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Gestation

(x = space)

x

x

Gestation

x

I don’t know

It’s Friday

It’s raining

We need the rain

The clouds have little texture

At least from here

x

Nothing much to look at

A wet street

Spatter on the windows

We need the rain

x

There is war

In Ukraine

More death today

More wounded

And in Sudan

We’re drawing up our diplomats

Telling tourists

To go home

Choose another

(for now)

x

We know there’s trafficking

Where

Here

Of drugs

Of people

Contraband things that

Otherwise

Could be all right

x

But you know

People

Never people

Sold

Which means someone is

Buying

Where

Here

x

Struggles for freedom’s

Hard enough

On good days in

(relative)

Safe places

x

And they

The captured

Kidnapped

Bought and sold

Are not all

But tend to be

Children

Women

Who

We know

Struggle for freedom

Already

Hard enough

More than should be

Enough

x

On Friday I could cry

But the sky

Provides

As if behooving

I could say

Nature weeps for me

As in

Instead of me

And that

Nature weeps for all of us

In distress

But it is nature’s

Well

Nature

x

That’s all

And that’s enough

The rain

Provides

Other good things

x

But I’m thinking now

There should be

Laws

For freedom

To work within one’s

Bearing

Bearing

Who we are

What can we do

x

And freedom of our bodes

Politic

Personal

That many of us

Think we have

x

Let’s check the laws of nature

And our charters

I think it’s there

Many

Freedoms

Already

There

Officially

And by

Who made rain

x

We may read wet leaves

Or our own pages

Fearfully

Consider

Wonderfully made

And what

To do

With what and whom

When made

When with accountability

Co-making

x

Rain

Tears

Freedoms

Fridays

Notions

Not like the old

Department-store

Departments

(but) Full-blown

Like glass

Full-grown

Into ideas

x

We do

Need these

A good weekend

Please

For you

You deserve it

It’s deserved

x

Does rain mean freedom

I don’t think so

Sometimes

It’s relaxing to watch

To hear

Sometimes

It’s fearful

The median response

Might have something to do

With inconvenience

Maybe this is part

Part Friday

Too

Of freedom

x

C L Couch

x

x

Psalm 139:14

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Photo by Sharon Pittaway on Unsplash

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1

Glory

(x = space)

x

x

Glory

x

It’s a Sunday feeling

For those who have a Sunday

To be speaking

And singing to the Lord

x

The pastor cites

The shortest psalm

As an invocation,

Which is an invitation

More so a directive

To be singing

x

Can you imagine David

Dancing first

Before the ark

When it was brought into

Jerusalem?

There was singing then

And all the instruments

We’ve heard about

That played

x

Today is Mission Sunday at this church

So there are connections to the world

x

Everyone’s invited

Everywhere

Not as a number

But as you,

You are invited

To meet Jesus

Through us

Not because we are messiahs

But because

We can quote him

Tell his story

Show you something of his love

For everyone

And the hope that the whole human world

Might be saved,

x

Which is God’s wish

But not God’s will

For God has mitigated God

In favoring our will

And our decisions

Yes, it’s the reason why

The world is so flawed

And screws up so badly

x

That according to the story

Has made us

The silent planet in the universe

Burning other planets

With what happened in the garden

And then

Going quiet

While the planet’s fate is determined

Of itself

x

Then there will be noise

x

But here is David

In Jerusalem

And there is great noise

Locally

That celebrates

That helps to consecrate

The presence and the symbol

And our rendering of faith

In holy God

And in each other

As neighbors

And a nation

x

The world will not know you, Lord;

And nations will fall

x

We could wish it were not so,

And we do

x

But not everyone will be there

In the sky

The circle won’t be broken

But our hearts,

Well,

They are other matters

x

It’s a Sunday feeling

For those who have a Sunday

And take one

Or on another day

x

We have been ransomed

From kidnapping,

From the prisons

Huge or small—all intimate

When they should not

Have to be

x

The world violates our souls

And yet we believe

And from the ashes

Of all sins consumed

At last,

We shall rise

Who choose to rise

x

The glory of the Lord

In homely ways

Inside the heart

We do not understand

x

How something so

Cosmically grand

Can live in something

So small

As our souls,

One soul by one

x

Then there is the glory

That we read about

And then imagine:

The universe made straight

While also bending low,

We with that

And all the Earth

That knows at last

This is it,

The certainty of God

In blinding presence

That will not hurt our eyes

And the song of angels,

Unbinded song

That should destroy

But will not touch eardrums

Adversely

x

The glory of the Lord

Clearly

All there is,

Compelling

As to break our souls

Though it will not—in fact,

We’ll never had been

Better,

Freer,

Then to get

Our next assignments

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Christian Cagni on Unsplash

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0

We Need You and Sometimes We Can’t

(x = space)

x

x

We Need You and Sometimes We Can’t

x

Help us to love you,

O Lord,

Though

You may live without us

x

Still, we can exist

Together

In a bond that is

Extraordinary:

Of energy, of will,

Of love without agenda,

All around

x

It’s hard to love invisibly

With thoughts and feelings

We can’t see

And then

Your presence, Lord

x

With things unseen

And unevidenced

In other ways,

Our senses confounded

For lack of usefulness

The kind employed in what we do

In anything—and

How may we

Sense you?

x

There is stigmata for a few

And apparitions;

There are those

Who hear your words

In air

Or those emblazoned

Understood

Upon the heart

x

We want to know;

We get frustrated

Then we worry

For offense

(offending God does not seem smart)

Or we give up

Ignore

And in internal ways

We walk away

x

But you are there

We should believe

And within parameters

Of material and abstract

Hope for more

x

That on this side

We may have in measures

That will have to do

For life

And faith

And all the things we have to do

To make things better

One by one

And altogether

x

Tolerance

And patience

Peace

And feeding

Giving water

Giving hope for more

In all the needs of life

(material and abstract)

x

Help us, Lord,

Or let us help ourselves

And the others;

Be with us

And invisibly

Leave us to choose

In respect

Of how we’re made

And otherwise arranged

Our will

That we often apply well

Even without

Preternatural accoutrements

Composing a few rituals

For service

Pledging how to live

On our own

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

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An Angel Visits Francis

(x = space)

x

x

An Angel Visits Francis

x

I speak to God today

God is quiet

Not uninvolved

With nothing noisy

To contribute

Beyond the rain outside

The singing tires

The occasional movement

Inside

From a neighbor

Or from me

x

I wonder when an angel

Visits Francis

How it goes

No, don’t get up

Relax the hand with the ring

No doubt you lift the office

With an instinct

Anymore

I’m here to rest with you

For a moment

To be still

You know the issues

And the crises in the world

One of us will tell you

When there are

Awful surprises

You are doing well

We are

I am

Sorry when you’re sick

The age and job

Do take it out of you

You could retire

Like your peer

Sometimes I think

He has the better part

But I don’t think you’ll give up

‘Til you have the sense

You’re done

Remember I am here

We are here

We fly around you

Dance with happiness

Or grief

You know we are not

The round things of the Renaissance

But are might beings

Wide in span

And awful

As in full of awe

To know us

And carry power

You know whose

And are ready

Should you wish us to defend

Evil forefend

Should you wish to rest with us around

And when you’re ready

To be escorted

Even carried

Home

x

We are will

And we love you

x

Back to me

And God is ready for your voice

When you wish to speak

Or keep it in your mind

The better things

Are in your heart

We’re told,

Which means your spirit

The spirit of the Lord

Is with you, too,

Waking or sleeping

Like the song

Agents of God

Angels and nature

Sing around you

Sometimes difficult

Impossible, it seems,

To hear

But singing nonetheless

The music of the spheres

The song that’s in your sphere

Of hope

And love

To resonate with good things

To navigate the bad

There is help

In that

In both

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by gil on Unsplash

x

2

Time and Again

(x = space)

x

x

Time and Again

(for J. R. R. T. in the birthday month)

x

Sometimes

We know it’s happening

Far away

By powerful people

National leaders

Soldiers with weapons firing

Or

A catastrophe

That has not befallen us

Specifically

And like parades

We know they and these are passing by

x

Sometimes it’s here

Still not for us

Our role might be

To observe

Or like the chorus

Comment on events

But this is not our stage

We are not the players

Not the principles,

At least

When there is news

We will know more

x

Sometimes it is our time

The light might be on us

Maybe not

But it is our time

The actions

And the consequences

Our place in the world

To secure

x

Perhaps I mean

The deaths of kings

(inclusive)

Then a fire in another part

Of town

Then maybe no more than

A birthday celebration

To have with grace

And thanks

x

Or maybe our time

Is more important

However to us

It seems

To the people

To the planet

To the cosmos

Believe me or not,

It could happen

x

It happened to the hobbit

Most of us are hobbits

Even without the provenance

Or wealth

(before the treasure is acquired)

Of Bagginses

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Look Up Look Down Photography on Unsplash

Hobbiton, Mata Mata, New Zealand

x

4

Prized

(x = space)

x

x

Prized

x

God’s will

I treat it like a puzzle

A mystery

A riddle

x

The prize

For being smart enough

For endurance

For cleverness I don’t really possess

Is success and later on

Salvation

I win at last

x

Except I think, liturgically,

That the truth is not in me

Or anyone who thinks and contrives

Philosophy this way

x

God is not a puzzle

(I like puzzles

and I hope you do)

There is a clarity

Like the still waters

God takes us beside

Willing

To point out the deep parts

x

Skywriting isn’t necessary

(relief for Dorothy)

Read the code for life inside the books

Or listen

Listen, anyway

It’s easy

As it’s easy

x

There are commandments

There are two prioritized

There is a parable of sheep and goats

(poor goats)

x

These are enough

To take us through the day

A season

A life

And should we like to choose

Life after

x

Mysticism, symbolism

Are for other verses

So to coin a phrase

That serves the here and now

x

That’s all, folks

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash

x

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Pilotless Wheel

(x = space)

x

x

Pilotless Wheel

x

God is great

Traditions affirm

Many of them

Most of the living world

And the world before

x

God is good

A source of mercy

Even for

Those who do not know

Those who deny

Given space and time

Mercy in these

x

But, God, what kind of

Rotten world governed?

There is beauty

There are delightful moments

There is too much injustice

Too much lack of protection

Too much destruction

In the name

For the cause

Of politics and profit

x

You are in charge

We are

It is a war itself

Of wills

We think that you arranged this

We believe

x

In this alliance is

The cause of misery

Of evil

The stakes are high

They must be

This is real

Everything must matter

Assignments

Consequences

The religious call them covenants

And so they are

x

Sometimes the wheel is left alone

Sometimes there’s a grab for it

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Maximilian Weisbecker on Unsplash

x

2

the blast of war

(x = space)

x

x

the blast of war

x

God

grant not my will

but yours

yours and mind when

we’re allied

but if it’s you or me

better to be you

and yours

I know

I’ll be there, too

that sometimes frustrates

when I want something

all my own

and maybe

you would not agree

all the way

better for your will be done

and mine left out

you’ll remember me

and several billion

while caretaking

all who are asleep

a world that’s cracking

you will let it crack

split into pieces

that we insist upon

who says

my will be done?

yours will keep the planet

and humanity

behold what

our will has done

and save us

by your modest will

gentle

or ferocious

x

the quiet desert

and the storm at sea

are yours

watch over these

and the tame or wild places

of the mind

the heart

and spirit

we should ally

keep us from all tyrannies

with a will

for freedom

x

c l couch

x

x

photo by jonathan bowers on unsplash

x

0

Qwerty

(x = space)

x

x

Qwerty

(minus w, minus t)

x

What do you want of me,

God?

Maybe the next hour

Or tomorrow

Or the moment

That is the only thing

I know for sure

There is

And now the next one

x

What is your will

And should I ask?

Maybe I don’t need to

Maybe knowing is for

Greater ones

Than I

The ones for histories

Who rated visions

The certainly

Of steps to take

x

I muddle

And you, reading,

Muddle like me

If you’re like me

Maybe it’s easy

There is an easy need

For something

And we move

We save considerations

For contemplation

Conversations

That may never happen

x

If a bomb

Should crash this wall

If should be in bed

Because of illness

Then all there is to think about

If thought is clear

Is to survive the time

Allowed

Against sadnesses

Even the world’s evil

x

Hunger

Should affect me thus

Or thirst for something safe

Or doubt for faith

Should that be the exchange

For everything vile

That may come upon me

Come upon us

x

Since, actually,

I might be moved with

Greater intensity

Should it happen to you

x

I shall believe

And ask

Even as confidence fades

That I shall ever know

That you shall ever tell me

What would please you

What would serve you

Not in an epic

But small verses

That could

Make

At least delineate

A life

x

C L Couch

while I’m typing

x

x

Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

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