Gospel according to for good or ill ourselves
a summer’s day
what is there for us
now
it is too hot
the rain too helter-skelter
flood or famine
for the ground
the seeds
the shoots
the corn that reaches
in both ways
we are
uncomfortable
the heat
too much
the night whose only solace
is the dark
but not cool temperatures
that are not
happening
hottest on record
set the year before
the year
before
and thank goodness
there’s no climate change
and that it has
(thereby)
nothing to do with us
we’ll keep
burning things
beyond what is
suitable
for Earth
sending ersatz smoke into the sky
and the chemical equivalents
dump in water
chemicals aren’t evil
as we know
they have no moral value
as we know
we do this on our own
discover poison
then we use it
to make products
to make money
for the products
and the jobs
that making all the poison
does provide
we need the jobs
we know this
we could
do something else
I mean both
searchers and
providers
we could
do something else
for Earth
and on our way to other worlds
we could launch
in all directions
a fleet of possibilities
against the poison
in favor or
the sanctity of everything
organic
and how about
ourselves
bless the Earth
and pray for it
we humans can
and ask the help of heaven
should that be
our wont
and bless each other
too
as far as humans may
without the sponsorship
indeed the surrogacy
from the Lord
who blesses first
and blest
and should bless or curse
our efforts
as they are
and
(Quijote)
as they should be
it isn’t hard
and it’s hard
goodness
we know it’s hard
to change a world
and severer
in a subatomic way
to change ourselves
the knights are out
(they’re Artemis
and Ares)
while corsairs with full sails
assail the edge of us
while we are sieged
from monsters in the hall
that came
from deeper parts
the deepest parts
of us
yet deeper still
there are solutions
like a treasure
to unearth
and bring to the Earth
starting with the skin
of us
and all our will beneath
new will
(if we will)
not
to recall the knights
but let them quest beyond
to share
their discoveries
there
while we hobbit-heroes
have our work
to do
and bless the work
in turn
O Earth
and Earth’s lord
that has been waiting for us
blessing only in small ways
while waiting for
the rise
of each of us
our families
and the world of us
quietly
yet firmly to say
we know at last
whose house this is
and whom
to serve
which is
the layers of creation
so serve the core
the mantle
and the surface
all the water
all the land
all the creeping
and the soaring things
that we may use
(with water
land
and air)
with apology
(both kinds)
in order to explain
excuse
and also
to define
and thrive
the Earth
is not one
and doesn’t have to be
so many parts
to allow
expressed
yet from the outside
(and the inside
on occasion)
see compressed
as of a jewel
in and of
the cosmos
joining with other lights
both
light and dark
that make the sky
and give us all we need
to dance
beneath
c l couch
photo by Man from Forest on Unsplash
Birch Grove on a Summer Day
(x = space)
x
x
Saint Light
x
Lucia
Giving birth
In spirit
And calendar
To solstice
Then to Christmas
The festivals of days
Sung by ancient voices
Variously doctrinaire
Also enculturated
Now
x
Santa Lucia
Lights
On wreaths
In Scandinavia
Illumined
In other nations
Other places
Say
In Syracuse
On Sicily
Where
Then
And throughout
There is
The song
x
Special food
(everywhere)
As well
To match the time
The separation
From
Ordinary drives
Today
x
Christian
And also enculturated
Much like the season
We inhabit
Of so many
Days
The stories
With their membership
On hearing
x
Close to solstice
So also for
The timing
Of these broader days
Say longer nights
For fears
In all of this
x
Small lights in the darkness
‘Til banks of angels
Set the stars on fire with
Announcements
x
Here is the day
Here is the sky
Fear not
Winter is not the end
We promise spring
With longer days
Dressed
Inside
Outside
Green and health
x
So for these colder days
To north
And scalding days to south
We without angels
Maybe
Maybe offer news
As gospel
Good news
And
Oh
So many stories
To tell each other
Through
Seasons’ hardships
And hard feelings
x
Also then
Some for
In fact
Bonfires
Like the angels and the stars
Though mostly
For the axis of the Earth
x
The smaller lights will do
But sometimes large
For dancing near
x
‘Til later on
In spring
And then the fall
The equinox secure
The balance in
All better things
x
on Santa Lucia Day
(13 December 2023)
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
Bilateral Stimulation
x
Two candles
What do they mean?
That it is Sunday
Sabbath day
A day in Advent
Second Sunday
The candles on the wreath
Have meaning
The wreath has meaning,
Too
The lights remind us
Of the spirit
Also of faith
And how one fortifies
The other
There is more prophecy
Remembering
The job skill
Of the prophets
In not only future-telling
But foretell the present
As well
x
What is happening now?
There are wars
Not for the first time
There drought
And the effects of drought
There have been
Flods as well
Ironically
We and nature
Have our moments
x
There is politics
To trouble a way through
All
While not addressing much
And proposing less
Unless we press
Where governments allow
Or where they don’t
And here the prophets
Help us,
Too
x
Two candles
Twice as strong
For support
Twice the light
For inspiration
Two times
The investment in the season
In our learning
Or reminding
Of an illuminated world
To come
Plus how each of us
May offer light
Into the world
All wintry to the north
Summery to the south
Though one
Season everywhere
Just now
x
Adore the story
In the advent
Of the Lord
Into the world
Light the way
Even with small lights
Even the light
Of one
Though look for lights to add
Look around
Let senses say
Shadowed
And unshadowed
We have each other
In all seasons
x
C L Couch
x
Advent 2
x
x
Photo by Rainer Gelhot on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
First Comes Love
x
What shall we say
For real
But that God loves us
And would rather
Love us
Even more than judge us
Though there’s judgment, too
x
Remember the first one?
It was
That this is good
x
C L Couch
x
x
4 God saw that the light was good, . . .
x
Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Morning’s Delta Light
x
Judgment light
As morning sunlight
Without shadow
On the blanket;
The light is warm
In a purifying way
x
The light is yellow due to the
Sun’s agency:
On another world
What color might be
Informing the inhabitants?
x
It’s good;
The light is living
Adding deltas
To the chemistry of
xxxxxReactions
xxxxxChange
xxxxxGrowth
x
A preference for cloudy days
Should not impede
What must also come someday
In sun
(with shadows)
To assess
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by OC Gonzalez on Unsplash
Day’s like this.
[looking east toward mountains]
x
(x = space)
x
x
Eve X
x
I cannot help
But love the evening
Maybe you feel the same
And in the quiet night
A miracle
And it can’t have been quiet
With the mother
And the father
And the animals
And the outside
Night noises
And yet the heart is quiet
Generally
When
There is the birth
To contemplate
In the dark
And after
Maybe
An extraordinary light
That might be candlelight
Or dawn
Or an inside
Sunrise
x
And it could happen
In an hour of
Any Christmas Eve
With apologies to mothers
And to fathers
And to animals
The wilderness
x
But we might need
Silent consideration
Of it all
And then to have a new day
In more silence
Or the noise
Of a wonderful
However illuminated
Day
x
Darkness
And light
Darknesses
And lights
We might need both
To understand
How a birth leads
To eternal life
Because it may
It does
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash
Believer holding candle at evening church ceremony in Paris.
x
(x = space)
x
x
We Didn’t Know Who You Was
(Christmas Eve)
x
Let’s not slice it to death
This time
Let’s simply have observances
Let all the contradictions go
We know there’s folklore involved,
Which should fascinate
x
There was such darkness
At hand
Of one kind or another
Of the past, of
The present
Lack of awareness
Of the import of events;
Only to the players
Did things matter,
They in acts
No one to put it all together until Luke
And a little bit in Matthew and in John
x
Prophets old and new
We have to say
Knew and know some measure
Of the meaning
Of it all
They are extracted
And we read them, too
x
Such dulled and slow senses
Sometimes history goes that way
Sometimes it’s spiritual
The people walked in darkness
There might be other forces, too,
To keep us from the light
x
But it is there
The birth is there
Incarnation as a doctrine
Thought some of it at least
Might have been as any birth
A baby in the world
This one in a cave
And that’s unusual
And all around
The mystery
The strangeness
There was adventure in the sky
And from some people
Who in an iron empire
Chose to dedicate another lord,
Another life to follow
x
The child is God
But who knew that?
Mary and Joseph
Angels
And the magi knew something
While the shepherds were told something
As good news
This is the messiah!
Who really understood?
How could a baby save the world
Who is not Caesar
With family, tutors, strategists
Sheltered behind stone walls,
Armies out front
That keep the world
For them?
x
Well, other parts conspired
Into a birth, a life
That through faith
And later patchwork
Yielded doctrine
And a way
The people of the way
x
As on that night
(let’s call it a night)
There would be amazement
There would be awful things as well
But wonder now
And wonder later on
And with us, still
x
Praise God, for God is good
God is love
God is a spirit
Who wonders now
And offers light inside the darkness,
The kind of darkness that is not
Romantic but it
Stultifies and kills
x
Believe the child
Humbly, take the child in
To dwell with you
Maybe like a foundling, at the start,
Then as a teacher
And a savior
And a temple of salvation
In the city of God
(new heaven)
And on God’s free land
(new Earth)
Forever
x
Sweet, little Jesus child,
They made you be born in a manger;
Sweet, little holy child,
We didn’t know who you was.
x
Didn’t know you’d come to save us, Lord,
To take our sins away:
Our eyes was blind, we could not see;
We didn’t know who you was.
x
We didn’t know who you was
Maybe we should have
Maybe we can, now,
And into new ages
Love revealed
Prophecy fulfilled
The child grows up
We grow up
x
And for this night we way
Welcome to the world, child,
And everything that starts
Now
x
C L Couch
x
x
could be a choral or a choir reading
x
“Sweet, Little Jesus Child” is a song of African American origin. The precise source is unknown, and there are variants and variations.
x
This is the third in a creative, liturgical series for Advent and Christmas. The other two parts are the last two days’ posts. I think I’ll work on something else now.
x
Photo by Agung Raharja on Unsplash
x
The People Walked
x
God announces
God’s own birth
An absurdity of prophecy
Things bang together
Light good
Dark bad
(for now
for often dark is good)
People in darkness
Who understands?
God is coming
But God is here
God has been here
From the start
Before the start
God was
And is
And shall be
And now, what,
A child?
A virgin birth,
Come on
x
A working together
Of generations,
Places
So that everything
Comes together
Complements
Too much
It is too much
You try the words too much
The documents are old
And sacrosanct
We keep them in a temple
Leave them be
What we believe
Is in the temple
Leave it be
We sacrifice flora and fauna
We dedicate
Our children
We don’t need another child
Or of such scandal
Leave us be
x
We are specific
We are everyone
(analogous)
We have freedom
In measure
We hate the other measure
But taxes
And armies
Are the world
It could be worse
It has been worse
We plot
Inside the darkness
In our own planning time
As we say,
Leave us be
x
So God is coming
And it’s taken centuries
Ages, if we count
From the beginning
And before
The God who answered nothing
With creation
And now a child
Without instruction
For our training
As a Caesar
(any Caesar)
This is too much
We have our own children
And for Caesar
Charges and complaints
From Spain and France
Morocco, Egypt
To Iraq and Israel
Rumors in Russia, India, and
China
All the world
x
Everywhere
And everywhere we know
Is burden
Don’t weigh us down with more
Words and promises
And obligations
Expectations
You expect us to believe?
Unlikely
x
C L Couch
x
x
I don’t know how I got to thinking about Christmas while summer is hot on. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, though I like the seasons as they happen. Maybe I need a charge of faith, like a CO2 cartridge making soda pop in the soda fountain. Maybe I need some soda pop. Maybe I’m preparing what might seem way ahead for liturgies in Advent (the good news and the difficult). Or maybe a little future holiday (of any number of holidays) is okay for the present, that is, right now.
x
Photo by Alistair MacRobert on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Shadowlands
x
Plato
C. S. Lewis
My hand by
The computer light
Shadows with shadows,
I suppose
With something firmer
On the other side
That could be relied on
For an eternity
Something waiting
Something inspiring
An ideal
A world of ideals
That’s what we learned
In school
So what have we here?
Which world shimmers
For the other
Though we presume
The other world’s better?
What do we sense here?
What do we make?
What lasts?
We have our treasures
And we try to keep them
We use guards
We have alarms
Things might fade anyway
Or break
And we keep making
Stockpiling art
With care
In both kinds of caves
Like those who aren’t so well-
Obsessed with money
Or better
With a hope for all
The way we might stockpile food
And why not
Against the day
Except for exigent hunger
(there should be enough
for both)
x
Yet if they’re right
We’ll have it all again
Art and food
Anything of profit
By virtue,
Perfect there
And permanent
And with ourselves, perhaps,
Polished and redeemed
As on this side
We sometimes polish
Precious metal with
Satisfaction after
That self-effacing
Might be and become
A shimmering
Evangelism:
Grand art, you see,
And easy,
Arduous science
For both
x
C L Couch
x
x
the verse alludes to Plato’s allegory of the cave
x
the title is a term that is a metaphor for mortal life
x
x
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