Surprised by Grace
God
I love you
And I wish for
I don’t know
It’s not as if you’re in a lamp
Three wishes?
Not enough
So grant me what you think is best
The million tax-free dollars
Will wait
Unless
Unless
How about some love today
Unbidden, even without
Expectation?
Actually, it happened
Yesterday
Someone brought some
Food, not because
I was in trouble
But because of plenty
And of friendship
That’s love
For a story
Maybe for a
Thousandth night
C L Couch
Image by miniformat65 from Pixabay
Two Things More Are Needed
Grace as surprise
That’s a theme
I like to think of grace
As something
That can be still though
Typically must be
On the move
Like a metal spring
Or a hummingbird
Water
Or the human heart
Any heart
Still enough for recognition
Then it leaps
It has alighted
There is a knock
Small in the world
Like Thorin’s thrush
It will not show the way to
Dragon-hoard
But there is treasure
Like loot taken from a
Pirate in a story
Who does know the use of it,
Poor pirate
There is so much more here
And this story’s thrilling
Open it and read a page
Have someone read it for you
Watch for something on a branch
Or on your arm
Listen for a knock
Maybe you’ll let them in
C L Couch
Tentatively Yours
If we are to heal,
There has to be a hope
That someday it will be complete
That all the things that festered
Will have finally unwound
From the brain, the heart
Any infected organs
That persistence of pain will
Be replaced
With something like assurance in
Confidence of being well
That the counting that has met
Each day
Now useless
Will give way
To errands, nothing much
A nothing kind of day
Wouldn’t that be nice
Wouldn’t that be lovely
To have a day that’s dulled by
Anything but pain
Not to be morose
For what I have
I’ll still wrap around mortality
Until the glorious surprise
Of the next thing
C L Couch
Photo by Michael Anfang on Unsplash
Naphtali
(Genesis 49:21)
We say grace
As an association with blessing
Bless our food, bless us
As we eat it
And as we use the nourishment
Singly and together
I was asked (selected) to
Share grace at family camp
Deer Valley, Pennsylvania
I wanted to say something grown-up
Over the microphone
But was told to say the childish
One we learned to say at dinner time
I was a child
So it was okay
Now I can’t recall which prayer
It was
Wait, here it is
Thank you for the world so sweet
Thank you for the food we eat
Thank you for the birds that sing
Thank you, God, for everything!
(a sibling can correct me)
What is the source for a proper
Citation?
I don’t know; I don’t think I want to know
The source is childhood
And grace in remembering
C L Couch
Photo by Yangfan Gan on Unsplash
Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Please
God, what shall I say
Of you today?
You are exasperating
You are all hope
You are the center of my faith
You are the labyrinth
I mean to cross
I take my comfort from you
As I take sustenance from food
You are my food
There are no empty calories,
Which on occasion is my deal
I will die
I am afraid
I think I shall meet you there
Or someone from your office
I had an episode last night
To remind me
Though there’s fear
There will be relenting, too
A last litany with Earth
A first step toward
What you deem is next
C L Couch
Froaringus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7633775
No Sin Required to Have Grace Abound
(Romans 6:1 and 2, that funny, funny Paul)
Grace
I want to write about it
Maybe because I need it
I don’t know how the mealtime
Prayer became “grace”
Because grace is momentary?
We ask for your blessing now, because
We’ll only need it
‘Til the food is gone
Grace is a surprise
And, as I’ve said, like a bird
It flies, it alights, it sings
It takes off again
Grace goes where it is needed
Costs nothing, and it saves
Sometimes we do get
What we didn’t pay for
Grace cuts through works
Though doesn’t undervalue them
(show me faith without works)
Like Jesus, grace provides means
And a way to God
Though discipleship is not required
When you receive grace,
Nothing is required
But a hope (a hope) for better living
And sometime or no time
To respond to
What goes quietly below
A plea for faith
An argument to hear
If not, then not
Grace will help us, anyway
That is its nature
And its calling
You can hear in every bird
Even the ostrich through the sand
(I don’t think ostriches really do that
I can look that up
I did: they don’t)
C L Couch
Donarreiskoffer – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7869007
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/do-ostriches-really-bury-heads-in-sand.htm
clear and helpful article about ostriches and sand
What We Can Give
(and following)
Grace to you
And mercy
Though I cannot dispense them
(even mercy is borrowed)
I am not the source
And not to splinter things too fine,
Neither I think are you
But we know the one is
Source and giver,
Who releases memory to us
Of past performance
And of gratitude
As a surrogate, I can offer blessing
(so can you)
Though it is not mine (not ours)
To award
But mercy we can show
Maybe not as miracle
But hard work can come across
Splendidly,
Especially without invoice
There’s grace in that
Grace Act II
And now, the sequel
We can give grace
Our own kind
A human sort that is not
Of the Spirit
But which it approves
A love that doesn’t
Think of it as gift
Nothing to consider on
The page
But that which cuts through mysteries
To ponder,
Nighttime, candlelit considerations
No, in this light of day
We don’t deliberate the question
Simply provide the act
In, you know, action
That, aside, is enough of an answer
Maybe we own our kind of mercy
As well
C L Couch
Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash
“music in the air”
graceland
god’s grace
I don’t know how to write about it
as ineluctable
I don’t understand it as a gift
a safety valve on condemnation
a release from hell without
the harrowing called-for
we sleep
(perchance to dream)
we wake up into heaven
more than grace for meals
more than meals
more than food
or any sustenance on earth
’til earth renewed
for now a taste
that, distilled through mortality, is
a taste that saves
remarkably, a savor
of the lord
c l couch
Photo by Kevin Bluer on Unsplash
Moon and Northern Lights Glowing Through Trees
Gracious Living
Patina
A pretty word to use
To means that
Everything is covered with
Inattention
The problem with high ceilings is
That they are out of reach
I don’t turn on the overheads
Because I don’t know how
To change the bulb up there
(how many English majors
does it take)
So I rely on table lamps
And a floor lamp I got for free
Because you get what you pay for
And it stopped working quite a
While ago with the local
Electric shop closing back then, too
(less than one, we’re changing
all the time)
Perceived, synchronous connections
But I moved in when I did
And to this place
With a high ceiling
Where I don’t go to change the light bulb
Incandescent, CFL, LED, or otherwise
The tall space helps with claustrophobia
That I didn’t have back then (one
too many visits to the hospital)
Maybe providence takes over for
Synchronicity
The watchmaker’s watch
Still creatively involved
So that moments in time and
In all the choices
Are imbued with grace
C L Couch
Image by Johannes Wünsch from Pixabay
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