teachables
learnables
a week from now is Maundy Thursday
I believe
antique name made from mandatum
meaning command
because they were not suggestions Jesus gave
at the Last Supper
but
orders
ours to obey
if we’re going to follow him
the savior with indwelling spirit and creating God
three
one
God all the time
who
John 3:17
sent Jesus here not
to condemn the world but that the world
by Jesus
would be saved
we might be saved
in present
tense
the price paid
made into grace that is free for us
not because the cost was weightless
in meaning but because
God
dying is what God may do
and then once
first
victorious
over death offer eternity to us
as by that grace we may
choose
to live
if after the irony of mortal death
which doesn’t change
sigh
so on Thursday
we had a dinner at the church each year
cooked and
served
by deacons
elders
many meal volunteers
what followed then
was a service of worship with
Communion
special ‘cause it was at night
and
I don’t know even the child of me
felt the community
gathering
first
in the hall and then the mullioned
beamed and genially beaming
room
c l couch
photo by Geda Žyvatkauskaitė on Unsplash
the poet-friend
I heard it from a poet
once
that there was no following
because
grace was dispensed
by
those who claimed authority
to give it
and
by their terms
I’m imagining a water-cooler with
a foreign hand on
the tap
a line that goes away
from
there of those to drink
who
are bestowed with an upside-down
triangle of a cup
inside
of which are stips of official
pardon and
toward
the price of another metaphor
a ticket
to
the show
while grace if free
and
has no agency but God
if I may say
three parts to
one
with grace soaring everywhere
and everywhere it’s
needed
to cover and to heal as
that song-balm
the sin-
sick soul
and why not fly by music
of
the spheres
an angel chorus to announce
and
to remind us
freely given is the love and salvation
of the Lord
and
is the vision made
the poetry
perverse
and I don’t know but that it’s better than
the tyranny of will that despots
try
and yet prohibited by better will
and inside each
of us
a part
as if to fuse with our own
elements
our spirits to
save
grace
angels
our own will
and we are saved
if
against the world
and
those disillusioned and me
angered in
their
favor for who dispenses
grace
and blessing but
the Lord
and not the red
and black
the gold of breaking majesty
while
what we have
on our own
even alone if need be
faith
and love
forever
freely
grace like justice flowing
even better
c l couch
photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
full of grace
Tuesday’s child
what
kind of grace
I wonder
doctrinal or
looks or
manners as in good at dinner
or knows the steps
for
a party
maybe it’s the kind of luck
that person shall
have
the good kind if not
grand
as things fall together
for school
or work
or family
by belief the certainty of heaven
after
such an afterlife secured for
in feeling by the clear and
dovetailed angel
management
of
life
full of woe
(a Wednesday poem)
finally
some color outside both windows
nothing brilliant but
tingeworthy
and shall there be honest fall
or shall this aspect of climate change
cause too many to fall brown and
withered
from too-soon dessicated
branches the season
unseasonal
went
too hot too long
for riotous autumnal virtue
c l couch
photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash
Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival 2018
like the psalmist foe-surrounded
poverty
or
surfeit
which we find by the world
by the devil
have betrayed us
what is left
despite the industries
I
do not know
and
who shall help me
say
with parameters
to break them as I can’t
while I invest my energy instead
on
what I thought I had back then
and didn’t
though I keep going back to
find
and then fix everything
to break the barriers
as bars
not with energy
deserved
but
with the strength shared me
resources to
freedom
by grace that
is
the merit going
graciously
unasked
yet
to be caught
and looped
and unbelieving and still
asking
too often without listening
of
who shall help with the problems
I can’t
breathe through
who shall help me more than
I know how to ask
then
so by asking
once
in forever
though there are the stories
delivered
by
Reverend Henderson
in
sermons and who knows
what anthology from which
came
the accounts
regardless
of the people in a raft
having survived
the wreck
maybe abandoned for another
reason
and what they know
all they know is ocean all around
until
the rescuers
arrive
then tell survivors that
for temerity
or
the lack
they could have reached
down and
drunk at anytime
for they were in the great
releasing of fresh water by the unseen
Amazon
too far the given land
on either side
to spy
or of the woman who had won
a trip
a cruise
(that
did not wreck)
and she was poor
and so ate crackers in her stateroom
for her meals
until
one day the captain should find her
to say
the meals were included in the prize
you should have been dining at
my table
every night
sufficiency
and then amazed abundance
without
question of deserving
to drink fresh water
to
dine with the captain
of the sound
ship
questing all the time
so try
but do not condemn oneself for merit
not canceled but
fulfilled
by grace
that
reminds us
even takes us to salvation
so that the last thing we might worry
over
might be perfection
or to have lost everything by
failing
when like water
like
the feast close by
before us
are set
yes
there is a judgment
and each time for each one
a mercy
clc
(Reverend Henderson was the preacher whose messages I received in church while I was a child)
photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
verse (and prose) poems that could be sermons for tomorrow
1
no more than we can handle
is that in Scripture
don’t be anxious
do not worry over things you don’t
worry over
anyway
such as the numbers of small
nearly
might as well be
microscopic things
sands in
by the sea
the smallest and the largest love
of God
even that we try to emulate
then for the things we can and should
do
well
do them
pray
and live life in prayer
not autonomically
only a series of reflexes and right words
but
truly
as if truth matters as an old friend
as well as a new guide
care is not
indifference
nor is it fretting to become an occupation
for
Mary and Martha both got it right
though spending time at the foot of God
should set the tone and be the reason
why
everything else gets done
as for worry
well
some of it’s escapable
and we are human
there is the fear of the unknown
and what
to do when we feel we must do something
yet
if we could slip some worry as a piece
of paper
or a candy
into the pocket of whatever God is wearing
then
even the worry
needed
not needed
should go better
what is the old song
we tend to sing in a tired way
take it
to the Lord in prayer
and then
as in other antheming
so
march on
even
ride on
in majesty
but it’s
so much homelier than this
go to God
expect and answer
and
some timing
then do everything there is to do
that’s
ours to do
even a little more
like the persecuted follower
and never
think we have to move
without help
because for all the isolation we might feel
or
how tired
emptied out we might become
there is presence
and assistance
as of
the grace and majesty of angels
while
sometimes
seeming more than angels
it’s us
with the help of agencies
and God
2
so the Bible might not say we are given more than we can handle, since sacrifice in service might lead to giving up one’s life (harsh, I know) but that God is with us in our struggles, always inspiring, sometimes more directly helping as with miracles and always with grace (the free offer of God’s love and salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus)
so we worry, though we don’t have to or, in franker reality, don’t have to so much; not that loving mindlessly—any more than doing in that way—is called for; it’s our hearts and minds that should be turned toward God and in the love of God (those two commandments) to each other
my eyes hurt and my nose hurts
I feel isolated
put upon
by the world’s lies
and sometimes by my own
it’s not enough
simply to say
we got it wrong because we’re human
then learn
nothing then go on
we should not excuse ourselves
so easily
though we should look toward
reliving others of supernal responsibility
even worked out as
the small things of the day
we have to love each other
otherwise
it’s enmity
indifference
or shoddy showing of regard
because
we’re supposed to
though we want
to get out of service
as quickly as possible
not that
leaving for a while
to wander the hills
or the Hundred Acre Wood
is not
desirable
since such wandering’s preferred
and might be called for
to walk about
and also be alone
then
to be with each other
it’s like the mother who said
to Christopher
her boy
don’t walk with me
but be here
when I return
and greet me as if I had been gone
a long
long while
so love
when necessary
learn to live without even
what we’re sure we must have
to do it
like the stump at the end of the story
the tree is useful
honestly
I feel so alone as I write
maybe you’ll come to see me
we’ll see each other
better
than with eyes
with awareness of each other’s terms
practically
and sentimentally
of each other’s love
with the guidance of the source
who speaks to us like mountains
or like
sparrows
knowing God loves you
then
and so do I
c l couch
some sources cited
1 Corinthians 10:13
Matthew 10:29-31
Psalm 16:11
Exodus 33:14
a few old hymns
The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
photo by P A on Unsplash
Grace Fully
So believe
If you will
And only as you will
Grace
That makes faith real
Is offered freely
And
Exists regardless
Believe in God or do not
Same
With the life of faith
After and
With belief
And
Don’t let any tell you
Another person
Anyway
That he or she dispenses grace
If only you subscribe
Grace
And also faith
Don’t work
That way
The first need being only
You and God
Should you choose
And
Should you accept
Then there is the life of faith
In which you might choose
Healthy
Earthly affiliation
And while to have and keep
Sadly
It’s not
To say the faithful life is easy all the time
While
Through it all
The obstacles
Worldly
Self-styled
Do promise
Spiritually
Well
The Spirit’s ease
And even peace and joy
Be the judge of grace
And faith
To start with God or
Not
And
Don’t let any other take the judging role
Except God
And then remember God is truth
And also
God
Is love
I heard once that church should be rejected because it claims to dispense grace—and also, as such, the church charges something (membership, money, doctrinal adherence) in order to receive the grace if offers, if not dangles. But grace is not or ever owned this way. (Or owed, either.) Grace is from God, and grace is free. It is the free means to receive the saving favor of the Lord. As means or to exist at all, grace comes at no cost of ours, the price for grace, so to say, having in fact been paid by God. We are saved by faith in God. And as if faith were great art, grace is the frame.
C L Couch
Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash
“In the Park”
Kyiv, Украина
drop of love
(a phrase by GraceoftheSun)
which has me think
of the Rubaiyat
of Omar
Khayyam
(because I guess there
could
be other rubaiyats)
in which
we
famously do
read
a loaf of bread
a jug of wine
and thou
(translated)
and maybe such a drop
could be poured
from
such a jug
to share and make the love
sometimes in wine and often
in poetry
clc
Thanks, Grace!
https://graceofthesun.com/gesture/
photo by Yucel Moran on Unsplash
Bread and Un-Circuses
(respecting actual circuses)
Please don’t let them
Tell you
They own these
Or manage them
As on
Great stools
In circuses
(for ticket prices)
Grace and miracle
In miracle
There’s grace
In grace
There’s miracle
And they are free
And should go
Wild-seeming
As they may
Go
Outside
Our doctrine
Though we try to capture them
Ring them
As it were
With naming
Precepting
And merchandising
These better
Things
They happen
In the timing of the Lord
Salvation being instant
And grace
Cooperatively
Then the rest
(of grace)
And miracle
As if wild
Breathing and galloping
Over a health of possibilities
Exigence outside
Called in
By kairotic
Signals
And ugently
Once given
Salvation
Grace
And miracle
Let go by God
And without cost
Or a doctrine of control
But
Freely through
The cost
Divinely paid
Against
The worst of human means
Free of us
They turn around
And turn us around
(they turned from assigned or
unassigned
location
while us turned
by repentance
that means
turn)
To come in from the wondrousness
Of wilderness
To ordered Earth
Breaking through the ordered
Or the chaosed
To save us
So then
These
Beyond subscription
So we might do no better
Than
Simply
Marvelly
Even irascibly
Turn from the other intrusions
Rather
To open
Ourselves
Freely
To accept
Freely
Twice as much
To receive
Then
Feely
Twice as much
To give
C L Couch
(the song with “freely, freely” as I’m recalling is a hymn of forgiveness and salvation, composed by Carol Sue Owens)
Photo by Dannie Jing on Unsplash
Awestruck
God come through that door
And I shall be
Terrified
Which is part of the awe
That God deserves
With the reason why the angels
Say so often
Be not afraid
This might be difficult
Though it’s
Finally
Good news
That makes more officially
A gospel
Of the Lord
With us
An Immanuel
Time and again
Angels on assignments
A voice
A gesture
That could bring down Jericho
Or Midian
Or approve the execution
Of Holofernes
Nothing to see
Except in accidental daring
While most of those
Who hear
Do not see
Except in the world changed
After
Supplication
The results
An affirmation
Too
Of a holy presence
So much more than us
And also
Quite frankly
Inside us
Of a kind of molecule
Our machines
Have yet
To count
So seek the Lord
Or wait for being sought
For
We should find each other
To have experience
A history
Of faith
And what we hope for
The action
And the learning from
Tandem theology
With the only agenda
That is
Acceptable
So we may plan
With details
Then have
And then testify
To grace
As approval
C L Couch
Photo by Bamdad Norouzian on Unsplash
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