love and power
Lord
who is love but you
and
who is true power
you are the source of
everything that’s
good
and the way through
anything that’s
bad
yet
love us
and lead us from inside
and over parts and all the world
from
each in a place
offering by love and power
mercy
as a measure
in justice
a way to
meet
and so live with
each other
amen
c l couch
photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
“FOR ALL” (for translation)
Questions and Answers
(easier than we admit)
God
It’s your day
As if there were a day
That was not yours
You know
Having made all of it
To call it
Day
Though we added names in time
And all of these do not agree
But
Maker of them
Anyway
And we should owe you something
For that
And you do have directives
Even as
The prophet asks on
Our behalf
What you might require
Might
Though really tell us must
Like the commandments from
The mountain
And yet
We take as options
Like
Speed limits in my culture or
Widespread fidelity in marriage
Having made
Knowing vows
And
Maybe vows
At all
You tell us to walk humbly
Carry justice and
Mercy
With us
Not because they’re easy but because
They’re necessary for
The health
And even happiness of the world
Of us
And someday
Penultimately perhaps
We’ll get it
And in time to express
And to practice
For
Impending judgment
Yes
But also for the sake
Of its own value
And the preference this walking gives
Toward
Living well
And having a whole world
(before the
last)
Of us
Micah 6:8
C L Couch
Photo by Julian Gentile on Unsplash
with or without a garden or an upper dining room
well
God
I’m here
and where are you
why
look
you’re here
you’ve always been
and it’s
so much
the patience to remain here
while I
prevaricate
to think a million
other things
as if
they matter more
and justify
the saddest
putting-off
for
my specific greetings
my confessions
petitions
for my needs
and needs
of others
more specific
and for the entire
world
and the whorls
of the cosmos
that need
you
out there
and I’m sure
more than
in here
in this hour
when I happen to awake
to find you here
or
in a
sleepy moment
to unlid
my eyes a little
see you
then and there
surprise
as well
always
a miracle
and I’m chagrined
to take up
your presence
and your time
the way
I do
not
to say I need a bell
or other
signal
from assemblies
(though
I like
bells
generally)
and shall you send
an angel
as an agent
for assistance
homely
and extraordinary
though it’s
especially
your Spirit
that is
needful
as a saving source
and guide
your word
you
as word
is needed
to get me there
and then
with you
and to remain
even
while here
for all my faults
and prevarications
but also
with broad hints
of there
(un-agnostically)
say
through the song says
after here
live
in your house
that follows
and is filled
with goodness and mercy
and is filled with
forever
c l couch
1Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
John 14
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/John-14-2/
photo by Lucas Hoang on Unsplash
the right hand doesn’t know
(sometimes left people have it right)
God
I haven’t mentioned you
though I know
you’re there
we are in dialogue
it seems
I hope it is an angel
who negotiates
like the bush that burned
and spoke
and the angel who held
Abram’s hand
and changed him
in the harshest lesson of
obedience
and mercy
and not the voice of one
erstwhile
who cackles now
so subtly
so quiet-like
to say
do this
do that
my master calls
and through it
we will ruin everything
‘til everything become
inferno
and subservience
without the pleasure
from a lord
who gives none
which is a lot
to parse
while deciding
to go right
or to go left
listening to one
the angelic
and other one
the sinister
like the shoulders
in cartoons
only the stakes
though small
could become a trend
of listening
to one leaning
or the other
I might have let the demon in
so long ago
and while want the angel-voice
alone
have struggled ‘tween the two
two wills represented
and how long
‘til we know better
easily
domestically
or cosmically
while the stakes are only
turning right
or left
the angelic
or the sinister
which makes a left hand
of theology
and will
to work
and to believe
and within these
grace
to have it right
(or left)
and so be saved
c l couch
photo by Nguyen Minh on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Teachers and Soliloquies
x
Something kinder today
There is kindness in the world
“A kinder, gentler nation”
Is derided as a message from
The Republican President
Of the USA
x
Prosaically,
I wonder if we couldn’t have
Kindness and gentleness
And the like
And use more today
Or ever, really
Looking back (supplementing history
and stories),
Having today,
Looking ahead
x
The reaction is to see these things
As weak,
Yet that love that lasts
And joy after sorrow
Are the strongest
And if we can care in a divisive,
Bitter world,
Then we are strong
x
Hate is easy
We yell or spit or hit or stab or shoot
Then avoid the consequences
All sounds pretty cowardly
To me
And if I do these
Then I am that coward
x
Mercy “is not strained” (neither forced
nor artificial)
it drops (behaves) like “gentle rain
from heaven”
Our heatwave is breaking
We could have more of that
The literal kind
x
As for the metaphor,
Mercy
(kindness, gentleness)
Is something that we all
Could try
To bring relief
Like rain on dry ground (metaphor)
To change the world (not a metaphor)
x
C L Couch
x
x
Mother’s Love
Photo by Sandy Kumar on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Erev Yom Kippur
x
Grant us mercy
When we cannot find it in ourselves
To give one another;
Show us kindness
When we’ve forgotten how to show it;
Forgive us
When we forget the value in forgiving
With the newness of life, after
x
CLC
x
for Christians, there is the sibling and the altar (Matthew 5:24)
and reconciliation in most other traditions, hopefully
x
x
F/GURA PROJECT #1
Photo by Norbert Kowalczyk on Unsplash
x
Earth-Talk
The sun is knocking,
Asking to come in
Can you imagine?
The sun, huge and glorious
And powerful, asking
To come in?
But on this pale-gray day, the Earth
Seems to be withholding
Tiny planet, fending off
The sun
What is just but to give
The smaller thing its due?
It’s here, too, after all
And what is mercy
But to wait upon
Its waiting?
C L Couch
Photo by Fabian Struwe on Unsplash
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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