peregrine
another poem about breathing
breathe on me
breath
of God
that would be nice
I think Aslan breathed on people
and they were affirmed
to
exist and even have a calling
though maybe
existence
was enough
to know that God love me
for me
but
no
I should
do something
too
as I’ve wondered
and I’ve wandered
like the song
and like the song I wonder
while
wandering
why Jesus had to die
and
did he wonder
too
while he was wandering
well
we’re here
Jesus
Spirit and God
and me
without standing or power
a world to cheat
as well as to say hello
hello
maybe the start of cheating
and
what is my place
when it seems I have no place
I am God’s
I’m sure
though God be angry with
my performance so far
and
yet is love
Jesus and Spirit
too
to help
I want
to trust
I hope
c l couch
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God” and “I Wonder as I Wander” are hymns
photo by Brooke Balentine on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Form
x
God
I love you
Even though
I’m unsure of the terms
Or attitude
How to be both
Obeisant and
Democratic
x
See
You’re a monarch
Absolute ruler
Of the universe
(more than He-Man
or She-Ra)
While for now
To mortal lives
You’re also
Frankly
Invisible
x
I may say
You’re in the wind
Your fingerprints the bark
On trees
And all the patterns
Helix
Hexagons
The nautilus
In nature
x
We may say there’s evidence
I may say
And I believe
The wonder inside everything
Indicating
A wonder-maker
x
And there are words for you
As you speak
To Adam
Eve
And prophets
Though you tend so speak
Through agencies
Especially after Eden
Still
We say your words
Which is all right
For me
x
You are layered
Through the books
And we must read
And listen
Let it sink
Through layers
Into our own deep places
Reemerging
Into peace
And promise
x
We are surprised by joy
x
But who are you
And how are you
An image
In what ways
x
And how are you
Today
x
How is it to know you
And to live with you
Really
We wake to a clock
And then what
Should happen
x
There are domestic
Possibilities
When Jesus says
To wash and comb
x
When mourning
To offer in the temple
Our poorer
Open selves
Then give
What for each of us
Corresponds to the
Widow’s mite
x
We know you count the hair
Track the falling sparrow
Offer bread
When sinners offer stones
Plus you prodigally receive
Whenever we return
From profligacy
Spending our inheritance
The gifts you gave
And what we have
From the world
All gone
And only we are left
As shells
Needing frankly
Food and water
x
And then you give us
Feasts
While the righteous and the stern
Glower
While serving
x
There is that stream
Of course
We wander by
So I guess you somehow do that
And in some form
So we might walk
Together
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Luke Ellis-Craven on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
To Pilgrim
(at Thanksgiving, USA)
x
Pilgrims
On Thanksgiving
x
We make fun
Of their hats
And buckles
x
They might as well
Have been a foreign
People to the
(rest of the)
Whites as all the
Indigenous to
The whites
x
And they were:
They were a foreign
People
x
They carried faith
And dignity,
Faith in dignity,
To what all the western
Coastal, European
People called
A new world
x
Through stratagem
Or accident, they
Settled too far
North
x
They struggled;
They strove
x
Everything was
Struggling and
Striving to them
x
Moving, going
On their way
x
For them, to be
A pilgrim was
An action
x
On a journey
Neverending, ‘til
The end of this life
Start into another
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Dhimas Widrayato on Unsplash
It was 22:39, I went out to get some fresh air after some coding session then I saw a big moon on the sky, so I grab my camera then go to open space to shot this picture. The photo was taken in Tangerang, Indonesia.
x
Bendiciónes Pequeñas
(inspired by and with permission from Cathy Birdsong Dutchak at https://wanderessence.com/)
To be brought a small bowl
Of peanuts
Cacahuates—do I recall that rightly?
In a courtyard of an albergue
To accompany the glass of wine I’ve ordered
In the north of Spain
Somewhere along the pilgrim trail
On the other side of Spain, Hemingway might be
Trout-fishing
With or without companions
I hope with
He could have done with more company than
Cats (apologies to the six-toe-to-a-paw friends who
still retain his houses in the Keys,
on Cuba)
I’m not sure I could take the path
Maybe for a while
But I could sit there inside a breeze
Of northern Spain
Contemplate the pilgrimage
The pilgrims of all kinds
Have a sip
Reach for the bowl
Taste and see
C L Couch
(on the pilgrim trail to Campostela)
Option to Valverde de la Virgen (3.4 km)
Each day on the Camino, you don’t know what you’ll encounter as you walk in the footsteps of thousands of pilgrims. Sometimes you find pleasant surprises such as the oasis of my albergue, La Casa del Camino: Albergue de Peregrinos.
Though it sits along a busy road, it was a beautiful spot with couches and comfy chairs, lounge chairs, hammocks, and beds on the lawn for lounging. There were areas under canopies and umbrellas and a line of square foot baths, and the most welcoming owners you could ever meet. When I arrived, they presented me with a glass of cold fresh orange juice as they checked me in.
Bowls of apples sat on tables, flower boxes and hanging baskets dotted the space around an above-ground swimming pool (with no water), gardens bloomed, and Buddhas reclined and sat, looking serene.
I sat outside having a glass of wine and one of the owners brought me a small bowl of peanuts.
When I have happened upon places such as these, I felt so joyful and grateful for the peaceful and refreshing surroundings.
This place rates up with a number of top albergues along the Camino. There are fair shares of bad and mediocre ones.
(my emphasis)
https://wanderessence.com/2019/08/25/camino-day-31-leon-to-valverde-de-la-virgen/
Photo by Les routes sans fin(s) on Unsplash
Perspectives on hills, pilgrims on the way. /// Le sommet d’une colline dévoile parfois une perspective hors du temps.
Lent 30
We could say
We’re three-quarters through
Here are problems with that:
We’ll make it into an accomplishment
We’ll worry we’re not as far along
As we should be
How much time is left
To get it right?
When days were years,
The Israelites in the main could not say,
We’ve covered seventy-five percent
Of this
Twenty-five to go
We should still pace ourselves
Markers aren’t so bad
Such as stations on the pilgrim trail
They note achievement and
Places to pause
Before we say, What’s next?
When they are spots in
Which to moan
Or to say, Look, what we have done
Better purposes are mollified
Maybe overwhelmed
In brittle ambition
Or vaunting pride
We’re left inside
A roof without an apex as
The sureness of shelter
Don’t be afraid
Be ye not anxious
Don’t be over-eager
The desert has an ending
And there is always more
(that will not have to be
a desert)
Mark the way, maybe
Take in the sight
Adjust for course correction
Who are we now,
What have we learned?
Refresh
Now move
C L Couch
Philippe Chavin – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1134168
vaulted grottoes called Taq-e Bostan, located in Iran, Sassanian era
Philippians 4:6 in the Christian New Testament (cited)
Lent 9
1
We place Christ in a journey:
Celebrate his birth at Christmas
His presentation at the
Temple plus his
Baptism by his cousin John
Upon a bank of the Jordan River,
Then consider now
The earthly ministry
Ending in Jerusalem,
The next part of the calendar
What notes the work just now but
Miracles and teaching
And many encounters, one by one—
A woman by a well
A man who climbs a tree
Bemused to see this person
A woman who breaks
A vial of perfume to wash
His feet
A leper out of ten lepers
Who must return
With thanks
There is teaching
Answering the quandary, Who
Is my neighbor
A question about government
The discipline of a warrior
Who, though not a Jew, respects
The way of Christ as he would accept a
Commander’s prerogative
The woman who begs for scraps
Of mercy, who is rebuked
Before she astonishes him
With a reminder for whom he’s come
He comes for the Jews
He comes for Arabs and
For Romans
Even the pirates of
Parthia
He comes for the savage Britons
And the unknown Asians
He comes for them
He comes for then
He comes for now
He comes for you and me
Oh, how he loves you and me
And it never stops,
The arrival since creation
Life upon a troubled plain
The departure into earth
The return in keeping with
Prophecy and promise
C L Couch
Fritz Geller-Grimm – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1690920
Fritz Geller-Grimm – Own work
Saint James’s shell at a well of the Way, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
(Camino de Santiago)
“Oh, How He Loves You and Me” by Kurt Kaiser
The Lesson of Saint Francis
We are all animals in
Beauty, here:
And we need guide each
Other to
A pilgrim path
In walking with the saints
Who would eschew
The capital s
Service is ennobled
(As are all better things)
When we love
To give away
What we have
To share with
All other creatures of
The Earth—
The sky, what’s
Under the water,
And what dances upon
The surface
In the measures and the
Rhythms
Of creation
Pilgrim Path
Someday I’d love to walk
The path to Compostela, Spain
The pilgrimage of Saint
James and to his honor
Legacy, the pilgrim trail
I’d like to walk with company
I hear folk band together
On the way
The pilgrim path need not
Be done by one to count
God counts the pilgrim
In the heart, where the
Real path of challenges is trod
clcouch123 
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