untimed or mistimed time for prayer
(maybe in broken time)
God
I’m sorry
and I love you
not
sorry that I love you
and
you know what I mean
so that
should I need to say
and yet
the saying
matters
it’s on all the papers distributed
at church
so our participation
then
seems to be important
an issue of the following
to say
that we should say
or maybe think along
shall do
not
as a riddle or another game
but interaction
that is
serious as
sin
more so redemption
also
to pray for peace
from any state
of
readiness to ask or even
pledge a plan
we may or may not
have
ready to go
God
be with us wherever or
whenever
might
have to be as good as it gets
though
it’s in our purview alone to be thankful
for
small favors
while you have
the everything of everything to
care for
and to manage and should
our
words
ever mean so much
and
yet for love
and habit in the faith
it seems we carry
off
some
meaning in our making
and then our expressing
with
intention
as I
or we offer to you
now
c l couch
photo by Eugene Tkachenko on Unsplash
Egypt
church and Venezuela
prayer
and a song for peace
and
how much more to say except
a war without
our Congress calling it
and certainly without invasion
first
so we’ll need to be praying
all around
in
mourning for the losses
frankly
against the greed
and
vanity involved
with something about more terms
in
office
deceptively in play
wartime culture to manipulate
while in the church we’ll pray
and serve for
cessation
by the forgiveness and repentance
of
a nation
c l couch
photo by Eduardo Juhyun Kim on Unsplash
Morrocoy, Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Falcón, Venezuela
whose to know
I know you
as I
(existentially)
might know that goes
from
much to nearly
anonymous
as I don’t know you
and so
don’t know
what’s
healthy for you except generally
and to an extent
doctrinally
I hardly know
myself
it seems
and all the parts inside that work
well or that are inclined
yet
to rebel
not in
appreciable or creative ways
and so who am I to say
except I wish
for
wellness
I pray for healing of my niece
as I might know you
I pray
and encourage you to pray less blankly
more fully
(knowingly)
for what others and elsewhere need
also
you
and I guess that’s it
let’s pray
and might we know there’s power
in that
intercession
as well as
self-directed
if
could be with the proviso that
faith
hope
and love show up
by prayer
and anyway
and are willing to remain
first
two
the third especially goes nowhere
if all
imperfectly through us
and
perfectly from the one we know
and seek to know
even
through evidence unseen
yet
so believe
to ask
c l couch
(1 Corinthians 13:13, Hebrews 11:1)
photograph by Christina Ioannidou at Unsplash
Chamaemelum nobile.
Corinth, Greece
invocationing
I pray
for you
for my niece
and her brother
and
her parents
for the healing of my brother
after
surgery
for continued success
in sibling and grand-sibling
lives
I pray for peace
but more immediately for
binding wounds in
Gaza
and Ukraine
in
Myanmar
Tibet
and for this nation that it heal
in all the needed and
surprising ways
not
by bringing home the military to
enforce
unconstitutionally
and
we remember founding documents
in
establishing
policy and practice
affirmation
action
toward the three things guaranteed
in a declaration
leading to a war of sacrifice
to make
and keep us as that great experiment
in democracy
you know
I think you know
so
I also pray for strangers
names I know
and don’t
groups
and for those loving impositions
values
in treating fair
respecting lives
all
colors of the outside
plus
you know
the sameness on the inside
pray
for differences
and similarities
as
both are needed for a person
family
community
nation and we may look out
to take in
the versatility of the cosmos
with
what goes the same
and all uniquenesses discovered
for
one
and for the Earth
and far beyond
and really close inside
amen
c l couch
photo by Ben Gillam on Unsplash
listening up
God be with us
daytime
into night and as the hours pass
the arrival
of the twenty-sixth
still August
still serving the vanity of
Augustus
and
these were gods in Rome
and you are God
everywhere
in every age
not
wanting to disrespect
but really
it is you
one God who made all of Earth
and Earths
yet
remain yourself
the same
the one
who I think will talk with us more
as we prepare
to listen
more than ears
a little theory
mostly
practice
c l couch
photo by Jan Sents on Unsplash
praying about creations
God
are you out there
are you
in here
there is matter
there are spirits
there
is energy
and how many planes
through which
to live
we have this
self
we look through skin
with eyes and more than eyes
and less
we are alive
Earth is
alive
with even rock that moves
though let science determine
investiture
by measurement
and let us live
with
what we have
the wonders of exchange
cohabitation
of
matter and movement
oxygen
and carbon
a touch of supernal creation
to begin
and to carry into what is next
mystery
miracle
energy and matter
in
the exchange we know
and then a language with translation
only yours to speak
to generate
to sing into existence
afterward
maybe
first
a paradise to bear of explanation
and if you say
amen
c l couch
photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
love and power
Lord
who is love but you
and
who is true power
you are the source of
everything that’s
good
and the way through
anything that’s
bad
yet
love us
and lead us from inside
and over parts and all the world
from
each in a place
offering by love and power
mercy
as a measure
in justice
a way to
meet
and so live with
each other
amen
c l couch
photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
“FOR ALL” (for translation)
uncommon unsense
the prophet helps
a widow
and
when the prophet needs
ravens helps with food
making up for that business
with the ark
all the people needed food
and so food
fell
needed water
too
which poured for them
from barren places
and so
wandering the wilderness
still cannot
be comfortable
but
at least keep folk alive
meanwhile
by
basics
David thinks he needs Bathsheba
though that is
another kind of interest
not
like food and water
whatever the king might feel
he needs
as he wants
food and
drink
from her
blind
needing sight
the lame to walk
the awful sick to have some healing
that
provides a reason
there are stories
too
of prodigals repenting and returning home
of
good Samaritans while
Samaritans are not credited
so much
of parents withholding stones from children
so that giving
bread
has fulsome space as
well as love
need
and response
and
I suppose when honest
still the answer might be
no
or no
for now
frustrating how the interactions
go
in our relationship with divine
whose terms are
to
keep the evidence
of such
unseen or
otherwise unsensed
c l couch
photo by Vadym on Unsplash
it could rain
and why not so that
after
we might breathe better
the dust from the work on the street
tamped
down some if even washed away
the heatwave crash a little on
the shore
of our discomfort
though another wave
sigh
should form out there
so it’s a simple
prayer
help and amen
c l couch
photo by MARIOLA GROBELSKA on Unsplash
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