Truer than Stone Is True
(our flesh-and-spirit undertaking)

God of the moment
Of the now
That’s
Split so small
It might
Take an infinity
To
Undertake

Let alone
To explain
To each
And all
Ready
And unready

Though it seems
That
We get what we get
Passages
For understanding
A world to get
To know
With everyone outside
To help us
Good or ill
To know

And maybe we have hope
When we have hope
(even before)
Which is
That small
Thing
In the box
Left over after evils
Have escaped

Too easily
Allowed
To flash
To make themselves
Seen
And heard
Then offering a taste
Of something
That is ash
Or brimstone
When
Frankly
Revealed

While there are other stories
And our senses
For us
Of reality
Of those with strength
And faith to move
Beyond
Uncertainty
To undertake the tasks
Of earth and air
To nourish everything
With water
And more
For encouragement
For growth ourselves
In strength
Of understanding
Toward
Accountability
Even
A generation’s worth

The heroes
Of the small
Even minutiae
Who are ranked in heaven
Among
Those only statued
For a time
On the mortal
Planet
But those remembered there
Without such things
And yet
Deserving more

Shall have it
(though
simplicity
will do
fine)
Once awakened
And brought through
The gate
To something better
Than Valhalla
No more waiting
But
The hero
One by one
And all
Together
(yes
like D’Artagnan
or better
for reality
Jeanne d’Arc
or
Hildegard)
To know here
And to be known

And
Do I say
Therefore think small
And keep one’s
Spirit there
Though small
Is relative
In that
The atom’s
Small to crack
And then
Behold
More than we can manage
Safely

What’s
Small
Worthy
(more
artifact
or talisman)
Might be
Inside the house
Or in one’s head or
In
Another’s heart
And shall we love the one
And help the one
(be helped)
Then help the other
Which is also
Love

Applying wisdom
Of the ages
(so to say)
Or an insight
Fresh
Arrived
Synaptically
From the good angels
On our shoulders
(also to
say
and most likely
from
cartoons)

Jokes
Impractical
Remembering humor
Is what
Saves the world
Too
Starting with the nation
Of a few

Laugh at the devil
And do not mock each other
But
Laugh between ourselves
And in the room
Because
There might be
Needed
Even healing
Health
In that

Then remember whom
We love
And whom we serve
In
No order
Frankly
Self
The other whom we love
The stranger we don’t know
Yet may
Pray for and give to
When time and means
And faith
Call out

With
The God of all
Quite simply
With each one
Has made
Like
Clay
To shape
And has grown
Like crops
From
Seed

And bring to heaven
As on
The best journey
If so difficult
To
Undertake

Yet worthy of
The first
Step
The second
With companionship
Even unaware
But up to us
To keep the series
Going
Toward
The edge
Of what
We have ever known

And then
Quite frankly
The next
Step
Much easier
(if unknown)
Of
The journey on

C L Couch


Photo by TEAcreativelife │ Soo Chung on Unsplash 
I had tea with a monk in Seoul, South Korea.
[photographer’s caption]
Jogyesa Temple, Gyeonji-dong, Seoul