Tree of Life
The soul must be amazing
Some say it’s like a bird
And why not
I don’t mean a matter for debate
I mean the spirit that’s inside us
That leaves us when
We can bear no more
Where it catches next, I do not know
Branches in a tree
What has it for keeping
I think it is somewhere
I guess it might be doctrine
And so for argument
To say it owns eternal
C L Couch
Photo by Kushagra Kevat on Unsplash
Origami Transportation
How close am I to
Earth when
Help would push me
To the sky
And pain still wishes to
Pull me to the ground?
I guess I speak of
Medicine and illness
And the rips, the tears they make
Ideally with coordination
(patch over wound)
But with parts of the heart
Still pouring over into
Nets of capillaries
Wounded-open
What can artificiality construct
(what can making make)
To that will mend with
Flesh parts that have
Been hung for years
Red, brown, freckled, white
Flesh like bird-feathers, birds
Waiting on a branch to fly
Once the banding’s done?
Fly so well, then?
Metal and claw, we have to hope
Human mends
Steel and plastic
Cotton, nylon fiber
Chemicals repurposed from
Repose inside the Earth
Give it all a chance
The gently shackled bird
The patient with medicines
In binding
C L Couch
Photo by Nikoline Arns on Unsplash
No Sin Required to Have Grace Abound
(Romans 6:1 and 2, that funny, funny Paul)
Grace
I want to write about it
Maybe because I need it
I don’t know how the mealtime
Prayer became “grace”
Because grace is momentary?
We ask for your blessing now, because
We’ll only need it
‘Til the food is gone
Grace is a surprise
And, as I’ve said, like a bird
It flies, it alights, it sings
It takes off again
Grace goes where it is needed
Costs nothing, and it saves
Sometimes we do get
What we didn’t pay for
Grace cuts through works
Though doesn’t undervalue them
(show me faith without works)
Like Jesus, grace provides means
And a way to God
Though discipleship is not required
When you receive grace,
Nothing is required
But a hope (a hope) for better living
And sometime or no time
To respond to
What goes quietly below
A plea for faith
An argument to hear
If not, then not
Grace will help us, anyway
That is its nature
And its calling
You can hear in every bird
Even the ostrich through the sand
(I don’t think ostriches really do that
I can look that up
I did: they don’t)
C L Couch
Donarreiskoffer – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7869007
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/do-ostriches-really-bury-heads-in-sand.htm
clear and helpful article about ostriches and sand
(haiku) From the Back Yard
Cardinal on fence,
Momentary red still life,
Flies away—that’s good
Cold morning air, one
Bumble-bee under flower
Following its call
Rabbit’s tall long legs,
Wary, lope across the yard:
Mitigated zeal
Haiku over Coffee
(while I was away)
Fat robin. Pregnant?
Why not, this is fecund time.
Eggs into small birds.
(walking through the yard)
never never ne
ver will I trust in this a
gain mean it this time
(playing with “never” the way
Shakespeare plays “tomorrow”)
“selfishness of mind”
is the “common enemy”
Dalai Lama bless
(at the bookstore)
Too much death in news
Guns, traffic, derailments, fire
Country mouse for home
(reading and watching the city
news at the same time)
So you know, all friends
Each drafting of one of these
Truly with coffee
(even now)
Happy Tails, Happy Trails
I grew up with cats, with
Dogs, partly with a horse
(an entire horse), some
Guinea pigs, I think, and
Fish I could not relate to
There was a rabbit (maybe
Two rabbits—you know
How they are), a rescued
Bird
I met a big snake one time
At a program with a guide;
I enjoyed petting the snake
Feeling its muscles move
Beneath the skin
I enjoyed a staring contest
With a deer across the
Yard; actually, we were
Both walking the local
Cemetery and caught, as
If to trap, each other’s eyes
The things—Scripture’s
Creeping things—with tails
Are the ones I seem to
Do best with; I suppose I
Create a cheat out of
Belief and hope that the
Ones with tails and I are
Getting along
Well, what can I say? My
Wish (I don’t think Dale
Evans Rogers would mind)—
Happy tails, happy trails
this work is incited (that is, inspired in
an especially zealous way) in part by a
delightful blog and an extraordinary
group, Three Chatty Cats, celebrating
wondrously the rescue of cats
http://threechattycats.com/2016/02/08/the-odd-cat-sanctuary/
http://threechattycats.com/
clcouch123 
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