Typing Calvinist
Relationships
I’m not good with these
At these
Look at me
Alone
While typing
Word of Earth and faith
As if
I know
At least I have good sources
To go to
And
Yes
This is a solitary act
Traditionally and
Typically
Insofar as that is an operable excuse
But what
Do I know
Whom
Do I
Know
And I don’t know and this
Is doubt
Or course or sometimes when
I refuse to listen
To God
Or you
Or anyone
Too busy with that log in my eye
To see
The virtues of
My sibling people
(who are
all
people)
And while the log means a good challenge
It can be excess
Self-preoccupation
Too
But
Finally to set this down
To set anything on an electron page
Nonetheless
To be
Picked up in an archetypal way
To read
And to respond
This must for you
For all of you
And all for you
There is no reason
Other
Self-expression
Sure
But not enough as we might say
That we are good
And that
Is not enough
C L Couch
(Protestants like work and Calvin liked grace and also Mary; I don’t know enough of Hobbes to say (hah), though I do think most good things go together--say, spirit and flesh; faith and work; readers and writers (when both are good or trying good); voice and text
and with apologies for abstruseness)
Photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández on Unsplash
Seasons’ Reasonings
(or is it reason’s seasonings)
What do I really want
To say today
And shall I break
From
My agenda
Even of pressing needs
For aren’t they all
Seeming-
Exigent
I want
To say
Simple and plain
I guess
As folk
As others
Say
And it’s
God loves you
And
While God loves you
In
The strength and practicality
Of love
Without the pink and lace
So much
Until it’s time
For these
In my land
After the groundhog wakes
And the better President
Is born
And then
Another tussle for
Too many
With
In fact
Pink isolation
Like
Too-often
Christmas green
While all of it
We know
As blue
(though
yes
Elvis’s Christmases
are blue)
Until and in between
These times
That is
Most of the time
And
Yes
And even then
(the betweens of in-betweens)
God loves you
God before us
God behind
Us
And God beneath
With God above
And also
On
Our way is
God beside us
And is there more to say
With hope of heaven
Interesting
But unknown
‘Til it should be happening
And
It hasn’t happened
Though love has occurred
And on all sides
Of time
And will
Exists
And does go with us
Inside
Outside
Everywhere
There’s where
And love
You know
The reason for creation
For creating anything
We know
C L Couch
(Saint Patrick’s Breastplate is cited; sorry, the pun of the title and subtitle, I imagine, only works in English)
Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash
ain’t together
(roaming like clouds or cellphone signals, I apologize)
anticipation
like the ketchup
rain
should come
at any moment
through
the unrelenting gray
to the west
and south
severer things have happened
and
I think
we
shall get the dregs
of it
flooding tempests
and tornados
well
it’s windy
now
though I don’t think
shelter-driven
though
of course
I could be wrong
and I’ll
be looking for
a doorframe
after all
and you be safe
unless
you be
stormchasers
then
I don’t what
to say
how about
God speed with you
and make wings
ahead
blow you the other way
when exigent
need be
coda
I’m sorry
we aren’t going through
what you go through
in Ukraine
or in Gaza
or
in parts where the same things
happen
and we don’t hear about
so much
I’m not talking about
bullets
killing or
explosions
the terror
then the thirst
and hunger
after
the infections
and the awful
draining
fear
for families
and I’m not in Philadelphia
where someone had to shoot
at Muslims
having Eid al-Fetr
at the end
of Ramadan
and I’m not everywhere
where white folk
hate the Jews
or anyone who’s not
so white
(I guess I mean
pure
ethnic white
whatever hell that means
as a thought
or an
agenda)
anyone
that is
whom we’re afraid of
as the next
majority
in number or
otherwise in power
well
I merely
started talking
about
weather
and by
implication
climate change
but
maybe
everything’s extreme
anymore
and the peace of moderation
sometimes called
the swing vote
might be desired
more than
ever
or I’ll only speak
for me
from a kind of centered place
that I hope is not
the hurricane’s
but God’s
eye
c l couch
photo by Clay LeConey on Unsplash
with at the start a reference to a TV commercial from the '70s
(x = space)
x
x
2 poems about ecumenicity
x
x
Many Things to Make
(nothing like a rant but a ramble)
x
And there are other great traditions, too,
About which I know next
To nothing
Remembering the Gulf War when
Some of us felt ecumenical
And took part in gatherings of Christians,
Jews, and Muslims
Where I got to hear the testimonies
Of the followers of each
And who they were as persons
And believers
x
There was a young woman
Of Islam
Who articulately smoothly,
Even beautifully
That who knew her better than her parents
With regard for her
And so who better to arrange
A marriage for her?
x
And I was convinced
And I disagree
And there was beauty in the
Disagreement, too
x
Doubting that we changed much
Of anything—there
Was still a war, and our young
People left to fight—but
In the moments
Of these hours
There were the points of light
The President then
Had been asking for
Inside the nation
x
There is so much more
To learn
About my neighbors
In the nation
And the world:
Who are the believers?
What do they believe?
What is the story of their faith?
Might they respect
The disagreements, too,
So that our world
Has a chance
To survive
To prosper
To believe
So that with integrity
We might reach for another world,
Too?
x
Pray the world lasts
Until we meet upon Megiddo
Not to fight
But have a meal,
Exchange apocalypse in faithful terms
And human
For a conclave
And a celebration
Of each other
x
x
Reasonably
x
Most of us believe
And there are those who don’t
Though binary’s not enough
There must be more
Than defining one thing
By its opposite
Humanists
Secularists
Unitarians
People of the Renaissance
Who gave science a category
Near faith
Without faith
x
Objectivists
Phenomenologists
People of reason
Rationality
Naturalism
Modernism
Fitter for post-modernism
Than the rest of us
x
Who could lead the way, in fact,
In appreciating
Difference
And diversity,
The creative celebration
Of the mind
And the experiment
x
Sorry I must
Define these as an
Other
But they must be
Welcome at the table
They could welcome us
We could invite each other
x
coda
x
Yes, which is not to say
Believers are irrational
Some are
Some want to be
And there are those who keep
Their faith as
Something in the wild
Those who lost at Whitby
But kept the Celtic
Style and ritual
Below
And now in daylight
Seek in celebration
Understanding for the rest of us
x
But faith has reason;
Might we say
That reason is creation
By creator?
Say no
Say yes
But allow for some very smart people
To believe
x
No one has to change
Except in violent intent
It should be an instinct to
Understand oneself
When understanding others
x
Keeping in mind
With hopefulness
That the one requested
Will in turn
Turn toward you to say
And what is your story?
Delightfully,
Be ready
x
C L Couch
x
x
I was writing before dawn and thinking about the seasons that are upon us now, wonderful times—and that in the spirit of this or that we might serve each other not only better but also for the first time, the stakes being, well, everything
now it’s dawn
x
by M. Garlick/University of Warwick/ESO – http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1627a/, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99645426
x
(x = space)
x
x
Rank and File
x
Thank goodness
For the discipline
Of fire and cloud
And water
And the path
The faithless wonder
x
There is a promise
When we forget
There is a promise
x
There’s prophecy
To mingle with
What is before us
In contention,
All the other parts
That make up everything
x
The everything we know,
The things we must
Believe in anyway
Sometimes from apostacy
Of fact,
Worse from the inside
Out
x
Before external judgment,
We sentence ourselves
For lack of faith
When, reasonably,
How much is there to believe in?
Evidence of what’s unseen–
Thank you,
Says our agnostic
x
The normalcy
Of matter and dimension
Fairly
Imposing,
Building what we stand on
For belief
And unbelief
x
The believer is the doubter
x
We go through this,
We are this
x
Often there is more of us
On the other side
Of chrysalis
x
C L Couch
x
x
Hebrews 11:1
x
Photo by Ruth Paradis on Unsplash
x
Ontology
I don’t know, God
I know you love us
It’s all the rest that can confuse me
Why there is great truth
In nature
We refuse to understand
While we destroy it
Learning nothing but that dollars
Speak not a greater truth
But noisier
So I guess you could say it’s all on us
And we are responsible
But we can also credit you with making us
Why did you do that,
Why are we as we are?
We can build
And then tear down
We leave artifacts
That we refuse to learn from
We love clear days
Then smoke them out
With factories and war
Factories to make the war
Viable
Not to mention all the vehicles
We could not pass a law
That says what we make cannot
Destroy us at the same time
Let alone with Earth
I know I go off on things like this
But, really, what’s the point
In planet Earth
If we destroy her?
Wisdom is a woman, too,
In a number of traditions
But men are made to ignore women
Treating them like other
Resources
My, don’t they have it wrong
All of it
So what’s the answer, God
I’m sure there is an answer
Before it’s all a cynical taking
Climbing on each other toward
An artificial peak
Without wondering what we leave
For children
So they’re left to be like us
Or rebel to find another way
I don’t think I’ll blame them
When they do
Maybe our agenda has been
To build another Babel
One structure, one language, one power
Over all the Earth
Determined by us
Goodness, I would hate that
And so would anyone who delights in
Diversity
We made kaleidoscopes
Maybe we should look into them more often
Prismatic colors
Ever-changing order
Not anarchy but beauty in
The light you made
You make
I suppose if we asked to be
People of light
A new adherence to your making and
Your teaching,
Someone would try to pass off some darkness
As the light
Where is your justice, Lord?
We need it and can’t manage it, ourselves
Isn’t there a great mediator, even here
On Earth, among ourselves
Within?
I remember now, it’s love
That I learned in church, even if churches
Forget, hiding agendas instead
Some learn, anyway
And live it so much better than I
These are the ones I need
The ones who live in love
Not perfectly
But persistently
We need these people, God
The ones who love
With strength and practicality
Because it’s the better reason
For taking the next step
Show us love, Lord
And those who love
The real strength
The foolishness in the world’s eyes
While it digs and flies and wends
Its way toward hell
Each day until the last
But it can’t be for fire of hell
Or fear of it the reason
Love must be embraced
Because it bests fear
Because in the embrace
We see, as sometimes on a clear day
You are there
The God who made us
Allowed the serpent, too
Who gives changes over ages
For all of us to turn our will at last
Toward you, into you
Below, above
In better places
And the worst
No peak too high
No pit so deep
But you are there
You gave us will
How about we return it
Using it to do so?
That might be the final irony
You’ve been waiting for
Maybe then we’ll understand
Apocalypse is love
C L Couch
Photo by sergio souza on Unsplash
Saving Graceland
1, Give It Up
And there are the things that happy
Anyway
Bad things, starving things
Taking from life, risking faith
At each turn
We lost someone close
We lose a job
We lose a place
We lose what we thought
Were good associations
We lose something in ourselves
We lose some health
We lose materials we think we need
Because we do
And where is belief in this,
Where are you?
You’re here, but we don’t know how
So we give up
Or don’t embrace in the first place
Because there’s honest reason not
To take hold
We might even curse God
Denial
Or the arranging of an adversarial relationship
From then on
We take down faith symbols that were
Totem as well as decoration
No beauty there
In truth,
No more
And what’s to bring us back,
To move us on?
We’re grown up, we don’t need you
We only need ourselves
Maybe with like-minded
Maybe not
2, Restoration
I don’t know how each one
Might come back
Or start at all
I mean, there is confession
And repentance,
But what about when no one’s
Done anything that’s wrong?
I don’t mean venial
Considerations
I guess I mean victims
Who comes back from being robbed
Of life,
Of living goodness?
And if there were no faith
But awful things have happened,
How might it begin?
A blank slate would be easier
To mark on with good lessons
Or reason through
Someone’s apologetics
That happens, and it needs to happen
But wondering from a point of loss
Of theft
Of trickery
Or manipulation
Then believing again
That everything with truth and beauty
Might return to the mind’s eye
The vibrations of the heart
All the evil stuff to be forgotten
No, that’s not going to happen,
Though there might be mitigation
For a start
3, Landing
A favorite way in stories to rid oneself
Of evil is through laughter
For evil characters often hold
Themselves and what they think they have
Too seriously
An argument of one that must be global
Humor, a healthy kind
Even if delivered in exasperation
Cuts through the agenda
Exposes the lack of clothing on
Self-styled emperors
Not that it’s the only way
Or on its own an anodyne
But healthy humor
Like right thinking
Goes a way toward righteous victory
Perhaps in metanoia
Though there should come
A sober time for reflection and
Decision
Or (and) simply to feel it through
Faith is funny
Worse, it’s foolish
Even if it shows the way
Turn over folly
To find some wisdom
The way some lies are best understood
Simply in opposite consideration
(take out the “not” or put it in
around each lie)
A different kind of foolishness
Made wise
Toward what we need
And where to have it, here
And on the other side
In certain testimony,
Something about rooms in mansions
Finally, though, we must face the hurt
We won’t want to, which is a good
Sign
We’re on the way to something real
Don’t worry about being smart enough
Unless it’s also made aware
How to get smarter
Don’t let your ego, on another hand,
Make choices for you
Finally, you know, it’s faith
It’s choice
It’s a choice we make
It’s the kind of choice that anyone can make
And if you think someone cannot make that
Choice for deficiencies,
God will think this, too,
In God’s way
Nothing needed will be withheld
To guarantee the offer
Or the taking
We all can be there in
Graceland, one by one
And all together, starting
The process anytime
C L Couch
Photo by Mahmudul Hasan Shaon on Unsplash
It Burns
Do I have any more to
Say? There should
Be something every day, though
If I worry, nothing might be
Realized
But to empty all would then,
Well, to be empty
Inspiration, what is that?
A light, a spark,
An ember from an ancient fire,
Spirit from an epic-writer
Does the fire
Burn through all the ages?
Do we have a trust,
A pledge,
To carry heated parts to the next
Fire outside the house, having
Warmed ourselves
Once more?
What is there in
The torch that borrows from
The center of the Earth?
If hell is frozen, it is heaven
That burns
Alive without consuming,
Like the bush and then the pillar
Saving Israel
Then lighting up the faces
In the temple priests affirming
All the creeds
In the presence of the holy
And in a later age, carried off in battle:
So where is it now?
In pockets of the saints
To keep them warm
Inside a cell
For living
Or for execution
And to our time it goes,
The coal for inspiration, then
To the future, though
For now
We’ll keep it here—we
Need the fire to heat up
Our reason and the craft,
All come together
For a season and then quietly,
Still glowing,
To the next
C L Couch
Photo by M.T ElGassier on Unsplash
cold winter night
Perennial
I hope you have a really good day
I’m not sure, I imagine it’s
A special day somewhere
Someone is having an honored time
Something that’s been done before
And should be done again
Some might say we’ll get it right next time
Others not so worked up with perfection
Look at all the nothing we don’t have
But it sure is good
That we’ll all here together
Is that the meaning in the ritual?
We do it together
And in less formal time
We talk about it afterward
Until the next occasion it might, or must, happen
Again
And anew
It may sound an invitation to
All dullness
Even with some innovation
As things evolve
Sometimes it’s rechercher du temps perdu
But like an actor’s good performance
A freshness is deserved each time
Even stepping back
So that remembrance is sweet
And so are you
And so, for a change, am I
C L Couch
By Chenspec – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52413744
(“Sonnet 30,” William Shakespeare
À la Rechercher du Temps Perdu, Marcel Proust)
clcouch123 
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