2 poems about the day
Fish Fry
(check the shape of stanza'd, ichthus undulation)
Friday
Fry day
Fish fry day
At the Catholic church
For penance
I suppose
Though the is
So much
One can’t complain
Of abstemious devotion
And the money
Should go somewhere
Good
And we Protestants
Can enjoy that
Too
Should we think on it
While crunching into fish with
Whatever else
Is
Provided
Yay
Catholics
Thank you for
This weekend treat
You all
Have
A great weekend
Too
After all the cooking
(the worry over getting
burned
while frying)
And all the cleaning
That frankly
We did not
Have to do
Though when it’s our turn with
A rummage sale
We’ll clean up
Afterward
For you
Thirteen O’Phobia
Today is Friday
A thirteenth
Sorry to
Triskaidekaphobes
Watch out
Black cats
They’ll be avoiding you
Which now I think it
Might be the quite suitable
Arrangement
And ladders
Mirrors
Sidewalk
Cracks
Salt containers
All the things that make
This day less
Amenable
And it’s the number
Generally
As well
The lack of such in buildings
Even
Now
And what was it
Crucifixion on a Friday
Or the barbaric
Gory dissolution of the Templars
On a Friday
Thirteenth
Early in the fourteenth century
(1307
look
another thirteen)
And Judas killed himself
Maybe on that
Friday
Being the thirteenth disciple
(once removed)
In some lore
But for me
And maybe I should apologize
I often
Find
The day goes very well
Which might be
Determination
Or
Luck
Half-Irish luck
For my mother’s family
While on my father’s
Side
There are the English
Who most likely
Do not care
About the day and
Date
As long as the flag is flying
Somewhere in a
Time zone
Over Earth
C L Couch
(9/13/2024)
Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash
Matthias, Paul, Judas—who is the thirteenth disciple/Apostle? (Rhetorical question--depends on whose tradition's answering.)
(x = space)
x
x
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
2 poems about ecumenicity
x
x
Many Things to Make
(nothing like a rant but a ramble)
x
And there are other great traditions, too,
About which I know next
To nothing
Remembering the Gulf War when
Some of us felt ecumenical
And took part in gatherings of Christians,
Jews, and Muslims
Where I got to hear the testimonies
Of the followers of each
And who they were as persons
And believers
x
There was a young woman
Of Islam
Who articulately smoothly,
Even beautifully
That who knew her better than her parents
With regard for her
And so who better to arrange
A marriage for her?
x
And I was convinced
And I disagree
And there was beauty in the
Disagreement, too
x
Doubting that we changed much
Of anything—there
Was still a war, and our young
People left to fight—but
In the moments
Of these hours
There were the points of light
The President then
Had been asking for
Inside the nation
x
There is so much more
To learn
About my neighbors
In the nation
And the world:
Who are the believers?
What do they believe?
What is the story of their faith?
Might they respect
The disagreements, too,
So that our world
Has a chance
To survive
To prosper
To believe
So that with integrity
We might reach for another world,
Too?
x
Pray the world lasts
Until we meet upon Megiddo
Not to fight
But have a meal,
Exchange apocalypse in faithful terms
And human
For a conclave
And a celebration
Of each other
x
x
Reasonably
x
Most of us believe
And there are those who don’t
Though binary’s not enough
There must be more
Than defining one thing
By its opposite
Humanists
Secularists
Unitarians
People of the Renaissance
Who gave science a category
Near faith
Without faith
x
Objectivists
Phenomenologists
People of reason
Rationality
Naturalism
Modernism
Fitter for post-modernism
Than the rest of us
x
Who could lead the way, in fact,
In appreciating
Difference
And diversity,
The creative celebration
Of the mind
And the experiment
x
Sorry I must
Define these as an
Other
But they must be
Welcome at the table
They could welcome us
We could invite each other
x
coda
x
Yes, which is not to say
Believers are irrational
Some are
Some want to be
And there are those who keep
Their faith as
Something in the wild
Those who lost at Whitby
But kept the Celtic
Style and ritual
Below
And now in daylight
Seek in celebration
Understanding for the rest of us
x
But faith has reason;
Might we say
That reason is creation
By creator?
Say no
Say yes
But allow for some very smart people
To believe
x
No one has to change
Except in violent intent
It should be an instinct to
Understand oneself
When understanding others
x
Keeping in mind
With hopefulness
That the one requested
Will in turn
Turn toward you to say
And what is your story?
Delightfully,
Be ready
x
C L Couch
x
x
I was writing before dawn and thinking about the seasons that are upon us now, wonderful times—and that in the spirit of this or that we might serve each other not only better but also for the first time, the stakes being, well, everything
now it’s dawn
x
by M. Garlick/University of Warwick/ESO – http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1627a/, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99645426
x
(x = space)
x
x
On the Ecumenism of Species
x
Dogs and cats should share
Often, they do
They share heat when it’s cold
They can share toys
They can treat each other
As toys
Food is another matter
Their systems are different
So unless it’s An Incredible Journey
Situation,
They should eat apart
And eat apart
Be who each other is
They can rest together
Often, they do
And enjoy God’s-creature status
Both, together
All, together
Now
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Wake-Up Gospel
(John 10:25)
x
My works I do
Show God
They testify of me
Jesus did that
And says it every time
We read or hear it
He shows
And says it again
x
Works righteousness
Alone,
Some say
Indulgences for sin
Is close
When works as
Polity and practice go wrong
x
Indulgence on a decorated paper
Certified
Purchased
Ahead of time for sin
This doesn’t happen anymore
Reformation
Counterreformation
Timing keeps them apart
Though unity
Should bring them near
x
Then there are
The Evangelicals
The siblings
The independents
They are seen
And heard
Close in doctrine
But there is the edifice
The cathedrals
The state churches
The republic in the Vatican
What shall be done
With these?
x
Still, there could be
A table
‘Round whose delegates
Might bring a gift
For conversation
Each thing distinct,
Each thing to say
We are here
And we have something
To make it better
x
Then everyone could talk
And everyone could listen
The works of God
That show God
Could be manifest
Together rise
Against decline
Against blooded
Or bloodless war
x
There could be peace on Earth
Well, some of it
Bless-ed assurance,
All that’s needed
In God
In each other
x
C L Couch
x
x
SOURDOUGH
Photo by Conor Brown on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Monarch
x
King Jesus is all
My all in all
I know he’ll answer
Me when I call
x
In a final chapter of
The Last Battle,
A non-Narnian who was
An anti-Narnian for
A time,
Has met Aslan, the
Metaphor of
Christ and God
x
And this young man
Is abashed
To know he has
Been serving faith
In another god
And way
And now must own
His condemnation
x
And Aslan
(and Lewis)
Judges remarkably,
As only God-as-love
Can
To pronounce that
Service done well
In his life
Is counted as
Service unto him
x
(sorry,
as a character
Aslan is male,
though we know
don’t we
that God is female
and male,
Jew and Greek
and more than
these)
x
Scandalous doctrine?
Some
Might think so,
Saving
Saving welcome for
Those outside
The fold
As Aslan
(in Lewis)
Says is so
x
God bless the ecumenical
Those who serve
That all might know
The glory
Living in
The realm of God
x
C L Couch
x
x
The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
x
“King Jesus Is All,” a traditional gospel song
x
Galatians 3:26-29
x
Matthew 6:29
x
As Pretty As It Is
Photo by Calvin Mano on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
Recent Comments