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sin

By Gosh

(x = space)

x

x

By Gosh

x

God

Sorry

God

You’re not sorry

In this way

I am

And I presume upon

Your

Intimateness

I seek your pardon and

Too often act

Assuming it

x

There is your mercy

For intention

And grace

For your means

And these are bestowed

Free of us

Our institutions

Our intentions

All of them

x

What we might do

Or think

And shall you always love us

Yes

You will

We are nothing new

And always new

Oldly

And newly

You forgive us

Even direct us away

And it helps

When we cooperate

x

Forgive us now

Forgive me now

Your will be done

And all or ours

Somehow

Beyond our doctrine

And the statements of our creeds

We need them

They compass-point us

We need you more

Who are

The magnetism

Earth and sky

And everything

That follows you

For being made

And not for looking

For you

For they know

You’re there

And frankly

You are here

x

We have to know

We have the will

That took us out of Eden

In the way

Of will

As we shall have it

And while the evidence

Mortally is lousy

Still

We come to believe

With everything

We are

x

Wow

A paradox of understanding

And enactment

Fortunately

There are the words

And there is revelation

In the words

And truth worth following

Unto the last

x

But wishing

Wishing

We could have more

We could meet you

And you’d take us

Hand in hand

As metaphor

More like cell to cell

For real

x

What is real

What is truth

You are both

You give us both

And more

And should we be

Grateful

x

For all we know

And must sigh into

What we don’t

And let that be all right

It is faith

After all

By definition

And by will

x

And how do you want us

But by will

Without the concrete obligations

In our love

But our love

With the best evidence we have

Or more important

Anyway

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by TopSphere Media on Unsplash

x

1

Halfway Home

(x = space)

x

x

Halfway Home

x

The sacrifice

Of your shed blood

He said

On our behalf

In prayer

His words the surrogates

A shadow

Of the death itself

x

Horribly

A bleeding body

Shed of its spirit

At the last

A life too pure

A sacrifice

For us

x

Yet there it was

In expiation

Half redemption

For our sins

x

The weight of everything

That hates

Crushing his body down

Pushing out his spirit

On to Hades

Or Valhalla

To Gehenna

Or to Sheol

As it’s understood

To name it

x

Half the promise

The brutal

Ugly

Barbarous part

Complete

And it is over

He said it was finished

Maybe it is

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Didssph on Unsplash

x

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Gilead

(x = space)

x

x

Gilead

x

There is a balm

In Gilead

I don’t know where that is

I don’t know if

It’s on a map

The Gilead

That heals

The sin-sick soul

x

And I don’t know

What it is

The balm of Gilead

An ointment

A colony of physicians

Waiting

A miracle in local water

Or the air

x

And is it

Sick with sin

Or sick of sin

As in

I’m tired

I want something better

I want to strain

Fewer people for it

No one hurt

Really

Because I think

I want something

I no longer want

x

And did I ask for it

Before

Maybe

Probably

But there’s also something about

Whiter than snow

Impossible

Except to take the texture out

Though it’s the texture

Of the sin

That needs removing

Money

Lines on the face

The heart

Whatever

Wherever

x

Heal me

Leave the scars

I ask with sighs

Certain things are inexorable

Like evidence

Though cleanliness

Time

Humor

Smiles for friends

And even for the world

Have wrought

A great deal

By repentance

x

C L Couch

x

x

Jeremiah 8:22

x

Photo by Christina Deravedisian on Unsplash

x

1

“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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