Tontines
If there is a God
And sorry if there’s not
(there is—
there, you have the ending
of the story)
Then I wish God to do
A better job of it
For all the dreadful things
That happen
Not to me
(though, yes, there’s that)
But to all the people
Who are burned in fire
Felled into the earth
Killed because smooth steel
And lead pellets seemed
Good inventions at the time
And since
(we can beat them all down
anytime, pleading a case for
ploughshares)
God, can you not stop
All the measures that hide empire
Except where vanity
Vaingloriousness
Must break through
The offices and the meeting rooms
Sending, allowing
Hurt into the battlefields?
Naturally and practically, you can
Though there is that stone so
Heavy that you cannot lift
You made it out of will
And set it spinning
42, the Earth
It is a kind of comedy
The classic kind, pray please
In which through funny means
(grim humor in grim times)
The community is healed
Better than restored,
Renewed
And we have a forest for a world
Near the city of perfection
Feasts, cominglings, promises
Of weddings
‘Round fires tamed by angels
The marriage of harrowed hell
And heaven
New heaven partners with
New world, finally the right kind:
Just
And which
To mitigate with love
C L Couch
Photo by Richard Cordones on Unsplash
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Looking Forward
clcouch123 
January 28, 2020 at 5:00 pm
It seems to me that if you tell people that this earth is a vale of tears, that perfection cannot exist here nowhere near, that perfection and paradise is what awaits the godfearing and the saved, what motivation have the godfearing to try a bit harder with the world we have? Their time is better spent making sure they get a ticket for the next world. I rest my case.
Husband has started on our hedge planting epic. Planted 32 trees since the weekend and there are 28 more in pots waiting to go. Not bad? But we haven’t done much lately to polish our souls 🙂
January 29, 2020 at 2:40 pm
One of the good things about existentialism is a lack of preoccupation with the afterlife. What can we know, anyway? Even faith leads to little detail. The existentialist says to deal with what’s present and direct. Right in front of us to handle. The believer’s life can be this way, but saying heaven’s coming can lead to lack of interest and participation in what’s happening now.
Thirty-two trees since the weekend! What an accomplishment! By the time they are all planted, you’ll be set to have so much green and oxygen. On behalf of Earth as well as beauty, I thank you. Truly.
January 29, 2020 at 8:33 pm
I wouldn’t like to put a label on what I think probably because I just don’t think about it, God, the afterlife. It’s not a concern of mine, not even on the radar. I hate religions with a visceral hatred but I’m totally indifferent to the notion of God. I was brought up a Catholic, told that God loves me whatever I do and if I do something unpleasant, I just have to say sorry to a priest and I’m forgiven. Even as a child I thought that was unjust, but since all believers say the same thing, that God is love, what is there to worry about? Just pootle along without turning into Pol Pot or Adolf Hitler and you’ll be okay.
Yes, the tree planting is going great guns. It’s really just shuffling saplings around from beneath parent trees where they won’t do anything, to the open meadow where they might.
January 29, 2020 at 7:37 am
this poem ended with tears in my eyes. there are so pleas and questions to God. and yet most questions have no answers. He is God. and we must be still and know his God-ness. Thank you for this touching poem, brother.
January 29, 2020 at 2:43 pm
Oh, sister, your response goes to my heart! Thank you. You’re right, of course, there are questions without answers. Some lose heart if not faith over this, but it can be a call to faith as well. We have things to believe and do, even while seeing through the glass darkly. I’ve been reading for a while now about volcanic and earthquake (and storms) danger in your region, not to mention dangerous politics. I hope you are living, going safely.
January 31, 2020 at 6:20 am
Amen. Amen. I hope you doing well, brother!
January 31, 2020 at 5:36 pm
I’m okay, needing to move.