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God is love

God is God

Of social rites

And more

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God is God

Where there’s war

And wounding

In the midst and after crimes

To help the victims

In other disasters

God is there

You might not think

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When it’s difficult

And heartbroken

The story has not ended

Though we’re sure

That everything is done,

Finished and badly

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There is light

Not to say that dark is bad

But that light on its own

Is necessary

A better word

Small illumination

Also call it wisdom

There is another page

The story proceeds

Call it hope

And we may hope

Sometimes there are heroes

Sometimes we must own heroes

As ourselves

However flawed we believe

Ourselves to be

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Carrying light

Can do so much

To find the wounds

To treat them

Pray away

Fight in other ways

The devastation,

Frankly aware

When there are

Evils

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There are more pages

And our storybooks are kept in heaven

Keep going, here

Don’t forget to rest

To wake

To drink

To eat

And then

And then

To rise

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Wonderful Counselor

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Wonderful Counselor

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Should we meet with God

I shall be glad

I might become chagrined

At what God will tell you

While I’m there

But I’m sure the conversation

Will be necessary

There might be understanding and

Reconciliation

Our lives on Earth an untrue experience

Now washed and cleared

The dark glass clean

Through which, if we all will,

All forgiven

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Prized

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Prized

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God’s will

I treat it like a puzzle

A mystery

A riddle

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The prize

For being smart enough

For endurance

For cleverness I don’t really possess

Is success and later on

Salvation

I win at last

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Except I think, liturgically,

That the truth is not in me

Or anyone who thinks and contrives

Philosophy this way

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God is not a puzzle

(I like puzzles

and I hope you do)

There is a clarity

Like the still waters

God takes us beside

Willing

To point out the deep parts

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Skywriting isn’t necessary

(relief for Dorothy)

Read the code for life inside the books

Or listen

Listen, anyway

It’s easy

As it’s easy

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There are commandments

There are two prioritized

There is a parable of sheep and goats

(poor goats)

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These are enough

To take us through the day

A season

A life

And should we like to choose

Life after

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Mysticism, symbolism

Are for other verses

So to coin a phrase

That serves the here and now

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That’s all, folks

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Contemplatives Are Due on Maple Street

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Contemplatives Are Due on Maple Street

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God speaks to me each day, though

I must admit

II don’t know what that means

I mean

Sometimes I hear the words

Sometimes it’s a nudge

I suppose a shove would be too much

I’d lose the love in that

And think it

Something else with chagrin

(and from the gravel)

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I’d like to be an everyday sort of mystic

The kind a hobbit might accept

Have food,

A glass of wine,

Smoke a pipe

Then listen for the words that the

Spirit dictates

And hope I’m not sent to Mordor

On assignment

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A contemplative with wide windows

Sunlight, nighttime

Time for clouds

All through which to contemplate

World enough and time

As the saying goes

From Andrew Marvell’s poem

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This would do for a style

It would keep me in the suburbs

Or small towns,

In cities or on farms or

Or in other places near

Or far away

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Impromptu Earth

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Impromptu Earth

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What is needed

For the timing, Lord?

Order or chaos

Either has its charms

The opposite of order

Is nihilo

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Creation can be wild,

Order can go crazy,

Chaos the odd anchor

Keeps us safe

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Is it a magic thing

Or science?

These and more

Are real

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We need chaos

God allows:

Sarah laughing

When a pregnancy announced,

Leaving fire

Or clouds to show the way,

Accepting

Ravens bringing bread

So the prophet lives

To challenge bastions

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Responding

To the r.s.v.p.,

Jesus cooking fish

At the shore

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I know the void

You know

We call it chaos

In translation

Maybe there are biases

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Maybe like weekly money

We children benefit

From allowances

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From contraries

That complement

Our sure things and

Our mysteries

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Pilotless Wheel

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Pilotless Wheel

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God is great

Traditions affirm

Many of them

Most of the living world

And the world before

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God is good

A source of mercy

Even for

Those who do not know

Those who deny

Given space and time

Mercy in these

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But, God, what kind of

Rotten world governed?

There is beauty

There are delightful moments

There is too much injustice

Too much lack of protection

Too much destruction

In the name

For the cause

Of politics and profit

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You are in charge

We are

It is a war itself

Of wills

We think that you arranged this

We believe

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In this alliance is

The cause of misery

Of evil

The stakes are high

They must be

This is real

Everything must matter

Assignments

Consequences

The religious call them covenants

And so they are

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Sometimes the wheel is left alone

Sometimes there’s a grab for it

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Something to Talk About

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Something to Talk About

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If I pray to you

and boldly ask for something,

what then?

Will I get it

or a consolation prize?

Will the words,

the urgency

even get acknowledged?

How would I know?

How do you?

I’m willing to take

spiritual direction:

is there something

in that? a way, a technique

for understanding,

for confidence,

for divine allowance for

our requests?

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Do I pray again?

Are repeats

allowed?

I hope so, ‘cause

The human predilection

is to keep going,

keep after

what we’re after

until there’s resolution,

either victory

or some other

satisfaction,

which doesn’t have to mean

we get our way.

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C L Couch

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Photo by Jeremy Hynes on Unsplash

White-Tailed Doe and Her Fawn

Please tag @hyneseyes on Instagram for credit, thank you 🙂

Published on July 31, 2022

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Eligibility Requirements

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Eligibility Requirements

James 1:22-27

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What does the Lord

Ask of us?

Many things, I think

That Noah build an ark

That Abraham sacrifice

His son upon an altar

Made for animals

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That Rahab should save

The spies of Israel

In Canaan

That Mary should conceive

Without her affianced

And then give birth

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That Cain should confess

That sinners should confess

That we should be

Doers and not hearers only

Of the word

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That we should seek justice

And do justice

That we should love God

And each other

Be generous with enemies

With material and with prayer

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I’d like to say it’s easy

As salvation is

Through grace

And belief

But frankly it’s the start

Of a grown-up life of faith

In which there should be joy

And humor, too,

And if there isn’t

Then we have been told

In someone’s catechism

Something wrong

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James is a brief, epistolary work in the Christian New Testament.

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“I am from Ukraine, there is a war going on in my country now. Your help is more important than ever.”

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the blast of war

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the blast of war

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God

grant not my will

but yours

yours and mind when

we’re allied

but if it’s you or me

better to be you

and yours

I know

I’ll be there, too

that sometimes frustrates

when I want something

all my own

and maybe

you would not agree

all the way

better for your will be done

and mine left out

you’ll remember me

and several billion

while caretaking

all who are asleep

a world that’s cracking

you will let it crack

split into pieces

that we insist upon

who says

my will be done?

yours will keep the planet

and humanity

behold what

our will has done

and save us

by your modest will

gentle

or ferocious

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the quiet desert

and the storm at sea

are yours

watch over these

and the tame or wild places

of the mind

the heart

and spirit

we should ally

keep us from all tyrannies

with a will

for freedom

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