(x = space)
x
x
Dona Nobis Please
x
God
I wish I knew a round
And had a choir
Volunteered
x
A canon in the better sense
For meaning without questioning
The bias
x
I guess
What I really mean
Is to write the round
For exigence
A canon for the evening
Fluidly
To welcome stars
And thoughts of rest
And afterward
Retire
With notes to welcome dreams
x
Amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Adam Ulrich on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Lord Hears
x
The Lord hears
Our prayers
We don’t how they’re
Tallied or remembered
If there’s a meeting
On each day in heaven
When and where
Angels receive assignments
Even discuss
The timing
x
Each word is heard
There is no requirement
We may ask in faith
Or doubt
We might be easy in our words
Or difficult
Say something
It is heard
x
It might be yes or no
Though the Lord is more than
Binary
There must be many ways
To answer prayer
Materially
Abstractly
With small mechanical change
Or simply in an attitude
Encouraged to endure
x
Good is still pretty good
Without the bad
There is a learning value
We suppose
But ask for what is needed
And think about
Confession
And thanksgiving
x
Dear and
Amen
Is not
Are not
Required
Say either or both
For a beginning and an ending
Or you know
Don’t
Leave the prayer suspended
In the air
For someone else to catch
To carry with endearment
For another’s hearing
And response
x
There’s always something next
Pray badly
Stutter in your heart
Speak
Or simply think your prayer with God
Pray what Jesus taught
As a responsibility
An affirmation
x
But however
The words go
And whichever
We will be heard by truth
And responded to
With love’s
Practicality
And maybe by our reckoning
A miracle
x
Listened
And responded to
The transactional nature of the world
Confirms
It points the way
Creation’s creator
Reckoning perfectly
Providing something always
In return
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by whoislimos on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Te Deum
x
I pray to God
And Jesus
Rarely directly to
The Holy Spirit
Sorry, Spirit
Though it seems
I’m talking with you
All the time
As an indication
A reality
Of indwelling
x
You are the nearest
The closest part
Of God
In fact, in me
While I know
It’s three in one
But for all I know
It might be
That you are the part of God
Who is the most patient
Part
(indwelling)
And who somehow
Loves me best
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Savvas Kalimeris on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
What Do We Pray For
x
Say something to us
Please
What we want
To hear
Might be nice
But when we know
When we turn the wheel
And this turns up
As consciousness
We know
Our self-deceits
Or can
Or maybe that’s just it
We need some freedom
From ourselves
Something
In a gospel message
Breaking through
(shining a little?)
Our conceits
Both kinds
x
Our designs
Are based on pi
We calculate
We cannot calculate
But must have things
Anyway
And so the n
And so the sigma
All the unending
Sequences
That long before
The ether part
We count
And build
Move in
And have our castles
In the mind
And everything in fact
Upon the Earth
And orbiting
Around
And for a while now
Our trips
Through the planets
Now hoping to evangelize
A neighbor star
x
So many ways we build
On unknowing
And the consequential
Binding ourselves
To our ideas
To our agendas
And to hiding them
Our civilized
Transgression
x
Maye a word of clarity
Then
Maybe
Maybe a smidgeon
Of what’s real
Delivered in a jiff
Or honesty
Yeah
Maybe we could take that
Please
And thank you
We mean
(we want
to mean it)
Amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Dhilip Antony on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Contritions
x
I don’t know what else to say
I wish I could resort
To the Bible better
I wish I knew
The right way to pray
Rather than the stabs I take
To try
I wish I were more righteous
In the right way
I think there is a right way
x
But you are there
And I am here
And you are here
With angels to assist
I know
Beyond a fancy
More than because
I’m supposed to
x
I believe
Because I do
And my choice doesn’t affect
At all
Your existence
My choice important
Faith to allow the grace
Free sacrifice
To hold
Even take root
And grow
x
But what am I
Nothing of
A Gospel hero
Let alone the older tales
Or new ones
What shall I give to you
You don’t already have
And more
And better
But that the slip of self
The folded leaf along the vein
Whose only purpose left
In fall
Is falling
x
But that you want me
Anyway
Though I find wanting
Every way
A scary thing
That is the lesson of the world
Through splintering experience
x
You can bring enough
Together
I know this
And enough might be enough
I’ll pray
I’ll try to read
To comprehend
The wisdom
Or maybe
Just enough
Justly to pray
Enough salvation
For today
Should you come by night
And then by night
Like heart attacks
Frightening
To take me home
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
dedication holy
x
do we love these people?
yes, we do
each one
every one
you have made it this far
now let us go with you
in everything
all circumstances
light and shadow
as God is there
we commit
to be there, too
x
(add now
our prayers and meditations
from our
part of the family
new fam’ly
for the one)
x
amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Daniel Seßler on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Smallest Things
x
It’s cold
There is a blanket
There are enough things
For morning coffee
And toast
For breakfast later on
There is sunlight
So our whole planet
Has another
Day
There is water
I can drink
x
I can wash things
I can
Wash me
x
I have trash
Lined up in bags
Somewhere to take it
I have other piles
(boxes)
By the door
That should I have the
Help
Can go away
Be useful for others who
Might need some things
I had
x
My
Neighbors
Beat the ceiling
But there are no literal explosions
We are lucky
We have things
We can share
When
We want to
We can live in peace relative
To what’s inside
But peace for war
All
The same
x
C L Couch
x
x
Peace Relative
x
Relative to war
And to shutting doors
To keep things out
As if
We hadn’t seen or heard them
Once before
Or every day
x
Relative to shining in
With sunlight
Rather than
Explosives
Something negligent
Or something planned
x
Maybe not peace everywhere
Not yet
And peace organic
Certainly not remaining
Only
Peace from graves
x
Gravesides are pretty
And they’re quiet,
Mostly
We can do so much better
We should
We must
x
We want
To be there
At the end
And how about
A single turning page
Into the story of
Today?
x
Be there for that
Lift each other
The greater adventure
Is not war
Or even matter turned to energy
(it should go
the other way around)
But matters
Of the story
Withheld until we know
We have
Today
x
Next chapter
Please God
Please
Each other
Please
Let’s have the next
Have the next
Now
x
Now
Now
And now
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Nowshad Arefin on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Prayer Practicing
x
The best place to pray
Is at church
Or at home
Or in the car
Or on the sidewalk
(watch your
step)
Or beneath a tree
Or inside a tree,
Having climbed
Up
x
With others
Or all alone
Or with numbers
In between
One and many
x
On a farm
Or in a skyscraper
On the water
On a hillside
Atop a mountain
In the valley
At the entrance to a desert
Far within
x
While walking
While
Sitting still
x
So anywhere
And when you’re feeling
Where is
Nowhere
x
Amen
x
C L Couch
x
x
View of Mount Cook, circa 1930, New Zealand, by Margaret Stoddart.
Photo by Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
to pray
x
not wishful thinking
not wishes
maybe wishes
maybe where your wants
and mine
and ours
might come together as if this were
how a point of light
in the sky at night
were made
x
we might accomplish this
our wishes changed
our wants intersect
so that
there is something like justice
and like mercy
x
both humility
and confidence
in faith
amen
x
c l couch
x
x
Photo by Tyler Jamieson Moulton on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
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