(x = space)
x
x
Mille Grazie per Preghiera
x
I feel as if
I should offer
A prayer
To God
For something
x
Gratitude
Confession
Promise or
At least desire
To do better
x
Petition,
Intercession
Plus my own things
x
I’m not sure
How that’s the praise
That’s called for
While it seems
Mostly like complaining
x
Except to say thank you;
Maybe there’s praise
In that
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash
x
sorry for any Italian language that I broke
x
thank you
x
(x = space)
x
x
We Need You and Sometimes We Can’t
x
Help us to love you,
O Lord,
Though
You may live without us
x
Still, we can exist
Together
In a bond that is
Extraordinary:
Of energy, of will,
Of love without agenda,
All around
x
It’s hard to love invisibly
With thoughts and feelings
We can’t see
And then
Your presence, Lord
x
With things unseen
And unevidenced
In other ways,
Our senses confounded
For lack of usefulness
The kind employed in what we do
In anything—and
How may we
Sense you?
x
There is stigmata for a few
And apparitions;
There are those
Who hear your words
In air
Or those emblazoned
Understood
Upon the heart
x
We want to know;
We get frustrated
Then we worry
For offense
(offending God does not seem smart)
Or we give up
Ignore
And in internal ways
We walk away
x
But you are there
We should believe
And within parameters
Of material and abstract
Hope for more
x
That on this side
We may have in measures
That will have to do
For life
And faith
And all the things we have to do
To make things better
One by one
And altogether
x
Tolerance
And patience
Peace
And feeding
Giving water
Giving hope for more
In all the needs of life
(material and abstract)
x
Help us, Lord,
Or let us help ourselves
And the others;
Be with us
And invisibly
Leave us to choose
In respect
Of how we’re made
And otherwise arranged
Our will
That we often apply well
Even without
Preternatural accoutrements
Composing a few rituals
For service
Pledging how to live
On our own
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Honestly
x
O God
You are so good
I say this when the sun is out
Will I say it
In the storm
When I am losing everything I’ve had
Maybe a person
x
While my people are shattered
Or even when the sun
Comes out
After
x
I won’t believe the sun
May I believe you
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Tent Revival
x
God of my thoughts,
You guide me
As I’m open
You fill the vessel
Pour it right
Not that there aren’t miracles
There are
You guide me
When I refuse to guide myself
It is the other side of faith
The pledge we made
A while ago
You can guide the pain that’s there,
Which is good when I am
Overwhelmed
Help me, Lord
I’m tired
I don’t know what I am doing
What a good time
For an angel to intrude
There is pain
You can use it
With the rest of me
All yours
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Should Wang on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Prayer for Running Fast
x
God,
Keep us this day
A helicopter crash in Ukraine
Kills civilians
But then it is a war at home
Battlefields lost their discretion
Long ago
x
There are fires
In my area
With human loss
And then materials
House fires
Are fearful to contemplate
To see
To hear the testimony
On the news
Of loss
And victims
Who are hurt
Who die
Who die later on
Because house fires have consequences
Changing life
After what happens now
x
There are changes
Some by force
We can blame nature
Or each other
The neighborhood beneath the bridge
Is ending
By the hands of institutions
Other hands will help
With the newly homeless
So that there will be
Breathing out
That problem resolved,
We’ll say for now
Then think about other things
Quickening
Our palates
x
So what do we care about?
What happens to ourselves
That’s natural
Our reaching toward
The plight
Or the good news
Of others
That is an instinct
From an impulse
God-given trait
Or capacity
We train
And practice
Like a discipline
Like any discipline
Run fast?
Care for others
x
Be a coach
Be a pal
You are sovereign
God of gods and
Lord of the self-styled lords
You are our king
Our queen
Allegiance
And tribute
Are ours to give
To pledge from our own knowing
And our gifting
And yet you’ll turn around
To teach us
And provide
x
It is a mystery
A frustrating mystery
Of labor
Sweat
And drops of blood
Each day
In all our stations
And yet we ask
In all our stations
Be with us
Start and close the day with us
Talk with us
Provide
Not as a tontine
Not as prophecy
But like love notes
Or neighbors come to coffee
And to be with us
When we stumble
Or when
Dear things
Dear lives
Must crash
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash
x
Ukraine’s interior minister among at least 14 killed in helicopter crash
x
(x = space)
x
x
devotional rant
x
i hear the cat upstairs
my brother dies from cancer
floods kill people
in the South
the Russian war goes on
and there are fires elsewhere
made by us
weapons
and-or
mania
x
there must be reasons for these
and there are
that might be the easy part
will
and stakes for will
this is not for training
this is real
i should say
i don’t know
how all this might apply
to what’s next
what’s coming
x
for now
the harder part
is having what we have
and turning victory
from unshapen shapes
of loss
the lathe of heaven
she writes,
refining all that’s here
x
and yet outside the story
(the story teaches)
we have
what we have
and must make do
and should do better
we should win
not over each other
but over demons
on the earth,
ones that are
ones we make
x
we know better
our skill is better
we can help each other
so much better
some do
the rest ought
to do
x
we have the instruments
play on
war on
peace on
x
c l couch
x
x
note
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
x
Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Earthquake in Indonesia
x
Pray for the souls
Of victims
Dead and living
And the
In-between
We don’t understand the hundreds
Because we are not there
We’ve seen pictures
These are not enough
What would we see for real?
What would we smell?
What would we taste?
What would we be allowed
To touch
And whom?
And all the misery
We’d hear
From the keening of the living
And the demons overhead
And underground
That scream a victory
x
Nature is corrupted
We’re claiming the win
x
C L Couch
x
x
Boy, 6, pulled alive from wreckage of Indonesia earthquake
Story by Masrur Jamaluddin • 1h ago
x
Photo by Chris Zhang on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Latest
(family things)
x
My brother’s in the hospital
I’m not sure what that means
He fell
I know that much
He spent the night outside,
Which I think must mean
There’s trauma
x
A body worked too hard
A body with cancer worked too hard
A neighbor saw him in the morning
And called 911
He’s hundreds of miles away
And he’s in the hospital
In downtown Pittsburgh
My sister says the hospital is good
Urban, smart, efficient
x
Everyone knows their jobs
And what to do for him
x
Now we know
We’re standing by
Something will happen
And we’ll all come in
It doesn’t have to take an ending
He simply needs to be in one place
Or another
For a time
x
What contemporary medicine allows
And Medicare affords
A rehab center
For new fractures
While his cancer’s tended
And he
And everyone
Must deal with that
x
We’ve been out there
When and where shall we go now?
x
I’ve rattled all this off
Because
I don’t know how to be ready
For what’s next
I wish I had resources
Of all kinds
x
Family things
Obviously
Certainly (to push on
the conceit) I don’t mind
If you know
x
If you pray,
Maybe you’ll pray
I believe the power in that
God bless him
And help us all
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
An Angel Visits Francis
x
I speak to God today
God is quiet
Not uninvolved
With nothing noisy
To contribute
Beyond the rain outside
The singing tires
The occasional movement
Inside
From a neighbor
Or from me
x
I wonder when an angel
Visits Francis
How it goes
No, don’t get up
Relax the hand with the ring
No doubt you lift the office
With an instinct
Anymore
I’m here to rest with you
For a moment
To be still
You know the issues
And the crises in the world
One of us will tell you
When there are
Awful surprises
You are doing well
We are
I am
Sorry when you’re sick
The age and job
Do take it out of you
You could retire
Like your peer
Sometimes I think
He has the better part
But I don’t think you’ll give up
‘Til you have the sense
You’re done
Remember I am here
We are here
We fly around you
Dance with happiness
Or grief
You know we are not
The round things of the Renaissance
But are might beings
Wide in span
And awful
As in full of awe
To know us
And carry power
You know whose
And are ready
Should you wish us to defend
Evil forefend
Should you wish to rest with us around
And when you’re ready
To be escorted
Even carried
Home
x
We are will
And we love you
x
Back to me
And God is ready for your voice
When you wish to speak
Or keep it in your mind
The better things
Are in your heart
We’re told,
Which means your spirit
The spirit of the Lord
Is with you, too,
Waking or sleeping
Like the song
Agents of God
Angels and nature
Sing around you
Sometimes difficult
Impossible, it seems,
To hear
But singing nonetheless
The music of the spheres
The song that’s in your sphere
Of hope
And love
To resonate with good things
To navigate the bad
There is help
In that
In both
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
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