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Allow Me

Allow Me

 

Let me introduce myself

I’m the one who’s on the other side

Of the story

No longer can I qualify the

Hero set on a horse

Questing for a sword with which

To win a realm of

Sparkling towers and one to be rescued

Inside

Who might instead

Rescue me

(I’m not that good at feints and lunges)

 

Maybe I could serve as a

Wizard (fine word from Arabic,

because the calling is exotic—would an Arab

ever find me exotic?)

I know little of enchantments

But when it comes to mistakes to

Learn someone against,

Yes, I’m there

It could be fun to mentor someone who could be

A monarch

Or a tailor or a teacher

Or a plumber or any child to

Grow up someday

 

I imagine, too,

It will break my heart

As all good teachers feel

With a loss

Or a win

 

C L Couch

 

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Weekend Warring

Weekend Warring

 

It’s Sunday, and I wonder

What to do

Where does an outcast go

To Zoar or another city of refuge

Will I be taken on

And how do I breathe the air

Of those who had abandoned me,

Now empty

 

It’s a search for something

A church without a church

See the steeple

Where are the people

A confessing place

Otherwise, an empty chapel

Would do well

Or a ruin of a larger place

Where faithful life might have been teeming

Once

And no longer

Through caprice

Of ownership or demographics

A tall room for birds now

Maybe those who listened

To Saint Francis

 

I don’t mean to hide

I am energized by people

As sometimes they have been by me

Even though they took too much

Last time

And what is left is wondering

And, yes, wandering, too

 

A walk outside beside a grave

A columbarium, mausoleum

A museum to the dead

Though I think it might be good

Remembrance

And for the living,

We who are outside

Not even looking in, anymore

Each of us stays in place

Waiting

Attending

 

C L Couch

 

 

Leon Martinez

 

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A Little Hermeneutic for a Saturday Morning

A Little Hermeneutic for a Saturday Morning

(1 Corinthians 12:17)

 

If all were an eye

Which is a phrase I heard

(maybe in translation)

Then the body would have

Nothing else to do

Beyond looking

 

Sounds dull and

V R notwithstanding

Two-dimensional

 

Only when the body is all active

Is there interest and

Engagement with all the creation

That’s around us

 

And with the Genesis maker

We can say

(we have mouths)

That this is good

 

C L Couch

 

 

By Edgar Degas – High Museum of Art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28897481

 

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Leaving Church

Leaving Church

(all souls day)

 

The living church remembered

Now in the season

Hallowtide

We can recall who’s gone ahead

Who maybe holds a door

For the rest

Whatever our next jobs might be

 

I’ve lost too many

Witnesses

Pillars

Walking prayers for me

While mostly they were they

More than an idea of a person

Or a symbol

Or an inspiration

 

Beyond living day to day

Flawed

Moody

Qualifying me for our companionship

Until one gone

And then another

 

C L Couch

 

 

By Klearchos Kapoutsis from Santorini, Greece – Zaduszki, uploaded by Yarl, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25289705

The Catholic church celebrates Zaduszki (“All Souls Day”) one day after the All Saints Day. Photo from the Polish cemetery of Osobowice in Wroclaw.

 

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Living Church

Living Church

(all saints day)

 

I sing a song of the saints of God

Small s people

Some of the names we know

Many, many, many

We will not

But this is their day

Your day

A day for living in the church

For the church

The kirke

The iglesia

Is people, translated

And without translation

Who could know?

Another song mentions a spark

But really it takes a fire

A fire on the inside

Enflaming eyes and ears

The touch, the taste, the word

Senses made alive

We burn together

Heritage and prophecy

Say so

It is the living church in irony,

For fire consumes

It can be used in punishment

Or condemnation

It makes a pillar for a promised people

Its clouds guiding by night

Set fire in the only safe and saving way

The saints of God are led

And leading

Keep us going

Take us there

 

C L Couch

 

 

Isabella Thomas (right) and Starla Williams-Neeley chat while serving the annual Thanksgiving dinner at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Milwaukee. Lynnda Guyton (center) organized this year’s meal. Also serving were (from left) Mary Banks and Denzel and Jasmine Tidmore. Credit: Kristyna Wentz-Graff

Free Meals Make Thanksgiving for Many in Milwaukee

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/free-meals-make-thanksgiving-for-many-in-milwaukee-v036kfj-134474133.html

November 24, 2011

Don Behm reporting

 

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Scream Seam

Scream Seam

 

‘Tis the season Hallowe’en

Things heard and seldom seen

Scared-er I have never been

All these spirits, in between

 

C L Couch

 

 

By John – https://www.flickr.com/photos/flashlamp/229377759/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1117448

 

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In Aslan’s Country

In Aslan’s Country

(https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46014463)

 

I don’t understand

I guess I don’t need to—

Not for mourning

Not for counting

Not for asking

 

A new plane crashes into the ocean

No survivors

 

One missed the flight for traffic

Or other ordinary reason

I imagine there are some who made it

And were considering their luck

 

Half a world away

Right now feels like home

 

Not an issue

Except that God is watching from

A breaking place

 

C L Couch

 

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Turning Time

Turning Time

 

It’s late in October, isn’t it

The season soon enough will be half over

No other season calls to itself so much

In northern parts at least, everything to say

We’re done for now

Cover us and let us rest

Autumnal residents

October people

 

C L Couch

 

 

Vincent van Gogh – Les Alyscamps: Falling Autumn Leaves 1888

Public Domain

 

2

L’Simcha

L’Simcha

 (https://theincline.com/2018/10/27/police-respond-to-active-shooting-at-tree-of-life-synagogue-in-squirrel-hill-pittsburgh/)

 

It happened in my one-time town

It could happen anywhere

We’ve known that for a while, now

We like the violence we have in

The arenas

Until we have to pay

 

A prayer service

Affirming spiritual courage

 

A coward’s assurance of easy

Semitic targets

Let’s go to church and kill

Brings his guns

 

What is the time

What will we do

 

The news mentions “a search for answers”

But the answers are all over, everywhere

 

There’s no mystery here beyond the numinous

The life of faith that the synagogue enjoys

The people there

Their guests

And anything by way of intercession

For the rest of us

 

Confirm

That eleven people died

We have to say so far

Worshipers and officers who are wounded

And more

In need of mortal healing

And more

The killer still alive

 

Pray for forgiveness sometime

Not today

Sorry I don’t have a bigger feeling

Not today

 

C L Couch

 

 

https://www.tolols.org/

Where a 3,000-year-old tradition meets a 5-year-old’s curiosity.

Tree of Life or L’Simcha Congregation is a traditional, progressive, and egalitarian congregation based in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

We offer a warm and welcoming environment where even the oldest Jewish traditions become relevant to the way our members live today. From engaging services, social events, family-friendly activities, and learning opportunities to support in times of illness or sorrow, we match the old with the new to deliver conservative Jewish tradition that’s accessible, warm, and progressive.

If you haven’t visited us yet, we welcome the chance to introduce you to our community!

 

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