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God

Attending

Attending

 

God speaks

Through storm

And through the rising flower

Listen

For the goodness

And, if it has to be, chastisement

Before all love returns or

So it seems

From a place it never left

The human will and mind and spirit

Love of all

Excelling loves

Perfection so near

In moving water and the fire that for now

Is contained

Inside dissolution

Ruin or old age

Waiting for will to turn so that

The paradox

The ears to hear will hear

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash

Comet NEOWISE seen from Rio Rancho in New Mexico, USA.

 

Humilitas

Humilitas

 

And does he have the shoulders

For the world, and shall

We place a wheel and turtle

Under him as well

Maybe add a hazelnut

The world on an axis,

On a pin

Where angels dance

And wait for orders

To Megiddo and apocalypse

 

And is everything so fragile

A speck of virus brings us down

Remembering that vanity

Leads us to the feet of Ozymandias

One day

Maybe today

 

And should Atlas need some help

Before his feet have slipped

And all the foundation

Maybe what we have in orbit

Could help

If not, we might also

Ask what we are doing there

 

I’ve left off

The marks, signs

Of use and abuse,

Because they stand

As statement, too

There is a quality should save us,

If we understand

Its works

It doesn’t mean stop everything

Or ball up into fetal uselessness

In fact, it calls for greater

Energy and effort

That simply will not pay

The same

 

But will save the fragile, spinning Earth

Of us

And all we’ve done to

Knock it off its pinions

And platforms

And should it have a course

To meet faces of other worlds

And the face of God,

Should all or any have us

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by GMB Monkey on Unsplash

Chin-Up on Rings

 

God’s Eyes Were Watching Them

God’s Eyes Were Watching Them

 

In a good way

God doesn’t care

You did it, so what

You thought this destructive thing

And then another

No big deal

Outside the gate

 

You did what?

God knows,

Has seen it, will only tally it

If you want it that way

But has other

Things more pressing

And other parts of people

To see without

Unseeing

It’s not carte blanche

For crime

Or open book on wrong

Sin is still sin

And justice hasn’t changed

 

But there is forgiveness

Repentance—turning ‘round

There is an asking

With a statement of

Belief

With or without articulation

Captain Stormfield came to God

Then died

Was drowned right after

The revival

We could meet him there

If he weren’t

A fictional exemplar

 

The real is the real

And pointers of all kinds

The hurt we cause

Means something

There is a code

With punishment

But leave it to the one

Who does each perfectly

Change the heart

Not like a bed

And enter heaven

Like a morning, after

 

We might be surprised to find

Blank pages in the book

Not because what matters

Doesn’t matter

But in the times

That eschatology tries

Explaining,

We might be surprised to find

What is remembered,

What is

Just as good as let go

 

C L Couch

 

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel by Zora Neale Hurston

“Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven,” a short story by Mark Twain

 

Photo by Wengang Zhai on Unsplash

 

 

New Nicaean Thinking

New Nicaean Thinking

 

Fully human

Fully divine

That’s what we say

In answer to an old debate

Whose contesters have

Been dust a while

And still we say it

Because there are those who

Who want only flesh

While there are others

Who would only have perfection

Inside a ghostly presence

 

I don’t mean Hallowe’en

When the veil is thin

But every day, impossibly

God is only flesh

Or a spirit

I didn’t realize

(and don’t)

That, perhaps attaining

Certain saving ranks,

God could be rendered

I suppose beneath the mitre

Or in a meeting room

 

Though God might be outside

In holy, wild majesty

Waiting for the conference to end

To show debate instead

In hurricanes

Or life inside the vacuum

Of space, waiting for visitation

 

There’s flesh

There’s spirit

They stand and move apart

Or somehow they’re conjoined,

Which would be awe

 

Try to understand a black hole

Or transcendent Pi

Find life inside CERN

Or the baby,

Once conceived

 

Maybe we’ll find that we can

Create amazement, too

(I think we’ve done it)

Maybe we’ll be inventing God

As Voltaire did or did not mean

To advise,

 

Or we’ll say it is a better machine

Matching the workings of

A molecule or cell

Nanobots

Realizing dispensation

Plenary indulging

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Don Shin on Unsplash

Stanford Dish

 

This Is Not a Test

This Is Not a Test

(Psalm 121:1-2)

 

It isn’t that the help

Comes from the hills

But that it comes

From God

It might come from the

Hills, or it might come

From the valley

Or the desert or the

Outskirts of the city or

Fallow farmland

 

It might come from Rahab

Or from Zipporah

Or from Ruth

It might come from

All expected places

Or from surprises,

Say,

Balaam’s donkey

 

Don’t box in the help

From God

There’s no container,

Anyway

Let it flow like Micah

And all salient prophecy

 

Trust, now that’s the

Hard part

When there is no formula

Beyond a prayer

Or looking up in hope

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by David Monje on Unsplash

Girona, Spain

 

Soliloquying

Soliloquying

(syllogistic)

 

If God is love

And God is a spirit

Then it might, it should

Follow that love is a spirit

And that a spirit is love

 

There are times when matter

Matters more

The flower on a table

The open door

The favor no one asked for

Nothing for a show except

To say

What we should say

 

Love is a spirit

And in something like eternity

Materials are messages

I don’t know how they rack up

When it’s not a game

Though love should be fun

And sad

And hard, sometimes

 

Remembering to keep it small

Might help,

Remembering

The larger things, too

I guess I’m saying

Not because of me

 

Nonetheless

Spirit and matter

Keep it real

 

C L Couch

 

 

notes

 

John 4:24

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

1 John 4:8

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 

It might be synchronicity, more likely inspiration.  The day before drafting this verse, I was reading Jane Dougherty’s excellent exegesis of two Scripture verses at Jane Dougherty Writes (https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2020/05/21/gospel/).  I so highly recommend her blog (https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/).

 

Photo by Ralf Skirr on Unsplash

 

Ontology

Ontology

 

I don’t know, God

I know you love us

It’s all the rest that can confuse me

Why there is great truth

In nature

We refuse to understand

While we destroy it

Learning nothing but that dollars

Speak not a greater truth

But noisier

So I guess you could say it’s all on us

And we are responsible

But we can also credit you with making us

Why did you do that,

Why are we as we are?

 

We can build

And then tear down

We leave artifacts

That we refuse to learn from

We love clear days

Then smoke them out

With factories and war

Factories to make the war

Viable

Not to mention all the vehicles

We could not pass a law

That says what we make cannot

Destroy us at the same time

Let alone with Earth

I know I go off on things like this

But, really, what’s the point

In planet Earth

If we destroy her?

 

Wisdom is a woman, too,

In a number of traditions

But men are made to ignore women

Treating them like other

Resources

My, don’t they have it wrong

All of it

 

So what’s the answer, God

I’m sure there is an answer

Before it’s all a cynical taking

Climbing on each other toward

An artificial peak

Without wondering what we leave

For children

So they’re left to be like us

Or rebel to find another way

I don’t think I’ll blame them

When they do

 

Maybe our agenda has been

To build another Babel

One structure, one language, one power

Over all the Earth

Determined by us

Goodness, I would hate that

And so would anyone who delights in

Diversity

We made kaleidoscopes

Maybe we should look into them more often

Prismatic colors

Ever-changing order

Not anarchy but beauty in

The light you made

You make

I suppose if we asked to be

People of light

A new adherence to your making and

Your teaching,

Someone would try to pass off some darkness

As the light

Where is your justice, Lord?

We need it and can’t manage it, ourselves

Isn’t there a great mediator, even here

On Earth, among ourselves

Within?

I remember now, it’s love

That I learned in church, even if churches

Forget, hiding agendas instead

Some learn, anyway

And live it so much better than I

These are the ones I need

The ones who live in love

Not perfectly

But persistently

 

We need these people, God

The ones who love

With strength and practicality

Because it’s the better reason

For taking the next step

 

Show us love, Lord

And those who love

The real strength

The foolishness in the world’s eyes

While it digs and flies and wends

Its way toward hell

Each day until the last

But it can’t be for fire of hell

Or fear of it the reason

Love must be embraced

Because it bests fear

Because in the embrace

We see, as sometimes on a clear day

You are there

The God who made us

Allowed the serpent, too

Who gives changes over ages

For all of us to turn our will at last

 

Toward you, into you

Below, above

In better places

And the worst

No peak too high

No pit so deep

But you are there

You gave us will

How about we return it

Using it to do so?

That might be the final irony

You’ve been waiting for

Maybe then we’ll understand

Apocalypse is love

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by sergio souza on Unsplash

 

Breastplate-Thinking

Breastplate-Thinking

 

God

Is something

Someone

We look up to

But if the breastplate’s right

We can look down to

God as well

Look ahead

Turn around

Lift up a scoop of earth

Part some water, just a little

We can look at hills,

Even mountains

Down inside a valley

Inside mouse holes

Even a glove compartment

God is not trapped anywhere

God waits on freedom,

Actually

God is in the well

And above the spaceship nosecone

 

Maybe there is laughter

Maybe there are tears

Maybe there is anger

There is always justice

With a willingness to heal

God’s is there

 

Breastplate-thinking’s right

Insofar as

God is there

And for our times,

Is God inside the germ?

Yes, even there

Somehow, lovingly

Inside the germ

Not to say that plagues,

Crusades,

Other eradications

Are God’s will

For I don’t think they are

Certainly not God’s pleasure

But where there might be comfort

In the presence

In anything inimical

Deep or shallow,

Yes, there is God

For Earth

For us

 

C L Couch

 

 

(from) The Breastplate of Saint Patrick

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I arise,

. . .

Favored

Favored

(a prayer)

 

So God

What will you have

My heart

It’s yours

My head

I’m not sure what all is in there

(or the heart)

But sure it’s yours

My muscles

All the nerves

The organs as they are

Some with extra parts

Some not working much at all

You want them

Sure

Okay

My spirit must be in there

Somewhere

Somewhere my soul

You want my soul

Dear Lord

All right

I don’t know how to turn it over

So you’ll have to teach me

Maybe it starts with this

Create in me a clean heart

O God

And renew a right spirit

Within me

I don’t how that happens either

Maybe I could learn this

From an angel

Or another agent

Of yours in the world

 

Help my unbelief

For the world that you allow

Is filled with snares

And I am good at getting caught

Unwrap the rope

From my heel

The chain around my chest

The mask that has no eyes

Over my spirit

Free me as you will

As you conspire

Maybe I could add to the favor

For another

 

Thank you for will

Though sometimes I think

I’d do better without it

Though to think about again

I’d hate the puppet string

(claustrophobic

or whatever is

the fear of being captured)

If my will is something else you’d like

All right

Gentle as a dove

Wise as a serpent

It’s all yours

 

C L Couch

 

 

Psalm 51:10

Mark 9:24b

(Matthew 10:16b)

 

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, United States

 

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