sun day
I’m supposed to write of God
today
it being Sunday
and I told myself
directly about spiritual things
on
Sunday
being the day
you know
for that
then what happens tomorrow
when
it’s Monday and the untrending grudge
(or is it grunge)
returns
with six more days
‘til another break
for heaven or
at least for
heavenly consideration
well
today I think on God
because by experience it’s obvious
and I’ll even think on church
though
that bond
over time as well as exploitation
has become more and more tenuous
and what of God
whom we don’t know
or even
intimacy with Christ
which hardly seems appropriate
to think
Christ is our pal
with ironically the Spirit
the closes part
of God
we know even less
which might speak to knowing ourselves
and yet
we have the caveat
not
to dwell on self against all other
preoccupations
and yet
two sides of the equation
to love neighbor
and self
preceded by the command
not
nice suggestion
that we love God first
which sounds like law
and is
though we know
well the only kind of law we get
on Earth
that sometimes is filtered
through mercy
as well as
justice
sometimes realizing these are the same
in fact
though mostly laws and lawmakers
who serve self
not the good self
or self’s
agenda
first
well
I started back on Sunday
and it’s
still Sunday
a day of value because
it’s the now
we have
and could be Monday
any day
that’s the now
we have
and God is over us
and as we want
God
through us
and how much
so very
agonizing much
must God
be waiting
for faith to start and also faith
to live
beyond the start
sigh
so believe in God
in spite of all our
well
things of us
that get in the way
of our being us
or things of the world
that do the same
and also
take us from
the love we have in God
self
and each other
about as
simple as it gets
really
God made everything
and us
and it as “good” by God
to have done so
or add an exclamation point by
James Weldon Johnson
and
things went wrong
and
don’t blame anyone but everyone
fell to the extent
that over ages
we’re still measuring
though as far as goes
can get up
whenever
meaning whenever
ask God
for help
and even for the life
and is in thanks
to offer service
to the good
as one is able
and let one work that out
with God
not for perfection
yet
but for redemption
yes
and also frankly
the delight
in the pleasures of the moments
with having the better way
for
the other moments
then on to delight
and
did God say
(and did)
peace and joy
even
now
if in irony with the world
the promises good things yet
does not
know them
really
but life with God
now
and was it mentioned
(and it was)
a life to come
that we should know has come
already to
the saints before us
and
small “s”
that is
for the sants among us
as us
now
c l couch
photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
space prayer
God
keep us
and God will
while we’re on Earth
and then more so
beyond
I think
which could make this
a prayer for astronauts as
well
who shall leave Earth and meet
who knows
what knows
out
there
c l couch
photo by Vincenzo Malagoli on Unsplash
Grace Fully
So believe
If you will
And only as you will
Grace
That makes faith real
Is offered freely
And
Exists regardless
Believe in God or do not
Same
With the life of faith
After and
With belief
And
Don’t let any tell you
Another person
Anyway
That he or she dispenses grace
If only you subscribe
Grace
And also faith
Don’t work
That way
The first need being only
You and God
Should you choose
And
Should you accept
Then there is the life of faith
In which you might choose
Healthy
Earthly affiliation
And while to have and keep
Sadly
It’s not
To say the faithful life is easy all the time
While
Through it all
The obstacles
Worldly
Self-styled
Do promise
Spiritually
Well
The Spirit’s ease
And even peace and joy
Be the judge of grace
And faith
To start with God or
Not
And
Don’t let any other take the judging role
Except God
And then remember God is truth
And also
God
Is love
I heard once that church should be rejected because it claims to dispense grace—and also, as such, the church charges something (membership, money, doctrinal adherence) in order to receive the grace if offers, if not dangles. But grace is not or ever owned this way. (Or owed, either.) Grace is from God, and grace is free. It is the free means to receive the saving favor of the Lord. As means or to exist at all, grace comes at no cost of ours, the price for grace, so to say, having in fact been paid by God. We are saved by faith in God. And as if faith were great art, grace is the frame.
C L Couch
Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash
“In the Park”
Kyiv, Украина
[haiku of the funeral]
common the remains
of by world and word a pope
framed in love to earth
c l couch
photo by Nicolas Weldingh on Unsplash
of John 3:17
for God
did not send
the child of God
into
the world
to condemn the world
but that
through the child
the world
and all the world
might
be saved
for God so loved
c l couch
photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
rest with
rest with
I think of thick
cloth
maybe with a scent of earth
and what is
the scent of resurrection
I don’t know
the face
for fear
for shame of looking
but I can’t help
but rest
against the folds
and a little ways
inside
I rest
and I don’t know the surface
of the ground
beneath
it could be firm
it could be clouds
if could
be fire
but for the company
I’ll keep resting
maybe fall
asleep
daring and remarkable
in the Earth-turning
and somehow homely presence
of the Lord
c l couch
for Easter Monday
photo by Clément Falize on Unsplash
Hearing a New Commandment
Bread and wine
For body
Wind for spirit
Earth
For creation
These show the nature of
The Lord
In closest metaphors
Like mustard seeds
For faith
And there are other metaphors
For appreciation
And
For learning
But these are things we have
And may know
Easily
Even rather thoroughly
That any might believe in
What they represent
And so
Have faith
In the intimate way
The better things are and have
Been made
Bread
Wine
Wind
Earth
Learn
Believe
Love
Live
C L Couch
for Maundy Thursday
John 13:34-35 (and in Matthew 22)
Matthew 11:15, 13:9
Photo by Assad Tanoli on Unsplash
in waiting
waiting as in stillness plus
waiting as in serving
stillness
and serving
the God beside us
in waiting
is waiting
c l couch
Revelation 3:20
Revelation 21:5
photo by Yucel Moran on Unsplash
Heat
(a kind of review)
Fire burns
Which means that for survival
Fire’s good
And yet fire destroys
The fuel we place
But
Everything that gets away
The flames that ruin homes
For animals
For us
And everyone
And everything
Of course
That burns
The spirit of the Lord
We equate with
Fire
And I don’t know what is means
By denotation
To fire as in to separate from
A job
Still
It is ubiquitous
It seems
Like “they”
And though its forms seem drastic
As in warming
As in cooking
So we live
And by heat often through the night
And yet
To take away survival
Too
There being the matter of its
Wildness
That is the problem
That makes the thing hideous to
Destroy
Without fixing as much
As only to build over for
Recourse
Yet there is God
Again
Whose spirit is not wise the way
We think is wise
And is not
Tame
The way we think only in formal matters
Should God
Be relegated
Rather
God is wild
Even in wildness
You know
The wilderness
Which we won’t like for lack
Of building
Compartmentable
Purchasable
Convenience
(and the promoting of a market)
And
Who knows how God might feel but
Uses such heaths and
Pagan places
Anyway
Tame and wild
Which shall we have
Of course
But both
Let God normalize
And let go
If lovingingly
Amok
Like fire
In a frame
And who sets the flame
(out of
lovingly flammable
inflammable materials)
But the tame
The comfort in
The very God while also dwelling
In the zealous flame that both
And must
Love
As well as
And often even as
The heat
And I guess we must mean
The heat of all kinds
C L Couch
Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash
“Bonfire Night”
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