creation

first actions

light and dark
become day and night

the spirit
moves the water
and
the land
yet maybe water first
because there is
so much of it

then the peaks allowed to rise
to bring the valleys
plains
and
deserts along

toward the unnamed sky

and all of this now
wait
for habitation and then
the incident
of naming

c l couch

photo by Ryan Parker on Unsplash

the wild wood

there is a church there
according
to my mother’s favorite hymn
I’m not
sure if the church is
supposed to stand against the wild
or
to complement somehow
as in the kairos
of God
in
creation

and I imagine church is for order even to call
the program that
and
often that is how peace is associated yet
the day an age of having made
well
everything by God’s design
and by the will and by
the hand
for
actual or metaphor

and since we cannot measure cannot
count
so many things
and
good we try
for many

maybe it is mystery the mind
and the enactment
of God that from a mortal distance we can guess at
and
yet as a paradox of understanding
must
believe
if at all to believe

and so something uncounted in the wild
might
be acceptable
number of stems
petals
branches
leaves

while for leaves we might count pages
in our books
and
have the ordered time together

though in between
the solid
and ephemeral
we
might emply a medium of
humor
to keep us honest

time
and
or
in the wild at the church
that was
my mother’s favorite

c l couch

I know the hymn as “Come to the Church in the Wildwood” (though I tend to separate the wild and wood words); it is known as hymns are known by the first line, which is “There’s a church in the valley by the wildwood.” The song, by reason of its lore, also has the name “The Little Brown Church.”

photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash

n.b.

the song is about
a church that did not yet
exist
but was the verse-fancy of a writer
passing through
the Midwest
town and then there was a church
and yet is

my fancy
has me thinking of a Baptist church in or near
Bell Buckle
Tennessee which was where my mother
lived
and grew
and did the family go to church
I do not know

though she was
became
what have you a person of
faith

clc

knowing how to live

O God
on a sunny day
I could wish I were
in
Bible study

I know
some would say I don’t know how
to live
much less how to prize a sunny day

but
I don’t know
clean room
a group of us
we
act clean
the words of Scripture clearly on the page
and we hear and we
discuss

kind interaction and somehow
authentic for
our
loves
and for our growth

for the beauty of the Earth
glory
in the skies

we will see through the window
sorry
there should be a window
and
feel after when we take part
in the outside world
God had
made
and about which we have the story
with
a gospel

c l couch

(“For the Beauty of the Earth” is the hymn cited and to which alluded; the author of the hymn is Folliott Sandford Pierpoint)

Earth Day

photo by Dima Serafin on Unsplash
“A Bee in Snowdrops”

2 poems for a Friday in Lent

the ungood Friday
well through Lent

it could be Good Friday
since it is
the season so we’ll be associating
anyway

and this is an irony of good as
well
as there’s a featureless covering of gray
lacking definition
and for a word
would mean no meaning

gray to hear
gray inside as well

there is no joy under here
we scurry
rather
not like rats
rats scurry like us

a blank day without mercy like
that good
day
enacted
coming in two Fridays or so

above all other

word
the word is genesis
to tell the story
and
to have the story happen
first enacting

word that makes
that made
and keeps on creating

the word that is a person
and a telling
with
an action

all words subserve
as all matter underserves the perfect
omnipresent

a word
who is
such power in a unit of some letters
though from the alphabet
of God and should
there be another word
well
there could be three words
to realize
all others
and
by way of existing first
for all should offer meaning
as
words do
though taking care
as these words insist

and if you want
read
the first of John and following
aware of oddity regarding
words that
act
with nothing but the word
to make things happen

one little word shall fell him.
4 That Word above all earthly powers
no thanks to them abideth;

(translated) Martin Luther contending with “prince of darkness”

c l couch

photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

the work of art

maybe it’s the tension of creation
of sensing
something different
to be
remade
and so reconsidered

there’s simply the beauty
in the difference
of the thing
colors
angles used in other ways
untypical
exhibiting by protest no matter
how
genial
the showing and
the gathering

the sips of wine and such
the room décor
the thing
once owned
should complement

though there was the making
and the message with
remains
to rise
time and again
through the risks of close
appreciation
and
reaction

c l couch

photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

praying about creations

God
are you out there
are you
in here

there is matter
there are spirits
there
is energy
and how many planes
through which
to live

we have this
self
we look through skin
with eyes and more than eyes
and less

we are alive
Earth is
alive
with even rock that moves
though let science determine
investiture

by measurement

and let us live
with
what we have
the wonders of exchange
cohabitation
of
matter and movement
oxygen
and carbon
a touch of supernal creation
to begin
and to carry into what is next

mystery
miracle

energy and matter
in
the exchange we know
and then a language with translation
only yours to speak
to generate
to sing into existence
afterward
maybe
first
a paradise to bear of explanation

and if you say
amen

c l couch

photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash


in the big inning

in Jewish and in Christian
lores
there are creation stories told
more than once
and in parts
many times
even Jesus
said to be there
calling the beginning of the essences
become
reality

and there are stories of us
and how we came to be
and way

made one perhaps
made two
without doubt

a sin of consumption
followed by
what might be more a problem of
division
then to rationalize mistakes and so
prescribe the direction
they must follow

all three
all four

for God had made that rock
that God could not
move
because like biased gravity
God’s will
must be mediated
by God’s will
that is leant by God’s
love

in love
and in joy’s promise
all was made by God and to the host
and to the cosmos
and to us

and after all the dreadful plan must work
there is like
Pandora
one thing left

the second thing of tripartite
things
being faith
and love
and to fix the world
is hope

say
faith the reason
love the means
hope
the vision
as in why bother in the first place

and this is lore
and this is
myth
and we interpret as we guess
from our experience

and there are many stories

we should read and respect them all
to know
beginnings
explain the present
situations
and
(via
hope)
respect the promise of the future
that
tells us how to believe
and think
and act

respecting all traditions
in their dovetailing
and as they work out
to reveal in time
(both
ways)
the first and final reasons
revelations

n.b.

and
yes
I know that you might want
to say that God’s not part of this
no more
and we are on our own
and maybe always

eschewing partnership
as if Michelangelo should have no faith
and the lone
wolf
an honest perception
though it’s not
	wolves living together
	monogamous
	in families

that
despite the isolation earnestly
perspective
there is more joining than a separation
more
that are joined
than all the pages of betrayal attempt
to testify

and
the main message that
we’re on our own

we’re not

c l couch


photo by Shishir Iyer on Unsplash

	Vidisha Mitra on hundreds of words
	Vidisha Mitra on across the state from us
	Vidisha Mitra on red goes inside green
	Vidisha Mitra on sing them over
	Mollie Player on across the state from us

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