A Living Season

(x = space)

x

x

A Living Season

x

Food and water

Bread and wine

For mass

And other celebrations

After

x

Liturgically,

We note salvation all the time

Symbolism’s good

The real things

Are better

When they meet our needs

To lift the worldwide press

Off a crushing world

(metaphor again

they teach)

Are better

x

Symbolic food

Give actual food

Safe water in the present

Wine to seal the deal

For those who allow

As in that crass (unclassed) and useful way

We might worship

And also act in the world

x

Give money from a distance

Distribute packages

Place clean rims of containers

Upon parched, maybe dying lips

When everything’s all right

We’re fit

To talk about the rest

Negotiate

For healthy people

x

All this would make a season

Health is good for the economy

Living without

The need to bury

‘Til the righteous time

Worked into the primal design

And a pattern

For humanity

x

That make us better

People for the moon and Mars

Keeping us whole

At home

A home to have

And to return to

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Rebecca Matthews on Unsplash

My husband and I have begun a few new ventures after getting back to ‘normal’ from the house fire we suffered in Feb. this year. I now make handcrafted soap, and he bakes bread and cookies. Our new neighbors love us, as they get to enjoy the fruits of our labors!

x

Declared

(x = space)

x

x

Declared

x

Here,

There’s food for energy

And water

I know, for many

An easy trip to the store

x

War ruins this,

Of course,

There and by extension

My shopping receipts attest

All our bills

x

There has been the war of greed

There and here

x

Though

Away from war

Except for greed

I don’t have to fear for bullets

Or wait for other missiles small and large

Cry the air,

Find my flesh

Find yours

x

The planet will reclaim

The Earth to wait

And us to judge

Well or poorly

The killing of each other

Loss

Hardship

And disease

x

Our tries everywhere

To build

To know each other

Energize the world

Food

Water

Safety

A just ambition

Peace

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Антон Дмитриев on Unsplash

Sunset in the exclusion zone.

x

While I Was Writing

x = space)

x

x

While I Was Writing

x

On the news just now,

A hypersonic missile

Purportedly in China

China denies it

We want the same thing

China isn’t evil

Though sometimes

Sometimes we are evil

We all should know better

And we do

We do what we hate

Give it a name,

Security

Secure would be

Not to have these things

In Xanadu,

Kublai Khan decreed

An extraordinary place

And I hope everyone was fed

There

x

C L Couch

x

x

Alhambra de Granada

Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash

Alhambra, Spain

x

A Child Doesn’t Have to Lead Them

(x = space)

x

x

A Child Doesn’t Have to Lead Them

x

When children have food

And people to talk with

Of a variety of ages

When their dreams aren’t stanched

And they have a chance

To grow into who they are

Then any child can make it

x

I know this: I see and hear it happen

On TV all the time

In scripted shows

x

C L Couch

x

x

Children are amazing.  And there are amazing young people who are leading in the areas of racism, sexism, and climate change (climate crisis).  The only fault in this arrangements is not with the youth but with adults.  Adults should be leading for the youth.

x

Photo by Foroozan Faraji on Unsplash

Shiraz, Iran

x

The Ravens

(x = space)

x

x

The Ravens

x

The Ravens came to Elijah

Carrying food

In beaks or claws

They might have been confused

x

The food they have

Is not for them

Or baby ravenlings

The (grown-up) ravens on a mission,

Nonetheless

x

There is a prophet outcast

Alone and starving

We suppose there’s water near

(God says so)

But there is no food

No animal or plant at hand

Maybe Elijah

Isn’t a hunter, anyway

x

Food is delivered

In spite of impulse

In spite of everything that

Should be natural

x

The prophet

Will live on

There is a mission there

As well,

Having many words

To quote,

To deliver of his own

x

C L Couch

x

x

² Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ³ “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ⁴ You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”

⁵ So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

1 Kings 17 (NIV)

the entire passage tells of this miracle and others (2-16)

x

Photo by Valdemaras D. on Unsplash

when I saw this, I was right away reminded of the story of Elijah and the ravens

x

The Bridge to Thursday

(x = space)

x

x

The Bridge to Thursday

(Holy Week)

x

It is the middle of Holy Week

Who’s noticing

Who cares

Those huddled in churches

Mouthing with the pastor

Liturgies and litanies

All the holy words

And since it’s near enough

To Lent, there might be no

Communion,

Even practicing for Easter

x

Some of the fun churches

(there are those)

Will bless baskets on Saturday;

All sorts of folk with

All sorts of baskets

Containing elements for

Sunday dinner

Will be there

x

On the Friday before,

There will veneration

While on Thursday

An official working out

Of some kind

For the Last Supper

And the “maundy” part

Of Maundy Thursday

A command (mandatum)

To love one another,

Good reminder

For starting out the Triduum—

Or the rest

Of one’s

Of a church’s life

x

But today is Wednesday

Nothing to see here

Or hear or taste or touch

No smell of

Incense, either

Wednesday doesn’t rate

Another hump day

In the USA,

Anywhere else that arches

The week that way

x

Calm before the storm?

Hardly

There are storms, here and there

As happen

(one is brewing

outside the window),

There are the hungry

Who need big pieces of baked bread

And safe water

And more-real food

In order to sit up

Straight in church

For the coming days

x

Feed the children

Feed each other

This would make a Wednesday, a

Holy Wednesday in a holy week

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by yvo bergers on Unsplash

Maastricht, Nederland

x

People Need

(x = space)

x

x

People Need

(we need)

x

Work

And salvation

Food and drink

Both safe

And a revival now and then

Safety itself

And companionship

Light in darkness

Not blinding

Not enigma

Shows the way

Only some direction needed

x

A place to go to sleep

Maybe with others close by

To wake up in a medium

Of security

Here, we call it democracy,

x

Which begs the first

And final matter

That is freedom

That we paid a paradise

To own

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash

Plano, TX, USA

A water drinking fountain with water flowing from it | Check out my blog: matthewtrader.com/unsplash

x

Documentary

(x = space)

x

x

Documentary

x

Notre-Dame stands

It needs fixing

There should be two funds

Feed people with the first collection

Establish banks, fields to raise

Crops for the hungry

Not the shop-hungry

But the hungry-now

That would be Gothic-good, I think

Pointing a people toward the sky

Making sure they have

The strength to stand

x

C L Couch

x

x

(“Resurrecting Notre-Dame,” If We Built It Today, The Science Channel)

x

Photo by Emma Van Sant on Unsplash

Rataje nad sazavo, Czech Republic

sunlit golden barley ears

x

Glorious

Glorious

 

Food brings us together

I hear someone talking about

This on TV

I’m sure it’s true

Though I have experienced very little

Of it

There’s always tension at the table,

Over the food, convicted in

The conversation

Maybe less in a restaurant, which

Might be the answer

Or to be Italian

Or Mexican

I’ve had great meals with both groups

As families

Welcomed as a demonym

And if there wasn’t joie de vivre

(maybe I should be French)

Then what were we doing here?

We could take pills

And concentrate on something else

Life on Mars

Eating alone,

Each in a room

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Piseth Yun on Unsplash