Prayer for Angry Neighbor

(x = space)

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Prayer for Angry Neighbor

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I’m going to ignore you

And pray for you

That you find what you want

Not as you want it

(sorry, that’s a spiritual rub)

But as one perfectly

Provides

And you are happy

As you’ve never known

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I guess that’s not

So much ignoring,

After all

It’s the other stuff

The stuff that you throw

Down as if to say,

Challenge me

I’ll take you on

Though what you want

Is brittle

And could shatter

With what is left

Call them fragments

Call them splinters

Call it defeat

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That’s probably too much

To pray for now

To keep it simple,

Pray for peace

On the inside for you

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C L Couch

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Photo by Siarhei Plashchynski on Unsplash

Eindhoven, Netherlands

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On the First Day of the Week

(x = space)

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On the First Day of the Week

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God,

A petition for this morning

While the sky is gray

And the sun

Is in the offing

Waiting to push through

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Follow us

To catch us when we fall

Or to pick us up

Dust us off, after

Or simply be around

Because the negative is not

Enough

And if we rise with you,

A certain kind of sufficiency

Of economy

The science of

A real enough and more

May follow

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Really,

We don’t need so much

Less than we think we do

Then out of

Small largesse,

When that’s all we have,

We may help

The other

Not a sly metaphor

But a person

Real people

Real needs

Not holiday

But quotidian

Every day,

You know

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All this is real

And thankful

To be prayed

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C L Couch

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Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

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They Seek Him There

(x = space)

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They Seek Him There

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O God, our help

In ages past

Our hope for years to come

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And what do we need today

But to know you are near

Some miracles would not go

Amiss, I must confess

(unless they do)

For a week of flood and fire

End or start to war

A sickness that has taken many lives

Corruption from the fruit of Eden

For the way we ate

For the way we live

For the way we want to live

On this side or that

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C L Couch

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title borrowed respectfully from The Scarlet Pimpernel

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by Lawn Weeds – Scarlet Pimpernel, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85377914

Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) is a summer annual plant and a member of the primrose family. As its name suggest[s,] it has bright red/orange flowers, which only open when the sun shines.

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Amen for Catharsis

(x = space)

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Amen for Catharsis

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You came

Dear God

And you were here

You were what I couldn’t see

The voice beneath the noise

Something soft yet muscled

Beneath the brittle strength of

The world

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I don’t know about the timing

I wasn’t thinking clearly but

Have no doubt

Your arrival

Was perfect

In the way

Every plan from you

Is manifest

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Now in a time of peace

An hour, the next minute

Maybe a day–this

Side of things

Is too partial

And imperfect

(not like grammar)–

And now I go about

Again (imperfectly)

To try to serve

To try to balance out the wills

Of people

And of nature

With my energy

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And have I said it simply,

Lord

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Lord,

Thank you

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C L Couch

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Part of one of my acrylic paintings.

Photo by Paul Blenkhorn @SensoryArtHouse on Unsplash

Sensory Art House

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Petitioning before the Storm

(x = space)

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Petitioning before the Storm

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Later today

Ida comes to call

With too much rain

For an area

That is soaked already

There should be floods

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I’m sorry

I’ve been praying for myself

I’ve been praying

For you, too

x

But I need the power

The electricity

My heart needs the help

Frankly, in the summer heat

And afterward

I’ll need to get around

For bread

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Maybe I’ll get or keep

(since nothing

will have changed)

My petition

x

But I need the prayer for me

I hope there’s understanding

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C L Couch

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Sinai

no, Italy

Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash

Alpe di Siusi, 39040 Castelrotto BZ, Kastelruth, Italy

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Doctrine by Tempest

(x = space)

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Doctrine by Tempest

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And should I turn

To the Spirit,

How shall she say

Or guide?

To love in all things,

Though that

Can be a mystery

Like faith

And should I ask for grace

Or is that bestowed

In quantities

Already

Measured out by God,

Dispensed by angels?

I don’t know,

I think grace might be wild,

Ready to fall itself

Into the crisis

Spreading all the elements

And changing time

For

Working things,

Which means perhaps

That prayer

Is unchained, too,

And to do so

Into the storm

In terror

And unformed bequest

Well, it counts

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C L Couch

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Hurricane Map

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Yemen

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Monday after Sunday Prayer

(x = space)

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Monday after Sunday Prayer

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Lord,

What’s going on?

Where are you?

Where are we?

Are we lost,

Or it is that

So much seems lost

On us?

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Do we simply

Not get it?

We engine on

And sometimes there are wheels

Where do they take us?

Why should we make the trip?

x

Too many questions

We want some

Certainty,

Please

We want to know

We’re on the path to

Something good,

What we’re aiming toward

And heading toward

Is good

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Good for prosperity

Good for wisdom

Good for relief

On our arrival

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How will get there?

Do angles light the way?

And yet

Some part of us must be

Agnostic

Must question

Doubt

x

We have to assay

Whether it’s treasure

Or rust

Or rusty treasure

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To take

Simply admire

And walk on

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Into future

(into Tuesday)

To the next site

A challenge

The next prayer

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C L Couch

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Beware of these Streets

Photo by Andrew Gook on Unsplash

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Chaotica

(x = space)

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Chaotica

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Lord,

It’s a good day

For normal praying

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In churches everywhere

There will be choruses

That say it right

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But my prayer

Is cacophony,

Nothing regular

Or regularly rhythmed out

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I hope you will forgive that,

All the off-pitch, off-key

Murmuring,

Uneven humming through

The perfect angel-layering

Of formal prayers

x

But I need you;

I need your company

x

You could simply sit close by,

And maybe we’d say nothing

To each other

And somehow know

Eternity is hearing

Everything as it should

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Everything that’s needed

To respond just right

To an uneven,

Lopsided,

Person praying badly

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Out of place

In whatever place

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C L Couch

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Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

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Quiet Start

(x = space)

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Quiet Start

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I am quiet

And for a change

The building’s quiet

I have ordered food

Staples, that kind of thing

It should be arriving

In two hours

Or less

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It’s a breathing moment

When the sun is considering

Fully rising

Though it’s tussling

With some clouds

I like this time

I wish my coffeemaker

Wasn’t broken

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But I’ll take this

For a Friday morning

Pray for all the tragedies

By nature and by us

Do some plain old

Wishing, too,

As if I had an unironic genie

Who would simply give me

What I wish

Even world peace

Or something like that

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C L Couch

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Dandelions are everywhere in Finland in Spring!

Photo by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash

Levi, Kittilä, Finland

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