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Contritions

(x = space)

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Contritions

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I don’t know what else to say

I wish I could resort

To the Bible better

I wish I knew

The right way to pray

Rather than the stabs I take

To try

I wish I were more righteous

In the right way

I think there is a right way

x

But you are there

And I am here

And you are here

With angels to assist

I know

Beyond a fancy

More than because

I’m supposed to

x

I believe

Because I do

And my choice doesn’t affect

At all

Your existence

My choice important

Faith to allow the grace

Free sacrifice

To hold

Even take root

And grow

x

But what am I

Nothing of

A Gospel hero

Let alone the older tales

Or new ones

What shall I give to you

You don’t already have

And more

And better

But that the slip of self

The folded leaf along the vein

Whose only purpose left

In fall

Is falling

x

But that you want me

Anyway

Though I find wanting

Every way

A scary thing

That is the lesson of the world

Through splintering experience

x

You can bring enough

Together

I know this

And enough might be enough

I’ll pray

I’ll try to read

To comprehend

The wisdom

Or maybe

Just enough

Justly to pray

Enough salvation

For today

Should you come by night

And then by night

Like heart attacks

Frightening

To take me home

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

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Oracle

(x = space)

x

x

Oracle

x

x

Pent-Up

x

I wish the chemicals

Flowed more freely

Is it that they pass through

Glands

And mine rest in the body

Without balance

x

I was calm

And then adrenaline released

Caused me to jump

Around

You know

Inside

x

And now I contemplate my day

And its appointments

And could do without

The set-to

Consideration the expectations

Guessing really

Going on

Inside

x

x

Better Living

x

I never experimented

Never toked

Never smoked a cigarette

Never tried

What came within

The colored patches

x

Now a grown-up

I get pills

I know the younger

Get them

Too

And apologize

x

Prognosis

And prescriptions

It is the way

Buter’s way for our flesh

With what imposes

From the testament

About

Three-score and seven

x

x

That’s All

x

But

Lord

There are all the

Hundreds of years

Of patriarchs

Of Eve

Of Sarah

The subsumption of

Enoch

Elijah

x

Too many dying young

Through

Murder

Flood

And war

And then

The many who exceed

The formula

Citing classic wisdom

x

How long shall you go

(that’s you)

Or I

Our pets

Our people

Or our nations

Chronology

x

We might play with time

In elevated ways

Einstein

Velocity

The vehicles to get there

And such

x

Slows down things

Perhaps

While we are fast

And yet the direction’s

Always forward

Because that’s how the story plays

And toward which

The ending rests

And waits

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Aleksandr Barsukov on Unsplash

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Arborism

(x = space)

x

x

Arborism

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What will God tell us

To do good

x

Well, to do good

x

What if we’re feeling

Old and sick

x

And virtue

Seems too hard

x

After surgery and all

Or simply years

Of needing the investment

To get by

x

I don’t want excuses

Or to have them

Excused

I want resources

Energy

And time

x

Great things to consider

Though not so much when

We have them

We complain

We grow complacent

We choose bored

x

We all have something

For the whining

A tonic

Say

Say

Reality

Sometimes admittedly

A herculean lifting

Of a desert screen or

Something we believe

Might be on

Fire

To keep it there

Like Atlas with the world

Or the elephant upon

The wheel

Upon the turtle

x

Balancing

Then yes

With risk

Reaching under

That heavy

Skim

Detritus and illusion

To deal in the truth

To clear the roots

Spruce up

Our perception

Look at

What’s holding up

The holding up

And what is healthy

What needs

Pruning

What needs sliding off the top

For good

x

Maybe we leave the balance

Then

Clear roots

Above which

Sits our world

Our own

If there is something

x

A little easier

Or at least more visible

Atlas might not shrug so much

But smile

(the turtle, too)

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Clint McKoy on Unsplash

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Entertaining Unaware

(x = space)

x

x

Entertaining Unaware

x

The Greek myth that

I like so much

About the couple who

Ends up entertaining gods

x

Then while at dinner

Having both

The pitcher and the plate

Fill with wine and grapes

Respectively

All the time

x

Comes to mind

When pouring out the last

Of the cream

From the carton

x

Hoping there’s enough for

A cup of coffee

By an acolyte

Of morning

x

Or whenever

Some plenty might be needed

Provided by maybe

A not-unknown

God

With perhaps

An agency of angels

x

C L Couch

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Baucis and Philemon

Metamorphoses

x

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Hebrews 13:2

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Photo by mk. s on Unsplash

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A Simple Faith

(x = space)

x

x

A Simple Faith

x

A simple faith

That says

I love you

God

I know that you

Love me

x

Help me

To love the world

You made

The child you gave

To save it

Keep me

Not giving in

Except to you

In faith

x

Let goodness

Not be slight

Or slighted

Not by me

x

Help me to love

My family

And friends

And stranger I have yet

To meet

Or never shall

x

Pearls

And swine

Doves

And serpents

Not to cast with

Or to invoke

But to be reminded

Of my worth

x

You are God

Deserving all that

God is due

But I must take you

Day by day

It seems

To love you best

Your world

To my listening ear

And the people

Here

x

While we are here

‘Til there

x

C L Couch

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“This Is My Father’s World” is cited and adapted

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Photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash

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Monday Possibilities

(x = space)

x

x

Monday Possibilities

x

God is love

God is a spirit

God is a lion

Too

And a rock

x

Not a rock

Though we might paint

“Jesus Saves”

On one

x

There was such a place

I was ridden by

Then drove by

While I was growing up

x

A rock

Next to a pool

A stream

Some kind of moving water

Because

The place looked dark and fresh

x

“Jesus Saves”

Why

Yes

He does

God who is that spirit

And that love

Even a lion

Helps to make it so

x

There is a trinity

A kind of multiplicity

Who knows how

Wide the

Godhead

In all the dimensions

When day by day

In all our wandering

We know barely more

Than three

x

A kind of multiplicity

Is God

That made the rock

And made the paint

(though did not sell it

though somebody

could)

But doesn’t sleep

xxxxxThat’s energy

xxxxxInside the Earth

xxxxxAwaiting

x

I guess it’s Monday

I’m thinking about

The possibilities

While I have mean neighbors

But friendly faces

In my life

To recall

At will

And call with real immanence

As well

x

Where is the lion

But in a free place

Offering

(a big paw)

An invitation

For us

There

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

A statue on display in the Grand Egyptian Museum.

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amen, amen, amen, amen, amen

(x = space)

x

x

amen, amen, amen, amen, amen

(you can sing it)

x

there were good hymns

in church

and a couple that were sleepy

the sermon was terrific

for being true and in style easy

as if we could believe

afterward

and live it through the new week that

all this was meant to serve

amen

x

c l couch

x

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photo by channel 82 on unsplash

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A Jazz Mass

(x = space)

x

x

A Jazz Mass

(recovering lost verse)

x

Jazz mass

A mass of jazz

Inside the church

That might

Be

Preservation Hall

x

Or come with me

To Cleveland

Or

New Liberty

Or a flat place in a field

With divots

Happening to happen

Just right for

Our instruments

To rest

While we musicians

Get to listen,

While exhaling,

Too

x

Inside the halls

Of the Lord

Which might have heaven

For a ceiling

With hell beneath the basement

So let’s stay here

On Earth

To worship

In good syncopation

(planned,

unplanned)

With an aim

Sometimes

To raise that roof

More heaven-toward

x

Loud

Or soft,

Sharing the stories

Of both places

And our prophets

And

Our prospects

x

Don’t charge for tickets

Maybe leave

A jar

Inside the door

More visible

When leaving

Should

We leave

Because there might be food

(after spiritual food)

And then another

Set-to

All of us

Jazzy playing

Jazzy-praying

To the Lord

x

C L Couch

x

x

A Jazz Mass is a worship service with service music and hymns played in a Jazz genre.

Jazz Mass | Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church

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Photo by Mary Hammel on Unsplash

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Impoverished

(x = space)

x

x

Impoverished

x

I am a Christian

(and you’ll pardon me

if I don’t mind

that you are not)

And so I believe

That Jesus saves

And the Holy Spirit indwells

x

As God creates

And so we have

The three in one

And one always in three

x

And should I be offended

Or should you

And I think neither

x

God is

And if you don’t think so

Then

You don’t think so

Though statistically

Most on Earth

Believe

In something

Someone

Greater than oneself

Who is at work

In the world

Or for some

Is standing by

x

Jesus is offensive

He excoriates

Both Jew and Gentile

He also is all love

And empties himself of godhood

On a cross

To die

The first

Last

Great sacrifice

For sin

x

And that offended evil

I am sure

And the devil wailed

While certainty in hell

Was harrowed

By the Lord

And Lord

Who came alive again

And lives for us

Offended

Or easier about

Salvation

x

So we’ve time and chance

To care about

Our part in things

I’m thinking

Keeping promises

To families

To Earth

To what is true

What is giving

What is loving

x

Some find love offensive

In the cost

Of nothing worldly to have

Or to keep

Or it isn’t love

That like grace

There are no dispensers

With requirements

Except the Lord

Who says

Love God

And each other

Do both

x

And if that’s a requirement

Well

Take it up

With the one who made you

x

There

I have offended

But I empty myself to say

I love you

And when I do so

I have done it

And maybe say it

Well

x

Love God

And believe

Believe in Earth

Not quite so solid

Through truly

Given

Believe in us

That we have a chance

That we have a choice

That might please hell

Or make a heaven

In the middle

x

Believe well

And do better

Keep nothing that relinquishing

Would make love

Wholly stronger

And viable

In an occupied world

x

Until revelation

Make it real

And in the meantime

Learning

Living

What shadows

(taught by Plato

and what others more respectable)

Reveal

x

C L Couch

x

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Speaking finally of Narnia and Earth, the professor said, It’s all in Plato.

Except it isn’t.

x

good thoughts courtesy of the ALC at Covenant Evangelical Presbyterian Church of West Lafayette, Indiana—anything that offends, maybe insults, is from me

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Photo by Callum Hill on Unsplash

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