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Monarch

(x = space)

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Monarch

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King Jesus is all

My all in all

I know he’ll answer

Me when I call

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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

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And this young man

Is abashed

To know he has

Been serving faith

In another god

And way

And now must own

His condemnation

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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

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(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)

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Scandalous doctrine?

Some

Might think so,

Saving

Saving welcome for

Those outside

The fold

As Aslan

(in Lewis)

Says is so

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God bless the ecumenical

Those who serve

That all might know

The glory

Living in

The realm of God

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C L Couch

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The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

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“King Jesus Is All,” a traditional gospel song

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Galatians 3:26-29

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Matthew 6:29

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As Pretty As It Is

Photo by Calvin Mano on Unsplash

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

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5

Three, One, Three Again

(x = space)

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sorry, long

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Three, One, Three Again

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Creator, savior, guide

Maybe I understand the trinity

Maybe not

They are lively

And immediate

They are at work all the time

And understand rest

They commend a sabbath

And the days on either side

They are all efficiency

And all love

We have access to them

And, as teachers and advisors

Not to mention

God,

They nudge us

All the time

x

2

What kind of commanders

Legions at their call

They give us time

And patience

Before anything like

A final battle

Victory assured

I mean in this moment

We wait and wait and wait

Or, worse, deny

While they withhold rejection

Until the moment

Past the moment

Before judgment

Should decide

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They give us time

Keeping everything at bay,

Which is love

All love

Splicing revelation

Tailoring salvation

For each one

Each encounter

How wondrously and thunderously

Special

What kind of God

What parts of God

Can do this

And then do it

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3

Hear, O Israel

And all other nations,

Catch them in the human heart

Live as one

Each one as all

Repair the ruin of the Earth

There is so much faith

And good work to do

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They are mild

They are also Armageddon

What kind of love

What kind of God

Three then one

Then three again

They live in constant relationship

So should we

Within the parts

Of ourselves,

Each one

And then

Altogether

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More than one in one

We can have that, too:

Remember might

Remember love

Both mingled in each moment

Quicksilver

And slow water

Everything that moves

And tries to rest

They show us the way

To give us something every day

Then just after our last day

After work

And battling

And sabbathing

To lead us home

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C L Couch

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Maybe it’s not my tradition, but I mean to be respectful of the Shema.

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Temple of Edfu, Egypt

Photo by Jeremy Zero on Unsplash

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After I Believe

(x = space)

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After I Believe

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I don’t know how

     to live for you

I wish I did

I know

     the Spirit is supposed

To guide me,

Though what are

     the steps to take

And practices

     to follow

I don’t know or am

     out of practice

     (hah)

Or never knew and need

Companions

     also in the flesh

To help me

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C L Couch

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Photo taken from The Nue Co. marketing campaign.

Photo by Finn on Unsplash

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Rain

(x = space)

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Rain

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Heatwave and thunderstorms

That’s all we got

Church is still on-line,

Though I guess it doesn’t have to be

Watching the delta variant

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The sermon’s about encouragement

That’s good

Providing it, however, with

Prudence and with wisdom,

Which is better

To say that everyone’s amazing

Overdoes it

In making, it is true

Each life is extraordinary

But for all the lives unmade,

What shall we say?

That there was less extraordinary?

Maybe it’s the application

Of the Pickering social theory

In that it’s how we treat

Each other

And each one

If you want to value life,

Then offer drink safely to everyone

Feed everyone

Make and offer shelter

To everyone

Peace for security

The chance for learning

The chance for work

That complements

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Sometimes saints are martyred

By pagan foes,

Sometimes by the believing

Church itself

Believing more in institution

And a sanctity in politics

Control and profit

Over faith and vision

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Savor belief instead

Feed the children

And the youth

And the grown-ups

With all things that we need,

And I will hear the nations

And the corporations

Claim

That we care

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C L Couch

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1 Thessalonians 5:11

(Hebrews 10:24)

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Raindrops keep falling on my window pane.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

London, United Kingdom

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Faithful Skeptic

(x = space)

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Faithful Skeptic

(spiritual humanist)

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I sin

And then I go to church

How does that work?

We sing that it is well,

Which Saint Julian proposes

We pray for the world

And for concerns

In the parish

We sing some more

We’ll pray some more

Then there will be teaching

(word and sacrament

for those who have sacraments)

Through it all,

We’re singing now

And thank goodness there is

Justice in that

Mingled with grace and mercy

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Through sin and virtue

Through indifference and zeal

Through exhaustion and desire

There is something

Going on,

Something moving

Call it spirit

Call it the orbit of the Earth

And the pressing down of gravity

Call it God’s

Call it nature’s

Call it ours

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And, yes, through it all

It is well

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C L Couch

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Saint Julian of Norwich is a saint in the Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.  Other traditional Protestant churches recognize her standing.  Many Christians of all kinds respect her work in parish service and the service of the Christian Church, overall.  Her name is not known:  she is called Julian because that was the name of the church in Norwich, England where she lived.  She had a cell there, not a jail cell but a hermit’s.  She had a cat.  Each day people of the town would come to her to speak with her through a window, asking her for wisdom and advice.  I’m sorry, I should have mentioned that she lived and worked from the latter decades of the fourteenth century into the first years of the fifteenth century.

She wrote Revelations of Divine Love, a widely-read spiritual text.  It is also taken as the oldest book written in English by a woman.  Two things Julian is popularly known for asserting are the metaphor of the world as a hazelnut (long before William Blake asserted perceiving the world as and through a grain of sand).  And she claimed that, no matter how grim or unhopeful or destructive the world might seem, all shall be well.  She says this many times.

And all shall be well.

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Photo by Külli Kittus on Unsplash

Tallinn, Estonia

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Flying, Creeping Things

(x = space)

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Flying, Creeping Things

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I liken the bird

To the Holy Spirit

That flies with grace,

Usually

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Often arrives

As a surprise

That on good

Days knows the wind

And all the stirrings

Of the Earth,

That often arrives

As shadow,

Serving

As prophecy

Anticipated

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The Bible kind

Nothing marketed

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We can aim

And shoot

And tear the metaphor

Apart

Or we can listen

Glossolalia

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A song announcing

God is alive

In fragile revelation

For our sakes

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Closely attend

An irony of notice,

Trampling the uncertainty

Doctrine or fear

Demand

With the way in

We’ve always wanted

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C L Couch

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Leviticus 11:21-22

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Photo by Agustin Fernandez on Unsplash

Punta Alta, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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Zen

(x = space)

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Zen

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The lotus teaches

To be calm and whole

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Bright color in

An otherwise dark pond,

Soft pointing toward

Heaven in many ways

(there is the root below)

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Directions are not

Lost, even though

Not all become traditions

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One point for someone

Might lead to

Singular adventure

And faith from that

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C L Couch

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Photo by Umur Batur Kocak on Unsplash

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2 poems about parochial gods

(x = space)

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2 poems about parochial gods

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Anvil-Thinking

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Sheesh, I wake up with more

Headaches

Under the metal

Of the skin

Someone has been hitting with

A hammer while I slept

Or gave a go

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To anyone who suffers

With these things,

I’m sorry;

For those of you around them,

Take a moment to consider

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I don’t know if it’s pollution

Of some kind

Or the tyranny of thought

That keeps us from free thinking

x

Well, more power

To you from the utility

Of time and grace

And maybe a surprise, that if

We try everything we know

(keep it safe, please—no

candles in the ear)

Then both of us will have

A better morning,

Thanks to

Maybe all our household gods

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Leave an offering

Of grain upon the hearth

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Photo by Bruce Kee on Unsplash

Patrica, Italy

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No Contest

(1 Kings 18:20-40)*

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Are there false gods

Or gods who are false?

Are there true gods

Who like to lie

And treat penitents with

Indiscretion?

Does Ba’al not exist

Or did it not give its profits

What they wanted?

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Maybe it cows before

The God of Israel

Who holds the truth

That displays

Are for the chumps

While true belief

Has no need

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And so Elijah won

The contest because to him

It was no deal:

Light a fire on wet wood?

Not only is it nothing

It proves nothing

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Belief is a fire

Somewhere else,

And faith lives out a lifestyle of

Easy miracles

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https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2018:20-40&version=ESV

*verse 40 is especially brutal

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Photo by sarina gr on Unsplash

Forest

Campfire at night!

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C L Couch

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3

Cenobite

(x = space)

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Cenobite

(last ice age or next one)

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I need food

I need drink

That’s primal

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Since the world has iced over,

I have nearly nothing now

She should have told the hermits

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I haven’t seen siblings for days

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We always pray

But without tools

And a bigger fire,

We shall dry like

Animal meat, which is

All we’ll leave behind

Surrounded by charcoaled pages

As a testament

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What shall I leave as last words?

That it was too thick,

That I could not break through?

That the storm ruined my fire,

Even inside the cave?

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That I still believe?

That my supplication

Is to receive my soul?

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I do believe

Yet wish I had a follower,

Someone come from town

To bring me coals and kindling,

Water and a pike whose metal tip

Could break through ice

To running water far below

Though I haven’t heard it

Seems for an age

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I might be addled

Or unfaithful,

But I could go for bread and

Cheese as well and wine,

Though I’ve tried to make the

Bitter ale I have last for a while

(nearly gone, now)

x

And candlelight

I miss candlelight

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My head hurts,

My body weakens

I don’t know if I’ll die

In night or day

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It’s hard to tell

Anymore

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C L Couch

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Photo by Shannon McInnes on Unsplash

Northwest Territories, Canada

On an off chance we found ourselves needing to drive from Inuvik to Tuktoyuktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada, which was only accessible by ice road at the time. It took us about three hours driving on the ice to reach Tuktoyuktuk, which sits on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. This is what you see when you step out and look down. Taken during the last weeks of the ice road before it permanently closed. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/arctic-highway-challenges-1.4398726

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There was an ice age in the Middle Ages.  The next one might be caused by global warming.

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