wings

The Body Practical

The human body
Is impractical
I mean
It’s working well enough
Until it isn’t
But what we really need
In addition to nominal
Health
Is an option for gills
That fold away
Until we need them

And we need
Wings
That keep
And when unfurled
Remind us as we fly
That God favors
Us
In making us
And we
At the very least
Owe the favor in return

While we are soaring
And at other
Times
Plunging
Also with delight
Into the depths

C L Couch

Photo by ibuki Tsubo on Unsplash

Dear Heart

What shall I
Say
What shall I
Do
Today
I ask and ask
While there are no letters
In the sky

What shall I
Pray then
For an answer
A direction
If not
A plan

How about the next
Step
Only
How about an inclination
Certainly a push
Should help

A small one
Maybe
I won’t
Tell your supervisors

Or maybe you could help
With this
Great weight
That seems
To be weighing more
Today

Some small lightness
Which
I’ll take for
Freedom
To move along

Dear angel
Thank you
Knowing you are there
Is
Of course
Something good
More than
You know
You know

C L Couch

Photo by Jason marquis on Unsplash

Services with Variants

(from Appalachia)

I wonder as I wander

Out under the sky

Why Jesus, my Jesus,

Did come down to die

For poor on’ry people

Like you and like I

I wonder as I wander

Out under the sky

And then the story can begin in

Earnest—the grammar’s bad:

What does that really matter,

When the bias is for long and

Almost painful, loving notes

Wrought in the words to send

Them over; all the o sounds and

The is like convict souls, once

Held then let go like winged

Enchantment, soar above the

Planet in the room, to wave

Like smoke around the beams

Above the Sunday evening

Gathering, like convicts bound

Whose chains are broken with

No expectation, words and

Notes released like birds once

Wrapped by keepers’ hands—

In flight now to know no other

Mission than the erring sky

And song of wonder-wandering

“I Wonder as I Wander” (Appalachia)

Words and Music collected by John Jacob Niles

Collected by John Jacob Niles in Murphy, [North Carolina,] in July 1933 from a young traveling evangelist Annie Morgan. According to Niles, he asked her to sing the song repeatedly until he had memorized it. It was published in his 1934 Songs of the Hill-Folk.

http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/i_wonder_as_i_wander.htm

and “on’ry” is ornery, which is a good word