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grace

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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graceland

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

Nellim, Finland

Moon and Northern Lights Glowing Through Trees

 

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Gracious Living

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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Lent 27

Lent 27

(1 Corinthians 12:17)

 

We learn we are not an eye

But thankful to have it

I am many parts

So are you

So are we

And with others

Together

 

It is a body, yes

It has many strengths

Many colors

Many purposes

It cannot be judged

By standards of perfection

Unless we understand

We accept

That diminishment comes with time

That disabled happens

Sometimes from the start

 

Don’t add an automaton

To thinking

If it’s there,

Remove it

We are splendid

Like a galaxy

The galaxy of us

If not grace,

Similarly amazing

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash

Petaluma, United States

I took a short 20 minute drive the other night to one of my favorite spots to see the stars. It was exceptionally clear this night. What you are looking at is the core of the milky way. This photo is made up of 30 photos stacked and stitched together to produce this shot. I hope you enjoy it and that if you get a chance to look up at night and view the stars. I’m on IG @bryangoffphoto Stop by and say hi!

(characteristics of a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud)

 

1

Small Reveries for a Tuesday Afternoon

Small Reveries for a Tuesday Afternoon

 

The coffee pours like witches brew

Twirling steam as in a cauldron

Or frozen nitrogen,

Disassembling

For a movie or a manufactured haunted house

How can I help but think of magic

And then

A million years ago

 

I don’t know what was happening

No one does except

The players and, well, you know

If one can speak playful of one’s

Creator

 

There was no time

No word, machine, or measure

There was no language but

What was spoken in the trees

Or as the water met the oxygen above

A dance of air

 

Creatures spoke

We know, we study their voice boxes

And the whole thing about the trees falling

In forests without our presence

Yes, they make noise

As nearly all things do

 

Our attendance is not required

Our participation does not make belief

We may try to lock up faith

But like ancient sounds

That happened without us (I’m saying)

Faith has a purpose for all senses

We can shut it out

Its existence remains unaffected

And all songs, all expressions of it

Persist

 

Yesterday, today, this moment and—

Until apocalypses—

The next one

 

The final time will measure

All things unmeasurable

And render choice a quiet science

All pointing and all chances done

Because what has been signaled

Will arrive

 

Though grace will last, I think

Up until the consequences

And a little after

In the denouement of

Revelation

We may choose

Once more for forever

 

C L Couch

 

 

This picture shows a fossilized dinosaur egg. Just below the dinosaur egg is a ruler to help get an idea of its size. Dinosaur eggs have been found at over 200 different sites around the world. For more interesting information on dinosaur eggs check out our dinosaur fossil facts page.

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/pictures/dinosaurs/bones/dinosauregg.html

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/

 

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At 5 a.m., How and Why

At 5 a.m., How and Why

 

God

You are there

And I am here

The distance between us need

Be no more than a filament

The breadth of a capillary

A pulse between two nuclei

Or the space can be

The width of a world

 

That has more to do with me

Since no qualifying of divine will stands

Beyond the condition you placed upon yourself

For a savior

 

One who redeems as God and a person

Flesh molded with spirit

Majesty in ordinary undertaking

To teach, to heal, to live, to die in innocence

And then all will returns

In death defeated

 

It is a Christian way to know things

It might not be yours

 

But to God

I wonder how you stayed the angel

Who took the knife from Abram’s hand

But would keep it in the Roman plan

To hack a cross together

Display one who dies because

A decision was made

In Sanhedrin and handwashing

Not for justice but for status quo become murderous

 

Abraham was flawed, so was Noah

So was Sarah, so was Isaac, so was Miriam

Yet you made them whole

As all were knit together

Except your child

Who was you and yet was not excused from execution

Out of innocence

 

How do you mitigate your will

And maybe you never do

You allow yourself to bleed

Blood and water, liquids running life

 

You could have changed it all, and you didn’t

Change a thing

I am amazed and horrified

And would never lift my eyes again

Except

You promise joy and peace

And whoever have I been to argue with you

I must be content

 

Allow for Easter

For greater pain unknown anywhere on Earth,

Which splits the universe

And renders understanding into splinters

Of crystalline grace

‘Til grace is all that’s left

With which you save

 

With which you drag us into heaven

From drowning in deep waters

Filled with tendrils from wary sources

Always ready, in fact plotting

To bring us down

Away from light

From one day into eternity

 

I don’t get it

I don’t have to

I am here

You are there

And here

Closer in than I shall ever be

My God

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash

 

 

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Psalm 43, miracle-song

Psalm 43

miracle-song

 

a miracle of unexpected grace

 

I paraphrase while reading a

line of text, which in fact ends

differently

 

but maybe that is what miracle

is, unexpected science and

grace, an unplanned gift from

divinity,

 

which we need so badly (or so

well)

 

no judgment in receiving, who

is worthy (who is not), no more

than in evaluating the giver

 

something is saved, and that’s

what matters:

 

material of miracles making up

the rest

16

This Is What I Care About

This Is What I Care About

 

This is what I care about

Family—three brothers, sister,

Brother-in-law, sisters-in-law,

Too

 

Niece and nephews, two

Children in the next generation

Four dogs for now, no cats

I know of (since mine died)

 

Friends—those who have

Work and those who need it,

Who are healthy and who

Struggle to get through the

Day without so much pain

 

Neighbors—those who make

Up my community and those

Who try to disfigure it

 

Peace that hardly yet prevails

Love and grace that it might

Abound

 

God who doesn’t need me

But regards me as one part

Of creation, anyway

 

And you

 

For so many reasons

 

For I know that you care, too

10

P is for Petrarchan Sonnet

P is for Petrarchan Sonnet

(Petrarch’s writing signaled the Renaissance)

 

So when I love with all I am alive

Then we are introduced as I and you

Therewith you ask me ever to be true

We press out feeling into a heart-hive

And thus you try to make it all survive

A mystery of evidence, a clue

To why you need me to pledge us anew

And wonder why we can’t in peace now thrive

 

It’s fear, I guess, and I can understand

When all is eye that cannot see around

That life before is ever in command

Until fear leaves in grace might love abound

So, love, let love become a golden band

A flex of give and strength to fright astound

 

 

[A] sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/petrarchan-sonnet

 

 

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Blogging from A to Z Challenge

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