matters for prayer
(I should know there are always these to express)
sigh
so what do I have to say
if anything
right now
or in the hours to come
I give myself the day off as an
option
that some readers might not mind
the break to take
from
the entwinements
I could speak of God
for us
and I do pray for you
for us
although
I have no added insight at the moment
to the prayer
there is a wildfire
nearby
I mean
in my county
so I know the location
the forest I have driven through
and hiked in
and stayed
the place
of a human tragedy of note
(meaning it’s
marked)
from some decades ago
and while containment has been accomplished
the burning still goes there
and for
some days now
so that’s the occasion
looking for an occasion
and here’s
the spiritual part
a prayer
as
dear God
cover the firefighters and
other fighters and supporters
with care
to keep them
cool
(if possible)
and safe
(that by you is)
encourage those who had to leave
as they return
to face the changes
in damage
or simply facing the new way
things must be considered
now
not that we shouldn’t always be aware
of fragilities
and dangers
but
well
who does that all the time
no matter how exigent the living
cool
(if possible)
and safe
(that is)
please
and thank you
amen
so I said this and if you’d like to join
that would be gracious
and so
a prayer for you
and us
in that
dear God
please hear us when we speak to you
and you do
of course
but it is human to speak to you
the way we do
even the way we’re taught
grant calmness of night
and if that can’t be
so
then allow some source of calm within
that we might access
if only can a little
help us to be together
in the new day
together as in self-knit and then
joined with each other
the togetherness
in which
there’s greater hope that the day not only be
endurable
but also good to think about
to feel
and mostly to live through
peace
and union
and
our differences
amen
yes
I prayed this for you
for us
as with the other
c l couch
photo by Harrison Steen on Unsplash
fanciful yet intentional verses about night
vampyr
the life I live these days
as one
no sleep at night
but rather after dawn
insomnia
stress from above
the hours at night are clear
and
frankly
I want them
so no pointy things around me
please
I’m still so tired all the time
I’m sure I’d pierce some part of me
with those
at 11:11
a time for me and God
a time
that
God approves
a small thing between us
two
something the world shouldn’t
mind
or try to
take away
maybe you have your times
throughout the day
that
read specially to you and the one
protecting
all
our intimacies
evening drive
the rain is romantic
I can go by houses lighted for night
pretend the yellow lines are clear
drive past the occasional
driveway
sometimes pretending one
or another
could
be mine
c l couch
photo by Amir Borhan on Unsplash
something to say to God, something to you
say what
I think I should
say something to God today
not about
the weather
which is
fine
about the tree out the window
and across the street
that looks as if it’s bearing
snow
that are the blossoms back
for spring
I should say thank you
for
new growth plus
reminding winter in
a romantic way
thank you
a wish is all
I hope this is a good
day
for you
maybe a day of extra goodness
in the eccentric
way
I thought it was Thursday
when it’s
Wednesday
an extra day in which all sorts
of added goodness
might
take place
and I hope it happens
for you
c l couch
photo by Paran Koo on Unsplash
2 poems while thinking about Easter
Aslan again
was re-maned
once rising
with all wounds save mild scars
now
unremembered
new life
new joy
wanting to roar
and so roaring
and then playing
with
the children
on a hillside
where rolling
descending and ascending
make
sense
in mortality
again
(recalling that passage in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)
green-grass Saturday
made of plastic
even though there’s cheer
in memory
said memory to find itself in corners
through
the coming year
once making beds
to dye the eggs with vinegar
hot water
everything is nestled
for a while
and
as of yet
no chocolate has appeared
though we are
ready for the hunt again
on Sunday
for the same eggs
now
we cannot find
and then the chocolate
and there will be photographs
appearing of the day
and
of the day again
then in pastels
off
to church
c l couch
photo by Birger Strahl on Unsplash
chapbooklet for wrapping up the workaday week
(should you work this kind of week with its work days)
Guide
I’ve been on trails
And there were guides
And other sites
With guides
Though Mammoth Cave
Through the National Aquarium
I thought I’d like to be a guide
And applied
And got the job
Fort Necessity
But
Too far away
And I was unwell
And so stayed put
Sigh
We think of guides
They do their jobs and then
We put them
Aside
To lead our guideless lives
Except
By ourselves
And anyone who tells us what
To do
And we obey
Or otherwise we go along
Conductoring
I like conducting
I discovered rather late
I have good sense of rhythm
And a good
Sense of pitch
I have directed groups
But did not have the chance
Realities
Subsuming
To get the training I would need
To do it and be taken
Seriously
So I do the phantom thing
As others do
Conduct when no one’s looking
There might be music on
Or all the pieces
All the voices
All the movements
In my head
Southpaw
I am left-handed
Which
Yes
I’m told means I live
In my right mind
Statistically
(I suppose actuarially)
I
Understand
We lead shorter lives
Up to
Five years less
Which seems unfair
For all the terrific baseball-pitching
We
Provide
Guidance Counselor
I think that God guides
Though I’m not sure
Although
Before my doubt should intervene
My instincts
Worldly
Ego-driven
Take over all the choices
Sometimes I withhold
The choice
Long enough to hear
Or note the tug
Of the angel voice
Or pull
To indicate
This is what I should
Do
Where I should go
So I don’t know
It’s not
Negotiation
For we’re not in any
Way
In equal places
Equal parts
And yet
It matters how I listen
How
I respond
My decisions
(predestination notwithstanding)
Seem
To matter
Which might we say
From time to time
To listen to
Your know
The better angels
The other ones
Fallen like us
And yet for that kinship
We must look
To rise
Like the ones who fly
Roll of Thunder
First the lightning
Then the crash right after
Lightning
Close
Then the count took place
Increased
As hours passed
Flashes
Persisted
Though the numbers
Said the lightning had moved on
Inside
No lights flickered
Which
In a dismal state
Added balm to despair’s
Ennui
We Are Closed
(open to what’s next)
The hours close in
The last of the workweek
In my
Current culture
There will be a kind of ending
Paced by exhalations
As we leave
Where we have been for
Hours
Naturally enough
And on our way
(exhaling)
Toward home
Or pubs
Or whatever satisfied
Distracts
Over the connotative weekend
C L Couch
Have a splendid weekend!
(should you have the weekend)
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash
a two-part matter of monsters
monsters
monster means something important
out for show
but we know monster
really
for ourselves and
also monstrous
connotation
and old scary movies
and before that
illustrations here and there on paper
though mostly
through
stories
the monster that we see outside
and
do not see
the gruntings or the screams we think we
hear
there is what goes into
and has always been
inside
the mind
monsters worse that in there
rise
sometimes in sleep
or we take them waking into
feeling
thinking
the spirit
the ego
our inner things fed one way or another
and then become
our conscious
if monsters not-consciously influence
‘til
they’re
known
maybe through counsel
maybe we learn to drag the beasts from
deep lurking
into a shallow sunlit place
where they
are known
and
let
awareness both appreciate as well as
eschew
all monsters
doubting
they do not go away
so we’ll pursue
and
come to know in unshadowed time
and circumstances
live with
then
the monstrous as
best
(not beast)
as we may
monstrous negotiation
maybe that’s how I’ll leave it
a discussion
for
the day
of what’s monstrous
what are the beasts that lurk away
or want
to invade
and also the shaded things
as creatures
that
we keep inside
the world
certainly can
be
a bestial place
look at D. C.
and also western Asia with points
west
and east
until except for penguin colonies
the Earth is subsumed
by
all the monster presences
and possibilities
and we think monster-hunting will
resolve
except the monstrous will not like it
and might attack
or simply
push
tall and deadly things from
the forests in
our way
the forest out there
and
of course
the woods in here
the fairytale monsters
point
toward us while
reading or
otherwise receiving
and while they
return
and so we have more stories
maybe there’s
a matter of negotiation
that
only lately
except for Androcles
the narratives are positing
that
we make friends
with dragons
and
so ask Saint George to consider new
pursuits
that we bargain with ourselves
as well
and the clawed and jagged creature-parts
dwelling
deep
but changing moods
and agendas near and over the surface
to outside
and
then each other
rather
to learn the monsters
that
we won’t need to feed them
they’ll be fine
and teach us in return
that what is
monstrous
needs no encouragement
but
in appreciation
then
of everything we are
chastened
we step into the waters of the world
all the currents
even
caves once knowing
what inhabits
there
in me
in you
so us
and in them
until the them be us as well
c l couch
photo by steffen wienberg on Unsplash
“Same Old,” “Same New,” two poems about faith and doubt (or doubt and faith)
Same Old
I’ve written
On these themes before
And sorry for
The repetition
Sometimes
I know
And deal in the same
The seasons
Say
Because these things wear well
At least on me
Like shoes that fit
At last
Or stories that we like
To tell
The substance of Dad
Jokes
No doubt
But here I deal
Because
I must confess that some things get
To me
Which might be sole motivation
For
Classic-worthy writers
(like the class that earns
gold medals)
but
Sometimes I fear as well in addition to
The trouble
Heartless
Of the intellect
Where do we go
And why the lack of permission
To know
I could take gnosis or agnosis
I suppose
But beyond
Secret knowledge
And the memberships
How do we
Know
As anyone
To know for
Real
When even feelings of assurance
Fail
While our God says
Through lore
That God loves us
And wants
If not aches
For all of us be joined with God sometime
Well
The testimonies that we have
Discuss doubt
Even in those right before the Lord
Not
For us
From ages past
Hmm
Maybe there’s something there
In I believe
Help my unbelief
The
Salvation formula clearly given
And yet
One must admit to doubting
Even in the face
Or by the words of
God
Moses
Miriam
Others
With the loving parent brought before
The Christ
In order for the child to be healed
And told
Believe
Is all
And must say to Christ
I believe
And I don’t believe
And I must ask you to help me
In the second
Maybe both
And then
You know
Without a test
(a further test perhaps)
The child is healed
Mark 9
You can Thurber-look it up
Yet there is doubt
To read
And doubt
To have
And finally the doubt beneath the doubt
Like the last temptations
We have heard
About
The final doubt that maybe all
Must face
In that all this of faith is real
With the results
Rewards
Perhaps
Truly
Taking place
And for faith we are heaven-sent
And then heaven-arrived
I believe
Help my unbelief
We come from God
We go to God
No doubt
Same New
And why
Should it have to go this way
Maybe not
If there were no
Postlapsarian
Maybe unfallen
Our impulse would be clear
That we are here
To tend
A garden
And each other
Build a planet
With
Because we have
Approval of the Lord
Maybe Love divine
All loves
Excelling
That with will
We go the first way
The way set up
The way
Hoped for
By the creator who must weep
Maybe turn angry when
We go the other way
The way
Of life we know
We have
Regardless of our knowing
Even
Rather mindlessly
Living for the self and for
Enough freedom
To live
In hard times
Or
Take despot-like because
Soft
Times are desired and
We might get away
With that
For those aware of virtues
To follow or
Desist
For those facing temptation
To give in
Or resist
Well
We could be puppets of the Lord
And
We are not
And there are consequences
To the will
We choose with harder judgments on
Those who steal choices
From others
And notions of paradise are fine
Truly fine
But cannot be realized here
Or any institution
Since
All things collective are inhabited
After all
By us
The way we are
And so paradise is distant
So distant as to be unreachable
Before
An afterlife
When and where
Forgiven things are not
Extant and the honest life put down
Is raised
To live inside
A new
And everlasting
Trend
Sigh
Outside of Eden
Where it’s hard
Though
Maybe we’d have had hard work
For perform in there
With
The work meaning delight
For
The change from how we treat work
Have work treat us
Now
Well
We live now
And may look forward
Toward something beyond
A worldly end
To something
Perelandra-like
Means
Both a willful and
Sinless life
Even
A planet’s existence
Decided
The right way from Eden
C L Couch
Perelandra, novel by C. S. Lewis; “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” hymn by Charles Wesley; Mark 9 in the Christian New Testament; “You Could Look It Up,” short story by James Thurber
Photo by Paolo Bendandi on Unsplash
BELIEF (for translation)
Lyon, France
No Amens Required
(prayers, devotions for occasions)
reach
thank you
God
for today
as it is
in these smooth hours
even before
everything gets difficult
again
Say
God
What shall we say that you
Provide
And is the cost
Belief
Or does
Grace mean
That everything is
Free
And
Do you love us
Anyway
And
Do you love the ones we know
Are evil
Or merely corrupted
Even in their prosperity
Good
And
Evil
We may not think on these
We might
Instead
By getting by
Or
Trying to
And could we
Ask
We’d only ask for this
And leave the larger matters
Maybe
Well
Maybe
Up to you
Sorry a Tired Prayer
(if not fed-up)
Lord
You made me this say
And the world
And my own
Mistakes
I guess
And I don’t know
Not that I wouldn’t own
But what should I
Own
And what is the fault of
Something else
And
I don’t know
Except
I’m tired of the way things are
Thinking
Peace
Would be preferred
Even over love
For an ambition
Even
A dream from which a plan
To get me
There
A confession
Maybe
An asking
Without doubt
Because
I hope
At least
You’ll do it
Grant me what I need
I don’t mean to ask it
As a wish
Before a genie
Having
Shined a
Lamp
You are not Loki or the
Raven
And yet
Christ might inherit all the qualities
Of
Fools
Which might mean tricksters
And
Who knows
Maybe the world is a trick
From which we wake
Or which is
Ours
To change
And yet
Sigh
Maybe I have some peace
Maybe too old
In age of spirit
Too
Exhausted to
Ask for
More
And yet I’ll pledge
To take
My part in it somehow
shall I say to you
(even daring to assure)
what shall I say to you today
dear
reader
responder
to hang on
or to glory in prosperity
(the second maybe
I don’t need
to
emphasize)
but God smile on you
anew
if it seems not ongoing
be with you
and love you through everything
the easy
and the strong
that seems against
you
the stable
if it’s good
or that which shatters
we must believe
because
it must
God be with you through it all
and God is
C L Couch
Photo by Dmytro Bayer on Unsplash
lyrics on a day that’s cold and cold at least in the MidAtlantic
Suburban Wait
Winter light’s
Too bright
For cleaning deeply
Finally
Dispiriting
The leaning light
Shows everything we’ll never get
To or
Even want
To get around to
Those dust-bunnies shall
Keep their warrens
After all
While we wait
For the easy lighting
To clean by
Which
Will happen
You know
Spring
Roll
Roll in the hay
Roll out the barrel
Mister
Yankovic
Roll on home
Now
There might be rolls
For dinner
Rolled oats
Though I don’t know what
These are
Roll the dice
Roll to win
Field Work
God
You love us
Anyway
Which is remarkable
Not inexcusably
But
Unconditionally
Which splices doctrine
Maybe
But you can handle that
And so
Should we
The field of the Lord is vast
There are no mines
No
Not ever
Only living things
Mythic plants
That spring back as we pass over
Them
So that everyone may have
The chance
To pilgrim
Toward
What’s next
Possessive Tense
The dogs of God
The cats
The bunnies
Too
The aardvarks
And the platypus too silly
Some
Might think
The insects
Too
There might be reasons
For mosquitoes
What is tall
What is
Low
What is brief
What has long life
On Earth
The Earth is the Lord’s
Too
A place on which to keep
The complex
Living things
And
Well
Among these
Us
Use Words
(as you are able)
I love you
Honestly
I know
(since I’m in me)
You love me
I think I know
Not quite as
Whose woods are these
I know
(not with the same divine
assurance
frankly)
So you might have to say
From time to time
Though if you
Always do
(flawed occasions notwithstanding)
Then
Maybe not so much to say
But
Sorry
Still
To say
C L Couch
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost (cited)
Photo by Kevin Cress on Unsplash
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