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Friends in Foxholes

(x = space)

x

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Friends in Foxholes

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And when it’s tense

There’s prayer;

When it’s calm

There is thanksgiving

It’s discipline

But of a really easy kind

No one to tell us

That we got it wrong

Not for some centuries, now

x

Pray with liberality

Remember whom

We’re speaking to

It isn’t Casper

It isn’t Torquemada,

Either

We are free to speak

To someone who has heard

All of it

Maybe we don’t need to talk

And yet I think we do

It’s not a trick or catching

Of a regulation

It signals our participation

If mostly to ourselves

A genie in the story

Might not

Pull away the layers

Assuming, rather

That all humans

Are the same

And so we are

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The one or ones

We pray to knows or know it all

Yet will wait beside

To know our knowing

What we want most of all

To say

Gauging will against

Articulation

x

This isn’t a trick, either;

If self-correction fails

Well, God can

Work it out

Though it goes better

With our knowing

Or really simply

Something of

A loving interest

Even badly done

x

And doesn’t that sound

British in a Masterpiece sort

Of way?

Cheer-o, God will

Soldier us on

Well, maybe not

Honesty’s in many

Brogues

And attitudes, I’m sure,

Overall

And we are taken as we are

x

Slight readiness is all

That’s needed for

The feast,

Though if we’ve forgotten

God will take us, anyway

For what is slight

Might be crucial,

An ill-willed sibling

War

Waiting by the altar

x

But sometimes

There is surprise in grace

And anyone is

Welcome in whatever

State come to pray

To ask

Knowing without knowing

(if it comes to that)

That something wonderful

Will happen

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C L Couch

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by National Museum of the U.S. Navy – 80-G-304819, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70725677

80-G-304819: Battle for Iwo Jima, February-March 1945. Crouching in a foxhole they share in Iwo Jima are Marine Corporal Virgil S. Burgess and his courier dog, Prince. Burgess is giving instructions to the dog which will shortly jump out of the foxhole and carry a message to another point on the battle field, February 28, 1945. U.S. Navy Photograph now in the collections of the National Archives. (2016/01/19).

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1

Timing Isn’t Everything

Timing Isn’t Everything

 

When we pray

There is listening

Because God is infinite,

Which means

There’s plenty of time

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by June O on Unsplash

 

9

Prayers for Buddy-Boo

Prayers for Buddy-Boo

 

I know there are things

happening.  Wars both

declared and un- or not

so much. Freedoms

challenged by despotism.

I probably don’t need

to mention disease.

But there’s a little—I mean,

little—dog who always

treats me with meaningful

indifference, and now

he’s sick.  He could use

help through prayer and-or

some good and hopeful

thinking.  You know I mean

the actual kind.  Saint

Francis would approve and so

would mom. He’s in the

hospital, and the photo

somehow looks both

cute and solemn.  His name

is Buddy, which is his role

to my friend who is

distraught.  She isn’t asking

for your help.  I thought I

would.  And offer thanks

in agency for everyone.

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash

(detail)

 

6

Petition

Petition

 

There’s pain everywhere,

And I don’t think I’m

Doing

Much about it

Issues in the neighborhood

Still stand

In the house are

Grievances unspoken, which go

Better than confrontations

Bearing fruit in violence,

If only verbal

 

And so with all

The awfulness that’s

Really going on—sickness,

Death,

Wanting to rush around

The scientific process

 

For fear of more

That’s terrible—I ask

Maybe we ask

For something better than we

Tend to be

A cure

At least a treatment for more

Than symptoms (though

grateful for that),

Frankly, a beatific day

Not until tomorrow

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by Adina Voicu from Pixabay

 

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Favored

Favored

(a prayer)

 

So God

What will you have

My heart

It’s yours

My head

I’m not sure what all is in there

(or the heart)

But sure it’s yours

My muscles

All the nerves

The organs as they are

Some with extra parts

Some not working much at all

You want them

Sure

Okay

My spirit must be in there

Somewhere

Somewhere my soul

You want my soul

Dear Lord

All right

I don’t know how to turn it over

So you’ll have to teach me

Maybe it starts with this

Create in me a clean heart

O God

And renew a right spirit

Within me

I don’t how that happens either

Maybe I could learn this

From an angel

Or another agent

Of yours in the world

 

Help my unbelief

For the world that you allow

Is filled with snares

And I am good at getting caught

Unwrap the rope

From my heel

The chain around my chest

The mask that has no eyes

Over my spirit

Free me as you will

As you conspire

Maybe I could add to the favor

For another

 

Thank you for will

Though sometimes I think

I’d do better without it

Though to think about again

I’d hate the puppet string

(claustrophobic

or whatever is

the fear of being captured)

If my will is something else you’d like

All right

Gentle as a dove

Wise as a serpent

It’s all yours

 

C L Couch

 

 

Psalm 51:10

Mark 9:24b

(Matthew 10:16b)

 

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, United States

 

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Love Story

Love Story

 

I should be writing about

Love, as

I was challenged years ago

By someone who no longer stays in touch

(no response, and that was that

a mystery)

To consider love in all I do

I fail, naturally enough

But the challenge is still good,

Still salient, still on

How may I love you today?

I’ll share a few words and offer a prayer

When you’re not looking

And if all this sounds way too platitudinous,

Well, remember the word

Silver has an origin in there

Something precious without money

Without recompense

Except its own

Is this family?

I don’t know, how is your family?

But, yes, I think so as the family goes beyond

Blood and legal bond

And even then

 

And we are the bond of Earth

With other obligations,

Though starting with a love of planet

Ain’t so bad

I love you

And the you is you

And all the yous

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Renee Fisher on Unsplash

Manhattan, New York, United States

#LoveWall in Manhattan, NY

 

7

Praying from Democracyland

Praying from Democracyland

 

Okay, God

You and me

Don’t you have

The poor end of the stick

I can rely on the other end

That’s you

I treat you as a friend

Sometimes as a phantom

Sometimes wish you down

Upon my enemies

With fire and menace

But then consider

Those for me

And cease

I have to

That is doctrine

Sigh (a real, stage, and

spiritual direction)

 

You are the source of power

Start of majesty,

I know

I treat you like a pal

I shouldn’t do that

But you are the source of love, more so

And I don’t know how to deal

In that,

Snubbing all formality

In wanting easy terms

For us

 

As a suggestion, let’s read your gospel

Much of that has clarity, I know

And honestly the fuzzy parts

Are interesting but not compelling

Either way

 

So I’ll rely on truth as

I can get it from

A reading and a prayer

You’ll be there,

I know

As in everything you started

The skies

The world

And me

Anyone who listens

Or does not listen

Who hears but does not hear

Sometimes like me,

Though now

This is about you

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash

Portland, United States

Condensation and fresh raindrops against the window of our car during a trip to get donuts in Portland, Oregon.

 

13

Prayer of the Lame

Prayer of the Lame

 

Dear Lord

I hope I can do this right

What I have left

To live, to give, to try

I doubt I understand humility

But being filled with nothing but myself

Is no fun, either

How many times have saints

Asked to be emptied of themselves

So that they might be filled

With sanctity, with piety

To serve

I’m sure I can’t go that far

Too many times I’ve lost myself

In other ways

And fear to come near the edge

Of that again

 

I don’t want to make divinity of will

And, you know, I don’t love myself so much

But there is something

(your fault)

In genesis

In being made and trying to figure out

The puzzle, after

The pieces that we have

Without the border, without corners

Believing, though, there is some shape

Some definition

Of both kinds, shape and meaning

 

Dear Lord

Please let me have this day

And promise of another

I might work nothing out

But maybe heart

And mind and body, as is (as are)

Have meaning in existing

The energy in pushing blood

In cracking synapse in the brain

In what is known

And unknown

Done and not done

Sin and virtue

Understood, worked out

Correctly, with discretion

For a change

 

Dear Lord

Help us, not

Know it all

Or even much

But to find the joy and peace

That might

You know

Indeed, pass all our understanding

And come back to live with us

Prodigal salvation

Broken heart

Faith in fractures

As I am

As we are

Old song, missing notes

Still sings

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Alev Takil on Unsplash

 

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Naphtali

Naphtali

(Genesis 49:21)

 

We say grace

As an association with blessing

Bless our food, bless us

As we eat it

And as we use the nourishment

Singly and together

 

I was asked (selected) to

Share grace at family camp

Deer Valley, Pennsylvania

I wanted to say something grown-up

Over the microphone

But was told to say the childish

One we learned to say at dinner time

I was a child

So it was okay

 

Now I can’t recall which prayer

It was

Wait, here it is

 

Thank you for the world so sweet

Thank you for the food we eat

Thank you for the birds that sing

Thank you, God, for everything!

(a sibling can correct me)

 

What is the source for a proper

Citation?

I don’t know; I don’t think I want to know

The source is childhood

And grace in remembering

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Yangfan Gan on Unsplash

 

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