unbelieving Sunday best
I
think I should go
I have some coffee
to ready me
chemically
and maybe throw enough together
there is hot water
with some handsoap
nearby
and clothes
that should pass muster
one
more time
and so acceptably for an hour or so
then
back to exile
and the loneliness
but have had the hour
for faith and companionship
while keep
the faith
let go of the rest
as illusion
I
belong
enough to hope to find
other
than I the healthy
perfect you
and
if unbeknownst
you could leave with me
then
who knows
sometimes I could enter
faith and love
not needing to believe in these
or
that they are for you
yet also
me
coda
sip the coffee then
ten minutes to get ready
ten to get there
eight
and eight
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photo by Creab ThePolymath on Unsplash
Accra
church and Venezuela
prayer
and a song for peace
and
how much more to say except
a war without
our Congress calling it
and certainly without invasion
first
so we’ll need to be praying
all around
in
mourning for the losses
frankly
against the greed
and
vanity involved
with something about more terms
in
office
deceptively in play
wartime culture to manipulate
while in the church we’ll pray
and serve for
cessation
by the forgiveness and repentance
of
a nation
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photo by Eduardo Juhyun Kim on Unsplash
Morrocoy, Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Falcón, Venezuela
new year’s eve
the last week of the year
by the counting
of
the old
and present church
a purple season coming
or it’s popular
in blue
the green of churches
as well
and gatherings to
make it so
sometimes with soup
maybe chowder
(I
imagine chowder)
after
and thus these colors begin
with
poinsettias
red or pink or white
to be added
and
maybe there will be a tree
somewhere with
ornaments
could be
Chrismons
for ornaments
and
who knows whose presents
service
or wishes
underneath and all around
while some churches
will go
bare
for budgets or beliefs
and let the Christ child enter
to save alone
any human season
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photograph by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash
church gone
as in I went
to church today
was
driving
and
drove in because I know
the church is pretty
and probably
for something
more
saw cars pull and people going
inside
so I went in
as well
hoping I could
I don’t know
make my way by gestures
forgotten
words
half-remembered
but
worship
anyway
the church was lit as much by
morning light
I think
a stark shadow rendering
in silhouette
the gigantic cross of
Jesus
I listened to the homily
about the special
day
today
of guardian angels
of angels
everywhere
I’m sure
we gently waved to each other
maybe
a legacy of the pandemic
and we smiled
I did not take part in
the Eucharist feast
since
it was twenty years or more since
confession
(I
don’t
think I would have been caught
out)
we left
I left
got in the car
resuming my drive
more
or less
to nowhere
into a world that matters
where
and when
(yesterday)
my
niece is
sick with cancer
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photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
the time in Michigan
sigh
to cry
too much
too much
too
many
one is too many
or one building stick
torched
and a denomination wounded
as all on
Earth
should feel and think the hits
the wounds
the losses
of
God-made
(all God-made)
people
and
these faithful people
who
have heaven
and yet so many broken spirits
left behind
tragic quandary
of why
what
if
and without doubt
in all the world
what now
and should we care statistically
and maybe afterward
now
is the time
to mourn
to keen
to bury and to name
for remembrance
to apologize
and
pledge that as a species
we do better
how about asking
God make
us
better
even in challenge of perhaps
a lasting affirmation of
our free-owned
will
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At least four people were killed and eight injured when a gunman in a pickup truck smashed through the doors of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in [Grand Blanc Township,] Michigan during a Sunday service attended by hundreds, opened fire and set the building ablaze. Police shot and killed the suspect, authorities said.
The attack occurred at about 10:25 a.m. The gunman got out of the four-door pickup with two American flags in the truck and started shooting, Police Chief William Renye told reporters. He apparently used gas to start the fire and also had explosive devices but it wasn’t clear if he used them, said James Dier of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Authorities identified the shooter as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, of the neighboring small town of Burton. The FBI is leading the investigation and considered it an “act of targeted violence,” said Ruben Coleman, a special agent in charge for the bureau.
Yahoo! News
photo by Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash
church going in again
(with reference to “Church Going” by Philip Larkin)
oh
Jesus
keep me alive
‘til I can find a church
and
have the morning energy
to show up
church
returning
(Mister Larkin and will you excuse
me)
in the mean time please with grace and
miracle
won’t you
please
and thank you
and
this is how I talk
to a God
Jesus my pal
(as in the movie)
buddy
friend to meet at diners
and
well
maybe so
maybe Jesus is a companion
in
familiar ways
and
might not mind our forward comments
or to go so easy
with doctrine though I’m not so sure
about
commandment
I say in
need
of grace and miracle
again
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photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
(the movie is Dogma)
2 disparate poems (one poem about church, the other about art)
church time
liturgy
a language for the church at prayer
though we can go through
the mass book
on our own
the missal
I should say
not sacred language
in whatever language
unless
there is a translation
of glossolalia
but
as far as I know
normal words
that
enable me to go through
devotion
or a service
on my own
or two could
do
and this is church
is
said
that two or three are gathered
and no more
which means I’m not
a church
by myself
and
should have company
in prayer
and worship
(prayer for worship)
if
we want this to be church
as if it’s us
there is
perhaps while in the formal feeling
again
I ask
does art come from pain
and must it
always
love what we do
do what we love
we’re told
trite
cliché
advice a trope
along with dream big
I suppose
and
we know that life is hard
the artist thrown out from the start
or
disenfranchised once
the vision’s owned
because
normalcy
without a challenge is what’s
paid for
and
not the art
except that it appear
magic
at the show
someone decides to buy it
for
colors that complement
or
honestly could be because someone
is moved
(and
the colors complement)
never pay the artist
though
assuming
grants
or commissions
that for most
are in an air
too rare to breathe
and so
we go like the bohème
in a garett that’s happy enough
while
poor
until the poverty should bring disease
without a cure to pay for
by medicine
or
southern Italy
with the means to rest
and so
sun-heal
and I exaggerate
and
don’t
and so after
losing
what
the ordinary company of
one
next to another
having lost most of the world
already
there is work
and it might be art
and
I think shall be
proving
the thesis of the ages
I suppose
except for those who were not poor
to art
who
I imagine
started out that way
by something else
and then the provocations
to the institutions
true
freedom and creation
that outcast
as they please
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photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash
Harmonious Times, Paul Signac
like the psalmist foe-surrounded
poverty
or
surfeit
which we find by the world
by the devil
have betrayed us
what is left
despite the industries
I
do not know
and
who shall help me
say
with parameters
to break them as I can’t
while I invest my energy instead
on
what I thought I had back then
and didn’t
though I keep going back to
find
and then fix everything
to break the barriers
as bars
not with energy
deserved
but
with the strength shared me
resources to
freedom
by grace that
is
the merit going
graciously
unasked
yet
to be caught
and looped
and unbelieving and still
asking
too often without listening
of
who shall help with the problems
I can’t
breathe through
who shall help me more than
I know how to ask
then
so by asking
once
in forever
though there are the stories
delivered
by
Reverend Henderson
in
sermons and who knows
what anthology from which
came
the accounts
regardless
of the people in a raft
having survived
the wreck
maybe abandoned for another
reason
and what they know
all they know is ocean all around
until
the rescuers
arrive
then tell survivors that
for temerity
or
the lack
they could have reached
down and
drunk at anytime
for they were in the great
releasing of fresh water by the unseen
Amazon
too far the given land
on either side
to spy
or of the woman who had won
a trip
a cruise
(that
did not wreck)
and she was poor
and so ate crackers in her stateroom
for her meals
until
one day the captain should find her
to say
the meals were included in the prize
you should have been dining at
my table
every night
sufficiency
and then amazed abundance
without
question of deserving
to drink fresh water
to
dine with the captain
of the sound
ship
questing all the time
so try
but do not condemn oneself for merit
not canceled but
fulfilled
by grace
that
reminds us
even takes us to salvation
so that the last thing we might worry
over
might be perfection
or to have lost everything by
failing
when like water
like
the feast close by
before us
are set
yes
there is a judgment
and each time for each one
a mercy
clc
(Reverend Henderson was the preacher whose messages I received in church while I was a child)
photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
quiet as a
I sit
on an old creaking
and solid bench
and could I be quiet
like that church mouse over there
I neither see
nor hear
but wears gray
with brown
and
needing to clean the dust of Earth
when drops of water I might
find
somewhere there
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photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, NYC, USA
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