia

Is people, translated

And without translation

Who could know?

Another song mentions a spark

But really it takes a fire

A fire on the inside

Enflaming eyes and ears

The touch, the taste, the word

Senses made alive

We burn together

Heritage and prophecy

Say so

It is the living church in irony,

For fire consumes

It can be used in punishment

Or condemnation

It makes a pillar for a promised people

Its clouds guiding by night

Set fire in the only safe and saving way

The saints of God are led

And leading

Keep us going

Take us there

 

C L Couch

 

 

Isabella Thomas (right) and Starla Williams-Neeley chat while serving the annual Thanksgiving dinner at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Milwaukee. Lynnda Guyton (center) organized this year’s meal. Also serving were (from left) Mary Banks and Denzel and Jasmine Tidmore. Credit: Kristyna Wentz-Graff

Free Meals Make Thanksgiving for Many in Milwaukee

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/free-meals-make-thanksgiving-for-many-in-milwaukee-v036kfj-134474133.html

November 24, 2011

Don Behm reporting

 

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Scream Seam

Scream Seam

 

‘Tis the season Hallowe’en

Things heard and seldom seen

Scared-er I have never been

All these spirits, in between

 

C L Couch

 

 

By John – https://www.flickr.com/photos/flashlamp/229377759/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1117448

 

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In Aslan’s Country

In Aslan’s Country

(https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46014463)

 

I don’t understand

I guess I don’t need to—

Not for mourning

Not for counting

Not for asking

 

A new plane crashes into the ocean

No survivors

 

One missed the flight for traffic

Or other ordinary reason

I imagine there are some who made it

And were considering their luck

 

Half a world away

Right now feels like home

 

Not an issue

Except that God is watching from

A breaking place

 

C L Couch

 

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Turning Time

Turning Time

 

It’s late in October, isn’t it

The season soon enough will be half over

No other season calls to itself so much

In northern parts at least, everything to say

We’re done for now

Cover us and let us rest

Autumnal residents

October people

 

C L Couch

 

 

Vincent van Gogh – Les Alyscamps: Falling Autumn Leaves 1888

Public Domain

 

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L’Simcha

L’Simcha

 (https://theincline.com/2018/10/27/police-respond-to-active-shooting-at-tree-of-life-synagogue-in-squirrel-hill-pittsburgh/)

 

It happened in my one-time town

It could happen anywhere

We’ve known that for a while, now

We like the violence we have in

The arenas

Until we have to pay

 

A prayer service

Affirming spiritual courage

 

A coward’s assurance of easy

Semitic targets

Let’s go to church and kill

Brings his guns

 

What is the time

What will we do

 

The news mentions “a search for answers”

But the answers are all over, everywhere

 

There’s no mystery here beyond the numinous

The life of faith that the synagogue enjoys

The people there

Their guests

And anything by way of intercession

For the rest of us

 

Confirm

That eleven people died

We have to say so far

Worshipers and officers who are wounded

And more

In need of mortal healing

And more

The killer still alive

 

Pray for forgiveness sometime

Not today

Sorry I don’t have a bigger feeling

Not today

 

C L Couch

 

 

https://www.tolols.org/

Where a 3,000-year-old tradition meets a 5-year-old’s curiosity.

Tree of Life or L’Simcha Congregation is a traditional, progressive, and egalitarian congregation based in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

We offer a warm and welcoming environment where even the oldest Jewish traditions become relevant to the way our members live today. From engaging services, social events, family-friendly activities, and learning opportunities to support in times of illness or sorrow, we match the old with the new to deliver conservative Jewish tradition that’s accessible, warm, and progressive.

If you haven’t visited us yet, we welcome the chance to introduce you to our community!

 

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Unrelative Truthing

Unrelative Truthing

 

Even in dim pre-dawn light

On a Sunday morning,

The colors are clear

Finally, it’s fall

The leaves are turning into glory

And should one think there is a subtext

About the beauty of all races

Well, that’s not really there

But, now I think of it,

Why not

There is beauty in all races

No need to place that truth under

Something else

 

Now, fall’s late arrival

Something of a pattern

Might also beg

The warming of the planet

Let’s go with that one, too

It’s not progress to have that understanding

(though another kind of progress is the cost)

It’s the kind of sense

The ancients have employed

 

Coffee’s ready

Time to get it

I am thankful

I hope your day is good

And for your neighbor

 

C L Couch

 

 

West Virginia Fall Colors

lanepws

(at) http://www.lanephotoworkshops.com/portfolio/landscapes/fall-colors/

 

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Walls

Walls

 

A depiction of a death

So that insurance might be sold

That’s all right: I appreciate

 

Investment in exigency

But in the advertisement,

A door is shut with the grey world outside

The small things of home within

As if the employment of the product will

Close off death itself

For a time, at least

What are we protecting, then?

I hope it’s home

And not mortality

 

We can’t keep it out

It dwells inside

In every room

 

I don’t recommend the dance of death

A final scene of The Seventh Seal

We don’t have to step out with it

Or nurture it within

But it is reality

(you know)

And isn’t it a wonder

That, if we relent a little,

Death will not have to break through the door

Or turn over everything that’s good

Inside

 

It will happen nonetheless

And regardless

Our rituals might help

And family life

Give it some time, if there’s time

Comfort each other

Talk about good times

But not cowering on the other sides of walls

Walls at best

Are not for that

 

Not for shouting down an enemy

On the other side

Do good fences make good neighbors?

When privacy is called for, without doubt

But not for death

Death is not unusual

It does not have to separate

It can bring us over barriers

Home in better ways

 

C L Couch

 

 

Paul VanDerWerf

Stone Fence

Taken in Harpswell, Maine.

 

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