(x = space)
x
x
Sectarian or Secular
x
God
Be good to us
Today
x
Don’t give us mercy
Or distraction
Give us charges without directions
Save what we believe
x
And if without belief
Then with what good we know
Tempered by
Community
Check-and-balance ways
Human and humane
To get things done
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Rowan Simpson on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Covenant-Keeping
x
We grieve
That is the right response
x
It happens right away
And is ongoing
x
Mostly it’s the loss
And who’d have thought
x
Regardless
Of the news
x
It should happen
On a school day?
x
While we still think
Of school days
x
The days when
Sun and light should happen
x
On the playground
Or we stay inside
x
When tension in the classroom
Over subjects is enough
x
How did we make the trade
Of shoes on tile
x
For the reports
Of guns instead?
x
For now it is the loss
We don’t want
x
To imagine
Even though there are
x
Those who must
See and hear
x
And every other sense
Invest
x
In the lifting
And the carrying away
x
Even then,
Through the earthly horror
x
There is what’s inside
Now gone
x
To grieve the most
Shock, fear, crashing grief
x
Anger and activity
And needful inactivity
x
Maybe someday about
The keeping and the letting go
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
Dark Peony
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Reveals
x
I don’t know
It is a mystery
How we get
To where we get
We understand
Our choices
Ponder choices
Made by others
All around us
And what might
We figure?
What might we understand
Of agendas
Or of consequences?
Well, we’re here
We have what we have
And don’t know
What we don’t know,
Which is maybe why
Monks
And mothers
Other readers
(all receivers)
Enjoy mystery
x
If God is unknown
Then we are fine
Not knowing
Seeking answers
Or allowing
Un-answering
To guide our days
In relishing instead
The partiality
Of things we hold
Let go
Or appreciate
Even with longing
From afar
x
We have
And do not have
We wonder because
There are wonders
Such a life
Of having
And un-having
Knowing and un-knowing
We bear
And carry with delight
In curiosity
Answering in part
All awareness
Or simply going out
Or staying in
All the time
Then rest
Then go again
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Brandon Style on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
one spiritual law
x
God loves you
have faith
this is the only message
it’s enough
for anyone
at any time
x
we believe it
and for Jesus
we are saved for heaven
and have entered heaven’s realm
even now
x
like Marty’s distillation
of theology
“Jesus loves me, this I know;
for the Bible tells me so”
x
God bless and teach us
I think this is a promise
in creation
that both have happened
and will happen with
our participation
x
believe
even now
even here
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Don’t Listen
x
I’m sad is all
And maybe I may say
Who wouldn’t be
It’s raining
There are feet of snow
Out west
And that’s dangerous
x
In the south
There were tornados in the night
Can you imagine?
Too many don’t have to
You wouldn’t see it
You hear the train
If you can hear
The sounds of what you know
Changed into splinters
Horrifying
x
You might go dark
Deeper in, that is
Or might be missed
(tornados leap this way)
Or under things
That fell
But living
Needing to be found
x
And a factory nearby
Exploded of all things
Also last night
And people inside
Sorry
Some were killed
Others hurt
And people missing
While searchers search
Press conferences are held
Because
They have to be
x
Another factory
Not so far off
Went this way
Some days ago
I don’t think
It’s a conspiracy
But these destructive
And frightening
Severities
Must be taken seriously
x
Last night’s inferno
Costing
Families
The ones torn up
For good
And those in the community
Losing, too
x
You see,
The people in this factory
Made candy
Of all things
In fact for decades
And should have been
With all the chocolate offerings
Just in time for Easter
x
Now associations
Snow-driven winter
Romantic Southern nights
Anticipation of confections
Well,
The fears will have to go somewhere
Coping mechanisms
Mechanized
(as in ready to go)
Let hope
Like grace doctrinally
Abound
x
So I’m sad
Maybe I don’t know how
To take it in
To breathe vicarious
In addition to my
Own intake
For, well,
My own
Somewhat depressed
I deal in this
And have had counseling
And medication
x
The day’s been gray
With rain
Not life-threatening here
Persistent
Cold and dull
Is all
And enervating
x
I thought about errands
And such
Then thought better
Thinking it better
Or maybe better would have been
To go out
Get wet
Do something
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Peter Jan Rijpkema on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
White Out
x
There was hardly any winter;
Now I am nostalgic
x
As I get old
The immediacy of snow
Has sometimes frightened me
x
Am I ready?
(knowing I’m not ready)
x
But now I miss the falling
And the settling
x
Not the extremes, of course,
Or the extremes of heat in summer
But enough that says
Winter is allowed
In our land
x
And I might walk in it
Again
x
So I’m learning, still
(so are you):
I hadn’t thought more generally
And with some surprise
That the bildungsroman
Has never
Finished
x
It goes on bildung-building
(education)
And as roman
A story
Of many chapters
Or a song with many stanzas,
Key transitions,
D. S. to the coda
For life is repeated
Many times,
It seems
Or even improvised
x
And of Shangri-La philosophy
(moderation in all things)
Maybe the winter
Shall return
With some climatic glory
And less (less) fearfulness from
Me
And should anyone
Who feels this way
x
x
C L Couch
x
Photo by Mark Rabe on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Beatitudo
x
Where did this quiet
Come from
With the light angling inside
Yellow for benediction?
It is a gift
Of spring’s first day
It is happenstance
I don’t care
I’m thankful
For the quiet
And the colors
And the benediction I’m
Taking these to be
Thanking the one who blesses
Everything
In creating
And renewing
Like green rising from brown
Made and remade
And by the way
A gift of oxygen
For us
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Chetan Kolte on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
monday protest
x
get up
listen to the noise
and go
and this is how it starts
x
a day
in the modern world
x
no,
thank you
iI’ll stay here
in the drab place
and time
x
of dark and cold
of sleep
and safety
well
x
i won’t grow up
not i
x
if you must leave
i’ll stay
x
c l couch
x
photo by eduardo mallmann on unsplash
x
clcouch123 
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