Relegation
O God
Which is an invocation
We’re asking
You
Here and now
And are we aware
Of what we’re asking
No
Liturgically
Demanding
In
Your showing up
You’re God
And if so
The maker
And the real mover
Of
Well
Reality
All-knowing
So we say
And all powerful
Though
It’s easier
Secular
To believe invisible
And far away
That clockmaker
Having
Made and maybe
Set the clock
So long ago
Then left us to
Construct our own
Devices
Maybe
In our skill
Or lack thereof
To negotiate
Someday
To melt that primal clock
As
A Dali-like
Face-making
That is
Poured over parts
Of a parched Earth
But really
As we do things
(except
for invocation)
We could use you
Far away
And so keep our
Maybe fearing you
Also
Distant
And untested
In fact
Also
With cheek
Keeping your name
Inside our word-hoards
Available
For cursing
Or for sex
(is it
to bless the sex)
So
Such is irony
Such are
The ironies
And this is
Such
Strange wondering
As if to place you in a box
Maybe officially
To relegate you there
Until we need you
For
A ceremony
For
A clean and distanced blessing
Now and then
To complement in
Name
(whatever name)
Whatever ritual
We’ve made
Or
Somehow adapted from
The beginning
Words
So whom
Do we invoke
Just now
Whom do we ask
To call
And through our calling
Bring you here
In everything you are
And then
Even
To sing
To benedict
You
Away
Very God
Or distant God
Preeminent
Out of the way
Again
Then maybe
For an hour
Of the clock
Next
Time
Or maybe less
Then dare
We say
Amen
C L Couch
Photo by Visual Karsa on Unsplash
Well and Good
(ironic)
Oh
God
I haven’t thought
So much of you today
Weighed
Down
By my perceptions
The license that I give to stress
And even honest pain that
Doesn’t ask
For this
Forgive me
I guess
Though I’ll be doing it
Again
And
Venial or mortal
I typically can’t
Tell
So that confession
Is not a bust
Though I’m sure
A disappointment
Sigh
What shall I do
To be a servant and
Myself
To serve another
Too
And to serve you
I know
Which should be
First
Sigh again
This might be a loop
If not a cycle of
Post-Edenic rebellion
Which
We set up
As it were
At the start
But is my nature
Always enough
To explain
While I have will
As we always have discretion
Even difficult
In the moment
But I’m sorry
And I’ve thought of you
For seconds
Now
Such a big deal
And should I wake up
In my anchorite cell
Even with a car
For company
A holy cat
By its own calling
Once retrieved
The gray stone
With a specific symbol
On the wall
And a few pages
By the bed
Made out of
Nature
Meaning
Natural things
To know that I’m devout
And here to serve
The people of today
In a world
That maybe strives to rise
Or to wallow
Though I must
Keep the vision
For all of us
That may
Allow ourselves to rise
Maybe through the window
And the windowed world
I have
To look out on the other
To wait
For the inevitable
And then to wait
As in to serve
Responding to their need
And how they
How you
Say it
Then all should know
And you may know
At last
That I am with
All the time
By my own will
My time and style
Though here I am
For now
Small-town
Me for now
With all my errant loves
And wish
I could
Do better
Though for lack of djinn
And also resolution
Remains a wish
Among wishes
For faith
Or for a pony
(again
sorry
and amen)
C L Couch
Photo by José Alejandro Cuffia on Unsplash
(psst, we’re busting out of here tonight—my caption, sorry
and in part of the poem-prayer I’m channeling Saint Julian)
gospel according to Douglas
what is the loving thing
to do
what my evangelist friend
would say
as a good question
annoying question
sometimes
even daunting
when we
want
the unloving thing
to do
because we’re jealous
or frankly covetous
wanting something we have turned
into an object
(or an object)
or
(with regard to envy)
we want something
or else
in someone else
to go away
none of this
is loving
not even of
oneself
that does not need the plans
and then the consequences
of success
in those
an ersatz love
a bent love
to be honest
if honesty
be first casualty
in twisting
the better parts
in what we want
what is the loving thing
to do
not weighed
down
except in service
though there's rest
that is
the sleep
comes after
for the day
for the life
c l couch
(Douglas was an evangelist friend of mine who consistently said to ask, and act, on that as the first question or the one to which we might repentantly arrive, later)
photo by Melanie Lim on Unsplash
Food distribution in a pandemic.
published on December 28, 2020
The Pastor’s Last Sunday
I will miss him
Miss his preaching
Frankly
Which is affirming
Reasonable
And good
Though she will be arriving
Actually
Has been her for a while
So they could consult
Past and present
Which is good
As well
Things change
They must
We have some count of
Three score and ten
After all
And we age
And there’s a time decided
When we step away
Into what might be
A formless new
Retire
Or Retry
And some part of the present
Must reform
As in
Add something new
C L Couch
For “Pastor Denny” (Reverend Doctor Dennis Keller)
Photo by David Weber on Unsplash
gesture
the sound of one hand clapping
is one hand
near another
without
touching
no sound
no affirmation
it could be mine
it could be yours
it could mean a broken pledge
or something
like air-kissing
that probably means little
(except
preserve the make-up)
but we make the gesture
anyway
c l couch
based on an illustration that was really of something else—I made new gaps then filled them in
photo by Isabel Lee on Unsplash
Awestruck
God come through that door
And I shall be
Terrified
Which is part of the awe
That God deserves
With the reason why the angels
Say so often
Be not afraid
This might be difficult
Though it’s
Finally
Good news
That makes more officially
A gospel
Of the Lord
With us
An Immanuel
Time and again
Angels on assignments
A voice
A gesture
That could bring down Jericho
Or Midian
Or approve the execution
Of Holofernes
Nothing to see
Except in accidental daring
While most of those
Who hear
Do not see
Except in the world changed
After
Supplication
The results
An affirmation
Too
Of a holy presence
So much more than us
And also
Quite frankly
Inside us
Of a kind of molecule
Our machines
Have yet
To count
So seek the Lord
Or wait for being sought
For
We should find each other
To have experience
A history
Of faith
And what we hope for
The action
And the learning from
Tandem theology
With the only agenda
That is
Acceptable
So we may plan
With details
Then have
And then testify
To grace
As approval
C L Couch
Photo by Bamdad Norouzian on Unsplash
3 poems and each might stand (I hope) though together indicate a consequential process
What It Takes
The clock
Caught my attention
Because the hour
Had just turned
I prayed
Some praise
Some gratitude
Confession
Both for what I did
And what I should have done
An asking
Words about love
More thanks
A kind of pledge
About doing better
Then
Amen
I prayed what I meant
To pray
And looked up
Caught by the clock again
Four minutes
Four minutes
Maybe a hundred words
Out of this hour
And this day
Of such greater length
God willing
Imbalanced
I know
Terrible things have happened
In the past
And in the present
And we could guess into the future
But we’re taken up with
Wounds
And hunger
Inside ruins
Newly made
And if we could only keen
For natural disasters
Eruptions
Other explosions
Fires we say that rage
Winter storms
With hail
Sudden deprivations
From what developed
Unexpectedly
Then fell
Or rose upon us
Destroyed some of part of us
And will try for more next
Time
And time again
We could devote our science
And our military
Toward prevention
Preparation
Rescue
Restoration
And it would be hard
And often would be sad
And worse in tragedy that
Tears at us
As wars compounded
And the crimes we make
Tear at us
Even deeply
More bloodied
Threatening to take out
All the vital things
That make us
Us
The awfulness of now
And how we do things
Though not everything
Revealing
Promise
In an hour of today
When we let the fields and towns
By plan or by surprise
Be silent
And then we let in
Aid
Or help each other
Anyway
There’s hope in us
You see
Some want annihilation
Crazily
Some go for anarchy
Alike
And some are merely profiteering
On which side
Every side
That buys
But there’s that part
That quiet part
That then protests
That stands in front of weapons
Without weapons
Teaching us
Reminding us
Of how to stand
And how to act
To give ourselves a chance
All of us
The human race
To be
Simply to be
And then do better
With better
Vital
Parts of us
Don’t Forget the Two Parts Out of Three
Then
Or in the midst of it
There’s time
And willingness
To play
Even on a square we find
And sticks
And fashioning round things
For our
Projectiles
Or with time
We go to our closets
Root around
And
(funny)
Root for roots
The ancient games
With gloves and such
We used to play
And might not fit
But we’ll use
Something
And we’ll recreate
Which also might recall
How we had been made
To work
To play
To rest
The first
Time with
Our families
Or friends we met as children
On the street
(urban
suburban
sural)
And then picked up
The games
And rested after
In the shade
And then
Took jobs
And thought the rest
Unnecessary
Even rest
(in the shade)
Though we can have that
Now again
And should
C L Couch
Photo by Callum Hill on Unsplash
Lemur Looking
Who are you
I am a king
Maybe I’m a girl
But I’m a king
What is a zoo
Don’t look at me
I’ll decide
Who’s worthy
C L Couch
a flash response from Melissa Lemay’s prompt, https://melissalemay.wordpress.com/2024/06/03/melissas-fandango-flash-fiction-challenge-271/
I first read Grace's response at https://graceofthesun.com/playful-climb/
Photo by Stephen Hickman on Unsplash
(tag) #FFFC
Breakages
(for D-Day)
Monuments
Stand
This is the day
They reach
And many of us
Reach with them
Which was
A multinational effort
You know
North Americans
Europeans
Against their own
Our own
A sibling conflict as
Such conflicts are
Each
And every
Tragic time
And can you imagine
The ranks included
Homosexuals
Bisexuals
How many immigrants
And refugees
Those whose English
Or a native language
Wasn’t easy
Even the homeless
Even the criminal
Maybe the left-handed
Too
Also the atheist
Agnostic
Muslim
Hindu
Shinto
All other codes
With those
Who had nothing official
To adhere to
The young
The beautiful
The misformed
Too
All those who hearts
Were broken
On the beaches
And what happened to their bodies
And their minds
And maybe touched
Their patriotism
Though the
Preponderance
Moved forward
I’m sorry
You want
To think
Of everyone
Involved
Of all the same
The same
But what we know
For sure
Is all were one
Were one
That day
And in the days
Succeeding
As the world was taken
Back into its own
And
By the end
Of the year
The human race
Could after years
More freely
Run its own
C L Couch
“I’d never seen so many dead men”
voice of a D-Day veteran
Photo by David Hohl on Unsplash
clcouch123 
Recent Comments