storied redemption
speak comfort
to me
Jacob
I have none to give
the time for comfort’s learning
past
if there ever had been any
even encouragement
to grow
and I could be sorry
but your
redemption’s on the line
three ghosts
and all your ghosts
to name
or nameless live in childhood
the present
and
best guesses toward the future
have substance
psychological sharp edges
while
it’s the drama of the story to find out
and what
to do
upon discovery
and what if we’re not rich
to take the town to lunch
on
Christmas day
what if the miserly that’s opened
can only loosen a new attitude
resolution
without gold-backing
will
the family take us
and we hope
so to be
taken
giving and receiving what we may and
all around
whatever day to say
as
a Dickens Christmas day
c l couch
photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
take away the confessional and informative emendations and there’s one poem here with endings like certain music selections
x
Processionals
x
I think
Often of David
Of a picture
I have seen
Or made up
It’s when the ark
Is brought into
Jerusalem
And it’s a triumph
A kind of victory
x
And I think of David
Young
(and was he young)
Dancing
Before the ark
Not wearing much
But he’s king
And he arranged all this
And so
The instruments
Let play
And maybe favorites
Follow suit
x
I see light colors
As if this were a desert scene
Done as a picture
With pastels
You know
I think I figure the hair
On David
From the statue by
Michelangelo
x
Processions are important
He and they
Had to have one
Because the ark
Would have a home
Forever
Well
At least for generations
(I should
look this up
it might be before
Absalom)
But what do we know
Today is forever
And the
Ark is here
x
And Jesus came
Into Jerusalem
And a procession
Was needed
And so it was
Arranged
In humility
And somehow awesome
Awful majesty
x
C L Couch
x
x
I worked on this scene before as a draft; I have in mind I didn’t finish it, and this time I did; but if the other work appeared and I forgot, then I apologize for the repetition—CLC
x
and a bit more (for free)
x
a coda
x
David was a shepherd
He was a king
He was loved by God
As either
So are you
Loved by God
For either
Any
Way
x
Photo by Alberico Bartoccini on Unsplash
x
(and here’s the lesson should you need one
coda 2
that was D. S.
this is D. C.)
x
Jesus came
Into Jerusalem
Like the ark
Meaning a triumph
Victory
For a home people
Battling
To keep a promise
x
And like the ark
Is lost
Defeat
And sacrifice
Through lack of faith
(bad kings—you may
look it up)
And so sacrilege
And a new needed
Promise
Follows
(read the prophets)
For restoration
Of the people
x
Turns out
It’s Israel
And all of us
Redeemed
Through this
Second coming
Triumph
Then sacrifice
This time as well
And
Cosmically speaking
Greater
All the world
And how far out
On the edge
x
With destruction
Turned to joy
With all our flaws intact
Until a final resurrection
That will keep
Us and the world
Intact
And better
And forever
x
Stone not only
Rolled away
But smashed
Here endeth
And look
And listen
Smell
And taste
And touch
This is the start
And we might think we do
But we don’t know
What’s next
x
(x = space)
x
x
Drastic Season
x
Soon it will be Lent
Time to think
Of Jesus
For all the times
Out scatter-gun approach
(sheesh)
Hopes to hit the mark
x
Forty days
With time off
For Sundays
For Communion
For the Catholics,
A churchly kindness
x
Otherwise,
We count
And do not count
For who says
Well, today is Lent 19
When we have it
In a book
If we must know
x
No, the season moves
Slowly
(it’s even in the name)
And we wish
For Easter treats
Especially because
We might give up something
For these days
x
It is tradition
And some choose
Something that it’s
Helpful
(healthy)
To avoid for a time
If not forever
x
Something small
Like caffeine
Something bigger
Like adultery
Or other
Eldritch bond
The priest might say
If saying
That is mortal
Meaning uneternal
For our lives
x
My, that would be a season
Of such change
To right a wrong
And who decides
Not priest
Or even angel on the shoulder
But the motivation
Of one’s own
In time
x
And such a season
Angels would approve
Though the loss
Of what sin brings
Forever
Shall seem to hurt that way
For the while
While things change
For forty days
(now a dreadful count)
And fifty
And beyond
x
As the healthy sun
Lights from far
The mortal planet
That in renewal
Might have something better
In its molecules
And the un-atomed spirits
After judgment
Knowing joy
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash
x
Many Times Sing a Christmas Carol
There are so many renderings
Of A Christmas Carol
I have my favorites, Sim’s and
Finney’s (he’s my favorite
Poirot, too)—not simply done many
Times but rewritten:
Scrooge as a woman (only two times
That I know of), Marley as the lead,
Ballet, opera, one-person
Show, and shows of many other
Kinds
It’s the happy ending, I suppose
Though it might be the theme
That is not Christmas (sorry) but
Redemption
Maybe in art as in life, we all
Want to be saved
Christmas, by the way, comes off a
Character, almost the protagonist—for
If not the hero of a savior being born,
How could there be the rest?
I do want God to bless you, everyone
C L Couch
Photo by Shaouraav Shreshtha on Unsplash
Wishes and Bells
At 5 a.m., How and Why
God
You are there
And I am here
The distance between us need
Be no more than a filament
The breadth of a capillary
A pulse between two nuclei
Or the space can be
The width of a world
That has more to do with me
Since no qualifying of divine will stands
Beyond the condition you placed upon yourself
For a savior
One who redeems as God and a person
Flesh molded with spirit
Majesty in ordinary undertaking
To teach, to heal, to live, to die in innocence
And then all will returns
In death defeated
It is a Christian way to know things
It might not be yours
But to God
I wonder how you stayed the angel
Who took the knife from Abram’s hand
But would keep it in the Roman plan
To hack a cross together
Display one who dies because
A decision was made
In Sanhedrin and handwashing
Not for justice but for status quo become murderous
Abraham was flawed, so was Noah
So was Sarah, so was Isaac, so was Miriam
Yet you made them whole
As all were knit together
Except your child
Who was you and yet was not excused from execution
Out of innocence
How do you mitigate your will
And maybe you never do
You allow yourself to bleed
Blood and water, liquids running life
You could have changed it all, and you didn’t
Change a thing
I am amazed and horrified
And would never lift my eyes again
Except
You promise joy and peace
And whoever have I been to argue with you
I must be content
Allow for Easter
For greater pain unknown anywhere on Earth,
Which splits the universe
And renders understanding into splinters
Of crystalline grace
‘Til grace is all that’s left
With which you save
With which you drag us into heaven
From drowning in deep waters
Filled with tendrils from wary sources
Always ready, in fact plotting
To bring us down
Away from light
From one day into eternity
I don’t get it
I don’t have to
I am here
You are there
And here
Closer in than I shall ever be
My God
C L Couch
Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash
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