Reveals

(x = space)

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Reveals

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I don’t know

It is a mystery

How we get

To where we get

We understand

Our choices

Ponder choices

Made by others

All around us

And what might

We figure?

What might we understand

Of agendas

Or of consequences?

Well, we’re here

We have what we have

And don’t know

What we don’t know,

Which is maybe why

Monks

And mothers

Other readers

(all receivers)

Enjoy mystery

x

If God is unknown

Then we are fine

Not knowing

Seeking answers

Or allowing

Un-answering

To guide our days

In relishing instead

The partiality

Of things we hold

Let go

Or appreciate

Even with longing

From afar

x

We have

And do not have

We wonder because

There are wonders

Such a life

Of having

And un-having

Knowing and un-knowing

We bear

And carry with delight

In curiosity

Answering in part

All awareness

Or simply going out

Or staying in

All the time

Then rest

Then go again

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C L Couch

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one spiritual law

(x = space)

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one spiritual law

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God loves you

have faith

this is the only message

it’s enough

for anyone

at any time

x

we believe it

and for Jesus

we are saved for heaven

and have entered heaven’s realm

even now

x

like Marty’s distillation

of theology

“Jesus loves me, this I know;

for the Bible tells me so”

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God bless and teach us

I think this is a promise

in creation

that both have happened

and will happen with

our participation

x

believe

even now

even here

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C L Couch

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Sometimes Agnostically Yours

(x = space)

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Sometimes Agnostically Yours

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God, what shall I pray

To you?

I’m sorry for my sins

And I mean that

I ask for forgiveness that

Frankly

I struggle in receiving

x

I ask for daily bread

That might be

Bread

Or

Something else

I need

Pretty much right now

x

And I shall wait

Probably

Pretty badly

While I wait

x

Since need often

Feels punished

And faith

Is much

From an invisible God

To wait for

x

And yet

Stones for bread

Is inhumane

And undivine

And so

I’ll try to anticipate

Exactly the right thing

Provided

x

Sorry

Thank you

Amen

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C L Couch

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Matthew 6:9

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Believing God

(x = space)

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I am going away for a few days.  My family is having a wake to remember my older brother who died recently from prostate cancer (detected way too late).  I’m not sure how hotel wi-fi works or if it works or if I work with it, so I’m not sure about being in touch here while I am gone.

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Believing God

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Immortal, Invisible

How much sense

To believe in such a thing?

Like a ghost

We cannot exorcise,

Like love

We never want

To go away

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In something that made everything

And we weren’t there

That guides us if we want

But has an overarching will

At work

Regardless

x

Intimate and inside

Glorious in nature

Even when

Nature is terrible

And thus

Capable of fright for a response

x

We go there

And shall it come here?

A word

A choice

And we are outcast

Another word

And we are home

In a place with many mansions

x

Source of fiction

And nonfiction

Belief on trial

But so go justice

And mercy

As ideas

x

Is it everything that’s good

Compelling faith

And then the action?

And is God

The best of all?

The maker, sponsor

Source of everything

That lasts

That’s worth the lasting

x

Life

Loss

The spark that’s there

And holding the spark

When it goes out

x

Something everyone

Can get and have

Like good stories

Told well

And, well,

This is the best story

We can have

And is alive

All the time

Forever

Gladly for aye

And amen

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C L Couch

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certain hymns and verses in John are sources for allusions

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meeting God

(x = space)

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x

meeting God

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how deep the ocean

and shall we ever know it

how far the sky

beyond the blue

and empty black

and shall we reach what’s next

and the last

x

what’s inside

and shall we understand

to fix the organs

and blood flow

between them

achieve perfection

or much longer life

at least

to have the body

cooperating with itself

x

and where is energy

and will

to do so

it is there

many serve with it

and so will fix things

and explore

and reach until

everything is reached

and there is God

waiting

not to say

why so long

but to say

well done

x

we go on

to what’s next

to discover

and those behind

who sponsor

and who wait

even to love

those leaving

and generally

the people

on the world

on new worlds

inhabiting

and to have

more and more

the better lives

fed and clothed and watered

steeped in art

to make the generation

bright and beautiful

shall do the exploring

next

x

with God

after God

quiet God

maybe with a part of God

to keep

to save

when necessary

x

otherwise

in the imposed Edenic way

to leave us

as it’s been

on our own

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C L Couch

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Glory

(x = space)

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Glory

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It’s a Sunday feeling

For those who have a Sunday

To be speaking

And singing to the Lord

x

The pastor cites

The shortest psalm

As an invocation,

Which is an invitation

More so a directive

To be singing

x

Can you imagine David

Dancing first

Before the ark

When it was brought into

Jerusalem?

There was singing then

And all the instruments

We’ve heard about

That played

x

Today is Mission Sunday at this church

So there are connections to the world

x

Everyone’s invited

Everywhere

Not as a number

But as you,

You are invited

To meet Jesus

Through us

Not because we are messiahs

But because

We can quote him

Tell his story

Show you something of his love

For everyone

And the hope that the whole human world

Might be saved,

x

Which is God’s wish

But not God’s will

For God has mitigated God

In favoring our will

And our decisions

Yes, it’s the reason why

The world is so flawed

And screws up so badly

x

That according to the story

Has made us

The silent planet in the universe

Burning other planets

With what happened in the garden

And then

Going quiet

While the planet’s fate is determined

Of itself

x

Then there will be noise

x

But here is David

In Jerusalem

And there is great noise

Locally

That celebrates

That helps to consecrate

The presence and the symbol

And our rendering of faith

In holy God

And in each other

As neighbors

And a nation

x

The world will not know you, Lord;

And nations will fall

x

We could wish it were not so,

And we do

x

But not everyone will be there

In the sky

The circle won’t be broken

But our hearts,

Well,

They are other matters

x

It’s a Sunday feeling

For those who have a Sunday

And take one

Or on another day

x

We have been ransomed

From kidnapping,

From the prisons

Huge or small—all intimate

When they should not

Have to be

x

The world violates our souls

And yet we believe

And from the ashes

Of all sins consumed

At last,

We shall rise

Who choose to rise

x

The glory of the Lord

In homely ways

Inside the heart

We do not understand

x

How something so

Cosmically grand

Can live in something

So small

As our souls,

One soul by one

x

Then there is the glory

That we read about

And then imagine:

The universe made straight

While also bending low,

We with that

And all the Earth

That knows at last

This is it,

The certainty of God

In blinding presence

That will not hurt our eyes

And the song of angels,

Unbinded song

That should destroy

But will not touch eardrums

Adversely

x

The glory of the Lord

Clearly

All there is,

Compelling

As to break our souls

Though it will not—in fact,

We’ll never had been

Better,

Freer,

Then to get

Our next assignments

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C L Couch

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Mille Grazie per Preghiera

(x = space)

x

x

Mille Grazie per Preghiera

x

I feel as if

I should offer

A prayer

To God

For something

x

Gratitude

Confession

Promise or

At least desire

To do better

x

Petition,

Intercession

Plus my own things

x

I’m not sure

How that’s the praise

That’s called for

While it seems

Mostly like complaining

x

Except to say thank you;

Maybe there’s praise

In that

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash

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sorry for any Italian language that I broke

x

thank you

x

Wealth of Nations

(x = space)

x

x

Wealth of Nations

x

O God

For invocation

Oh, God

To plea

Our world groans

With war

And the imbalance

Of the greedy

Systems

x

Justice should be a system

Greed is not good

Unless you’re winning

For a while

While all our cells corrupted

May yet cry for mercy

x

The ears to hear

Might be

The last to go

x

God

Help us

And forgive us

The Earth is ours

And we forget

And leave it to a few

Who vote for nothing

But self-fattening

And a self-deceiving glimpse

Of real power

x

Let all rise

(the poorly-

agendaed, too)

To march

Or stand in place

To sing

As if

Accompanying Earth

With all the antiphons

The spheres above

Below

That glide

And when against each other

Glory in the sacred touch

The music

Of all order

And all chaos,

Arranged

As creation’s gift

x

And this is wealth

Not the other

Once we feed each other

And can stand or march

(or sit with age

or disability

and purpose)

To hear the strains

Of everything

And offer ours

x

Our gift

Unto the glory

Of Earth

And all-around’s,

Of God’s all

x

C L Couch

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We Need You and Sometimes We Can’t

(x = space)

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We Need You and Sometimes We Can’t

x

Help us to love you,

O Lord,

Though

You may live without us

x

Still, we can exist

Together

In a bond that is

Extraordinary:

Of energy, of will,

Of love without agenda,

All around

x

It’s hard to love invisibly

With thoughts and feelings

We can’t see

And then

Your presence, Lord

x

With things unseen

And unevidenced

In other ways,

Our senses confounded

For lack of usefulness

The kind employed in what we do

In anything—and

How may we

Sense you?

x

There is stigmata for a few

And apparitions;

There are those

Who hear your words

In air

Or those emblazoned

Understood

Upon the heart

x

We want to know;

We get frustrated

Then we worry

For offense

(offending God does not seem smart)

Or we give up

Ignore

And in internal ways

We walk away

x

But you are there

We should believe

And within parameters

Of material and abstract

Hope for more

x

That on this side

We may have in measures

That will have to do

For life

And faith

And all the things we have to do

To make things better

One by one

And altogether

x

Tolerance

And patience

Peace

And feeding

Giving water

Giving hope for more

In all the needs of life

(material and abstract)

x

Help us, Lord,

Or let us help ourselves

And the others;

Be with us

And invisibly

Leave us to choose

In respect

Of how we’re made

And otherwise arranged

Our will

That we often apply well

Even without

Preternatural accoutrements

Composing a few rituals

For service

Pledging how to live

On our own

x

C L Couch

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