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poor disguise

poor disguise

when you don’t get what you want
or what you need
does God still
listen
does God still
love

if so
then why did we not get what we need
some would say
because I didn’t make it and bank it
then it didn’t matter
some would say
because
God
does not love me or like me
or no longer listens to me
for
I must be bad
certainly asking for bad things
even those things might be
my parent’s health
my child’s health
health
in the world
my own

why are we wrong
why does God not like me
and
some would say
I know the answer
and if you follow me
you’ll
know

and this becomes a lion in a skin
Aslan-fakery
the spirit that is tested and it fails
and
still is followed

and there will be a hand
and
it might not be ours
but it will formulate and re-formulate
according to the truth reminded
that
hadn’t changed
and doesn’t
which is justice then
mercy
and the best notion of freedom we are going to have

and what happens to false prophets
sometimes they are whomped on
sometimes
they run away
and
it’s a better day for the retaining faithful

and as for pain
we might have to own it
or
go through it
for a while
and it
will hurt
and I’m uncertain why

and would not wish that for you

it doesn’t
teach us to appreciate the positive
but
it might
teach us
something hopeful
after
or even in the middle

c l couch

photo by Bret Lama on Unsplash

the lion (fake/real) story is in The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

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depth and breadth and height

depth and breadth and height
prompt by her Sonnet 43

why do you love us

you could count
the ways

you love our flaws

you love what’s good about us
too

you love what we are
and what we’re not
in
what we want
and parsing what we want
by
perfect virtue

who we are
by you
by us
even by how the world has shaped us

you love healing us
when wills align

and in the end
to
take us home
where you won’t love us less
but there will be more

c l couch

photo by Mohamed B. on Unsplash

the poetry format is still not working right by WordPress; I can load lines but not spaces between lines, sigh

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God’s approval

God’s approval

how do we deal
knowing
that it’s coming
that
it’s here
and mostly by ignoring
it would seem
though
approval is a form of love
and maybe
there’s forbearance
too

c l couch


photo by Courtney Cook on Unsplash


as for the WordPress poetry function, it continues awry; I've end-run around paragraphed lines I didn't ask for, and maybe that will work for now
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the preacher

the preacher

could I walk by the side of the sea
near a rise where
folk
are gathering
to hear him speak again
about
beatitudes
and humble righteousness that might be in reach
not as the leaders of religion
and politics
dictate
but as God set the relationship to start and
even flawed or fallen
should apply

not easy words
always
to hear him
but
what’s shared is for us for us
to try

then I suppose he will
leave again
as he
does as if he’s tired
and we press on him
it’s true

as if there were no end to his miracles
and teaching
and
how these go together but
he must depart
and
I think I understand

he’ll walk away with closer followers
or get in a boat that’s tethered
near
and the miracle goes on
amazement it must be
to be so close
away or
with the multitude

c l couch


photo by Micah Camper on Unsplash
Capernaum, Israel

1

good

good

God is good
and
gives us good
and teaches us as well

for in
everything might be a lesson
of its own purpose
and
to promote a making thus
a maker

so then nature as gospel
its
good news
in and of itself

though
sometimes it should
appear and feel
and is
indifference

and
what shall be learned
by
scouring tragedy
except to know

that loss
seems to prevail but
by calm days and
seasons
for new growth
does not overwhelm forever

c l couch


Walden by Thoreau appeared on 9 August 1854

photo by Lee Jeffs on Unsplash

2

easy awe

easy awe

how frightened should we be of God
to know the power
that
nothing could hold against

so that a weapon of deception
is
the only choice
for devils
since nothing material
if owned
could
stand a chance as in pitching
God’s own
against
God’s own

and yet a God of love
who
waits for choosing
maybe
by still water
or in the troughs of war
or
by the bedside
when
the sickness is bad

or
with the victims of the drought
that
civil conflicts caused
or
because dry seasons happen
anyway

and that is power
too

and so to hate or love
or
frustrate the faith
for
everything that’s giving and that’s taking

God
who seems to have chosen for God
an invisible place
from which to offer presence
and so
the paradox of that
for faith

truth in the trees
or at
the hilltop where the sun has danced
and
thousands choose it is
the bright and
even painful
show
of God

show for
real
and for them proof enough to choose

and
now
for the rest
only with evidence unseen
and filtered through a dark glass
of our insight
at
best

and what we shall believe
while love even to forestall power
awaits

c l couch


photo by Kirill Tonkikh on Unsplash

0

taste and see

taste and see

taste anything
and
in the savor
or simply end of hunger
to know
that God is good

having
made all things for food and
us
that in relationship we might exist
and
when there is enough

to thrive

and not
to discount farming
or
cooking or anything by way of preparation
even the stance we take
the setting
for
a meal

a snack
a drink of water
what
have you

throughout everything to keep us alive
there is goodness
from
a good God
who
first made us that way
and
though fallen
we live and consume
and are nourished
then
to rise

and if it’s bread and wine
let
that be enough
to start

c l couch


Psalm 34:8

photo by Olga Kovalski on Unsplash

1

to near

to near

nearer
my God
to thee

       line-making by me

speaking to God
a prayer

this is the aim of the singer
and the sayer
same folk
together though for those who fear one’s singer
could read or hear
and
share along

which counts as prayer
as
worrying over what may count
should
go

there is mention of a cross on the way
or I guess
to
finish it and a rock cited for
rest
while yet on Earth

then to find that everything’s renewed by
the greater faith
that we
acknowledge
and
through salvation join
which is by
will

and what is near is imminent
for
concern or for jubilation

an attitude that’s
set by
choice and then by
eventual
to wait
as one who’s
still
and also one who serves

c l couch


“Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!”—first line of the hymn, from which the title’s taken (the poem was written, arranged, and published in the middle 1800s)

the hymn was reported by survivors of the Titanic to be the last hymn played by the ship’s ensemble

photo by Moritz Mentges on Unsplash


1 Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
still all my song shall be,
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
2 Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
darkness be over me, my rest a stone;
yet in my dreams I'd be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
. . .

1

the wild wood

the wild wood

there is a church there
according
to my mother’s favorite hymn
I’m not
sure if the church is
supposed to stand against the wild
or
to complement somehow
as in the kairos
of God
in
creation

and I imagine church is for order even to call
the program that
and
often that is how peace is associated yet
the day an age of having made
well
everything by God’s design
and by the will and by
the hand
for
actual or metaphor

and since we cannot measure cannot
count
so many things
and
good we try
for many

maybe it is mystery the mind
and the enactment
of God that from a mortal distance we can guess at
and
yet as a paradox of understanding
must
believe
if at all to believe

and so something uncounted in the wild
might
be acceptable
number of stems
petals
branches
leaves

while for leaves we might count pages
in our books
and
have the ordered time together

though in between
the solid
and ephemeral
we
might emply a medium of
humor
to keep us honest

time
and
or
in the wild at the church
that was
my mother’s favorite

c l couch


I know the hymn as “Come to the Church in the Wildwood” (though I tend to separate the wild and wood words); it is known as hymns are known by the first line, which is “There’s a church in the valley by the wildwood.”  The song, by reason of its lore, also has the name “The Little Brown Church.”

photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash


n.b.

the song is about
a church that did not yet
exist
but was the verse-fancy of a writer
passing through
the Midwest
town and then there was a church
and yet is

my fancy
has me thinking of a Baptist church in or near
Bell Buckle
Tennessee which was where my mother
lived
and grew
and did the family go to church
I do not know

though she was
became
what have you a person of
faith

clc

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