Flesh and Blood

Flesh and Blood

 

I tried to tally death a couple

Of weeks ago

Starting with two explosions in Kabul

The second device murdering those who

Had responded, rushing, to the first

Since then, schools have been the setting of

Murders, too

Workplaces, neighborhoods

Nature has taken part in many

Though we kill well enough on our own

 

The count of death is maybe not so

Useful beyond actuarial

The flesh becomes abstract

The quality in tears evaporates

The blood is in another room, not

The one in which we’re arguing

Funding and our rights to shoot each other

When and where we like

 

Control and majesty of black metal move

Us more than someone else’s

Daughter or son

 

This is not about an issue

It’s about a loss that’s real

Stolen like bounty in the night

Hell’s gone a-hunting

So ephemeral a trophy,

The soul

 

If this is an issue for you

Then vote for something

And in the mean time wait

Until changed forever

And on occasion wonder why

Steel propulsions have to mean

So much

 

C L Couch

 

 

Index of /teaching/g/circles

 

Newsong

Newsong

(starting with Psalm 96)

 

Sing to the Lord a new song,

Which means we should be writing all the time

Crafting notes to go with words

Consider instruments

Tempo, attitude, occasion

We have the reason

There’s no reason

A new song because creation’s always new

It crests upon us with the dawn

That is seen aboard spaceships

Over the arc of the deep-blue sea

That comes inside my house

And yours

 

Why do we sing so many old songs again

And one more time

Nothing wrong with that

We apply new energy each time

 

But we are also called to create

Beyond new versions

Why, because creation itself

Teaches of itself

Every time it rings anew

 

Does the dragon sing inside its keep

Does gold sing underneath the earth

In there melody inside the mitochondria

Where gene pairs harmonize

 

Scales

Rhythms

Measures without measure

Blank pages, open minds await

Hearts ready to practice

To perform all nerves aglow,

Wary of the audience

Wondering approval

If delight

Will we beat a dance that

No one’s ever stepped?

Will we step a dance

That no one’s ever stopped?

 

Coda

Encore

Rest

 

Then return to make again

Co-make

With the composer of the universe

Who asks of us again

To find within ourselves

Something new

 

C L Couch

 

 

Vintage tambourine musical instrument 1960s | Musical instruments …

My Timbrel In the Sun

Hayley Brodrick saved

 

Lauda

Lauda

 

All the things I should have said

All the times I should have said

Thank you

I love you

I’m sorry

Let me help

Yes, it’s me

Yes, it’s maudlin

Though it might be useful

I might be

Maybe I should wear motley like a fool

A reminder to step out of the folds

Of an otherwise fixed and unkind people

To say instead

I’m fragile

And I make mistakes

But I’m not done

To say instead

To act instead

Let me try

 

C L Couch

 

 

Wikimedia Commons

 

Barn-Raising

Barn-Raising

 

It’s a day, a process

As long as many are involved

It stands a chance

But that’s the deal: we must

Come together to make it

Happen

And afterward we have a barn

And each other

All in company

 

Maybe the U.N. should go into this

Raising barns in needful places

And then making delegates

Raise barns in troubled places

No doubt some of the work would be bombed

And other work burned down

We have to allow

For that without ever

Approving

 

C L Couch

 

 

Catskill Animal Sanctuary Needs Your Help to Complete New Barn …

 

The Circle Will

The Circle Will

 

Jesus loves me, this I know

For the Bible tells me so

All of Christian theology in a

Capsule, so I’m told

And I can believe it

 

Little ones to him belong

Who said he will not suffer fools

It was not Jesus

He welcomed the small, the foolish,

And the outcast

I take great comfort from his

Company

And so might you

 

They are weak, but he is strong

Is there strength in doubt

In cynical insight—if

So, then I might qualify for

Divine companionship

To marvel in the one who

Walks beside me

 

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

One more time, and the spell is cast

It becomes official

He has pledged some kind of

Fidelity to me

Because an invocation counts

So much so we give it once a week

That, like the bath on Saturday,

We take it, needing one or not

 

Yes, Jesus loves me

The Bible tells me so

Ancient lore

Interpretation of the text

Desert mothers and our fathers

Keepers of oldest insight

Dry seeds in small packages

Waiting for young water

 

What will be our next song, children

Maybe about fittin’ Jericho

Or whether or not we know we

Smile

Songs go back to truth,

Which is why it’s clever when

We can sing all the verses

 

Time for reading now

And later there’ll be play

It’s a good day in God’s land

However many rainy days

Or rungs to climb

It takes to get there

 

C L Couch

 

 

Whole_note_and_rest.png

The original uploader was Merphant at English Wikipedia