Shaping the Word of God

(x = space)

x

x

Shaping the Word of God

x

You know,

It didn’t come with numbers

Chapters and verses

I guess the whole thing was recited

As a book, we say

x

Then we moved on to another

The community

x

The interpreting community

Setting doctrine

As a group,

A denomination

Or on our own

Without a magisterium

x

Tricky doctrine-setters

How do they avoid a lie

In designation?

x

Maybe with the humility

Of Pietists

Or the Amish who

Set salvation as

A conditional process

We hope we’re saved

x

Meanwhile, we have

A book of books

Providing order,

Which is fine

Except when God is wild

In the wilderness,

Awaiting Moses

Beside the symbol and reality

(one comes first)

Of the burning tree

That will not consume

x

Remove your shoes,

Moses,

This is not a nine to five

This is a place above the desert

Thin blue air

For food

And doctrine from a flame

And from the words

One hears

Through the host

That is speaking

x

And if the order is to play,

Then be grateful

For bare feet

x

And we believe?

Our committees

And our meetings

All things gilt or burnished

For the Sunday best

To be best?

x

Might we go to Sinai

In a Thoreauvian way

Take all the time we need

Outside of shoes

To think it through

The bush will burn

There’s time

x

If need be,

Chronos will slip into kairos

For a while

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

Saint Catherine Monastery, Mount Sinai, Egypt

x

The Book of Numbers

(x = space)

x

x

The Book of Numbers

(in pandemic time)

x

Lots of twos and ones

Tomorrow

And a zero,

And there could be church:

I think I’d cherish

Learning someone else’s

Story

If in a cyber way

x

To understand

How a narrative fits

Into the weaving,

The puzzle

Of the one great story

In which we each

Have a page

x

Monochrome

Or colorful

Burnt along the edges,

Gilded for the saints

After all the torn-up

Parts have been

Repaired

x

Not a book of judgment

Not a cache of

Clever evidence;

Rather the story of us

In part

And all the rest of us

And God inside, above

With tired angels

Tirelessly binding

Fixing binding

All the time

x

C L Couch

(for 2/21/2021)

x

x

Photo by Paulius Dragunas on Unsplash

Antelope Canyon, United States

Ladder to Nowhere

(reasonable skeptic)

x

Book War

(x = space)

x

x

Book War

(preventive)

x

It happens

When a group

Has a code

That is set down

For day-to-day

And legacy

x

It took place with

The Quran

The evening of

The morning

When there was

Certitude that

There would be

A new

Generation

x

The Christian Bible

Set off conflict

With each change,

Each schism

Set to fighting

Over what to do

For faith

And what the book

Of faith should say

x

Not to mention

All the agnostica

Falling ‘round

The faithful

x

How many books

In the book?

Sixty-six or seventy-two with

All that should be in

Sixty-six or seventy-two

x

My version’s better

My translation

My paraphrase

No, mine

No, mine

No, OURS

Said with authority

No one outside commends

So we will need an army

Defending ink,

Scriptoria,

And brittle generations

x

A Bible war

Could be fun for trivia

On pub night

But not to justify

The raping of

Constantinople,

Christians thieving Christians

Or the books

That fuel internal fires

Burning up Jerusalem

For faith

x

Now, it seems

The Jewish book

For faith

Kept growing

x

While some groups

For their faith

Don’t keep a book at all

x

To say the least,

There’s fondness for a text

But to justify—well,

We’ve heard good things about

A declaration

And a constitution

And a touchstone

x

We should not fight about it

But leave room

As at the table

After dinner

x

Or the second half

Of sermons,

Engagement that most folk

Forget or remember

In leaving off

x

coda

x

If we write

And publish,

Pass around,

We should talk about it

x

Since pages are not

Altars

(altars are not altars)

And there’s always trouble

With our idols when

In idolatry

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Drew Murphy on Unsplash

Johannesburg, South Africa

I was on a work shoot in a suburban church in Johannesburg. I took a walk around and noticed this soft light spilling onto the pews. Immediately I knew I should get a Bible and place it there. To me this image speaks of the gentle peace that can be found in the midst of a crazy world.

x

First Story

(x = space)

x

x

First Story

x

The Bible is a book

Stories, sometimes

Told in poetry

The thinking of a people

And, certainly, their feelings

Faith based on

Invisibility

Not to be fanciful

But there’s a lack of evidence

That is the design

x

A collection of books,

We say

Sixty-six or seventy-two

There are reasons

For the difference, we’re told

But some of us

Are wondering if

Judith was left out

By the Protestants

Because she is so heroic

While also

Scolding

Cowering men

x

But take our pick, it’s still

An impressive collection

There is truth in it

In the one story, overall

Parts of the world

That point to it

Pages on leaves,

Waves telling it aloud

And other texts

And other storytellers

x

It’s a book of faith

Behind that, it’s a book of love

That was the first purpose

The pleasure in the making,

We can only guess

The peace,

We’re told, is passing understanding,

Too

But maybe we can take

A guess at love

We can think it

We can think it through

We can feel it

We can feel it through

x

The story is compelling

As it is pervasive

We can enjoy it

(try the creating)

We can be persuaded

We can be grossed out from

Time to time

We can be changed

We can be saved

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Aleksei Ieshkin on Unsplash

x

Giving Way

 

Giving Away

 

A Christian

Wrote a magic book

Don’t ostracize him for it—

Too late, too many

Praise the work

And the worker

And, yes, in the larger family

 

You might know who I mean

You might know what I mean

It’s everywhere, nowadays

Though the worker

Was confused by

Popularity

 

He was used to saying

What he wondered anyone might

Want to hear

Though it was all required at the school

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash

 

Corollary Written Late into the Magic Book

Corollary Written Late into the Magic Book

 

In an ancient chamber,

He was locked to a device

And made to drink a potion;

Then she began

An interrogation

 

His answers were halting,

Brief, and

Unsatisfying

She grew angry, threatened him

With turns of wheels to

Bring down spikes

 

He cried out

He could do no better—

For he had deceived himself so long

That the truth was not in him

To tell,

It having been tried and tried again

For such a time

That finally it fled

 

The eldritch liquid moved inside

As if it dripped into

Another empty vessel

 

She drew back

And thought about

The habitation of the tiger

 

C L Couch

 

 

un-perfekt / 179 images

https://pixabay.com/en/bottle-glass-bottle-old-root-tree-3942225/

 

Observatory

Observatory

 

To the north

And maybe through

An ozone layer

 

They peer into

Convex-concave

Holes to note

 

In quiet, confident

Accented tones

Of practice

And of speech

 

Jupiter disappears

Then returns

Again to view

 

And while

Watching another

Galaxy, discoveries

Follow with small

Gasps

 

This is an age

Of receiving

Messages of

Broadcasts,

Messages of

Design—they

 

Transmit, and

Now we can look

And glimpse

Moments of

Creation

 

Circles

On a page

 

From one who

Owns the book

From Earth Above

From Earth Above
(homage to the title of
a book of wondrous
planetary imagery)

Ridges of Amazonian tress
Is there earth beneath? one
Might rightly wonder

It is an orange time of day,
And the beauty, like Diana,
Looks nowhere to be
Inviting seduction

For all technology, the
Machete is the better
Instrument for maybe
Finding one’s way through,
Searching for a lost city

This is the Science Channel,
And I am grateful to see,
To hear the photographic
Cinematic semblance of
The truth of this:

This place, hidden living
Communities, and quest

For those who can go
There (I have limitations),
I wish safety and exploring
With all respect

Which is deserved at far
Corners of the treasured
Earth