Typing Calvinist
Relationships
I’m not good with these
At these
Look at me
Alone
While typing
Word of Earth and faith
As if
I know
At least I have good sources
To go to
And
Yes
This is a solitary act
Traditionally and
Typically
Insofar as that is an operable excuse
But what
Do I know
Whom
Do I
Know
And I don’t know and this
Is doubt
Or course or sometimes when
I refuse to listen
To God
Or you
Or anyone
Too busy with that log in my eye
To see
The virtues of
My sibling people
(who are
all
people)
And while the log means a good challenge
It can be excess
Self-preoccupation
Too
But
Finally to set this down
To set anything on an electron page
Nonetheless
To be
Picked up in an archetypal way
To read
And to respond
This must for you
For all of you
And all for you
There is no reason
Other
Self-expression
Sure
But not enough as we might say
That we are good
And that
Is not enough
C L Couch
(Protestants like work and Calvin liked grace and also Mary; I don’t know enough of Hobbes to say (hah), though I do think most good things go together--say, spirit and flesh; faith and work; readers and writers (when both are good or trying good); voice and text
and with apologies for abstruseness)
Photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández on Unsplash
the familiar way we used to speak
God
you’re here
but there is such a dullness
between you and me
could be an unmoving field
I put there myself
even
unknowing
then to wake to it
and wonder how the barrier
got there
maybe it’s mortality
maybe it’s greed
I’m not sure I know
maybe it’s difference
as in
I’ll come over to you when it’s easy
when the way is lit
thy word
is a lamp
I’ve heard
and are the thees and thous allowed
the ironic use of you
we have let go
the intimate
the way one would say
and has
said
how do I love thee
thou dost prepare
and I should let thee
love
allowing that thou
loves
for creation’s thine
and love's
and so is
mine
c l couch
it used to be that thee was the close way to say you, which is why thee was used in making the Authorized Version and in language overall; ironically, we think of thee and thou and thine as a formal way if at all, and we really don’t, to write and talk and such
references to the Old Testament, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Shakespeare allusion in the photo
photo by Landon Parenteau on Unsplash
Aspen Trees Growing in Saskatchewan Summer [given title]
permission to pray on our own
I might not have said of
God
directly
how many pages should be read
and then
recited
for the people
what colors robes
to match the season
or may I say somewhere
dear God
say what is real to me
and
then
amen
however I should say that
given language
dialect
or situation
and between these
will you hear my love
of others
and
respond
accordingly with my knowing or
unknowing
what
or how
c l couch
photo by Roman Melnychuk on Unsplash
Dragobrat, Драгобрат, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine
altar call
we can’t approach
without
some sibling feeling worked out
so
we’re told
like Erev
before perhaps
the
Yom Kippur
and yet how empty be the churches if
chancels must wait
for
close conflict
or
the like
must be worked out first
before we resuming
carrying
a church-gift
say
our tithe
though many of us
chance
and
to confess
to keep the gift and moving
toward
the worship center
where
the convicting love of God
does not dwell more
but
knowing our score feels
more
c l couch
Mattew 5:23-24 (or consider other prodigal narratives)
Photo by Martijn Veldhuizen on Unsplash
in the big inning
in Jewish and in Christian
lores
there are creation stories told
more than once
and in parts
many times
even Jesus
said to be there
calling the beginning of the essences
become
reality
and there are stories of us
and how we came to be
and way
made one perhaps
made two
without doubt
a sin of consumption
followed by
what might be more a problem of
division
then to rationalize mistakes and so
prescribe the direction
they must follow
all three
all four
for God had made that rock
that God could not
move
because like biased gravity
God’s will
must be mediated
by God’s will
that is leant by God’s
love
in love
and in joy’s promise
all was made by God and to the host
and to the cosmos
and to us
and after all the dreadful plan must work
there is like
Pandora
one thing left
the second thing of tripartite
things
being faith
and love
and to fix the world
is hope
say
faith the reason
love the means
hope
the vision
as in why bother in the first place
and this is lore
and this is
myth
and we interpret as we guess
from our experience
and there are many stories
we should read and respect them all
to know
beginnings
explain the present
situations
and
(via
hope)
respect the promise of the future
that
tells us how to believe
and think
and act
respecting all traditions
in their dovetailing
and as they work out
to reveal in time
(both
ways)
the first and final reasons
revelations
n.b.
and
yes
I know that you might want
to say that God’s not part of this
no more
and we are on our own
and maybe always
eschewing partnership
as if Michelangelo should have no faith
and the lone
wolf
an honest perception
though it’s not
wolves living together
monogamous
in families
that
despite the isolation earnestly
perspective
there is more joining than a separation
more
that are joined
than all the pages of betrayal attempt
to testify
and
the main message that
we’re on our own
we’re not
c l couch
photo by Shishir Iyer on Unsplash
Week
God
We would love you
But it’s Monday
And it’s
Hard
Enough to wake and then
Wake others
Wash
Dress
And breakfast
Leave for work or school
And then do well enough to
Have earned enough
For food
And
Bills and such
Plus maybe earned
A sense of
(enough)
Satisfaction from
The day
And there’s God
Well
Maybe
On Tuesday
C L Couch
Photo by Lerone Pieters on Unsplash
Quality of Day
We have the day
Is all
It seems
And it can be good
Or bad
Or
Like as not
Indifferent
But
If a day
It is a day that God has
Given
And toward gratitude
Behooving
Except on evil days
We think
When
Gratitude is due
But God must have understanding
For even the virtuous
To rail
Then after
Maybe during
All
The cries
When thinking to leave or
To have left
And if left
To be a delight
Upon
Returning
Maybe a prodigal
Maybe a simpler turning
To
Have come back
Then still
To have the day and in
One way or another
Have
Share
Maybe share joy
And
Thus
If in a small contributing way
The next
C L Couch
Photo by Paul Csogi on Unsplash
devotion to try
(with the help of church to hope)
devotion is
thought
feeling
a decision
we follow God
we pray
and claim to God
in worship
we also learn of God
and faith
and love
agape
together so that
when apart
we might do well
we might do
better
and we take this with us
all of it
devotion overall
to inform and encourage
our response
and our initiative in
living
the six days
and how many hours
and with
a much longer view even of
years and
longer after years
c l couch
photo by Amy Tran on Unsplash
“Same Old,” “Same New,” two poems about faith and doubt (or doubt and faith)
Same Old
I’ve written
On these themes before
And sorry for
The repetition
Sometimes
I know
And deal in the same
The seasons
Say
Because these things wear well
At least on me
Like shoes that fit
At last
Or stories that we like
To tell
The substance of Dad
Jokes
No doubt
But here I deal
Because
I must confess that some things get
To me
Which might be sole motivation
For
Classic-worthy writers
(like the class that earns
gold medals)
but
Sometimes I fear as well in addition to
The trouble
Heartless
Of the intellect
Where do we go
And why the lack of permission
To know
I could take gnosis or agnosis
I suppose
But beyond
Secret knowledge
And the memberships
How do we
Know
As anyone
To know for
Real
When even feelings of assurance
Fail
While our God says
Through lore
That God loves us
And wants
If not aches
For all of us be joined with God sometime
Well
The testimonies that we have
Discuss doubt
Even in those right before the Lord
Not
For us
From ages past
Hmm
Maybe there’s something there
In I believe
Help my unbelief
The
Salvation formula clearly given
And yet
One must admit to doubting
Even in the face
Or by the words of
God
Moses
Miriam
Others
With the loving parent brought before
The Christ
In order for the child to be healed
And told
Believe
Is all
And must say to Christ
I believe
And I don’t believe
And I must ask you to help me
In the second
Maybe both
And then
You know
Without a test
(a further test perhaps)
The child is healed
Mark 9
You can Thurber-look it up
Yet there is doubt
To read
And doubt
To have
And finally the doubt beneath the doubt
Like the last temptations
We have heard
About
The final doubt that maybe all
Must face
In that all this of faith is real
With the results
Rewards
Perhaps
Truly
Taking place
And for faith we are heaven-sent
And then heaven-arrived
I believe
Help my unbelief
We come from God
We go to God
No doubt
Same New
And why
Should it have to go this way
Maybe not
If there were no
Postlapsarian
Maybe unfallen
Our impulse would be clear
That we are here
To tend
A garden
And each other
Build a planet
With
Because we have
Approval of the Lord
Maybe Love divine
All loves
Excelling
That with will
We go the first way
The way set up
The way
Hoped for
By the creator who must weep
Maybe turn angry when
We go the other way
The way
Of life we know
We have
Regardless of our knowing
Even
Rather mindlessly
Living for the self and for
Enough freedom
To live
In hard times
Or
Take despot-like because
Soft
Times are desired and
We might get away
With that
For those aware of virtues
To follow or
Desist
For those facing temptation
To give in
Or resist
Well
We could be puppets of the Lord
And
We are not
And there are consequences
To the will
We choose with harder judgments on
Those who steal choices
From others
And notions of paradise are fine
Truly fine
But cannot be realized here
Or any institution
Since
All things collective are inhabited
After all
By us
The way we are
And so paradise is distant
So distant as to be unreachable
Before
An afterlife
When and where
Forgiven things are not
Extant and the honest life put down
Is raised
To live inside
A new
And everlasting
Trend
Sigh
Outside of Eden
Where it’s hard
Though
Maybe we’d have had hard work
For perform in there
With
The work meaning delight
For
The change from how we treat work
Have work treat us
Now
Well
We live now
And may look forward
Toward something beyond
A worldly end
To something
Perelandra-like
Means
Both a willful and
Sinless life
Even
A planet’s existence
Decided
The right way from Eden
C L Couch
Perelandra, novel by C. S. Lewis; “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” hymn by Charles Wesley; Mark 9 in the Christian New Testament; “You Could Look It Up,” short story by James Thurber
Photo by Paolo Bendandi on Unsplash
BELIEF (for translation)
Lyon, France
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