(x = space)
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Slip-Sliding Petition
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God, I’m tired
Not tired of life
But from lack of sleep
Dreams
That wear me out
So that I’ve lived a day already
Then try to rise
Into waking,
Real agendas
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This is a prayer
Maybe I could ask for something
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I can’t think of anything else
I’ve drifted off
Into Saturday
Or something like
Is Saturday a prayer?
Amen
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C L Couch
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Photo by Daniel Olah on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Ex-Temporaneous
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It’s a dark day
Not enough for a
Ritual outside
And there’s rain
The sun tries
To come through
In patches
Dark hours nonetheless
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That might be spent
At midnight
In the loft,
A vigil
And an offering
Prayer life in the dark
Ages behind that
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Maybe a candle
Of the kind
That does not curse the darkness
But slices through it
If in, well, a fuzzy way
Batteries included
Diffuse Light and shadow
Diffuse
With unscripted words
Everything
Partnering
For the message
For the words
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C L Couch
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Photo by Zoran Kokanovic on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Await
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It is a gloomy day
God appears in clouds
And in fire
These were pillars
If the sky had been painted
With clouds
As it is today
Then how could direction
Have been offered?
But they were pillars
They showed the way
For the Israelites
Perhaps the pillars
Moved as
Progress was made
Perhaps they stood still
As if to say,
I’m waiting for you
Your jealous God is waiting for you
With expectation
With transcendence
And with love
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It you had not sinned
We would be together sooner
But knowing who are you
And loving you, all the same
I am waiting for you
Come to me
Come to my mountain
Come to my clouds
And fire
Come to my blue
Come to my laws
Come to my love
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C L Couch
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Exodus 24
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Photo by Ryan Yeaman on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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The Given
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God
Give us this day
One second and the next
The seconds stop
And a new timeline opens
Uncountable
Forever
Light and gold and glass
Given
Owned by no one
And forever
Salvation earned through grace
Which means not at all
Choice and belief
That sometimes overthrow
The tyranny of microscopes
Chained generations
Lines broken by agendas
Made circles
Joined to other shapes
For fantastic exploration
Of heaven’s heavens
Amen
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C L Couch
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Photo by Genessa Panainte on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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One Morning, Late
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Dry life
No humours
Those fluids that fill
The body
No mercurial
Or saturnine
Temperaments
No temperaments at all
I’m not sure what happened
Overnight
Something
That has dessicated everything
A sponge of dreams
The drying-out of nightmares
The medication measured out
And gone away
Over the hours
The pores remain
So that breathing
With the world is possible
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A dried-out life
Like the old painting on the wall
Cracks in moving
Brittle breathing
It started on the inside
And meets up with
The magma as it’s cooling
Under Earth
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How does it feel?
How do you feel?
It happens everywhere
In the expanding universe
That also ages
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Time for
Childhood’s end
For God to lift us to
The next step on the ladder
The next step
On the stairway
Call it providence
Call if evolution
Call it providential evolution
Childhood’s end
Time to rise
To go up
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The attic
Of creation waits
When we’re all gathered,
The roof comes off
Our house
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C L Couch
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Childhood’s End is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke.
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Triangulum Galaxy
Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Flesh, Spirit, and Everything that Matters
(for Easter)
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Good Friday becomes Easter
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Good becomes better
Good becomes goodest
Abandonment is over
The teacher has returned
And the homeowner
And we each have a place in that home
It is so large
And always adding
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The wounds are healed
There are reminders;
Mainly (surely),
He is alive
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There was no question that he died
We wept, we keened
We buried
There was a stone
There was a guard
There was no doubt in this
The emperors
And would-be emperors
Clinked their glasses
And sat back,
Sighed
That’s done
The conspiracy is over
Plot succeeded
And we can blame other people
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God and people are
Reconciled
Through life and death
And life again
The absurdity of the final miracle
Over death inexorable
Unavoidable
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And NOT forever
What?
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This is what we know
And now through resurrection
We must believe that
Death is not all
It is not inexorable
It is avoidable
We may die
We might sleep
If so,
We will awake again
How does this happen?
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It is God
Who has a part in us
Who made us
Who is spirit
And flesh
And everything that makes up
A creator
And a lover
And a savior
Immanuel from Hebrew
God with us
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We walk a bridge
That wasn’t there
God is on the other side:
In fact,
We can find out
God is on both sides
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C L Couch
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Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Passion Thursday
(Maundy Thursday)
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1
I am poor
I would love to be invited
To supper with Jesus
Because I’m hungry
And sometimes I am afraid
For food
I’m sorry
I want to hear the story
But all I can hear
Is on the inside, now
Maybe afterward
Or during
It’s rotten evangelism,
I guess,
On my part
Wanting the real food, first
Yes, there is a question
Of what’s real,
I’m certain
But feed with food, please,
First
Then I shall listen
To anything
Especially the truth
Sorry for the truth in
A yowling stomach,
In an actual meal
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2
Who knows where they were
Or how many
What they ate,
If it was a meal of tradition
Or what was at hand
The way a meal is sometimes,
Checking our cupboards
And the refrigerator
Looking at the oven
Being hopeful
(hopeful people
hopeful oven)
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Was Mary there?
Were any of the Marys there?
Not to serve but to take part
In equal parts
With the rest?
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And why did Jesus call it new?
A new commandment
That was ancient,
Love one another
Exodus and Deuteronomy
Along with whose house
Shall we serve
And how
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What might be new
To me
Was to call them friends
Upgrade from disciples
Friends
A loving term
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Maybe the love of God
Between people and God
Was renewed
There was a person saying
You can know this God this way
You don’t have to wait
For the appointed time
The proper time
Is now
Kairos
Along with chronos
Love God anytime
As if at table with you
All of you
Any of you
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C L Couch
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Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Breastplate of Not-Saint Christopher
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God of love,
Hear us
God of glory,
Call us
God of peace,
Correct us
God of provision,
Guide us
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God of heaven,
Bear us
God of story,
Teach us
God of origins,
Remind us
God of chemistry,
Shield us
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God of mercy,
Heal us
God of joy,
Thrill us
God of anger,
Love us
God of light,
Care for us
God of darkness,
Guide us
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C L Couch
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Equestrian statue of Joan of Arc by Paul Dubois, Saint-Augustin Square, Paris.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16872826
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(x = space)
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Create in Me
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The Spirit of God
Might not
Be inside the tree
But the Spirit
Might dance with the tree
And many trees
From time to time
I don’t know
How things are invested
x
The Spirit of God
Might be in the tree
When exigency
Requires
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God is a rock
As a metaphor
But not the real thing
Having made the real thing
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There is that
Burning bush
That burned and didn’t burn
God used
And rearranged
The matter of
The bush in that encounter
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So maybe with the atoms
Of existence
The Lord loves to live beside
God or God’s agents
Asking for
Rearrangements
From time to time
To suit a miracle
A message for
Sixth-day creations
Who can have God inside
Intertwining
Spirits
When desired
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C L Couch
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Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash
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