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Lent 10

Lent 10

 

2

 

First, though,

We must have him

In the wilderness

Forty days because forty’s

Important

 

In a place for unbelievers

(for heathens dwell upon a heath)

 

Nowhere to rest well

To drink, to bathe

To have the food that comes

From green and ready plants and trees

 

He is there, and

The wild

Must consume him

Yet he is so vast inside

He has room for it and so much more

 

The space of all the world

And the needs for which it

Cries

 

He is not alone

One other must be there

An adversary

Who must tempt the man

And the child untested

In the world

 

Make bread out of rock

Throw your tired body headlong

Into nihilism

Worship me so I can give you

Empire

Of the strong, such as

Alexander took

 

We know how it ends

Jesus cites

Adjures the tempter and

His own need

The thing must depart

The entity, the plan

(wile away another)

Angels visit angels

This act is done

There is no more to say

Or learn

Time to visit other withered places

 

C L Couch

 

 

Hotchkiss, Jedediah, 1828-1899 – https://www.civilwar.org/learn/maps/sketch-battle-wilderness-position-2nd-corps-anv-thursday-may-5th, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63245863

 

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Lent 9

Lent 9

 

1

 

We place Christ in a journey:

Celebrate his birth at Christmas

His presentation at the

Temple plus his

Baptism by his cousin John

Upon a bank of the Jordan River,

Then consider now

The earthly ministry

Ending in Jerusalem,

The next part of the calendar

 

What notes the work just now but

Miracles and teaching

And many encounters, one by one—

A woman by a well

A man who climbs a tree

Bemused to see this person

 

A woman who breaks

A vial of perfume to wash

His feet

A leper out of ten lepers

Who must return

With thanks

 

There is teaching

Answering the quandary, Who

Is my neighbor

A question about government

The discipline of a warrior

Who, though not a Jew, respects

The way of Christ as he would accept a

Commander’s prerogative

 

The woman who begs for scraps

Of mercy, who is rebuked

Before she astonishes him

With a reminder for whom he’s come

 

He comes for the Jews

He comes for Arabs and

For Romans

Even the pirates of

Parthia

He comes for the savage Britons

And the unknown Asians

He comes for them

He comes for then

He comes for now

He comes for you and me

 

Oh, how he loves you and me

And it never stops,

The arrival since creation

Life upon a troubled plain

The departure into earth

The return in keeping with

Prophecy and promise

 

C L Couch

 

 

Fritz Geller-Grimm – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1690920

Fritz Geller-Grimm – Own work

Saint James’s shell at a well of the Way, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

(Camino de Santiago)

 

“Oh, How He Loves You and Me” by Kurt Kaiser

 

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Lent 8

Lent 8

 

Though the dates change,

The days remain the same

Lent’s first week dawns into

The second

 

Let’s not tally

What was done each day

Though there are calendared prayers

And practices

This might work best as

A time that doesn’t have

A record book

Keep a journal, fine

(but) sit still and think

Afterward, have a smackerel

A spoonful of sugar

Yes, Lent is its own reward

 

Understanding quiet

Knowing the noise

That greets us later on

 

But if there is a little treat, enjoy

 

Maybe the next hour will be good

Maybe the new week will be patient discovery

Senses a little more alive

Than they were, even yesterday

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay

 

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Lent 7

Lent 7

 

A week from Mardi Gras

(fat Tuesday, )Shrove Tuesday,

Fastnacht that in

Pennsylvania (USA) is a doughnut

 

And the observance

What did we shrive,

We shrove the house of fat

Of everything extravagant that might

Distract us

From the discipline

Of remembrance and devotion

For the coming days

 

Okay, so what did we really do:

We might have had our fun on Tuesday

But who’s to say the next day was

Somber

It should have been, I guess

A mood for taking ashes if for nothing else

 

Though there was something,

Something not to miss

The start of a new season

Not as fun as Advent

 

Without the fire that comes with

Pentecost

Let alone the triumph that is

Easter

 

There is an odd coupling as well

Since spring is starting now in northern climes

There are signs

Today there has been sudden warmth outside

 

There are springs of a green kind

Winter-washed

There are signs

Of nascent life

What shall we own, then

Of dust or seedlings?

 

Maybe we take both

To have a time of stillness and of energy

A quiet dynamo

Fueled for the change by fragrant remembrances

In growth

 

C L Couch

 

 

DeFacto – Own work

Warwick Castle water-powered generator house, used for the generation of electricity for the castle from 1894 until 1940

 

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Lent 6

Lent 6

 

The season is like mourning

A dying of a kind that takes

Weeks to be fully realized

The only kind of death that might be safe

Because following

Still keeps us here

 

The consequences are mollified by

Our remaining mortal

If something else should happen,

Well, that’s something else

 

It’s dying on the inside, isn’t it

The gradual release of things

That might do better elsewhere

Attached to other life preservers, say

 

Dying to ego

And to vanity

Fleeing what we think we need

To embrace and then let go

A gift, a conversation

Uneasy service that

Needs doing, anyway

 

We have days now

Negotiating will,

Arriving at a knowing place

Of spirit

From which to act

When it’s time

 

C L Couch

 

 

Official Navy Page from [the] United States of America[, ]Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Ryan J. Mayes/U.S. Navy

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22662531

Attaching distress marker lights to flotation devices used in the event of a [person] overboard[.]

 

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Lent 5

Lent 5

 

Why do we swim

I guess for recreation

Maybe for competition

Sometimes for exploration

We can at least explore our muscles

Get to the depths of us

 

“All asymmetrical

All beautiful”

I just heard someone

Say that into the room

 

And it’s true

In the smallest of ways, we are

Wondrously imbalanced

 

Floating around in freedom

Might free us of

The need to count with calipers

What is not exact

Yet can be so compelling

(not correcting)

In ourselves

In each other

 

Circle-comfortable

Yet more like an amoeba

By grace, unforming

 

C L Couch

 

 

A pod of narwhals. Note the spiral configuration of the single tusk.

Dr. Kristin Laidre, Polar Science Center, UW NOAA/OAR/OER – NOAA Photolib Library

(public domain)

 

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Lent 3

Lent 3

 

Now let’s dive in

The water might not be easy

But it’s time to think

Or swim

What is the season for

It’s for faith

But there are long stretches for

Allowance, I believe

For doubt and all kinds of other

Tugging matters

Pulled up the anchor

Drifting around a while

 

C L Couch

 

 

Artykha / 2 images

(Pixabay)

 

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Agapāte

Agapāte

 

Yesterday was a pretty day, you know

I took a step outside and breathed

The air was warm and cool and good

My neighbor passed by,

And we talked about the start of winter,

Which might have been at that moment

It could stay this way, we posited

With no power over seasons

 

In the south, I know it’s summer

We might think that’s wrongway

 

From there, we are the backward time

Turvy-topsy, as it were

I hope it’s a good summer

I hope we have a decent winter

In all the midland places

And extremes

I have no idea what we deserve

Thank goodness better love

Doesn’t count that way

 

C L Couch

 

 

Wild0ne / 269 images

https://pixabay.com/en/drop-wet-h2o-icicle-clean-cold-3065629/

 

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Rating Advent

Rating Advent

 

In a code of context,

Might I say that Advent season is

PG-13

It’s not for children alone

But with parental guidance

 

There are themes here

Songs and rites

Children should enjoy

 

All the peace and companionship

That come near

 

But all ideas are not easy

Some need help

For living

 

For Christ is born not for an easy purpose

And winter can be hard

Summer in the south of Earth

We all need help

From time to time

 

Children should have guardians

Grown-up friends like

Luminaria

To help light the way

 

To the place

And all that is to come

Of Christ’s entry into the world

With theirs

With ours

 

C L Couch

 

 

Chris Dodson

Luminaria

Luminaria event at the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. It was such a great night.

 

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