Spirit Love
Have I said
Something spiritual
Today
Like remembering
“I love you”
To a mate
God makes everything
Sustains
To say the least
The bigger parts
And out of love
That everything
Might be
Saved at last
To everything
Within a land
Where all matters
Matter
And could we return the love
A little
Through a word
Some words
Even
A substitutionary action
Unto one of these
Who are like God
To do this for
And by the way
(unforgetting
in the moment)
To be saved
We are small
The stakes are high
They are
Shall we leave unhinged
The gates of reason
And of love
Or shall we leave together
All the spirit
To connect us
And to bind us
Still
With room to breathe
To view through ourselves
To another
To the world
Screwed up by us
Or Satan
Yet made for good
In fact
Made good
The process
And our process
Reflect
The making
If we will
And if we raise each other
To the task
C L Couch
Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash
hymn contemporary
the church’s one foundation
(still) is Jesus Christ, her lord
the church is she
like the damsel in distress
needing rescue
Christ is the hero
drawing her
from the drowning water
cutting her ties
by the villain
to the railroad tracks
like a melodrama
and why not
we’re talking about
villains and heroes
and mortgages
and the need for something better
as in more
than who we are
and we go on to sing
that Jesus will not fail
which is not bad
which is good
in a hero
coda
next hymn
or next version
the church will be a he
and will be rescued
by a she
by the female hero
who is Christ
like Zenobia
or Boudica
but better than the Romans
defeating the inimical
forever
and other genders
or what is genderless
in life
that has life
the organic
I suppose
the inorganic
too
there is a Lord
not only over all
but who is all
to make the rest
only a little separate
in the deified scheme of things
by identity
and purpose
and will
c l couch
("The Church's One Foundation" is a Christian hymn; this morning a contemporary fusion of the hymn was shared)
photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash
Water Works
I’ve written words
Here are some words
I need
More coffee
Be back soon
(soon-ish)
Back
With coffee
(rounded spoonful
thin rivulet
of count
to six for cream)
with some yogurt
Take a spoonful
Have a sip
Still missing ideas
Something
For you
For today
It is
A still day
To appreciate
Before the world’s noise
Returns
The last spoonful
And another sip
What shall I say
Beyond
Let’s have a day
And then another
Should apocalypse
Agree
Though I must
Say
I don’t spend hours
Worrying over this
And what happens next
For I don’t know
And neither
Do you
Which is a way
To say
Relax
Or at least
Worry over what there is
To worry
Over
Say
The health and joy in things
In the ones
We love especially
And the ones we pray for
Known
Or stranger
And more likely both
Maybe the message is
To pray
For there will be answers
And therein lay the risk
That when we ask
Or even state
There will be hearing
With response
Which might be a mystery
I don’t know
How it works
(you might)
Maybe we cry
Maybe
We stamp our feet for answers
That aren’t coming
On our terms
And there’s
The mystery
For there are answers
And why can’t
We always know them
Maybe best
To leave them in the air
Therein is faith
There in
And on the earth
And underneath
And in the ocean-depths
Is love
For us
(for each other
sourced
overall)
From God
Wash in all this
Clean in this
Our cleanliness ain’t perfect
But in what we may have
Be
Real good
C L Couch
. . .
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That's good!
James Weldon Johnson, “The Creation”
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Shape-Shifting
I should think
And say
Something spiritual
Something obviously
So
About the one
Who’s over
Under
Everywhere between
A Scarlet Pimpernel
Or Kilroy
Or Banksy
For our time
And who is next
Marauding
Typically in silence
As we know
With epithets
Graffiti
As campaigns
Of existentialism
I suppose
God won’t leave pictures
And words
Since God already leaves
These
In and as
A cosmos
And what is the message
But creation
And a reason for it
Drawn
And we say written in
The stars
Through written on the ground
As well
In the spiral of the nautilus
The hexagons
Of bee cells
The lines above horizons
With the meanings we may
Attach
Or leave go
For tonight
The messages
Are shared
And now receiving
Is the issue
I suppose
After appreciation
And acknowledgement
That something else
With
These shapes
Is going on
C L Couch
Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash
How Much God-Complaining Is Allowed
And how does God love us
Well
Perfectly
To start
But it’s so frustrating
Where is the fruit
That rightly comes
Each year
We have waited
Through the brown
And white
And green seasons
Now it’s gold
But you don’t offer
Anything like guarantees
Of harvesting
For faith
You even excoriate
The wealthy
And leaders
Over living well
And
Yes
On taking
Keeping
Hoarding
From the rest
Tossing the peeling
While
Chewing through the fruit
Okay
Maybe you don’t do that
But what do you do
What is promise
And the bounty
From believing
We can’t even see you
Hear you
Touch you
Taste you
And what is left
Smell you
Like incense
That we use divine
In churches
Rising up
As if you were there
To take the tendrils
As requests
While we hope
And choke
(sometimes)
For needful
Responses
Well and good
And not so good
We have to wait
We cannot see
Or hear
And all the rest
And yet you are perfect
Perfect love
Where is that
Please
We need it
(sorry)
Obviously
We’re hungry
We’re thirsty
We’re too much on our own
And where are you
But here somehow and
Please
Show up with parcels
Please
Of all we need
All we need assuage
All we need consume
For life
Even if
We have poor understanding
What that means
Which
Of course
Is why we ask for you
Please show up
I need you
God
Please show
C L Couch
Photo by Lin Leyu on Unsplash
Poor (not as in bad but as in not having) Prayer, Real Prayer—2 poem-prayers
Poor Prayer
Dear God
I’m too pent up
And that’s not healthy
I’m also poor
And could not buy my way
Out of anything
Or even have
The coat I want
Care for my feet
Or shoes
Though you gave me
What you gave me
And keep giving me
Though I’m uncertain
What that is
Not doubtful
But uncertain
For somehow
I know things
A few things
Anyway
But not enough
For sureness
As I breathe
And as I think
And as I move
At last
Into the day
I do understand
You give
With or without expectation
Or do I simply manage
Through the hours
As I may
As I can
With what I have
And like the other poor
With what I must say
I don’t have
Real Prayer
Sigh
What I’m blessed
I do not know
There’s the morning sun
Yellow on green
And branches
Is that
Are these
Gifting for me
Because I’m the only one
Looking out these panes
At this time
Or is there more
Or less
And how are we blessed
Anyway
Not through things
Through gilded anything
(I pause
to drink
and honestly
am grateful for the drink
against the times
that poverty
or sickness
kept coffee from
me)
Or property
That is the Earth’s
Though we believe we’re claimants
Well
The wealthy
Or the mortgage-ridden do
Or could
(I’m not sure
how much possessiveness
they feel)
So what is ours
And what are we blessed with
From your hand
And your say-so
Might we own
Pieces
Of a whole
Or simply lent them
And then leave them
Which seems
The wider lesson
From the form
That living takes
And then
What do you want us
To do
In this next hour
And day
And the life
As a campaign
But to do
Justice
Says your book
And to walk humbly
By the way
And what is that
Are these
Except we know a code
Delivered from a mountain
While we waited
By dancing
Before idols
Though we could
Dance for justice
And humility
I suppose
And do you think
Would you approve
And
Allow for our confusion
Our mistakes
Even our flaws
Until we get them right
Which might
Take all our mortality
Of energy and time
Though
As a God
You will stay with us
I suppose
Even a judge
Should have to watch
And listen
Before judging
Well
I know there’s love in there
Forfending errors
Allowing for the pardoning
Of sins
And moving on
With you
Further abstractly
Farther even physically
On Earth
And in the universe
We observe
And only push our pins
Into
So love us as we move
And when we’re still
Even remembering
Our virtues
Or our lack thereof for pardon
Then to set us on our way
Or leave us to it
As we may
And bidden
You’ll be with us
Ornery
Obstinate
Aggrieved
Trying again
Amen
C L Couch
Photo by Nikola Knezevic on Unsplash
(the thing about an archway is that you go through it—CLC)
formless supplication and God what shall I say to you but help like the Beatles I suppose or anyone inside a boat with water pooled and seeming to rise help and bring some rags and a life preserver the dry-land versions this time and I don’t know what that means and I hope that that’s all right praying for formless things nonetheless to assist because I know you’re not a genie and this is not a trick with a lamp or the words for what I want to get them right or be fooled in what I’m getting or not and I like the raven or the spider in the story but you are not a trickster though you allowed tricks upon yourself with a kind of king for a day and then the awful truth falling on you by the end in a darkened noisy afternoon I’m sorry I’m simply asking for your help and in the grace of it not knowing what that help should be and does it count lack of specificity and I think it might c l couch photo by Martin Brechtl on Unsplash
2 poems
(about God and self, I guess, though, you know, you will find what you will find)
Freely
And there is God
Who first believed in us
First made us
Before we
Set out
Inventing
Re-inventing
Ourselves
Finding the words
We will be known by
If known at all
The looks
Our posture
Whatever
As if creation were a game
Of changing jerseys
Even affiliations
When we can get away with that
Elide expectations
To something like our own
Satisfactions
Who knows
Maybe aligned
With how that God
Had made us
With our natures
Toward our inclinations
Regarding expectations
Heaven-sent
Rather than
Always
Earth bound
Hours
Not much
For a Monday
I’ll admit
Frankly
Tried to sleep with back pain
Then woke up
Heavy on my leg
Under the other
But I breathe
I imagine you are breathing
Too
And there is a day ahead of us
To try
To sleep
Perchance to dream
(well
isn’t that what came to mind
honestly)
Or more importantly
Work out our dreams
Or if need be
Exchange them
For something good
It is to wear
To walk
To recline
To move through the world
And what we have for home
What works well
For a life
With potential satisfaction
Meaning
Faith
Pleasure
And hopes even high
For this and into the next
Hour
C L Couch
Photo by Tristan Colangelo on Unsplash
2 poems about questions, answers, roads paved or more or less left wild
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
Thomas Merton
Please It’s Time
Time to go
Hello
I must be going
Don’t know where I’m going
How I’ll get there
Hire people
Friends
And family
I think
Will help
In several ways
Some place much quieter
Maybe without anyone
Above
A first-floor place
With a cottage
Or a monk’s-cell
Feeling
Even
While in touch with those
Around me
Still
But a kind of silence
(normal noise)
Predominant
So I may think
You know
And write
Something that I mean
That is not mere cant
To the bad noise
All around me
Now
Until it be then
Because there is more peace
Possible
In a new place
With
Who knows
Insulation
Maybe a care
For domicilic living
Each on our own
Together
When it’s willful
And pleasant
To meet
Drink
Talk
Reflect
Together on
Now and then
Merton Certainty
(with examples in the irony)
What shall I do
I feel too tired
To move around
To do
Much of anything
So what shall I do
It’s a matter of
Decisiveness
As well
Against the fears
That stall me
Like an engine
Without fuel
Or with
An enigmatic problem
Where shall I go
I do not know
Where would you send me
Lord
If that’s a possibility
Anymore
If I haven’t used up
All the opportunity
You made in me
On what has exhausted me
Left me with lethargy
For legacy
Sigh
It’s all
Tired confusion
And there’s penury
For by now I guess I know
What I would
Do
Where I would go
To do it
Situations
Simply prevail as well
We are not in a vacuum
Even with
Our breathing apparatus
We might be stuck
Or simply feel
In place
Without the drive from
Me or someone else
To change
To go
To Ulysses-try
Lord Tennyson
Were I a lord
I would not hesitate
Again
But give things a go
Since there should
Be funding
Even expectation
That I be on the move
To earn my title
Each day
I live with it
And this is why
Maybe
Some of us rob this
Place of that
To have a sum
To say
Self-deceptively
I only need one
One amount
For food
And exhalation
Then to spend
Of course on
A better kind of life
Maybe
For all around me
Or I’ll go somewhere
To spend
Until I’m caught
Or must surrender
In the other way
I don’t know
Except there won’t be
Taking anything
If I must say
No more
For I don’t know
How we might steal from
Each other
Which is
You know
The other side of coveting
Leaving eight
Commandments
To be bad at
As well
Though really
As we age
If we age
Nearer to judgment
If we get
To go
That way
We might relinquish
Mortal holds
On many things
Literal
Abstract
The things we always wanted
And the wanting
Maybe
I feel this way
Wanting less
Thinking less
Of years to come
Because I can’t
It isn’t
Reasonable
Except for afterlife
So defined
That as
Such we do not know
We are not sure
Precisely
How it goes
But anyway
There is a mortal day
Today
And it shall feel forever
In a part of me
Surprising
Ending
Maybe
(well
for certain)
But for now
Do what we can
Breathe what there is
Maybe find
A kind of peace
In this
Or enough ambition
Still or new
To try
Even
To strive
(lord
and Lord)
Ulysses-like
The conundrum of
Sit still
Or sail on
When both have virtues
Both are real
And romantic
Do one
Or the other
Maybe time for both
Taste
And see
And also hear
And use the other senses
To suss
Then practice
On virtue or the other
Travel minimally
Like
Henry David
Or take a chance
On the world
Like
Amelia
C L Couch
www.stjameslimerick.org/daily-devotions/2021/9/21/a-prayer-of-unknowing (and cited many times, many places on line and in books and maybe in sermons)
Photo by Bahador on Unsplash
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