After the Day Before
(Holy Saturday 2024)
It must have been terrible
For those in sadness
And in terror
Who forgot
Or forsook
The prophecies were shared with them
The new ways to live
That scandalized
Now turned into fodder
For new charges
And arrests
It must have seemed
That everything was over
One and done
And extraordinary
Story
Abruptly ended
Like a battle
In blood and
Death
And loss or victory
While hades had the victory
And underneath
The devil had to laugh
While all they could
Do
Was peel in hiding heat
Freeze the blood from moving
Every hope
Removed
Left on that trash heap
For a hill
Three deaths
The day before
And now
Did anyone count
Toward
After
Or maybe there was only dust
Thrown on the synapse
Of the mind
Heavy stones upon
Like confession
The heart
C L Couch
Photo by Ian Keefe on Unsplash
the holy Wednesday
nondescript
without the cred
of Maundy Thursday
or Good Friday
a hump day in their holy week
and what might happen
preparations for the supper
after
maybe they would ask Jesus
why he wept
before their triumph
in the city
or maybe he would try to explain
to them again
what temple would it
that would be destroyed
and for faith
what might happen in three days
(maybe the human part
anticipating
wasn’t so sure)
and would they heal
would they argue
with the righteous
and the legalists
would Jesus spend some time with his mother
of the other Marys
who would be the rocks
above the rock
after all
would not the crowds be following
for what would happen next
having entered
with the palms then
later
giving money-changers
(no one liked them
anyway)
what for
while in cool and shadowed places
lit by religious fire
there would be plans
from rhetoric
with money
and other reasons for betrayal
these could have been furthered
holy Wednesday
too
that here is gray
with spindly trees
reaching out
somewhere
against a rain
that feels fatalistic
even knowing
what’s to come
in ritual
remembrance
and triumph not of palms
or cloaks upon the ground
but of the spirit
and the flesh
in resurrection
and the offer of the same
to the same
for each of us
by Sunday
C L Couch
Photo by Eric Muhr on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Easter’s Earth
x
Named for not a Christian
Deity
And time
Much of the day
Is gone by now
(3:25)
This writing before tea
Perhaps
While the day began with vigils
Counting down to midnight
(the first moment)
x
Around the world
Was meat and bread
And wine
Prepared
With paintings and statues
As if prepared for ages
To remember
To celebrate
To be moved in other ways
Creation solemnized
While we keep these
From war
x
And there so many wondrous ways
To have God
To know God
And to respect God
And each other
Every day
In our day when
We know something of annihilation
This might be
The best lesson
Yet
(now)
Of all lessons
In curricula
x
And loving our neighbors
We might even take a hit
On ourselves
To have it in the world
x
Though
You know
We have to have it
If only to receive it
For the part
Of world peace
Via the golden
And the fleshly
Circulatory rule
x
Have Easter then
With joy
Passover
Ramadan
Diwali when it happens
(Holi, too)
And days of consciousness
Rising and aligned
With thoughts and awareness
In a living cosmos
x
Let peace be universal
Let’s keep our hands off the buttons
Then destroy the buttons
Recycling them
For benches
The metal of our missiles
Into ploughshares
The paper of our manuals
Into better books
By libraries
x
Yes,
With all better qualities
And efforts
Well
We should not be stupid
Everything must happen
All around
Not only in showy places
But where some think
They’re hidden,
Too
x
We’re smart
We must be practical
Do you not know
That God
Is smart
And practical as well?
And love has merit
And is the better process
Everywhere
x
Easter rising
Let the world
With other names
Be rising,
Too
x
Call this respect
Call it withholding
Call it practical
Prosperity
Call it today
And when we think of it
Or must plan for it
Also tomorrow
x
C L Couch
x
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Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Ukrainian Pysanky Egg // Pysanky (meaning “to write”) is an ancient egg art with origins in Ukraine and surrounding regions. Each egg is a unique handmade treasure, where beeswax and dyes are used repeatedly in the creation. Once the wax is melted away, the amazing design is revealed. Many pray while writing pysanky — please take a moment to pray for Ukraine as you read this. // Each egg was designed by Davonne Souza — Etsy.com/shop/EggspressionsByDavon
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no commission, I simply like the storytelling—Happy Easter!
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(x = space)
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first holy saturday
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1
x
it seems there’s nothing
but a void
after which is fear
there could be doubt
but what is left
to believe in
first
x
the body’s cared for
there’s the irony of a guard
to keep things safe
while making sure
we don’t get in
to take him
x
so what is left
but us
and an enormous world
ready to quash us
and to take our air
our allotment of
anything
allowed
x
we have gone too far
they’ll say
but we have killed the head
and now the serpent
body dies
and we shall have it
or leave it
shriveling in the shadows
or bring it to the light
to finish
dessication
and metaphors aside
we mean you
and to have you
x
your paltry movement
and there are many crosses
provided by the Romans
and the Greeks
and Egyptians
before
x
you are done
we shall have you
you are annihilated
not even space on Earth
shall have you
x
we can delight
considering
a line of graves
underneath the field
that we buy
with the silver
Judas has returned
x
well
not well
and so we hide
small care for each other
we dare to send for food
and prepare it
without fire
to share it in the dark
x
these are holy hours
we try
to pay attention
x
some count the hours
most of us
cannot do
something so constructive
x
it is finished
last words
we heard them
so did they
we wait for
we don’t know what
we have forgotten all the miracles
and all of what was said
to go with them
x
we hide
and that’s the hell of it
as it seems
that hell has won
x
2
x
there is the edge
of a hole
through which we see
what we have been taken from
and shall we try
to return
a circle
an eye
we hurt
wait, an eye
who sees
we see
does God look at us
or Rome
or the Sanhedrin
x
how can God look
God died yesterday
we saw
we heard
and it is terrible
but there’s nothing more
even from the cross
were the words
that it is finished
x
we can’t even wait
we can count the hours
but there’s nothing there
there is grief
the rightness of it
rituals
for a while
x
but then there’s nothing left
we are ridiculed
then captured
captured and then ridiculed
when it’s safe
when we are bound
bound perhaps
to crosses of our own
x
why do we even have
this day
it is a holy day
so to say
holy hours
holy minutes
x
if yesterday
had been the day
if the cross beam was
a blooded lintel
then the deadly angel
missed
or misread
and took
the righteous
anyway
against the plan
x
but it’s not fair
to miscast angels
who are commanded
by a God
who let
if not arranged for
all of this
and now has disappeared
gone to Sheol
though how can God
wait for God
x
there are no answers
only rumors
that we cannot hear
the world has closed us off
in here
and we will not snipe
or bear false hope
or cheat
material truth
x
while we are waiting
worse than that
having nothing
to wait for
x
we mourn
we cannot look
or look
taste and see
we miss our God
we were friends of God
for a little while
x
we are lost
after our paroxysms
maybe we
catch our breath a little
and shall we go where
we proclaimed it long ago
that without God
there is nowhere
the nowhere of the Sadducees
maybe
x
but on to night
and after night
not daylight
but a void
judgment perhaps
but what could we have done
when we were told
what we were told
x
friendship for hours only
new love
and now
it’s as if creation
matter
molecules
might as well
have never happened
x
C L Couch
x
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Photo by Filip Kominik on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
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A Good Wednesday
(Passion, Passover, Ramadan)
x
It’s Wednesday
When Amanda would
Bound—how
Does one bound
If one is not
A deer?—but she
Would bound
Into class and
Announce, “It’s
Hump Day!”
x
Now it’s Holy Week
So this is Holy
Wednesday
For which there
Are liturgies
With special
Prayers
x
We imagine
What Jesus
Might be doing now
Because we are
Conditioned
By the narrative
For timing
x
Maybe he’s visiting
With friends;
Maybe he has actions
And words
For healing
And teaching,
Knowing what’s to
Come and having
These his
Final opportunities
x
For us
This year
There is a confluence
Of events,
Of seasons:
It’s Ramadan
And also Pesach
Or Passover
x
There are several days to each
That are the same
x
Three great truths
Come together,
Great faith
Celebrated
Bittersweet
x
Bitter
With fasting
And remembrance,
Sweet with
Fasting and remembrance
x
God is great
x
The angel passes over
Faithful homes,
Jesus saves,
And the prophet receives
Revelation—goodness,
Such good chances
That we have
To respect
And enter into
Many groups
x
The places where we worship
(observant)
Entering with curiosity
To know,
To have regard
For learning
And appreciation of
Our neighbors
x
Respect, appreciation—these
Are forms of love,
The kind of love
That comes from God
To feed our faith
In one another
x
As if God could say,
Come together
Right now
Over me
x
But don’t imagine
Not a heaven or a hell:
With appreciation
Of the music
We can have some
Heaven here
And have it there
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
(FOR ALL)
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Second Day
x
The day
After resurrection
Jesus appears to many
There is work to do
After the great miracle,
It seems
Affirming what Mary
Has said
Showing marks of wounds
To Thomas
Teaching, still
Cooking fish beside a fire
Talking about metaphors
Of sheep
Hoping Peter understands
Then after many days
Of words and signs
A leavetaking
Leaving instructions
Until he should come back
Having left a promise, too,
Of help
Like his
In fact, him still
This person will indwell
Like blood, like bone,
Like organs
Like thoughts and feelings
That’s pretty close
Inside
A guide
Someone to speak to worth
A presence, bearing
Through the times
Of pleasure and of pain
The ease of life
The things we never think
To get through
x
It’s a busy time
After Easter Day
There will be letters
Words
Greetings, admonishments
Compassion
Affirming of directions
These all will last
In the book through Revelation
Until, in fact,
Parousia
And the obvious way to do it
Spirit inside, outside
All partners now
Treading the new fields
Of new Earth
x
C L Couch
x
x
Interested Bunny waiting for food.
photo by Stefan Fluck on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Flesh, Spirit, and Everything that Matters
(for Easter)
x
Good Friday becomes Easter
x
Good becomes better
Good becomes goodest
Abandonment is over
The teacher has returned
And the homeowner
And we each have a place in that home
It is so large
And always adding
x
The wounds are healed
There are reminders;
Mainly (surely),
He is alive
x
There was no question that he died
We wept, we keened
We buried
There was a stone
There was a guard
There was no doubt in this
The emperors
And would-be emperors
Clinked their glasses
And sat back,
Sighed
That’s done
The conspiracy is over
Plot succeeded
And we can blame other people
x
God and people are
Reconciled
Through life and death
And life again
The absurdity of the final miracle
Over death inexorable
Unavoidable
x
And NOT forever
What?
x
This is what we know
And now through resurrection
We must believe that
Death is not all
It is not inexorable
It is avoidable
We may die
We might sleep
If so,
We will awake again
How does this happen?
x
It is God
Who has a part in us
Who made us
Who is spirit
And flesh
And everything that makes up
A creator
And a lover
And a savior
Immanuel from Hebrew
God with us
x
We walk a bridge
That wasn’t there
God is on the other side:
In fact,
We can find out
God is on both sides
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
Vacant
(Holy Saturday)
x
A day for scurrying
Like mice in light
Look for food,
Hide, rest
Listening for the next
Sounds that are not yours
That might be coming for you
Or might give you away
Now add on human sadness
The living of a tragedy
Like Oedipus,
Antigone
No happy ending possible
The hero is gone
The extraordinary years are gone
There is nothing now
But flight from arrest,
Weeping as at Babylon
x
Practicing tradition
In the dark
Since the source was killed
In horror
Sleeps without sleeping
Leaving everyone
To scurry to avoid arrest
To somehow persist
With broken hearts
Hope so far off
To be recalled
Stories torn
Healing forgotten
x
We count this day
An in-between
They knew it only
As an empty,
Weeping nothing
x
C L Couch
x
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Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
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Easter Saturday
x
I think it might be
Easter Saturday
On someone’s calendar,
The week having begun,
You know,
With Easter Sunday
x
But now the bunnies
That lay eggs
Must return to their
Warrens of marvels
While the quotidian battle over
How much chocolate
Resumes
x
Many-colored eggshells
Will be swept away
With plastic grass
Found throughout the house
‘Til Christmas
x
As for Easter in our hearts
I’m not sure what
To say:
I hope we have it
As a feeling and an impulse
That doesn’t have to be
The Christian way
But simply good
Like contentment sighs
At the end of day
x
Before then,
Worn out from trafficking
In virtue—
Yes, I said it
x
It exists
In certain texts of the past,
I know
x
Better still, inside-outside
Now,
Which works out because
Now is what we have
And all we have
x
C L Couch
x
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Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash
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