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Unkept Doctrine

Unkept Doctrine

(and unkempt)

 

I’ve been meaning to

Write about grace

The kind that is

Free

That no one can hold onto

That has no rules except

To help ‘til heroes return

 

Like crumpling a butterfly

In a human hand,

It doesn’t

Mean so much if you try

To clutch it

Or claim at all it’s yours

It isn’t yours

And can’t be claimed by anyone

Don’t try

 

Enjoy the benefit

In a sunshine of surprise

Don’t polish it

Or ever, every try

To keep it on a shelf

It has no rules that we’re aware of

Someone, yes,

Not us

To those who want to market it,

You’ll learn, if you have to

Then be forgotten

It’s as if grace has a contract

Somewhere,

Chaotically enforced

When someone tries

To own it

 

The rest of us

Will bask, when we never thought

We’d have the chance

To breathe at all

Again

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash

New York, United States

Steam venting in Manhattan.

 

3

Turn Around

Turn Around

 

This is sweeter than

I’d thought

(what I’m eating)

The day is still and white

But, look, the branches move

The movie is better

Than remembered

When leaning back,

The pillow touches the right place

From where

It had fallen

A surprise

Many small surprises

In this day

The day itself

A gift

From no one in particular

That is the disguise

Faith in costume

Grace behind a mask

 

It seems

We can’t have it any other way

 

C L Couch

 

 

United Nations COVID-19 Response

(Unsplash)

Physical distancing. Image created by Samuel Rodriguez. Submitted for United Nations Global Call Out to Creatives – help stop the spread of COVID-19.

 

11

Surprised by Grace

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

 

6

Two Things More Are Needed

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

 

 

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

 

0

Tentatively Yours

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

 

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Naphtali

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

 

0

Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Please

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

 

5

No Sin Required to Have Grace Abound

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

 

3

What We Can Give

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”

 

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