beginnings
church seasons
Sunday after
Easter
it will be Easter now
Easter season
for a while
up to Pentecost
the appearance of the Holy Spirit
in
fire and languages
and often thought of
as
a birthdate
for the church
from
then on
there were martyrs
also miracles
and formations
and also
debates
fighting over Antioch
or Jerusalem
and whether or not
to let the Gentiles
in
there would be conversions
teaching
sometimes with warnings
and final prophecies
to warn us
yes
more so
to encourage us
and love us with
hope
there is discipline
and code
baptisms
dedications
confirmation
the faith
begins
for good or ill
for good and ill
the Christian church
belief is risk
it always
has
a countercultural
element
choose
to be comfortable
to wear a mask
to believe
and act
and take a chance
c l couch
originally, the poem was not in triplets; but as I looked at what was the last stanza (six lines), I realized that it could and maybe should be made two stanzas of three lines each; then I went back (up) to revise the rest accordingly; I had one line at the top, remaining; I added in what was the title and subtitle to make the first stanza of three lines, then added a new title; sometimes the form comes first; this time it was more or less last
photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Hard-Fought
x
1
It’s been Christmas
x
Time for anyone
Generally
Though call it Christian
If you like
x
The good news
Being
Christmas is
For everyone
Its pagan roots supposed
If not exposed
Its re-interpretation
Now
Undoctrinaire
x
We fight to move
City to city
And then back
And while we’re there
Have only
Worldly expectations
The right recipe
The perfect
Gift
Though true believers
Outside packs
In daylight know
There’s no perfection
Please
x
Expectation
Slaying those
Inside
‘Til they escape
To ten thousand feet
Or more
With extra oxygen
Again
x
2
Quiet believing
Rather
In a country church
Before the altar
Or the table
Utilizing
Oldish forms
For worship
Or maybe
Remembrance alone
x
Faith might be small
Its absence we
Bring with us
Where it is dark by
Candlelight
x
Dim revelations only
Through
Our liturgies
x
But silence
While the world cracks
Outside
We found this hour
To remind ourselves
Within a sect
Of our
Sometimes surprised
Devotion
To the words about
The importance
Of
What’s important
x
3
We’ll take with us
Some revelation
With us
For a while
After
‘Til the urban
And suburban worlds
Shall fall on us
Again
x
Clarity lost like paradise
A cover
We had not requested
Pushing holy air
Inhaled
Out into the dust
From falling
Failing acquisition
We say
Means
Christmas morning
The hours and
Days after
Rather than faith
For acquisition
x
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x
x
Photo by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash
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(x= space)
x
x
Triduum-ish
x
let’s try it this way
happy trick-or-treating
get chocolate
enjoy night air
and dressing different
as against the veil
ancestors
disguised themselves
as well
x
then enjoy the day
for the saints
the followers of God
who are alive
and acting
faith and charity
all the time
or who must go
in fits and starts
x
then remember
those who are not here
anymore
but as if another veil
draw near to family
so the tradition
goes
with picnics at gravesites
brightly lit for now
while there are conversations
with the dead
in gratitude
for the proximity
x
a kind of triduum
that is
three special days
nothing incumbent or required
(priests would differ)
except that
we should enjoy
we should take part
we should remember
and also
(you know this)
show up in church
or synagogue
or temple
or mosque
or center
some place holy
every now and then
x
boo
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Cortor Media on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
at church in October in the Midwest
x
it all seems soft
maybe it’s all the sweaters
the quieter voices
fewer musicians
I am not complaining
x
it’s an autumn form
perhaps
an instinctive response
to the response
we settle down
at least a little
like the leaves
upon the ground
we retune ourselves
for a new key
that is the winter sound
the keening through the trees
or soughs
over freezing water
as it takes its time to harden
to protect
‘til summer
everything that lives beneath
x
we live protected by the Lord
beneath
above
anywhere we live
slow or fast
we breathe
we try
we pause
to worship
to ask more of our protector
and to say thanks
thank you
Lord
for slower seasons
autumn into winter
for an hour
here and there
to stop
to understand
who is Lord
(who is not)
and why
x
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x
x
photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
Rhapsody in Bible
x
God
You are good
You love us
Always
And anyway
x
I’m sure it’s in there
Though I can make
Only pages with
Neat typing
Of blurred letters
As I try
x
And then the stream
The invitation
And a wall of rooms
That somehow
Turn into mansions
Promise of two verses
About paradise
About
You know
Dwelling in the house
Of the Lord
x
There are numbers on the pages
Small headlines
Aids from time
Which were not in
The original
Black pages
Into mod
(it was the sixties
into seventies
for us)
And now the church
All wood
And mullions
With a clock that I could see
When in the choir
Set in the center
So the pastor be reminded
(by the clock
committee)
Of the time
For preaching
And when
To wrap it up
x
I received my Bible there
I think
Or in the rooms
For Sunday School
Which had checked floors
Of tile
Room dividers
In the wing
That had been built
Before I got there
And a breezeway
Over the drive
x
But this is building stuff
And the pages
Pages stuff
What of the truth that’s in there
And it’s in there
I can recall without the images
Though they come
Anyway
The verses and the truth inside
x
Create in me
A clean heart
O God
And renew a right spirit
Within me
x
And that’s only to begin
The faith
And transformation
Needed
That we learn about
In there
x
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x
x
from Psalm 51
(followed by
Cast me not away
from thy presence
and take not thy holy spirit
from me
x
which happened to Saul
by the way
at the nadir
of his life
as king
appointed by the prophet
who got directions
from the Lord
to look for someone tall
and
well
kingly
for a tragic irony
as things turned out)
x
sorry, I got into a kind of coda
(that a kind of song, could be a psalm, might have)
x
x
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
To Philemon
(“and to the church in thy house”)
x
We are encouraged
By your faith
In fact
We have joy
x
Give Onesimus
Another chance
We send him
To you
He may have wronged thee
Take him back
x
If he owes anyone money
Or its equivalent
I will repay it
I tell you this myself
Who
Told you about the faith and
So be saved
x
Receive him
Who to me has
Become
Peer and colleague
And he will serve you
Especially this way
x
Treat him now
As one who has
Standing
No matter how it might
Have gone
Before
x
Let the deeper parts
Of all of us
Be glad
That we are one
In Christ
x
From all of us
Who live
Captive by the world
For now
Grace and peace
To thee
And thine
x
From prisoners with me
Paul
x
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x
x
Philemon is the addressee of a brief epistle in the Christian New Testament
x
Photo by Mike Hindle on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen
(you can sing it)
x
there were good hymns
in church
and a couple that were sleepy
the sermon was terrific
for being true and in style easy
as if we could believe
afterward
and live it through the new week that
all this was meant to serve
amen
x
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x
photo by channel 82 on unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
Glory
x
It’s a Sunday feeling
For those who have a Sunday
To be speaking
And singing to the Lord
x
The pastor cites
The shortest psalm
As an invocation,
Which is an invitation
More so a directive
To be singing
x
Can you imagine David
Dancing first
Before the ark
When it was brought into
Jerusalem?
There was singing then
And all the instruments
We’ve heard about
That played
x
Today is Mission Sunday at this church
So there are connections to the world
x
Everyone’s invited
Everywhere
Not as a number
But as you,
You are invited
To meet Jesus
Through us
Not because we are messiahs
But because
We can quote him
Tell his story
Show you something of his love
For everyone
And the hope that the whole human world
Might be saved,
x
Which is God’s wish
But not God’s will
For God has mitigated God
In favoring our will
And our decisions
Yes, it’s the reason why
The world is so flawed
And screws up so badly
x
That according to the story
Has made us
The silent planet in the universe
Burning other planets
With what happened in the garden
And then
Going quiet
While the planet’s fate is determined
Of itself
x
Then there will be noise
x
But here is David
In Jerusalem
And there is great noise
Locally
That celebrates
That helps to consecrate
The presence and the symbol
And our rendering of faith
In holy God
And in each other
As neighbors
And a nation
x
The world will not know you, Lord;
And nations will fall
x
We could wish it were not so,
And we do
x
But not everyone will be there
In the sky
The circle won’t be broken
But our hearts,
Well,
They are other matters
x
It’s a Sunday feeling
For those who have a Sunday
And take one
Or on another day
x
We have been ransomed
From kidnapping,
From the prisons
Huge or small—all intimate
When they should not
Have to be
x
The world violates our souls
And yet we believe
And from the ashes
Of all sins consumed
At last,
We shall rise
Who choose to rise
x
The glory of the Lord
In homely ways
Inside the heart
We do not understand
x
How something so
Cosmically grand
Can live in something
So small
As our souls,
One soul by one
x
Then there is the glory
That we read about
And then imagine:
The universe made straight
While also bending low,
We with that
And all the Earth
That knows at last
This is it,
The certainty of God
In blinding presence
That will not hurt our eyes
And the song of angels,
Unbinded song
That should destroy
But will not touch eardrums
Adversely
x
The glory of the Lord
Clearly
All there is,
Compelling
As to break our souls
Though it will not—in fact,
We’ll never had been
Better,
Freer,
Then to get
Our next assignments
x
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x
x
Photo by Christian Cagni on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
Christmas 1
x
It’s Christmas day
What shall we say
But that the world
Is old and tired
And ornery
And peace taken
For an illusion
Some might enjoy
Invented
Only on the inside
Then a webinar
With fees
x
Here,
The sun is out
The temperature has climbed
Into two digits
There are icicles on the screen
Outside the casement
Of the window
Church is on line
Not only hundreds of miles away
But the consequence of heart disease
Is to stay
When the weather is extreme
Either way
And to deal with low energy
As in
It takes me forever
To do anything
x
And did Christ come today
Christ comes
Every day
x
And in a good way
I don’t care if
It was December 25
Or the ides of March
Something happened
The child of God was born
The child is also God
Was born
x
Is there meaning
In the other ways?
Of course,
There is
These seek the truth as well
And we should
Be
Should be
With them
x
Christmas is cultural
I’m at church
Hearing the songs
Hearing about the welcome
Of Ukrainians
Here
And I am glad
x
It isn’t peace on Earth
Only in
Such a small portion
Of the whole
x
And shall we say
Jesus was born?
I think we should
It’s history
x
Then in a supernal way
Maybe the spirit’s born again
In loving refugees
And loving refugees
Maybe there were times
When mortal Jesus
Felt outcast
Alone on Earth
As and why he walked away
From time to time,
Once
Prayed in the garden
x
You know,
We may take up
Exegesis
And
Evangelism
Later
And may I pause midstream
Like the saint to say
To the child Jesus
(I to you
and I a mortal child),
x
Merry Christmas
And for twelve days
That make
This varied
Still hopeful
Hopeful, still
Yes, brief
Season
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Robert Kalinagil on Unsplash
x
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