A Christmas Season Message
(anytime)
So once it’s proclaimed
That
God loves you
And a presumption
God loves
Me
Then
We might consider
For ourselves and the world
God loves us
It’s not an easy love
Because the world
Isn’t easy
Rather
Selfish
And destructive
You know this
And the presence of God
Is not made so visible
Or at all
Though there are stories
And what does
This love
Mean
To ask catechistically
Well
It’s the strongest fragile going
Because the world and the devil
Seem
To have their ruinous say
And rule over
Temptations
Ready to wreck us
When we’re turned
Ignoring
Keep from us notions of
Redemption
With reconciliation
Back
Into the body of believers
And so much
Too much
Is hidden in the world
Like treasures found
In mines
As well as ancient
Tombs
That were new once in grief
And now perhaps
Remembrance
Truth hides too easily
Secrets used
To cover truths
Of course
And there’s a pushing under of
Open justice
That restores
By a greater interest
In control of
Rules
And closed-over until-
Declared
Tyranny
Meaning
Sinful attitudes and strategies
Allowed
Through good things bent
Too often by
Prosperity
And punishment
Which warps the understanding of
What’s fair and
Openly
Respectful
In favor of shaded interest
And is this real
Well
All of it must be
Making
Sad sense out of what
Explains
The way things are
And love is hard in this
And some would say impossible
As a human
Reaction
Understood
While love itself might go
Underground
Deeper than the superficial world
Knows
Love might have to hide
Rising when it’s risky
But
To seal the deal on planet Earth
And who knows where else
That better
Vows
Mean something
And we must take the chance to say
And sometimes write so
And say so
From a podium
Until repudiation of such public love with
Podium
And church or temple
Fired by hate
With worldly agendas behind
‘Til what is good
To hear
To bring us together
Is then ashes
Love is strong
Even when assailed
And it shall
Last beyond
But
Oh
It
Takes a beating now and then
Or all the time
Depending on who’s
Or what’s
In charge
But love regardless
God’s behind it and in front
And is invisible
Irascibly
It seems
Even to allow great danger to
Adherents
But love is
Called for
Anyway
And we should love
Each other even more visible than
God
‘Til God more obviously shows
Keeping the understanding
Learning
And the living that
As we might
Know
Singly and together
God loves us
C L Couch
(for its own lectern maybe, serving a sermon or another kind of message in a hall or other place or kind of gathering)
Photo by virkelighet on Unsplash
Seasons’ Reasonings
(or is it reason’s seasonings)
What do I really want
To say today
And shall I break
From
My agenda
Even of pressing needs
For aren’t they all
Seeming-
Exigent
I want
To say
Simple and plain
I guess
As folk
As others
Say
And it’s
God loves you
And
While God loves you
In
The strength and practicality
Of love
Without the pink and lace
So much
Until it’s time
For these
In my land
After the groundhog wakes
And the better President
Is born
And then
Another tussle for
Too many
With
In fact
Pink isolation
Like
Too-often
Christmas green
While all of it
We know
As blue
(though
yes
Elvis’s Christmases
are blue)
Until and in between
These times
That is
Most of the time
And
Yes
And even then
(the betweens of in-betweens)
God loves you
God before us
God behind
Us
And God beneath
With God above
And also
On
Our way is
God beside us
And is there more to say
With hope of heaven
Interesting
But unknown
‘Til it should be happening
And
It hasn’t happened
Though love has occurred
And on all sides
Of time
And will
Exists
And does go with us
Inside
Outside
Everywhere
There’s where
And love
You know
The reason for creation
For creating anything
We know
C L Couch
(Saint Patrick’s Breastplate is cited; sorry, the pun of the title and subtitle, I imagine, only works in English)
Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash
a few lines as if in part above the abbey
a few lines of nature
and of God
looking outside
nothing
grand to see
with no majestic sound
rather
the grandness and the majesty
are in the small networks
of the branches
dark tendrils
once the vessels of green leaves
then shall all be green again
after three months
when green
shall
smally
grandly
majestically
overwhelm impending gray
again
that is nature
and is God
the work
at least
in lines
of
seasons’ prophecy
c l couch
photo by Brussel Banda on Unsplash
Photo by Florencia Potter on Unsplash
I searched for “life,” and this is one of the images I got. A contemporary still life, perhaps? Here’s what the artist has to say: “I tried to shoot some ‘set design’ photos just for fun with a friend and this is the result.” Added is “Hope you like it!” I rather do. Maybe the meaning, if a meaning is required, is that before death when in life we have lemons, we should make, you know, some lemonade. If so, best depiction of a saying I’ve ever beheld. Good day and good life, all!
Por la Vida
I’m tired
And my arm hurts
My neck hurts
Too
I’m stressed
Over several
Maybe many things
Some
More or less
Uniquely mine
Some
Cosmic
Though most of these
Mostly
In-between
And this is how I feel
More than
Emotions
But spread throughout
My body
As I suppose generally
Stress goes
And even body-pains
Are signaled to the rest
To rally
There’s
Depression
And there’s anxiety
They been identified
Anyway
In the way such challenges
Are analyzed
And explained
And often
And with me
Medicated
And that’s all right
Except
I feel the way I feel
Companionship
Might help
Though not always
While
Of course
There’s God
And I shouldn’t minimize
The almighty
Although I do
Don’t I
And all the time
Except
I also wonder
Why there’s evidence in
Nature
And in reason
But otherwise
The act and presence
Of divinity
Well
Denies both in sometimes
Storylike invisibility
But then
I’m on about companionship
Good company
Healthy
Relationship
That is
And shall I have that
Please
Maybe with Irish in a pub
(beyond the stereotype
I am half-Irish
by the way)
Maybe with Germans
(while I
type)
In a haus of hof
For what did Luther say
Of beer
But that it proves the love
And happiness
By God
Though I imagine
More than anodyne
Is needed for full
Living
And life is what I mean
And mean
For you
And quandaries
(I don’t think I’ve used that word
before)
Questions about remedies
Or simply how to answer
All the requirements
In a day
C L Couch
(with apologies to Irish and to Germans, though I think we/they can take it if not live it)
We Pray This Day
(to play)
God
Hear us today
We ask
In this gray day
Regardless
To have clarity
In you
Not
To know everything
But know enough
And suss
Enough
And feel it through
So that all of us
And
All inside
The major strings are played
And we make sense as
Instruments of
Harmony
To play for you in service
And in pleasure
Goodness(!)
Goodness
Pleasing you
While
Heaven’s performance
Shall be
So much better
Than our own and
Yet
Somehow
Coelic symphony
Conductor
To welcome
Someday
Our auditions
Amen
(and together)
Amen
C L Couch
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
(human epilogue)
Sorry
Children
“Play” above
Means
Play as instruments
As we are instruments
Of the will
And in service of
The Lord
But God is not thoroughly
A spoilsport
And neither should
Liturgical leadership
Deny
That the play outside
Or inside
For sport is
Sanctioned
Too
If not at worship
Well
Before
Or after
If playing well
And God-approved
(and so
this way in
play
we pray)
Amen
(play ball)
Good God
Good morning
God
I remembered this time
I was praying for a friend
On waking
Then remembered
I should simply
Say
Good morning
To my Lord
That’s all
I could
Confess
And I did resume
Petitioning
But what’s wrong
With simply and first saying
Good morning
To God
Which I hope God approves
God likes
And if so
Then maybe more should say this
Before asking things
First thing
A frame
In which
To have
All other works progress
C L Couch
(a sequel to something posted earlier)
Photo by Johnny McClung on Unsplash
My wife’s extended family lives in the hills of Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. This is a beautiful scene I captured looking NW of the Allegheny River. [photographer's caption]
(I’m from the region.)
Let It Go
I should write early
Then release it
Each piece a journey
If a stroll
And like a tapestry
There’s thread
And there’s a loom
Something
On which something else
Is framed
The work
The weave
Go out in directions
And make patterns
And there are
The damaged parts
But it’s a
Piece at last
For all our senses
And
Overall
The sense in things
[here’s an example, first thing out most recent session, not revised to death—or life if it can’t reach]
Consideration of the Afterlife and Through-Life
So what happens next
The short answer is that we don’t know
The long answer is
We hear things
Saint Paul tells
There shall be no pain
And our bodies shall be perfect
Perfected
That is
Through some sort of transformation
Some new alignment of
The spirit and the flesh
We have stories from
Those who have
Gone
And then come back
And I don’t know
These stories
Seem
To go along with ancient texts
Of many traditions
Many followings
And
Do we translate somehow
Right away
And where might judgment be
How might it
Happen
Christians say there shall be
Advocacy
In what transpires
And that we could
Be secure of heaven
Not for being
Good
In an unerring way
But for belief
Solely by belief
Sola Dei
Sola Christus
Other groups have other ways
To understand and have
The same
To be respectful and to say
Sola-something else
Sola-someone else
We don’t know what we don’t know
But it seems
We do know things
Though it’s all
So abstract
And invisible
What happens
And criteria
Could be clearer
And frankly sensible
As in
Assuring to the senses
That we have
It all would be
Frankly
Less frightening
As well
But then our will would have no place
It seems
And for the loss of Eden
It also seems
That what we choose
Does matter
And there might be no higher stakes
In fact
Sigh
I wish it were all easier
Though even angels
Without will
We say
Manage to rebel
So all things choose
Perhaps
Nature chooses
In the changing seasons
In responding to
New
And ongoing circumstances
So try to believe
Appears to be the way
Do well
Do good
Because it’s better
More uplifting
More constructive
Evidencing of itself
The better way
Thinking
And feeling better
Too
Children
Believe
For we are all the children
And belief is our
Incumbency
Our legacy
Our lore
The words of God to tell
And evidence in
Nature
Clear enough for being made
By God
C L Couch
Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash
“And in death they were not divided. 2 Sam.1.23” (for translation programs)
me, you, God (3 poems)
Smart Scan
Something happened
If only for
A little while
Some sleep helped
And lying in
A while
And now some coffee
Having checked the phone
Set up the machine
Which
Didn’t take so long this time
And I am glad
Thinking about moving a lamp
In a Prufrockian
Way
And there is peace
I think for emptiness
The good kind being alone
In the building
Maybe
Or at least
Most of them are gone
And I am alone
With my vibes
That for some reason
Don’t feel so bad
So pressed
Just now
There is pleasure in the isolation
Not
To want it all the time
But I think on passages from
Call of the Wild
And
Martian Chronicles
Moments
Well
Passages of aloneness
That are hard on
Them
Perhaps
From time to time
And me as well
And yet
The stories move forward
With freedom from the outside
Enhancing
Liberty
Inside
To think on everything
Or at least enough
For the passage that
Is this day
Still Time
And that’s me
How is it with you
I just lay and thought a while
An hour
In
This morning
When by the way
I saw the branches dripping
Recent rain
With golden hangers-on
Of fall
Maybe doing that might
Be good for you
The time to lie
(to lay)
That is
And not to drop off branches
(though who knows
since there is
a way
with trees)
I mean
I’m not a guru
(with
apologies to gurus)
As much as I’d like to be your friend
In this
Or at least
An ally
Allies
Negotiate
And strategize campaigns
Sometimes
And maybe such
Would work for
You
And us
Let me encourage you
To take time to
Take time
‘Cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all
Which is a passage that
I think on often
(partly
‘cause the memory
is tuneful)
From a show
And the voice
I’ve heard is
That
Of Granny Clampett
Which also appeals to me
Somehow
Anyway
Remembrances aside
Or frankly
To focus better on them
And the rest that needs recall
Before deciding
Maybe we will
Find that
Time
Call it a candle hour
(with a wick
or
screw in the flame)
That is
Some time for stillness
And to think in
Stillness
A Genesis and Then Another
And then there’s God
Who made all things
And keeps
Creating
Who is investing in the largest
And the smallest
The Grand Canyon
A grasshopper
The features and
The people
Of
The West Bank
God’s spirit is in you and me
Or me because
I ask
Or you
In the same way
Though should we not invite
We have our spirits
At the least
Which is extraordinary
In presence
And in value
Each one lost
May go to God
A greater
Closeness
And a new home
Perhaps
(I’m uncertain of
theology)
The loss might be as we expect
Peaceful
Even dull
Or it might crash into life
(and
life no more)
By flood
Or war
Loss and gain
And every feather
Every hair
(or loss of hair)
Is tracked
By God
As if angels followed every
Created thing
With ledger
And the feathered thing called hope
With which to quill
Numbers
And notations
Such wonders in the world
Too many wonders
Really
For each one
To take them all
But size
And the notated numbers
Give allowance
For each one
On Earth
To have so much
Though
There are thieves
With sometimes heroes
To thwart
The thieves
And thievery
To
Bring into repentant
Light
And life
So what might God
With all our trials
Yet
Expect of us
Well
There’s Amos
About justice
And rolling waters
And also walking humbly
By those waters
(which is
Micah
more or less)
As if they were also
Still enough
While
Being hale
For companionship
Even
Some kind of feast
Beside
And so there’s God
And God with us
Our own
Immanuel
And also for the world
Come Christmas and
You know
364
(365 when leaping)
God makes
God gives
We also provide
Gifting
Maintaining
For each other
Though we are not first cause
But we’re enough
There is great utility
In being
Giving
Sharing
Out of the bounty
Or the paucity
Of God sending
As well
As famously
Each one of us
An Immanuel
(small i)
Each one
C L Couch
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Amos 5:24
[God] has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
Oh, it's time to start livin'
Time to take a little from this world we're given
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all.
“No Time at All”
Pippin
sung by Irene Ryan in the first Broadway cast
(Ecclesiastes 3, Psalm 23, Jack London, Ray Bradbury)
Trap
Lord
I could apologize
For asking you
But when the walls are high
And windows small
And light and air
Feel gone
When the need is big
My prison small
With no one
Else attending
So it seems
Whom may I talk to
Anytime
Who without fail with hear me
And regarding the biggest
Fails
And needs in life
Will hear me
And attend
Who will hear me
And respond
Even if the answer is
Endure
And I can question worthiness
With reason
Beyond the point that
No one is deserving
Which moves us
To the place of grace and miracle
That some
Believe they market
By possessing
First
When it is only you
Makes and dispenses
These
And we should honor that
And honor you
With our humility
Brought
To the front
From where we hid it
Last
So without vanity
Even from challenged hope
I ask
Without apology
I guess
For your response
To my exigent situation
The honest need
Take care of
Leaving my vanity
Alone
Please
Thank you
With love
Amen
C L Couch
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
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