and it is
And can it be that I should gain
An int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
Charles Wesley
set
to a tune that courses
too
encouraging the soul
even through chastisement
of the Cross
ignoble death
that we
might live
beyond
and into a life renewed
even with heaven
and
with Earth
like what the waiting’s for
by heroes in
great lore
by
each as we might sleep and wait
as well
who knows what purgatory sharing
or in the rescue
the harrow should provide
amazing love
how can it be
but is
for each
and every
and
yes
every
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photo by Megan O'Hanlon on Unsplash
2 poems for a Friday in Lent
the ungood Friday
well through Lent
it could be Good Friday
since it is
the season so we’ll be associating
anyway
and this is an irony of good as
well
as there’s a featureless covering of gray
lacking definition
and for a word
would mean no meaning
gray to hear
gray inside as well
there is no joy under here
we scurry
rather
not like rats
rats scurry like us
a blank day without mercy like
that good
day
enacted
coming in two Fridays or so
above all other
word
the word is genesis
to tell the story
and
to have the story happen
first enacting
word that makes
that made
and keeps on creating
the word that is a person
and a telling
with
an action
all words subserve
as all matter underserves the perfect
omnipresent
a word
who is
such power in a unit of some letters
though from the alphabet
of God and should
there be another word
well
there could be three words
to realize
all others
and
by way of existing first
for all should offer meaning
as
words do
though taking care
as these words insist
and if you want
read
the first of John and following
aware of oddity regarding
words that
act
with nothing but the word
to make things happen
one little word shall fell him.
4 That Word above all earthly powers
no thanks to them abideth;
(translated) Martin Luther contending with “prince of darkness”
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photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash
the hard and easy life
yet
God is not a spoilsport
as Liddell
says
if only in the movie
God likes
say
and when celebrates in muscle
and in mind
and in
fair conviction
soccer
the world’s game
Rook
the card game Southerners allow
the pleasures in a holiday
the love
we bear each other
God is the god of pleasure as well
as meaning
and simply pleasure to own
as
a creation and
pursuit
some
might say incidental or
byproduct
but
we know who created fun
and
yes
the good clean kind
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(line from Chariots of Fire)
photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash
it is you
I hope it’s you
though I don’t know you yet
but
I could say
is it you
while you could say to me
the same
so if Eve should know
Adam
or reclassify participants
there might be
a garden innocence
about
it
to call it practical
seduction
moral
romance
a merging of our Eden attributions
even
in the inexorable fall
and need to reconcile
our
productivity with our peace
our useful
loves
with love that has no reason
but its own
to exist
and to take over
if
avowed
after all
what did her letter mean
but love conquers
crazy firm
and
keeping against all mortality
as if eternity were here
with us
as well
and it is
c l couch
photo by Anya Chernykh on Unsplash
from hope to wish to pray
I am
still
but that’s not rested
how are you
are you pent-up
or
relaxed
is your philosophy one affirming
pleasure
and then sleep
a day of love
that’s what I can wish for you
from
far away in time
and space
if not cyberspace and
could
you have such a day how you are in what
you have
if not
then I hope
and will pray that you have
what you need
for
love
practical
strong
delicate
need for care
love
and I remind myself
the teacher
day
means twenty-four and also
an era
day of the dinosaur
or days of Arthur
and so I go
for you both meanings
by
wish and hope and prayer
a day
as in today
and in a life of
good
love
that affirms and grows
planting and harvesting the best
the most
reliable
for days
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for blogging friends
photo by Marwan Abdalah on Unsplash
always all the ways
God reaches
down or
up
to say I love you
which
as the maker saying first
God then
awaiting
all entryways or corners as
safe traps
any place or
way by
which
through which
we’re heard
should we return at all
and
on our own
say
love
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1 John 4:19
photo by James Fesh on Unsplash
2 poems with one poem an expression of thanks then the other a preachy story
given means
someone brought me
food
and others cleared my car
and I imagine that I’ll
lose the space
as soon as I go somewhere
but
I’m thankful
I can eat
and I can move away
when
needed or desired
in the parable
these helpers would be sheep
though busy sheep
helpful
and loving
the givers have the designation
sheep
or goat
and I wonder what
the receivers
such as I might be
maybe
lambs
or kids
Matthew 25:31-46
the one arrives for whom there has been waiting
a story with a king
who dispenses justice
a righteous king
who
has the power with discretion
and the role
given
to play
and shall people be judged
by this wonder who could
be
man or woman
or those gender parts
in God
and so the king
metes
as if the word were ready for this one
alone and
throughout
time
and a throne is
set
the the judgment happens simply
you were me and in
need
and these came to help you
though they needn’t
have known you and you had comfort
even
more life to give
and for the metaphor
I call the helpers
sheep as I
frankly
am the shepherd
and sorry for goats
to call the others goats
and
I guess goats are famous for consuming
and
these goats to judge as people
keeping all
if by degree and giving nothing
not
what would have been easier to share
let alone what might have
been harder
to share
and I must welcome sheep
then
outcast the goats
not
for species judgment
except for those of you
people
whom I made
to whom I gave
but chose
not
to give back or out
toward loving benefit of others
so I judge
and so it is as it was
set
so long ago just after Eden
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same verses
photo by Jay Gomez on Unsplash
love God
out of love
things happen
things
are made
by hate
destruction
agenda of a nothingness pervades
since
hate can’t build a thing
except for stone
of an illusion
love
then
closer to God
closer to substance
if
without which
material
any sense of material
goes empty
choosing faith
then
by belief and so response
to invitations
at least
two of these to start
c l couch
photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash
whose to know
I know you
as I
(existentially)
might know that goes
from
much to nearly
anonymous
as I don’t know you
and so
don’t know
what’s
healthy for you except generally
and to an extent
doctrinally
I hardly know
myself
it seems
and all the parts inside that work
well or that are inclined
yet
to rebel
not in
appreciable or creative ways
and so who am I to say
except I wish
for
wellness
I pray for healing of my niece
as I might know you
I pray
and encourage you to pray less blankly
more fully
(knowingly)
for what others and elsewhere need
also
you
and I guess that’s it
let’s pray
and might we know there’s power
in that
intercession
as well as
self-directed
if
could be with the proviso that
faith
hope
and love show up
by prayer
and anyway
and are willing to remain
first
two
the third especially goes nowhere
if all
imperfectly through us
and
perfectly from the one we know
and seek to know
even
through evidence unseen
yet
so believe
to ask
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(1 Corinthians 13:13, Hebrews 11:1)
photograph by Christina Ioannidou at Unsplash
Chamaemelum nobile.
Corinth, Greece
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