Two Days before Lent

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Two Days before Lent

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There are too many

Things to pray for:

Ukraine, COVID, the

Other violence

In the world

At home

In the heart

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As it happens,

There is a season

Starting Wednesday

A season really good

For prayer

And such

Lean living for a while,

As we can manage,

Extra services perhaps

Of kinds

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A time whose name

Means slow and full

And other things

That say

Slow down, remember me

My teaching

From the start

As if to say

I meant creation from the start

To teach

To have us read the surfaces

As teaching and as

Starting points

From which to dig, to dive

Or from which

To fly

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As if to say

We have this time now,

You and I,

In which to walk as if

There were a garden

In which to talk about

All things

Anything

You like

Or don’t like

But need to share with me

Because I’m wise

And all love

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C L Couch

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Photo by Susanne Schwarz on Unsplash

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Wargodlike

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Wargodlike

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We’ve known God

For a long, long time

Leaders used to want

To curry favor

So built monuments, set

Time

Struck stone tombs with

Asking after asking after asking

To be let in

In a public sense,

Regardless of administration

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It’s easy now

It’s vogue to say there is no God

So no one to attend

No one to tithe

No one to contribute anything

Except to me

And my circle

Broken, though I do not know

Cursed through an absence of words

Who hasn’t earned ruins

But the detritus in between

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C L Couch

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Photo by Matin Tavazoei on Unsplash

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To Ishmael

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To Ishmael

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What will be left

Between

These two countries now?

What of Isaac and Ishmael

Of neighbors

And of families?

How will they get along?

Whom will they know

To trust at all?

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Will they come to a table,

Meet in a field?

Shall the words of Mizpah follow

Or better

An embrace?

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We have these words

Restoration

Reconciliation

How will we enact these

Make them manifest?

How might peace abound

While the search

For food and intact buildings

Is abundant?

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They came together

To bury their father

To bury death;

Nothing more

Broke out between

Them, then

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Might generations know

Viable forgiveness

Dead anger

Such as render borders blurred

In teary vision,

In homely

Transactions:

Dinner by

A fire that heats and cooks

With chairs left out

For friends

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C L Couch

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Photo by Gradienta on Unsplash

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Useful Prayer

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Useful Prayer

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What do we ask

For Ukraine

And for Russia?

Pious, frankly useless things

That everyone be safe

That the war stop now

That hearts and minds

Be changed

Well, that last one we can work on

We know you can work on

Done through truth,

Sometimes through righteous prophecy

Sometimes in dreams

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Change minds and hearts, then,

Lord

Help us to change ours

Help us to change theirs

‘Til ours and theirs are one

In peace

Not because sides win

But because in being made

And set to live,

All sides are one

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Yes, and to keep folk safe

To stop the war right now,

Because miracles

Are nonetheless

And notwithstanding

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C L Couch

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Photo by Sergey Vinogradov on Unsplash

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Red Scare

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Red Scare

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I was born when

It peaked,

When McCarthy

Was deflated

But it was a cold war,

And we weren’t supposed to

Trust the Soviets

Whoever they were

I didn’t know and

Could only generally

Think about Russians

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But there was the language room

At Pitt

And people from so many parts

Living in the city

And the region

And on TV scenes and shows

With comedy and Russians

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Some of these

Lampooning, no doubt

Some of it relief

As if to say

The Soviets are people, too

And we are people, too

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There were Soyuz model kits

And joined experiments in space

And there was Peter and the Wolf

At the young people’s symphony

And The Nutcracker

At Heinz Hall every winter,

And my sister liked to go

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Communists?

Who were communists?

They wore red stars

Looked grim

Waited in long lines for everything

There was Eloise in Moscow

We looked for the funny KGB character

Appearing somewhere on each page

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There were missiles all over

Here and there

I didn’t see any,

Though there were sonic booms above

From military aircraft

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Blue and silver in the sky

And black and white on TV

How scared should I be?

Sometimes I was pretty scared

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C L Couch

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Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

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War in Ukraine

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War in Ukraine

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If I lived where I live

In Ukraine,

I would be in a battlefield

And would have been here

For some time

I can’t imagine

Mostly because I don’t want to

Explosions down the street

Bullets through the windows

We are involved in

The war on terror

The war on drugs

A cyber war

And violence because our races

Don’t get along

And for other reasons

I’ve been accosted

But mostly enjoy

Citizenship without warfare

On my street

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But in eastern Ukraine

This has been the state for years

Kitchens are not kitchens

Living rooms can’t be

For living anymore

And now my country’s ringed with

Tanks and soldiers and what else

And I have no gun

And don’t know how to take a side

I simply want to have today

And a good chance for tomorrow

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C L Couch

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Photo by Maurice Pehle on Unsplash

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Everything Is Listening

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Everything Is Listening

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It is a fallen world:

Fallen people,

Fallen nature,

Maybe primal good

As in

Genesis

Until the fruit is eaten

Then everything is

Changed

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What kind of universe

Allows such a fall

From the marrow

To the skin

And in the air

The slough above the skin?

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A universe that’s made

With allowance

From its maker

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Everything made

Real

With real alternatives,

Real consequences

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Real joy

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Real loss

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The chance for one thing

Or the other;

Chance matters

Choice matters more

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What we choose

Moves the Earth,

Maybe heaven

A little

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Heaven malleable enough

For a third

To fall away,

The Earth more so

Affected by our choices

Mortal

Inside mortality

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Save the Earth,

Save each other:

This can be done

With faith

And better choices

After faith

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We believe—help

Our unbelief

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What shall we say?

What shall we do?

How shall we live?

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We are fallen;

Our choices mingle

With the dust

Of ages;

We have an age,

This age

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We have flaws

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We have hope

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We know a better way

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The prophets and the angels

Tell us

Of repentance

And good news

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C L Couch

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Photo by Mohsen Samimi on Unsplash

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The Hour

(x = space)

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The Hour

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When I met with

My spiritual director,

He’d light a light

Between us

For our consideration

A flame that moved

That might have made a noise

Though we couldn’t hear it

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It was our time to talk

But we’d be quiet

First

That was good

That was good tension

That was coaching

From the universe:

To be quiet for a time,

To give better time to listen

When it was time

To talk

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C L Couch

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Photo by Brian Gomes on Unsplash

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Justification

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Justification

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Just as if I had

Never sinned,

That’s how I was taught

The word

Like at-one-ment

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Hope in the small things,

Yes?

Though these are words

Behind which are big things

That sanctify

(big word)

Reconcile

(another)

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You see, the small things count

The extra sleep

The better cup of coffee

The crispy toast

I live for these

And things like these

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But there are the big things

Like repentance,

Reconciliation

The kind of things that bring

The prodigal home,

That cause a feast

Once sealed back into family

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There are the things

That don’t require

Big words

Faith, hope, and love

But might need bigger understanding

Or maybe only

Pay attention

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God is simple, too

Three letters, three parts

And one

Anything that’s three and one

Helps to explain it

The shamrock

The states of water,

As you know

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The simple

The profound

The rest for exercise

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We sin

We can make it up

We can be snow

Or lightless night

We are returned

To the next day

To try

Better this time

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C L Couch

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Photo by Lenstravelier on Unsplash

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