devotion to try
(with the help of church to hope)
devotion is
thought
feeling
a decision
we follow God
we pray
and claim to God
in worship
we also learn of God
and faith
and love
agape
together so that
when apart
we might do well
we might do
better
and we take this with us
all of it
devotion overall
to inform and encourage
our response
and our initiative in
living
the six days
and how many hours
and with
a much longer view even of
years and
longer after years
c l couch
photo by Amy Tran on Unsplash
a few poems for Sunday that for some—well, many—is a longer day not by the count of hours (minus seconds adding up toward Leap Year Day) but the clock that reckons with the strings of heart and mind and even metal, also pendula inside
A Monk Still in the Suburbs
Were there bells
I would not know when
They first struck
An hour
So ignorant am I of
The schedule of
A Book of Hours
Matins
Vespers
The in-betweens
And all-arounds
I have books
I can consult
But I don’t have the instinct
Bred by a lifetime
Even a part
Of a lifetime of devotion
I pray
But it’s my words
I read the Bible
When it suits
When I’m needing to find something
Or researching generally
Out of admittedly
A long life of following
And interest
But I can’t leave my cot
Lift up an over-
Robe (a cowl?) to don it
Over me
Place the hood on the right side
Of my head
So I may see
Then scoot myself in
Silence once again
Toward the chapel where we assemble
(peers and I) for
The first readings
The first rhythms of the day
Much worse
Were I a hermit
With accountability
Beyond a bedside clock
Perhaps
Next to which
A psalter gathers dust
But not the novels
Let’s face it
An anchorite I’m not
Nor a peer
For any monastery
I am brother me
At best
And sister me
As well
And if I have a robe
It’s for the shower
Or I might find for fun
Something Jedi=like
You know
For Hallowe’en
But I believe
And I reflect
I study and I read
(with eyes I have)
And pray nearly
All day long
In dialogue
Simply not according to
The holy schedule
Time Amok
And have we
(have I
yes
though sometimes
I tire of I
maybe you understand)
Thought so much
Of the world
Today
A water main has broken
In the town
And we (locally)
Must worry over
Boiling advisories as well as
Promises
Of timetables
And yet in Gaza
A place was hit
A school turned to a shelter
And some sixty people
Inside
Perished
And there’s a push at the border
Of Ukraine and Russia
With no doubt
A pushing back
While Iran wants to attack
Israel
Over the death of one
Of its own
While Israel
Closes in on itself
While keeping allies somewhere
Too
And in how many parts
Of the planet
‘Sides our own
Is there great flooding
With the consequences
And quake
And fire
Enough inside our cycles
Should we add them up
We could compose
New lists
Of plagues
For letting people go
Which is to say
It’s quite a world we live in
A planet we live on
And we have technology
To follow
More than ever
Better
(stronger
faster
Colonel Austin)
And
Hey
The Olympics close up soon
With all the claims for bragging rights
Displayed
And soon the second set
Will start
Impressive
Being second
(they try harder
as I think
Hertz or Avis
used to do)
Goodness
All the filaments
To make a globe into a lightbulb
Illuminating
All that may be seen
Unobfuscated
By agendas that go hiding
Certainly
I mean more than eyes
And also ears to hear
Or counting each one
All our limbs
For those for whom the count
Uniquely
Goes
(as these next Olympic exercises
show)
With what we have
And haven’t
Se may sense
And we may suss
Adding all we might receive
And so
Abstractly make
A world
To fill in with all the physical we know
And thus have
(from inside out)
What in school is called
A worldview
Our sense
(using sense)
Of how things are
And are perceived
And how we are
With these
Weather
Conflict permitting
Maybe we should each
Take a walk
A little ways
Today
To think
To feel
To probe on this
Like sonar
Radar
Laser
Microwaves
To find the Earth
That’s ours
Where we left it
Or where we pick it up
Anew
As if
Regardless of our age
But trying
Anyway
For the first
Time
Speaking for Joel Chandler Harris and Well Me
I don’t know how correct
Br’er Rabbit is
I mean
I read the Wren’s Nest
And I see the photographs
More so
I want to get
The colors right
That Uncle Remus lay
With Mister Harris
Behind
But it’s
You see
A memory
On records
(those flat black round things
we used to play
that have come back)
And we would hear for hours
About Br’er Bear
Br’er Fox
Br’er Rabbit
And also of the Tar Baby
Black
But what do you want for tar
Which is to say
I want someone more
Expedient and also longer than I am
To tell me
What’s all right
Down South
And in the Yankee land
To keep ol’ Remus in my head
Which by the way
He won’t be leaving
Anyway
Though I’ll hush up about it
If I should
C L Couch
Photo by Hans Eiskonen on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Valentine’s
(belongs to you)
x
Valentine got famous
For correspondence;
Other saints send messages
x
Valentine left words
Of love and encouragement
As other saints have done—as
You or I have done
x
Then red and pink took over
x
Red for hearts,
Pink for I don’t know
x
Lace got in there, too:
We covered up our furniture,
Covered our piano legs
With that
x
Well, why not?
We need the colors in the winter
And red means passion,
Loyalty as well
x
While pink is fragile
As are all relationships
In part
x
Happy day for strengthening
Like exercise,
Metal in devotion
Like the metal in the jewelry
For a sign we wear
x
Happy Valentine’s
With valentines
x
Don’t force it
Or deny it:
If deny it,
Maybe do so
With a saint’s
Prudent
Contemplative quiet
x
For the rest,
Give the cake
Share the cake
Eat the cake
Enjoy refined sugar
Or have raisins
x
Or above the silence
And beneath the noise
Go slowly—pleased to
Talk it through
On or by
The sidewalks of the world
x
C L Couch
x
x
now you have a day to plan—you’re welcome
x
By Lorie Shaull from Washington, United States – Happy Valentine’s Day!, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56401542
x
(x = space)
x
x
Anchorite Devotion
x
I cherish
Quiet in a cup
To drink
When I need some
Peace on a plate
When a bite is needed
Some silence in the air
But not so much
We cannot hear
The songs
Of earth and sky
The thrumming from beneath
To feel
The sighing from so high
We dare not
On an ordinary day
To try
x
A homespun layer
Maybe two layers
For the day
And through the night
A few words of friendship
And a few more
Then intimate,
Unspoken words
With God
x
There is a book
Of hours and another
Sometimes wisdom’s
In the page
In the part between
The letters
As well the illustrations
The space in which
We first learn
That blank space is the quiet
We may go there
Then to learn
About the mystery
The text
And images support
But can’t fill yet
As if to know the words
To speak with angels
And with animals
And with the air
x
All things the creator makes
To set in humming motion
x
C L Couch
x
x
Statue of Julian of Norwich by David Holgate, west front, Norwich Cathedral.
By Poliphilo – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19972764
x
(x = space)
x
x
Keeping Hours
x
Devotion is a yearly task
Admiring the seasons
The reason that it works, I think,
Is that there’s love inside
And another thing
Is that it’s shared
You might not be in the room
With me, but I know that
Somehow you are there
With the presence
That arcs over us
The time, the candle flame
Adapted for occasion
The page that holds
Eternal words and worlds
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
x
Sabbathism
Resting is a process
When we’re not exhausted
So that sleep is something like
Unconsciousness
(we might as well have fainted)
Spiritual rest, more so
A process, and there are
Some truly mortal things
We can do
Do you have a favorite place?
Something you like to drink
That will enhance
(not abrogate) the experience?
Like violins singing beneath
The piano solo,
Can you wear something comfortable
Or comfortably?
And here it is,
Will you give yourself some time?
By doctrine, it’s a whole day
But take what you will give
Half a day, an hour
Twenty minutes, five
Do you need a prescription?
Get someone to write you one
Better yet, write it
Yourself
Read something, then and there
Write something
Pray something
Or do next to nothing
But be present
In the moment, as de Caussade
Has recommended
Think things
Feel things through
Decide something, if you must
Though you don’t have to
And it might be better
If you don’t
Afterward,
Reach out to someone else
Especially, if you took help
To make sabbath happen
Didn’t I mention getting help?
Well, feel free
Always feel free
C L Couch
(The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre de Caussade)
Photo by Matthew Angus on Unsplash
Devotion in prayer.
Devotion
The cult of Mary rose
Because chivalry needed an aim
And the grail was not enough
A lifestyle was needed
A reason for the knight to rise, go
After dragons every day
In every breath a reason
That became the lady
It could have been a good thing, I suppose
Maybe was
Maybe some curtailing of violence happened
But she became an object, still
Mary and all women
Something to adore, perhaps
Something to report to,
Still a thing
If women could be knights
And, who knows, they might have been
They might have taken it up with her
A real reason, real cause
Not dragons but equality
Real beasts to slay
A crusade not against western Asia
But with one’s own country
Until one’s own had real faith
In strength
And in conviction
The kind that makes sense out of armor
That gives a blade a reason
To be shined and ready
Humanity
Divinity
Belief in everything that shines
And lasts
C L Couch
The 12th and 13th centuries saw an extraordinary growth of the cult of the Virgin in Western Europe, inspired in part by the writings of theologians such as Bernard of Clairvaux. The movement found its grandest expression in the French cathedrals, often dedicated to “Our Lady”, such as Notre-Dame de Paris and Notre-Dame de Bayeux among others.[70] Walsingham and other places of Marian pilgrimage developed large popular followings. At the height of the pilgrimage movement in the 11th and 12th centuries, hundreds of people were traveling almost constantly from one Marian shrine to the next.[71]
70 Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. “The Cult of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
71 Renaissance and Reformation by William Roscoe Estep 1986 ISBN 0-8028-0050-5, page 7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneration_of_Mary_in_the_Catholic_Church
Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d’Arc[3][4] pronounced [ʒan daʁk]; c. 1412 – 30 May 1431),[5] nicknamed “The Maid of Orléans” (French: La Pucelle d’Orléans), is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.
3 Her name was written in a variety of ways, particularly before the mid-19th century. See Pernoud and Clin, pp. 220–21. Her signature appears as “Jehanne” (see www.stjoan-center.com/Album/, parts 47 and 49; it is also noted in Pernoud and Clin).
4 In archaic form, Jehanne Darc (Pernoud Clin 1998, pp. 220–221), but also Tarc, Daly or Day (Contamine Bouzy Hélary 2012 pp. 511; 517-519).
5 An exact date of birth (6 January, without mention of the year), is uniquely indicated by Perceval de Boulainvilliers, councillor of king Charles VII, in a letter to the duke of Milan. . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
after Marie d’Orléans – Eglise de Saint-Pair-sur-mer
Prokofiev – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74909310
clcouch123 
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