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sin

“the devil,” “elements” (2 poems)

(x = space)

x

x

the devil

(you say)

x

the tempter

the corrupter

the ruiner of things

resist

no thanks

go away

we’ll bring in professionals

xxxxxif we have to

diaspora

we’re spread apart

you like us this way

we don’t believe in

xxxxxtogether

should we understand

that we are three in one

because God is

(that is the pattern)

we can stand alone

xxxxxJesus

xxxxxJohn

xxxxxElijah

xxxxxMoses

xxxxxeach and all did that

goodness, we know that well

but to be together

find gentle,

overwhelming power in that

we don’t know that

not anymore

not since the last time

and the time to come

and meantime?

we are together all the time

we only need to turn

to find each other

share the tiny glory

in that

the tiny victories

that add up

or they don’t

breathe in

breathe out

let life happen

as it’s supposed to happen

our alone times

our together state

the glory of the Lord

shine through

all shapes and sizes

everything and everyone

inside creation

not the devil

that gave up all right

to enter realms instead

of nothingness

x

x

elements

x

matter merges

xxxxxspiritual and fleshly

xxxxxmaterial

xxxxxgrain and grapes

xxxxxtogether

xxxxxeach part

xxxxxand together

xxxxxchanged

xxxxxinto finer things

xxxxxcloser to purpose

xxxxxcloser to creation

xxxxxand creation

xxxxxand what is finer than

xxxxxa smidgeon more intentional?

xxxxxall the wonder

xxxxxsimple and refined

xxxxxis here

xxxxxmade from the start

xxxxxmade full

xxxxxby God

xxxxxJesus

xxxxxand the Spirit

xxxxxwho are here

xxxxxwhose substance

xxxxxwhose presence

xxxxxis in here

xxxxxand is in you

x

x

notes

x

I’m sorry, while drafting I couldn’t think of women in the Bible who stood or prayed or fled to be alone; now I think that Mary could have been by herself when encountered by the angel and in her response to the announcement and the will of God; Judith might have prayed on her own, away, as well; and Esther might have planned the salvation of Israel in the same way

x

Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash

x

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Drastic Season

(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

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Justification

(x = space)

x

x

Justification

x

Just as if I had

Never sinned,

That’s how I was taught

The word

Like at-one-ment

x

Hope in the small things,

Yes?

Though these are words

Behind which are big things

That sanctify

(big word)

Reconcile

(another)

x

You see, the small things count

The extra sleep

The better cup of coffee

The crispy toast

I live for these

And things like these

x

But there are the big things

Like repentance,

Reconciliation

The kind of things that bring

The prodigal home,

That cause a feast

Once sealed back into family

x

There are the things

That don’t require

Big words

Faith, hope, and love

But might need bigger understanding

Or maybe only

Pay attention

x

God is simple, too

Three letters, three parts

And one

Anything that’s three and one

Helps to explain it

The shamrock

The states of water,

As you know

x

The simple

The profound

The rest for exercise

x

We sin

We can make it up

We can be snow

Or lightless night

We are returned

To the next day

To try

Better this time

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Lenstravelier on Unsplash

x

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Faithful Skeptic

(x = space)

x

x

Faithful Skeptic

(spiritual humanist)

x

I sin

And then I go to church

How does that work?

We sing that it is well,

Which Saint Julian proposes

We pray for the world

And for concerns

In the parish

We sing some more

We’ll pray some more

Then there will be teaching

(word and sacrament

for those who have sacraments)

Through it all,

We’re singing now

And thank goodness there is

Justice in that

Mingled with grace and mercy

x

Through sin and virtue

Through indifference and zeal

Through exhaustion and desire

There is something

Going on,

Something moving

Call it spirit

Call it the orbit of the Earth

And the pressing down of gravity

Call it God’s

Call it nature’s

Call it ours

x

And, yes, through it all

It is well

x

C L Couch

x

x

Saint Julian of Norwich is a saint in the Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.  Other traditional Protestant churches recognize her standing.  Many Christians of all kinds respect her work in parish service and the service of the Christian Church, overall.  Her name is not known:  she is called Julian because that was the name of the church in Norwich, England where she lived.  She had a cell there, not a jail cell but a hermit’s.  She had a cat.  Each day people of the town would come to her to speak with her through a window, asking her for wisdom and advice.  I’m sorry, I should have mentioned that she lived and worked from the latter decades of the fourteenth century into the first years of the fifteenth century.

She wrote Revelations of Divine Love, a widely-read spiritual text.  It is also taken as the oldest book written in English by a woman.  Two things Julian is popularly known for asserting are the metaphor of the world as a hazelnut (long before William Blake asserted perceiving the world as and through a grain of sand).  And she claimed that, no matter how grim or unhopeful or destructive the world might seem, all shall be well.  She says this many times.

And all shall be well.

x

Photo by Külli Kittus on Unsplash

Tallinn, Estonia

x

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Seeking Sin Eaters

(x = space)

x

x

Seeking Sin Eaters

(Genesis 3:8, Revelation 15:16)

x

We say to the sun

Or moon or stars

Or hills or valleys or any part

Of Earth that might

x

To cover us,

To hide us from

The wrath of God

Or of people

Or of other consequences

x

To take our names,

Apply them to another

Quantity,

To stick our names to a board

Inside another

Neighborhood, a sign

That says

We are there

(don’t come looking for us

here)

x

We hide

We want to hide

From judgment

Real or imagined

In this, imagined

Is real,

Is enough

x

C L Couch

x

x

(also Hosea 10:8, Luke 23:30, and Habakkuk 2:14)

x

Photo by Hanna Postova on Unsplash

Odesa, Ukraine

x

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Kitchen Sink Ritual

Kitchen Sink Ritual

 

I turn on the hot water

And am thankful

I leave it on

Then wash some dishes

It gets hot

I leave it there

I hadn’t thought about it

Until a friend came up to dry

And told me how hot I

Let the water run

I trust his opinions

Maybe it’s masochistic

Scalding demons

Cleaning out the sins

Ersatz baptism

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Florencia Potter on Unsplash

Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

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Doxology

Doxology

 

I sin

You sin

We all sin

There’s probably a nursery rhyme about it

It can’t not happen, I suppose

Not on this side of things

In heaven, maybe not

But wasn’t there a war there,

And is it done?

 

The evil that we do

(the sin)

When it becomes a habit,

Then a calling

Well, we’re done, I guess

And yet the wreckage might go on and on

Destruction of the spirit

With victims, all around

 

There is one sin unforgivable

I try not to be clever

But it seems to me to be denial

Of the Spirit of God at work in the world

And the presence of God, at all

A self-fulfilling condemnation

With no room for grace

No allowance for salvation

The humility and openness

The human soul requires

 

God cannot laugh this off

It must bring pain to God

Who would rather love

Us than do anything

In all creation

It’s how creation’s biased

In the very making

And the keeping of it

 

We can’t live happily ever after

If at all

 

C L Couch

 

 

Old 100th

Unknown – attributed to Louis Bourgeois (1510-1561) – 1551 Genevan psalter, typeset by the Mutopia Project, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6885924

 

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Sin-Eater

Sin-Eater

 

I don’t know what it means

To eat bitter herbs

Ones I wouldn’t like

Salt and bitter herbs

Is what the rite called for

Bread

Bread, salt, and bitter herbs

Then to be run out of town

So that for a time

A year, perhaps

There would be virtue

Lack of hellfire, anyway

The cost of sin

The bearing of it

Having been cast out

Too tragic and too easy

 

C L Couch

 

 

KaMan – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59215324

Salt Rising Bread

 

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The Way

The Way

 

Saints and sinners

We need them both

Maybe it’s just me

I can’t be saintly as a rule

And sinning is too easy

 

Yet the yoke must be easy

The rule must be a way

Not only to do better but

To be reminded there are

Better ways

 

And sinning? I don’t know,

It could be easier, too, in

Its own way

Less costly

Maybe the Catholics are on to

Something with venial and mortal

 

I am mortal

So are you

Saintly and sinly are what we have

We are

 

Saintly too severe

Sinning too lazy, until it becomes

Too close to all there is

 

Asking why

Might not help so much

We have these ways

The issues, consequence, and

Choices

Though I doubt we’ll say, Today

I’ll sin this way

Then devout an hour later

I imagine this works out, anyway

 

And since it does

Well, maybe there’s reality

We can’t define one against the other

I doubt we can place the essences

In Erlenmeyers, drink from one flask

Or the other from time to time

 

We have to live now

And sometimes we’ll be good

Sometimes not so much

We have both, we are

Measures of prayer and pardon, too

The way it is

It’s Monday

Must move on with what we have

Turning the needle toward the better way

Understanding when the dial slips

And we must live in contrition

For a while

 

It’s what we have, it’s what we are

It’s how we live in four dimensions

Adding time and maybe soul

For fifth-dimension living

It has to be well enough

To get us into Tuesday

 

All of it

There is no other way

And is this way so bad?

Yes, sometimes it is

 

Then we are needed:

To employ discretion through

All the parts

The substances

The issues

All the matters

 

Our way through

The best we can,

The best we will

 

C L Couch

 

 

Skitterphoto / 2097 images

Pixabay

 

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