starry and a starry night
there’s a star over Moscow
and over Tehran
over Gaza
too
and over war-torn Bethlehem
also put-
together
in some seasons
we overuse the star
for movie players
and on
uniforms
we place one star
on our trees
and that is fun
we also place a star
over the creche
and that’s attractive
especially
if we happen to pay attention
to it
what it was
maybe we’ll never know
outside
a text of faith
and we can shape it
any way we want
our understanding
of the star
but star there was
some sort of beacon
for the magi
some sort of signal
over the family
as well
as over Earth
we think
we’re stars
the other way
not understanding Sagan’s
claim
we are star-stuff
we share the compounds
of a star
and maybe share its nature
too
to glow
to signal
understanding
that it such a bit place
we live on
and under
and maybe we could
stop splitting things
and come together
not under agenda
on a platform
but in a cave
a manger scene
quite humbly
together
c l couch
photo by Clarence E. Hsu on Unsplash
“Starwork”
(I don’t know where this is)
(x = space)
x
x
Babe
x
Advent 4
That sometimes falls on Christmas Eve
Smooshing our liturgies
Though sometimes it is Christmas day
For greater smooshing
x
We light four candles now
From sources
Matches
Friction inside brass cases
Long metal sticks with flames
Other candles
x
There is a fifth candle
Waiting
Which doesn’t stand for anything
No merging of symbols
Or guesses at tradition
It is Christ’s candle
It means Christ
Alone
x
The baby born at last
Who came to term
In Advent
And in that
A hurrying of the season
One month
While eight months somehow
Happened somewhere else
In ordinary time
Perhaps
A mother
Would know how to count
x
But Christ
Soon will be born
Another season
Lasting something like
Twelve days
Twelve days to celebrate
To sing like angels
With the fact they sing
Though nothing
Like their song
Their heavenly keys
Supernal rhythms
x
So this is the last
Before he comes
Anticipation’s nearly done
And (nearly) all our candles lit
We know
We are illumined
As much as we shall have
Before arrival
This final lesson
Only
x
In that
Christ arrives
Christ arrives
Not only once a year
Though once
As a liturgical
Baby
x
There’s
Dedication
While the rest of the time
He’s pretty grown
With grown-up things to say
x
Though he elevates
Other children
In the notion that
Innocence
Unworldly honesty
Make the way to lead
As well as
How to live
x
So ask for blessings
On the child
For we might not know
Where God ends
And the human part begins
x
There might be surprise
And pain
To have come into the world
The way as all
Like us
Who arrive
And now to live here
With us
For us all
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Anna Vander Stel on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Day before Tomorrow
x
Last day in Advent
Made it
Whew
Rain, snow
Overwhelming cold
We should be postal carriers
To endure
It all
Strange meeting place
This junction of
The Northeast, MidAtlantic
The weather comes
From north or south
Or east or west
I’m trying
To get used to that
It’s only taken
Twenty years so far
There are forecasts
But better to wait
To know what happens
Though encounter
x
How to plan a picnic
Must be an undertaking,
Strategy
Requiring options
(bring the ants)
Sometimes the living
Is absurd
If not cartoonish
But these are the days we have
And the environs
Those who stayed
Or passed back through
Appalachia
To stay
x
And all the world has
Its places
Its challenges
Its practices
x
And now (among
the practices)
It’s Christmas Eve
And there are days in Hanukkah
This year correlating
Come
To light our way
The world could breathe easier
Except in Ukraine
In Myanmar and Yemen,
Oppressive parts of China
And of Russia
And in the manipulative
Shadowed corners
Of the USA
All the places where we watch
For detonation
Also the human heart
The battlefield it remains
x
Sin and virtue
Pounding and pushing
Pulling circulation
Strain
(Sturm and Drang),
The devils on the inside
On the outside
Rendering Christmastide
So perilous
x
And yet we sing into
A night
We wish were silent
Save for children’s cries
For all the reasons
Children cry
Among them to receive
First oxygen and hope
Into the world
x
Render the night
Impossible in virtue
We’ll sing it,
Anyway
We’ll kneel
We’ll try to light our way
We’ll quietly acknowledge
Neighbors
Some will party
And some will do nothing,
I suppose
Though the world is affected
By what we do this night
And for a thousand years
And in the time
Remember birth and
Death
And everything
That circulates a world
Keeps it moving
In the spirit
In the flesh
x
Though maybe for an hour
Let all mortal flesh
Keep silent
And in fear and trembling
Stand
To receive
To hope for blessing
In the night
x
Let fighter planes
Fly so carefully
Perforce keep watch
Like shepherds
Over continents
And there might be songs
At crowded borders
And the lines
Kept distant
From welcome
Because mines have barred the way
x
Peace on Earth
The ersatz wish
Some must believe
(yet some must believe),
Withholding war
The practice
That must be enough
For now
x
Into the world
The child comes
The children come
And everyone
And everything
Now have responsibilities
To keep it together,
To throw
And try to seal patches
The worn places
And to keep watch
For the tearing places
On the outside of Earth
And, you know,
On the inside
Heaven
And hell
The human heart
x
Anxieties may end
Because it’s here
Our plans are done
And in place as they are
Out of necessity
Of time
As chronos
So might we have
Christmas
For a day
Twelve years
Perhaps a brief era
If only hours
x
A spiritual time
A cultural invention
Arms reach out for a change
Hand in hand
In brave hope
To sing a silent night
To sing in glory
Once the vigil is completed
And there is indeed
There really is
A dawn of hope
x
Glory and hope
Amazing
Because a child is born
That for a time
Affects the government
In minds
As well as capitals
Until when all time is done
And in a kairos of eternity
It’s Christmas day
And all the other graceful days
Together
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Monisha Selvakumar on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Eve X
x
I cannot help
But love the evening
Maybe you feel the same
And in the quiet night
A miracle
And it can’t have been quiet
With the mother
And the father
And the animals
And the outside
Night noises
And yet the heart is quiet
Generally
When
There is the birth
To contemplate
In the dark
And after
Maybe
An extraordinary light
That might be candlelight
Or dawn
Or an inside
Sunrise
x
And it could happen
In an hour of
Any Christmas Eve
With apologies to mothers
And to fathers
And to animals
The wilderness
x
But we might need
Silent consideration
Of it all
And then to have a new day
In more silence
Or the noise
Of a wonderful
However illuminated
Day
x
Darkness
And light
Darknesses
And lights
We might need both
To understand
How a birth leads
To eternal life
Because it may
It does
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash
Believer holding candle at evening church ceremony in Paris.
x
(x = space)
x
x
We Didn’t Know Who You Was
(Christmas Eve)
x
Let’s not slice it to death
This time
Let’s simply have observances
Let all the contradictions go
We know there’s folklore involved,
Which should fascinate
x
There was such darkness
At hand
Of one kind or another
Of the past, of
The present
Lack of awareness
Of the import of events;
Only to the players
Did things matter,
They in acts
No one to put it all together until Luke
And a little bit in Matthew and in John
x
Prophets old and new
We have to say
Knew and know some measure
Of the meaning
Of it all
They are extracted
And we read them, too
x
Such dulled and slow senses
Sometimes history goes that way
Sometimes it’s spiritual
The people walked in darkness
There might be other forces, too,
To keep us from the light
x
But it is there
The birth is there
Incarnation as a doctrine
Thought some of it at least
Might have been as any birth
A baby in the world
This one in a cave
And that’s unusual
And all around
The mystery
The strangeness
There was adventure in the sky
And from some people
Who in an iron empire
Chose to dedicate another lord,
Another life to follow
x
The child is God
But who knew that?
Mary and Joseph
Angels
And the magi knew something
While the shepherds were told something
As good news
This is the messiah!
Who really understood?
How could a baby save the world
Who is not Caesar
With family, tutors, strategists
Sheltered behind stone walls,
Armies out front
That keep the world
For them?
x
Well, other parts conspired
Into a birth, a life
That through faith
And later patchwork
Yielded doctrine
And a way
The people of the way
x
As on that night
(let’s call it a night)
There would be amazement
There would be awful things as well
But wonder now
And wonder later on
And with us, still
x
Praise God, for God is good
God is love
God is a spirit
Who wonders now
And offers light inside the darkness,
The kind of darkness that is not
Romantic but it
Stultifies and kills
x
Believe the child
Humbly, take the child in
To dwell with you
Maybe like a foundling, at the start,
Then as a teacher
And a savior
And a temple of salvation
In the city of God
(new heaven)
And on God’s free land
(new Earth)
Forever
x
Sweet, little Jesus child,
They made you be born in a manger;
Sweet, little holy child,
We didn’t know who you was.
x
Didn’t know you’d come to save us, Lord,
To take our sins away:
Our eyes was blind, we could not see;
We didn’t know who you was.
x
We didn’t know who you was
Maybe we should have
Maybe we can, now,
And into new ages
Love revealed
Prophecy fulfilled
The child grows up
We grow up
x
And for this night we way
Welcome to the world, child,
And everything that starts
Now
x
C L Couch
x
x
could be a choral or a choir reading
x
“Sweet, Little Jesus Child” is a song of African American origin. The precise source is unknown, and there are variants and variations.
x
This is the third in a creative, liturgical series for Advent and Christmas. The other two parts are the last two days’ posts. I think I’ll work on something else now.
x
Photo by Agung Raharja on Unsplash
x
I’ve been having trouble with WordPress. I can’t leave comments on your pages. I get an “error” block that tells me to go back and when I do I still get the “error” block. I don’t know if anyone has experienced this. Maybe the problem is with my computer. Frustrating!
This won’t fix the problem and doesn’t really address it; but if want to get in touch with me (especially while I’m not able to reach you via the blog), you may use my e-mail address, clcouch17055@gmail.com.
CLC
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
In Darkness
x
A child is born
Into this?
How cruel
Such cruelty
If God should call this down
A child of God
(a child?)
Then why not to cushions
In a palace
For a start?
Why not with special parents
In a prominent family?
Why not with
Advisors and with teachers
Frankly, generals
Standing,
Kneeling
By?
Why not with a well-known name
Conveying might
Mixed with celebrity?
x
Bethlehem?
There are two such places
You are inviting debate
And neither is a capital
An important place
For births
Unless by the mother stopped
By happenstance
On the way to Jerusalem
Or Rome
Somewhere we can argue is
The center of the world
Where we can triumph
(two drum beats)
Where are the triumphs?
x
Where are the angels
(bells)
Well, there are
The angels
We are frightened
They say
Don’t be afraid
(we are afraid)
Tidings,
Good news?
To our cynic selves we know
There is never good news
x
And who are the shepherds?
Smelly men
Who should be outside town
Yet they pass us by
With purpose
What?
Where?
x
Bethlehem, again
And we people of the world
Maybe we should follow
x
Or, you know,
We could wait for the news
When it’s official
The sky is dark again
With normal night
We have two years
And more,
Should something else
Happen
(two drum beats, bells)
x
C L Couch
x
x
A companion piece to yesterday’s. Another one tomorrow—there you will have a trilogy of liturgy for Advent and Christmas Eve. Or for some other reason. Or for none. Note this verse has sound effects. They can be left out, I’m sure.
CLC
x
Photo by Lasse Møller on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Drive to Church on Christmas Eve
x
What shall we say
On this night
There might be stars
There might be clouds
There might be snow
(depending upon
temperature,
elevation, and
the axis tilt)
I know there were
Christmas Eves
When it rained
They come to mind
Evoked by
Memory
Bright lights in dots
Upon the windshield
I am on the way
To church,
A child myself
On the way
To meet another
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Zach Lucero on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Night to Remember
(Christmas Eve)
x
So there’s this sleigh
A regrettable homonym;
It might be as big as a spaceship
In a science-fiction series,
One that might carry generations
To the next set
Of sun and planets
x
The sleigh could have a crew,
Though
We know of only one,
The captain and the power
That comes from reindeer
x
There are deliveries to make,
Though what might be most important
Is the trip around the world
In certitude
We have a world to play with
And work on
For keeping homes
With some promise of a future
Under brick and wood and canvas,
Stone and shale
x
Will it be a merry Christmas
For those who don’t believe?
Well, why not
x
No punishment is promised inside
Skepticism;
One might simply enjoy
The colors, the materials, the brilliant
Detritus, after
All the domestic parties
‘Round a tree or in another
Fine arrangement
Or in a place that looks the same
As it did the day before—
Thank goodness, there are no requirements
x
It’s a day,
A unique day we’ve held
In the offing
In anticipation
For a while
x
C L Couch
x
x
A Night to Remember is the name of an old, bittersweet movie.
x
By Sierra Nevada Space Systems – Sierra Nevada Space Systems, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25460329
Artist’s conception of the Dream Chaser commercial human space transportation vehicle docked to the International Space Station.
x
A New God
We hear
There is a new God in the world
And we’ve been told it’s jealous
Human words testify,
But there is supposed to be citation
This God promises to mete another kind of
Justice
The older things will happen, finally
Fire and damnation
Things you already know
But there is something first,
Something deserving awe for being new
To terrify the agenda-holders who believe
They have it all, and it is right to
Want the rest
Before their destruction, there is a surprise
Offered quietly, persistently, even with fragility
It is love
Obviating Armageddon
For a time
The merest wish for this
And it will offer to take charge
At least to guide
Sublimate all misdirected sense of
Dignity in righteousness
(though dignity itself is good)
To make, in fact, the person whole
Gently bring one to the altar
There to cry the truth
Then to reach for something better,
As it’s offered
All the time
Rather freely
The who have arrived in faith already
Know already about this
Try to live, fall, live again
An uneven, promising, frustrating
Celebratory kind of life
Whose delight in giving will give out
Just in time for paradise
C L Couch
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
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