Kristallnacht
(9 November ’38)
how pretty it all sounds
crystal
and night and such
yet
was a horror
too much enthusiastically destroyed
avowed violence
by fractured minds
and
government
encouraging blood-letting
and
who swept up
everything of broken
bone-
sharpened fragments
after
who tried to repair and so
live on
if under a mass of hate like iron cloud
that any moment
crash
with written on it
a night of broken glass and hearts
could
happen again
and by depravity
worse follow
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photo by Harlie Raethel on Unsplash
no cavalry
(or if there is)
goes
something like to
paraphrase
the KJV
I lift up my eyes to the hills
from
whence comes my help
my help comes from
the Lord
now
it might be
a question mark
is called
for
after help
because
the hills are not the source
but the Lord who saves
and
keeps
not that
hills
are unhelpful
both to distract and thus allow
reminding of direction
so
to pray
even wish
of
desperation
if
better
that is more faithful
perhaps prophetic
in the way
that
youth may envision
while
the old
dream dreams
any setting
then
(or
whence)
for who shall aid us
but
God who has the power and love
to make it
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Psalm 121
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
(KJV)
photo by José Casal on Unsplash
abstract muscling
so now we know
that what’s material is important
but what is
unseen is important
too
why things were made this way
we may take up with our
creator
later
ideas
a belief in peace
love
visions
dreams
hope
and faith
and the presence of the Lord
as well as our
unspoken prayers
and
yes
these maybe prompt the material
the moving of solid matter
relying on
the coursing
blood
the muscles of our bodies
things come to mind
anyway
naturally enough
and
we may choose and guide their way
as well
of all the unbodied items that
move through
we
may also choose what
to choose
and then enflesh
meaning
then
to the apologist or
less formally
the friend
we may choose to think on God
to
have that count
as evidence unseen
(you
know)
and maybe to transfer like
any other abstract from
a real
if unsubstantial place
in us
through all dimensions of our being
vision
thought
and flesh
throughout the day
and
to the wonders we’re assured that
should
be following
as after fair winds
also hard
to see
apart from its effects
that can try
all our senses
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1, KJV)
photo by Ben Gillam on Unsplash
the inside work that is our own
so God
and shall we believe
and
we don’t have to
that’s the reality
of
will
which we know from looking back
at choices we have made
all our own
as well as
looking in the now when we decide
what’s
coming now and most likely
into next
and this is different
from God-sense
in
things
we know but do not know
from what there is and what could be
I mean
we dream
we intuit
we use all sorts of abstract notions
from
abilities that don’t require muscle
but synapse
and yet we think God
too far from us
for
being not material
except for sometimes roses
in the faithful’s
coat
which becomes a story of
someone else’s meaning
which
we might
take to hear or
not
that’s up to us
as what the most important is
ideas
wishes
wills
not of the wisp but
of our souls
the more important unmaterial
part
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photo by Karl Raymund Catabas on Unsplash
sabbath call
and Sunday is for God to rest
or how you count
could be
another day
the seventh
and I just heard it might be only once
for God
after creating
and
thus also
a model for the rest of us
once here to take that seventh day
ourselves and by directive
slowly
breathe
and without doubt
to
rest
and
well
I hope it’s God and us who rest
each time
since creating is a constant
and should not the breath of God
go easy for God
too
at
times
say
once a week
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photo by Frankie Cordoba on Unsplash
better news
1
better news
that God loves us
and sent
the child of God
to
live and innocent and perfect life
and then to be
killed
by the powers of the world
and the princes of the air
and
yet not have that be done
be it
and there is so much
more
because the child came back
up to Earth
if that was the direction
out
to all
to offer the child’s resurrection
from death to life
to a life for each of
us
and life that goes on
forever
finally
on a renewed Earth
beside or somewhere near
or in
a new heaven
and that’s our job
believe
2
feeling Christian
this morning
or
recalling who I am
and
that God sent God through
the Spirit of the Lord
so that
not only this
sect
but the whole world of us
might
believe and so be saved
from death
and
for this day and
the next and
on
be saved from sin as well
the whole word
John 3:17
remember to share it this way
a gospel for everyone
3
and will
we guess at
for
fun or profit
or in what we might
take
as the conquest of space
whether or not
Jesus
came to Mars
on comets
inside asteroids
and
shall Christ be there
awaiting lunar Artemis
as we
begin again
which is all right
‘cause Jesus has saved Mars
comets and asteroids and
first for us
the moon
for
the silent planet speaks again
and all that happened
here
to revive and fallen
pick us up so we
might
carry on again
miracle
new song
and our own arriving
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C. S. Lewis posits a cosmically quiet Earth and us in Out of the Silent Planet
photo by Petri Haanpää on Unsplash
a Tuesday to try to be with God
(sorry while it’s long)
so about you
Lord
and may I call you
Lord
though you are nameless
or all names
somehow
and how do I know you unseen
evidence
unseen
the mystics knew
I guess
and Doctors of the Church
or
anyone who wrote enough or was
recorded
so they say
and
so we know
and
does this work
of
sayings
little flowers
to
go through entire books
and maybe so
maybe
we know you through these pages
or could it
be
unworded
leaves in forests
because nature
may testify as well
yet
by disaster
we might ask as well
the punishments
of fire
or of quakes or magma from
eruptions
how or what
what might we might learn
of you
and your intentions on this Earth
that
you have made
and yet
if we kept our distance
measured well
and
kept our visits seasonal
I don’t know
I guess
we’d still have problems
and to wonder
over
cynicism learned
or is
there hope on Earth and by
catastrophes
we
learn readiness and response
Earthly
for each other
all sides of gospel then
like sides
of nature whispering
or
shouting
yet
all this
not enough to know
you
and why bother through our limitations
limitations over
you about
your
nature and your presence
and yet we love you
and we think
go as far as to testify
that you
love us
and
maybe have a plan for each
though needing elasticity
as we respond
this way or
that
by choices
since
we understand
that will and freedom should
be ours
and maybe that is
so
that is
your flexible designs so we may select for
real
somehow and yet by you
we decide and
you
affirm ahead of
time
and ready to receive us
as you are God
yet you are God
why bother
waiting for us
but
then why have us
anyway
why make us when creation seemed
so perfect in the story
and then we get here
and we go too far by will
into war and other violence
much of it
close to home
ask Tamar
in the house of David
we are so easy moved by greed
also
pretense to power
since power is from you
and lent
as lent
for a time
all the things we do
we build
and then let fall
our egos drive
we develop false philosophies
movements that bring others down
with us
and may I ask
of our bodies
Lord
yes
groups
and I mean each actual
physical
skin and muscles around bones
organs
within
as they are
so strong
and so fragile
sigh
too much or too little
but there is
love
and faith
and if wisdom must allay itself before
fullness
and
perfection
well
so it is
like many things that are
and we don’t know them while
we have them
two
aspects of creation
even
of two parts of wonder
with aspects
like facets
while you are God
and I happen
to be I
and all of us
be
all of us
with
enough totality while we may wonder
in our ways
over
all the rest
until all the rest revealed
and
still might need interpretation
until you speak through angels
loud
(maybe not so loud)
and clear
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photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash
two poems about me, all of us
a story for me
(and you)
let’s
see what I recall
she asked me
do you know what your name
means
and
I said
yes
it means cross-bearer
to which she then asked
do you
know the story
and I didn’t
there was a wide river
and a man who
for a living
carried people to the other side
one day then
a child
came to the man
the child requesting
to
be carried across the water
and
so he took the child on his shoulders
and proceeded
and as they moved
it seemed
the child got heavier to bear
and then
heavier
the current of the river and the distance
made
everything more difficult
though it was the weight of the child
that mattered
most
so that the man
said to the child
I feel as if
I’m carrying the weight of the world
to which the child replied
you are
and that’s the story of the saint
named Christopher
and
I’ve kept that story from
my teacher
when in school and to
this day
so
I know there’s much to write about
about
earthquake and war
fire
flood and strikes
and such
and not
to dismiss
anything in the world with which I often
feel
uncomfortable
and yet
must love so much
but
sometimes it is me
as it is you
and we are one by one
as well
as
together
and each one matters
as
togetherness matters
and sometimes
you know
there is the day and only one soul
then
another
and what happens from inside to
the outside
through one and then another
to
the world
eventually
is what we have
one
two
together
more
the world
forever
c(hristopher) l couch
photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
“long exposure image of a river flowing in the forest”
whom
what
do I want
to say today
but
that you are loved
by Earth
except when Earth should fail
and humankind
with
me
well
until we falter
too
that God remains
the faithful
if invisible
and
yes
that is a conundrum
for apologists
or
simply those who want
to believe
yet
there’s will
and we must exercise
our own
what
to believe
and without good evidence
what
to believe the most
love
faith in anyone
God
in God
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photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
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