All Around
Love
Love
Love
Love
The Gospel in a word
Mentioned four times
In the song
To start
And then five more
And as it’s a round
The times are echoed
So the word
Is heard
Eighteen times
And eighteen more
Each repetition
Might be an important word
This
Love
Meaningful enough
To sing
Sometimes
I imagine
The notes and lyrics
Go inside
Maybe the music
Makes us think
As well
Even sends some to exegete
The texts
That give the rationale
For Gospel
And for song
C L Couch
the Love Round is a song anonymously composed, arranged by Betty Pulkingham; the words often changed because the word “brother” is in it, singly, i.e., without “sister”
Photo by Li Zhang on Unsplash
hymn contemporary
the church’s one foundation
(still) is Jesus Christ, her lord
the church is she
like the damsel in distress
needing rescue
Christ is the hero
drawing her
from the drowning water
cutting her ties
by the villain
to the railroad tracks
like a melodrama
and why not
we’re talking about
villains and heroes
and mortgages
and the need for something better
as in more
than who we are
and we go on to sing
that Jesus will not fail
which is not bad
which is good
in a hero
coda
next hymn
or next version
the church will be a he
and will be rescued
by a she
by the female hero
who is Christ
like Zenobia
or Boudica
but better than the Romans
defeating the inimical
forever
and other genders
or what is genderless
in life
that has life
the organic
I suppose
the inorganic
too
there is a Lord
not only over all
but who is all
to make the rest
only a little separate
in the deified scheme of things
by identity
and purpose
and will
c l couch
("The Church's One Foundation" is a Christian hymn; this morning a contemporary fusion of the hymn was shared)
photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash
canon
could not love
be a round
as in
I sing
and you sing back to me
we sing
in a circle
one segment sings
and then
the one nearby
we hear the building
then
the denouement
of sound
and in the echo
of our making
the last
notes pass through
a valley we
have also made
of peace
c l couch
photo by Alessandra Caretto on Unsplash
I’ll Come for You
I’ll come for you
When
You are sad
And far away
It seems
I'll come for you
When you are lightless
Then
I shall be light
I’ll come for you
Be the sounding noise
When you are quiet
Find you
On my own
I'll come for you
Stay next
To you
Until
You’re ready
I’ll come for you
And be with you
While the world waits
Or goes on
Without us
As it may
We’ll find an entry once
Again
When ready
You might have wounds
They
Should be tended
Let’s take care of
Those
And be brave
About something else
(remembering
there’s
something brave
in saying ouch
for honesty)
I’ll come for you
And when we’re
Ready
We’ll get up
And move
So slowly back
Into an expected
Life this time with more truth
And carrying a salve
In each other
For any
More pain
I'll come for you
C L Couch
Photo by Gilbert Ng on Unsplash
Sooners
Soon
And very soon
What a wonderful way
To say that
A promise
That we won’t have long to wait
Before the bad things
End
The good things
Might be realized
Unsullied
Snow
Without mud
Or slush
Beneath
And spring beside
Well
Whatever season
We might need
A place for each one
And whatever
Passes for meals
In there
And meetings
With a purpose
The only agenda
Love
A life
And such a life
Soon
And very soon
C L Couch
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3898658
is herein the shape of heaven?
though the soons I borrowed here are more from Andraé Crouch
This Is the Song that Never Ends
Or would you like to
Swing on a star
Carry moonbeams
Home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a—
(verses for blanks)
Which is a kind of song
That loops
So easily
After the movie
Then throughout the day
And we might wake with it
The next day
I just checked
Jimmy and Johnny
Made the song
(called Jimmy and Johnny
as James and Jonathan
tended to be
back then
like Johnny Williams
in the sixties
before Jaws
and Star Wars)
I think
I heard it once
On Captain Kangaroo
It really is a pleasant song
Existential animals
Notwithstanding
And I think they might excuse us
For our foibles
Symbolized
And what is a song for you
That goes ‘round
In what you wonder
Might become
An attitude
Frustrated
Though for now
As you go through it
It goes through you
(and it might be a long song)
Inciting joy
To go with something else
A chore
Or bigger thought
That occupies
Reminding
Or informing
You are better than you are
Swing on a star
C L Couch
Photo by Oleg Sergeichik on Unsplash
(out of) Gomel, Belarus
“Swinging on a Star”
Writers: Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke
Publisher: Kanjian Music, Music Sales Corporation
https://songfacts.com/lyrics/bing-crosby/swinging-on-a-star
"The Song That Doesn't End" (also referred to as "The Song That Never Ends")
written by Bernard Rothman
for Shari Lewis
(1988)
Wikipedia
(x = space)
x
x
Rhapsody in Bible
x
God
You are good
You love us
Always
And anyway
x
I’m sure it’s in there
Though I can make
Only pages with
Neat typing
Of blurred letters
As I try
x
And then the stream
The invitation
And a wall of rooms
That somehow
Turn into mansions
Promise of two verses
About paradise
About
You know
Dwelling in the house
Of the Lord
x
There are numbers on the pages
Small headlines
Aids from time
Which were not in
The original
Black pages
Into mod
(it was the sixties
into seventies
for us)
And now the church
All wood
And mullions
With a clock that I could see
When in the choir
Set in the center
So the pastor be reminded
(by the clock
committee)
Of the time
For preaching
And when
To wrap it up
x
I received my Bible there
I think
Or in the rooms
For Sunday School
Which had checked floors
Of tile
Room dividers
In the wing
That had been built
Before I got there
And a breezeway
Over the drive
x
But this is building stuff
And the pages
Pages stuff
What of the truth that’s in there
And it’s in there
I can recall without the images
Though they come
Anyway
The verses and the truth inside
x
Create in me
A clean heart
O God
And renew a right spirit
Within me
x
And that’s only to begin
The faith
And transformation
Needed
That we learn about
In there
x
C L Couch
x
x
from Psalm 51
(followed by
Cast me not away
from thy presence
and take not thy holy spirit
from me
x
which happened to Saul
by the way
at the nadir
of his life
as king
appointed by the prophet
who got directions
from the Lord
to look for someone tall
and
well
kingly
for a tragic irony
as things turned out)
x
sorry, I got into a kind of coda
(that a kind of song, could be a psalm, might have)
x
x
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
New Song
x
Sing to the Lord
a new song
All right
A new song
And what shall make it new
New arrangement
Instruments we rarely
Have in church
Maybe there should be dancing
Like
The king’s before the ark
As it was taken
Across Jerusalem
(risking disapproval
of the court
the queen)
x
Maybe not
A psalm
Of normalcy at all
By that I mean
New words
Phrased by us
And our understanding
A gift today
And as a record
Kept in legacy
With the music of
The music master
(female
or male)
x
What we keep
Because we made it
With a notation
Of the first time
It was read
It was played
It was sung
It was danced
x
C L Couch
x
x
Psalm 46
x
Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash
x
(if you want a story of the queen risking the disapproval of the king, then read Esther)
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Certain Psalm
x
Songs to God
Confess
Mourn
Celebrate
Some ask where the Lord
Even while addressing
The Lord
x
Which is the way of doubt
Spiced with pain
Salt and bitter herbs
For the wilderness
Inside
The heart a desert
Reason wandering
Where is God but here
But we must
Over hills
And under earth
Search as if
Not to find
Or find in a new way
That answers doubt for all
And always
On this side
Through what we know
Has been dark glass
x
Sing
With a single voice
Or ask an orchestra to play
By composing
All the parts
And a message from humanity
Over the ground
And to the sky
To say
If anything might bless the Lord
Then bless the Lord
If any offering
Might be good for many voices
And an intention
Of authenticity
Received
Then receive the large psalm
Attempting to be thunderous
From us
x
To recognize
To thank
To let everyone have voice
In song or silence
Whatever might senses allow
Or to participate
By turning pages
Or only
Dutifully
Showing up
x
Locusts are a host
The killer bees
We can be a host
Though our precedents
Are angels in the sky
Nonetheless a human host
To try
x
Presenting such a psalm to you
From many people
A human host
Before the court
Of the Lord
x
C L Couch
x
x
recollecting themes and purposes of ancient psalms for the here and now
x
Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash
x
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