a Tuesday to try to be with God
(sorry while it’s long)
so about you
Lord
and may I call you
Lord
though you are nameless
or all names
somehow
and how do I know you unseen
evidence
unseen
the mystics knew
I guess
and Doctors of the Church
or
anyone who wrote enough or was
recorded
so they say
and
so we know
and
does this work
of
sayings
little flowers
to
go through entire books
and maybe so
maybe
we know you through these pages
or could it
be
unworded
leaves in forests
because nature
may testify as well
yet
by disaster
we might ask as well
the punishments
of fire
or of quakes or magma from
eruptions
how or what
what might we might learn
of you
and your intentions on this Earth
that
you have made
and yet
if we kept our distance
measured well
and
kept our visits seasonal
I don’t know
I guess
we’d still have problems
and to wonder
over
cynicism learned
or is
there hope on Earth and by
catastrophes
we
learn readiness and response
Earthly
for each other
all sides of gospel then
like sides
of nature whispering
or
shouting
yet
all this
not enough to know
you
and why bother through our limitations
limitations over
you about
your
nature and your presence
and yet we love you
and we think
go as far as to testify
that you
love us
and
maybe have a plan for each
though needing elasticity
as we respond
this way or
that
by choices
since
we understand
that will and freedom should
be ours
and maybe that is
so
that is
your flexible designs so we may select for
real
somehow and yet by you
we decide and
you
affirm ahead of
time
and ready to receive us
as you are God
yet you are God
why bother
waiting for us
but
then why have us
anyway
why make us when creation seemed
so perfect in the story
and then we get here
and we go too far by will
into war and other violence
much of it
close to home
ask Tamar
in the house of David
we are so easy moved by greed
also
pretense to power
since power is from you
and lent
as lent
for a time
all the things we do
we build
and then let fall
our egos drive
we develop false philosophies
movements that bring others down
with us
and may I ask
of our bodies
Lord
yes
groups
and I mean each actual
physical
skin and muscles around bones
organs
within
as they are
so strong
and so fragile
sigh
too much or too little
but there is
love
and faith
and if wisdom must allay itself before
fullness
and
perfection
well
so it is
like many things that are
and we don’t know them while
we have them
two
aspects of creation
even
of two parts of wonder
with aspects
like facets
while you are God
and I happen
to be I
and all of us
be
all of us
with
enough totality while we may wonder
in our ways
over
all the rest
until all the rest revealed
and
still might need interpretation
until you speak through angels
loud
(maybe not so loud)
and clear
c l couch
photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash
Wondrous
I love you
Says the Lord
Which is
Why
I made you a world
With stars around it
And isn’t it
Grand
The starlight
To give you something
Wonderful
To dream
C L Couch
Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash
2 poems about presence
Quantum Theory
God
You are around
Visiting nuclei
Somehow
Also gliding with
The quanta
Inside
Colliders
In the air
Presentable
In earth and sea
All the igneous
Layers
Of creation
Riding the rings
And showing where they meet
Between
Well
Galaxies
Connected by comets
As Hermes runners
With
You know
Cosmic messages
We’re still
Trying
To interpret
So that one day
We might message back
Words that Rise
I am alive
So are you
You might be reading on my shoulder
Waiting for the final words
To calculate
And then
More importantly
Go outside to play
Then later on
More words
Inexorable
For you
Inexorable
A readership
A friend
A nemesis
When
Necessary in revision
Or keep it
To yourself
And we’ll discuss
The other things
Inside
Or outside
Should it be
A fall day
Accommodating
Certain kinds
Of ease
Enough
Between us
C L Couch
Photo by NASA on Unsplash
Jupiter as Seen from the Hubble Space Telescope
(x = space)
x
x
The Lord Hears
x
The Lord hears
Our prayers
We don’t how they’re
Tallied or remembered
If there’s a meeting
On each day in heaven
When and where
Angels receive assignments
Even discuss
The timing
x
Each word is heard
There is no requirement
We may ask in faith
Or doubt
We might be easy in our words
Or difficult
Say something
It is heard
x
It might be yes or no
Though the Lord is more than
Binary
There must be many ways
To answer prayer
Materially
Abstractly
With small mechanical change
Or simply in an attitude
Encouraged to endure
x
Good is still pretty good
Without the bad
There is a learning value
We suppose
But ask for what is needed
And think about
Confession
And thanksgiving
x
Dear and
Amen
Is not
Are not
Required
Say either or both
For a beginning and an ending
Or you know
Don’t
Leave the prayer suspended
In the air
For someone else to catch
To carry with endearment
For another’s hearing
And response
x
There’s always something next
Pray badly
Stutter in your heart
Speak
Or simply think your prayer with God
Pray what Jesus taught
As a responsibility
An affirmation
x
But however
The words go
And whichever
We will be heard by truth
And responded to
With love’s
Practicality
And maybe by our reckoning
A miracle
x
Listened
And responded to
The transactional nature of the world
Confirms
It points the way
Creation’s creator
Reckoning perfectly
Providing something always
In return
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by whoislimos on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Givers
x
I need to speak better
With the Lord
And of the Lord
And of a maker’s love
Of nature
And more so
The people
Living in all mysteries
x
People and mysteries
Of how to number them
In and if
Any propriety
How to count
And within the will acceptable
Of all of us
(three entities)
x
For us
Receivers of all words
Too much is un-understood
The glass is dark
The ideal
Is on the other side
As are the mysteries
Resolved
x
But there is the need
The compulsion
To move, anyway
While
We are here
Somehow to invest
In invisible interaction
That is real
In the sense we cannot count
Or measure
Yet bears salvation
x
A book of hours
Indicates
Yet cannot reveal
As much as, say,
Look or hear into the gentle candle
While we pray
x
Our rites are fine
Many are elegant
With an aim
Toward dignity
Mixed with an agenda of
Information
Clarity
Through what is revealed
Finally vague
And believed
(by me for one)
Vague evidence for faith
As manifested,
Which is to say
As is
x
More elegant
(as well)
Is the spirit
In the sky at night
With its own stillness
And its risks
The careful and the wild
Embodied
And presented
In unmoving blue
Maybe with high clouds
That haunt
Or in the storm
That
Threatens
Or attempts to ravage
When released
Land and sea
And us between
x
The hours we have
Altogether
Organized
Unkempt
The lives we have
With all the unsolved parts
Priests
Religious
(liturgy composers)
Poets
Room for unbelievers
All work
In both realms
Created
Sub-created
And must own
Not in harmony
But harmony
The music of the spheres
We say
With all the mysteries
Set down to solve
And leave or let
Untouched
Unsolved
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Ali Choubin on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Wealth of Nations
x
O God
For invocation
Oh, God
To plea
Our world groans
With war
And the imbalance
Of the greedy
Systems
x
Justice should be a system
Greed is not good
Unless you’re winning
For a while
While all our cells corrupted
May yet cry for mercy
x
The ears to hear
Might be
The last to go
x
God
Help us
And forgive us
The Earth is ours
And we forget
And leave it to a few
Who vote for nothing
But self-fattening
And a self-deceiving glimpse
Of real power
x
Let all rise
(the poorly-
agendaed, too)
To march
Or stand in place
To sing
As if
Accompanying Earth
With all the antiphons
The spheres above
Below
That glide
And when against each other
Glory in the sacred touch
The music
Of all order
And all chaos,
Arranged
As creation’s gift
x
And this is wealth
Not the other
Once we feed each other
And can stand or march
(or sit with age
or disability
and purpose)
To hear the strains
Of everything
And offer ours
x
Our gift
Unto the glory
Of Earth
And all-around’s,
Of God’s all
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Blue-Rolling Justice
(Amos 5:24)
x
More than a trope
Don’t make a meme
(a meme would be mean)
The Lord is real
And eminent
Faster than electrons
And so much more long-lasting
Than a fashion
Let your justice roll, O Lord,
In a world that doesn’t want
To know you
Or obey you
That keeps your name
As fodder for cursing
I know, it sounds Sunday School
Or Hebrew school
Or teaching in the mosque
Or learning circles elsewhere
But too bad
You don’t want to acknowledge
Someone larger, someone
Who could teach us
Perfect love
To keep us from assaulting,
Killing each other
Then takes your chances
With revelation
And apocalypse when
They cannot be denied
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Deal-Making with the Lord
(sigh, didn’t work for Moses)
x
Lord,
The stomach feels
So tight
I’d like relief
Though
Really
At the source
x
All my troubles
I can’t escape
Them
Though I could
Escape a few
x
And is
Escape the answer?
Probably not
(worse the
luck)
I imagine there is
Something
By the way of
Resolution
x
But some things,
I think,
Can simply
Be made better
Call it grace or
Miracle
Or one side
Of a pledge
x
Please, Lord,
Ease
The pain
Give me days
Without
The consequences
I’ll work
On the rest,
I promise
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
Photo by Ella de Kross on Unsplash
x
One More Act
Regarding salvation,
Theophilus,
It is an easy plan
It has to be
Don’t be disappointed
Each one of everyone
Must perceive
The Lord
It can’t be a secret,
Though for now we need a secret
To survive
A code
Or something
Somehow, each one
Gets the story
In a saving way
We can’t be hiding that
Thank goodness, we don’t
God would crowd in, anyway
Should we get it wrong
There must be
Truth in belief and a cadre
To keep it
Somehow the story
Must appeal
To the old, the young
The angry and the fearful
How much we know cannot be
The matter of
God’s apprehending each
Once the hand is raised
And if no skill to do that
Raised with help
From proxy friends
But each one’s own
Encounter
Must compel
And must, because there is
Perfect love in the process
A compelling invitation
Stamped with joy
Delivered in peace
Whose cost, mind you,
Is nothing
It’s a great day,
Theophilus,
Even though we scratch
Into the ground for recognition
We are fishers
With the perfect net
That will not kill or maim
Or serve up the wrong fish
Into the boat
Or on the shore
Consider it a plan
Better than any other
There should be no wounds
Outside or inside
Except those delivered
By the world
The net actually fails
There is no net
Yet the job is done
It’s done in thread
That holds nothing together
So must we in peace
Proclaim the Lord,
Which will be hard for us
Though God demands somehow we keep
The opposites together
(a greeting in my hand)
My peer, my student, and my friend
It is the hardest work we do
And rise above the scars
Yet the prize is easy
It is not ours
But kept by one who knows our names
Better yet, prizes our spirits
Gain the faith in truth and love
A day of gladness when there’s one
And only one
C L Couch
Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash
It was on a lovely and sunny day in Trèbes in France. I found this lonely and lost mailbox on the wall of an old house. Looks so beautiful.
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