(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
Lean
(John 3:17)
x
Not to condemn
But to love
Because God would rather love
And does love
It is gravity
The universe is biased toward
That which keeps us together
And God is biased
In the same way
x
Everything is biased
Everything leans
The one who can be objective
Best
Who maybe sets objectivity
Aside for math
(maybe)
Has chosen to favor
The impulse of creation
And an agenda
Toward ourselves
x
God would rather save than condemn
Would rather love than judge
Who will judge
And do so with perfection
Also to pardon
With a possibility
Faith required
Faith in something freely offered
Grace
The sacrifice made by another
Who was God
Who is God
That in the mixture of flesh and the divine
Blood and spirit
Sin and innocence
Might conquer death
And offer conquered death
As proffered life
The chance to live in hope today with
As the song asserts
Bright hope for tomorrow
x
Perfection chooses
Love’s mitigation
Case dismissed
Open the gates
Or however admission
Might be managed
Into heaven
And for now
Into today
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Steven Van Elk on Unsplash
Foggy Beach Walk
x
(x = space)
x
x
To Philemon
(“and to the church in thy house”)
x
We are encouraged
By your faith
In fact
We have joy
x
Give Onesimus
Another chance
We send him
To you
He may have wronged thee
Take him back
x
If he owes anyone money
Or its equivalent
I will repay it
I tell you this myself
Who
Told you about the faith and
So be saved
x
Receive him
Who to me has
Become
Peer and colleague
And he will serve you
Especially this way
x
Treat him now
As one who has
Standing
No matter how it might
Have gone
Before
x
Let the deeper parts
Of all of us
Be glad
That we are one
In Christ
x
From all of us
Who live
Captive by the world
For now
Grace and peace
To thee
And thine
x
From prisoners with me
Paul
x
C L Couch
x
x
Philemon is the addressee of a brief epistle in the Christian New Testament
x
Photo by Mike Hindle on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Monday Possibilities
x
God is love
God is a spirit
God is a lion
Too
And a rock
x
Not a rock
Though we might paint
“Jesus Saves”
On one
x
There was such a place
I was ridden by
Then drove by
While I was growing up
x
A rock
Next to a pool
A stream
Some kind of moving water
Because
The place looked dark and fresh
x
“Jesus Saves”
Why
Yes
He does
God who is that spirit
And that love
Even a lion
Helps to make it so
x
There is a trinity
A kind of multiplicity
Who knows how
Wide the
Godhead
In all the dimensions
When day by day
In all our wandering
We know barely more
Than three
x
A kind of multiplicity
Is God
That made the rock
And made the paint
(though did not sell it
though somebody
could)
But doesn’t sleep
xxxxxThat’s energy
xxxxxInside the Earth
xxxxxAwaiting
x
I guess it’s Monday
I’m thinking about
The possibilities
While I have mean neighbors
But friendly faces
In my life
To recall
At will
And call with real immanence
As well
x
Where is the lion
But in a free place
Offering
(a big paw)
An invitation
For us
There
x
C L Couch
x
x
A statue on display in the Grand Egyptian Museum.
x
(x = space)
x
x
first holy saturday
x
1
x
it seems there’s nothing
but a void
after which is fear
there could be doubt
but what is left
to believe in
first
x
the body’s cared for
there’s the irony of a guard
to keep things safe
while making sure
we don’t get in
to take him
x
so what is left
but us
and an enormous world
ready to quash us
and to take our air
our allotment of
anything
allowed
x
we have gone too far
they’ll say
but we have killed the head
and now the serpent
body dies
and we shall have it
or leave it
shriveling in the shadows
or bring it to the light
to finish
dessication
and metaphors aside
we mean you
and to have you
x
your paltry movement
and there are many crosses
provided by the Romans
and the Greeks
and Egyptians
before
x
you are done
we shall have you
you are annihilated
not even space on Earth
shall have you
x
we can delight
considering
a line of graves
underneath the field
that we buy
with the silver
Judas has returned
x
well
not well
and so we hide
small care for each other
we dare to send for food
and prepare it
without fire
to share it in the dark
x
these are holy hours
we try
to pay attention
x
some count the hours
most of us
cannot do
something so constructive
x
it is finished
last words
we heard them
so did they
we wait for
we don’t know what
we have forgotten all the miracles
and all of what was said
to go with them
x
we hide
and that’s the hell of it
as it seems
that hell has won
x
2
x
there is the edge
of a hole
through which we see
what we have been taken from
and shall we try
to return
a circle
an eye
we hurt
wait, an eye
who sees
we see
does God look at us
or Rome
or the Sanhedrin
x
how can God look
God died yesterday
we saw
we heard
and it is terrible
but there’s nothing more
even from the cross
were the words
that it is finished
x
we can’t even wait
we can count the hours
but there’s nothing there
there is grief
the rightness of it
rituals
for a while
x
but then there’s nothing left
we are ridiculed
then captured
captured and then ridiculed
when it’s safe
when we are bound
bound perhaps
to crosses of our own
x
why do we even have
this day
it is a holy day
so to say
holy hours
holy minutes
x
if yesterday
had been the day
if the cross beam was
a blooded lintel
then the deadly angel
missed
or misread
and took
the righteous
anyway
against the plan
x
but it’s not fair
to miscast angels
who are commanded
by a God
who let
if not arranged for
all of this
and now has disappeared
gone to Sheol
though how can God
wait for God
x
there are no answers
only rumors
that we cannot hear
the world has closed us off
in here
and we will not snipe
or bear false hope
or cheat
material truth
x
while we are waiting
worse than that
having nothing
to wait for
x
we mourn
we cannot look
or look
taste and see
we miss our God
we were friends of God
for a little while
x
we are lost
after our paroxysms
maybe we
catch our breath a little
and shall we go where
we proclaimed it long ago
that without God
there is nowhere
the nowhere of the Sadducees
maybe
x
but on to night
and after night
not daylight
but a void
judgment perhaps
but what could we have done
when we were told
what we were told
x
friendship for hours only
new love
and now
it’s as if creation
matter
molecules
might as well
have never happened
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Filip Kominik on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Pledge Break
x
Goodness
It’s late
I haven’t really
Said anything
I’ve let the tyranny
Of memories and songs
Take over
Drafting elsewhere
x
Tyranny
That could be blessed
For pleasures recalled
And challenges
And to reconsider
Resolutions
x
Well
What is there to say?
Love God
Love each other
I’ll try to do better
Always better
Improve
Even invent
Devices and topoi
As devices
Not cleverness
(clearly)
But invitations
For the nonce
And later on
x
For that is the joy of words
Arranged
That they might be
Considered later on
x
Like words
I like your words
And almost everything they carry
I’m sorry
But for now
I must set aside the hate
Even for justice
‘Til mediation
Greater wisdom
So much greater than my own
Take over
x
We must talk
At least we should
And I can hope
We do
At that table
Where all words
Be shared and understood
And a new world built by them
From every session
Made
Into our mission
x
While most of us
Lead lives away
Improved
Steadier on the path
Cosmically designed
Determined
Our input welcomed
Now with grace
Re-made
From our negotiation
With each other
Willing to listen
By the end
Of sessions
And be changed in
And for
A universe
Always moving
Always changing
x
Together
There’s the wisdom
There has to be
Or else
Franky
We’ve earned oblivion
x
I say
We say
Enough
Let’s fill our cups
And serve each other
On our plates
Wise love
Via service
Receiving thus
Salvation
x
Poetically
And prosaically
Yours,
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Facets
x
1
x
What is love
But ether
And it’s action
We feel what we feel
We want to feel good
We have
Responsibilities
Sometimes some stoicism’s
Called for
Pink and red
Silliness, devotion
Both are good
And necessary
x
Love means doing things
Everyday things
And then there’s
Exigency
Something urgent happens
We respond
x
We argue
And we’re sorry
We’re afraid
There is a challenge
To have others
Believe in themselves
x
If there’s only selfishness
In you
Change you
x
And if you want all this
Have love
It is lasting
And delightful
It is solid
And it’s fluid
It changes us
Love changes
It’s supposed to
We have fun with it
We grow
And if it’s good love
It should last
Grow up with it
Grow old
x
2
x
Remember also
Let the circle widen
There are good people
Standing by
It is a lattice
A shiny, moving web
A honeycomb
The marble of the Earth
That turns
That displays wonder
With the movement
Of the atmosphere
x
Keep breathing
It is wonderful
Let love be oxygen
For muscles
That do work
That offer passion
That do play
That understand devotion
Pledge-keeping
Even without a pledge
In mind
x
Love is fair
There should be justice
In the house
In the yard
In the office
On the playground
With our friends
With strangers
Yes, be careful
Love needs time
And air
And food
Real food
And of the gods
And God
x
Devotion’s play
Love’s work
So many parts
Live them through
Live through them
Delight
Evolve
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Valentine’s
(belongs to you)
x
Valentine got famous
For correspondence;
Other saints send messages
x
Valentine left words
Of love and encouragement
As other saints have done—as
You or I have done
x
Then red and pink took over
x
Red for hearts,
Pink for I don’t know
x
Lace got in there, too:
We covered up our furniture,
Covered our piano legs
With that
x
Well, why not?
We need the colors in the winter
And red means passion,
Loyalty as well
x
While pink is fragile
As are all relationships
In part
x
Happy day for strengthening
Like exercise,
Metal in devotion
Like the metal in the jewelry
For a sign we wear
x
Happy Valentine’s
With valentines
x
Don’t force it
Or deny it:
If deny it,
Maybe do so
With a saint’s
Prudent
Contemplative quiet
x
For the rest,
Give the cake
Share the cake
Eat the cake
Enjoy refined sugar
Or have raisins
x
Or above the silence
And beneath the noise
Go slowly—pleased to
Talk it through
On or by
The sidewalks of the world
x
C L Couch
x
x
now you have a day to plan—you’re welcome
x
By Lorie Shaull from Washington, United States – Happy Valentine’s Day!, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56401542
x
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