(x = space)
x
x
Beasts
x
Cats and dogs
And cows
Wolves in pictures
Videos of bears
Eagle nests
Through cameras
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What do I know
Of beasts
In my suburban place?
I know the stories
Fairy stories
Thanks to
Father’s reading
And some records on
The record-player
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And then,
You know,
I met the human kind
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C L Couch
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Photo by Axel Blanchard on Unsplash
Zoo de Beauval, Saint Aignan, France
A White Tiger
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(x = space)
x
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Unrest
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Sequester
Sounds like cloister
Yet how could there
Be opportunity for
Contemplation?
x
I feel for them
I wouldn’t want to be there
I feel for them for now
Though if they go against
My thinking, I will no longer
Care for their
Discomfort
x
Such is the life of jurors
I tried it for a day
At the insistence of my county
It’s rather claustrophobic,
Though in my case
(I mean, my jury time)
We all did well
I was relieved
Before I was relieved
Received a check
A few days later
x
I’m saying this
On behalf
Of the jurors in Minnesota
Deciding Chauvin’s guilt
Or innocence
Where we note with ease
From our safer places
The troops, the APCs
(whatever their affiliation)
Set around
The courthouse
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C L Couch
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Photo by Isidoro Martínez on Unsplash
Policeman standing in front of the fire.
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Awaiting Derek Chauvin Verdict, Police Prepare New Approach to Protests (msn.com)
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For the past few days, I couldn’t get into WordPress. The search wheel would go round and round, and no web page for WordPress appeared. After making some browser and other changes, it seems I have access again. I still want to cut-and-paste my work, and WordPress still doesn’t recognize the breaks in text I make while drafting in my word-processing program and then posting here. I’m still grrrr-ing over this. With Browning’s speaker in the Spanish Cloister.
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“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”
Robert Browning
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Gr-r-r—there go, my heart’s abhorrence!
Water your damned flower-pots, do!
If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,
God’s blood, would not mine kill you!
. . .
‘St, there’s Vespers! _Plena grati
Ave, Virgo!_ Gr-r-r—you swine!
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(x = space)
x
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Brothers
(on a birthday)
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I have three
Today is the birthday
Of one of them
Paul is a year and a half younger
Meaning I get confused
Trying to track the number
Most years
In the USA
(not this year)
It is just after tax day
So that there are two reasons
For celebration
x
This is the brother
Who knows celebrities
And has worked closely with
Dolly Parton
At the park
On TV
And most recently on stage
He is a producer
Though he also knows the talent
From the inside out
Singing
Playing a dozen instruments
x
His wife is better than he is
But what else could be expected
They are creative
Talent
x
Years and years to come
And let the moments you have now
Be gold
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C L Couch
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Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
Shots Fired
x
Shooting in Indianapolis
Many killed
Then the shooter
Suicides,
Which might have been the plan
Or nascent horror
In reaction
That what has been done
And how it really looks
And sounds
And smells
All senses bely everything,
The shooter’s truth
x
I know people there
So do you
Six degrees
Less
Five for being
Human
x
Now there’s talk
About the weather
As if there were
No separation
x
We can graft it all together—
Watch, we’re doing it
x
I don’t want
To know, either
It’s gross, and I’m trying
To deal in closer things
x
But there it is
We do living color well
In irony of tones
x
The coffee’s late
The toast is early
I’m not cycling well with the news
And please
Sell windows at another time
x
In Europe,
I understand
They used to add them up
The advertisements
To show them at one time
A day
And give awards for them
That everyone would follow
In gratitude, no doubt,
For separation
x
That we can do
Ecclesiastes says so
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https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/16/us/mass-shootings-45-one-month/index.html
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Photo by Zinko Hein on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
a medium for heroes
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what if a dream deferred
is not enough?
(it is a cruel question)
what if our refusal
to lift up each one
is a matter
for the Earth’s survival?
who is the next Einstein
or Jenner or the Curies
who will save us
from nature’s catastrophes
or our own?
x
they may rise
unless we have refused
them breath and opportunity
x
and without knowing
(and we never know)
we simply have to raise
each one
each one on the Earth
and the Earth itself
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c l couch
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photo by Jeff Ackley on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Signs of Protest
(civilly offered)
x
I do not understand
The people who have died
From shooting,
From hunger
Or lack of safe water,
From COVID
x
You know what I mean,
I don’t understand
The situation
That allows for these
x
Too many guns,
Not enough
Food and water,
Too much disease
x
The solution seems mathematic
Fewer guns,
More food and water,
Less disease
x
I don’t care about the politics
We’ve made death too easy
And where politics might be concerned,
We’ve rendered people into blots:
x
We take off our glasses
And look at the blots from a distance
x
We have the right
To kill
Except we don’t have it
x
Made-up spies, perhaps
Soldiers who follow orders,
Though there’s too much a burden
For them,
The soldiers and the orders
x
Stay strong
Broker peace
Don’t outlaw emotions
But outlaw hate
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Maybe slowly we’re getting there
I don’t know
Maybe you do
I hope so
Because I have to count on you
And you and you
Not as blots
But with the most urgent
Kind of clarity
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C L Couch
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International Women’s Day in Barcelona, Spain (2009). The motto, written in Catalan, says: “Total crisis in the patriarchal system”.
By Mutari – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6151838
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finding an image to represent protest was harder than I thought it would be; I chose this photograph because I agree that the patriarchal system is in crisis: in fact, IS a crisis
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(x = space)
x
x
Ramadan
(2021)
x
Ninth month in the lunar calendar,
A time for fasting and reflecting
On one’s faith and submission
To God’s will
x
At night, we eat
Though I think we might save it up
For the three days’ celebration
At the end, Eid al-Fitr
x
Many, so many, would try to go
To Mecca or Jerusalem;
Though as with everything else,
This time must be different:
It’s not safe to travel
For ourselves and for our neighbors,
So community will have to mean
Home stays
x
But the meaning is unchanged,
And I wish for my neighbors
Days of prayer and meaning
And a season of
So many blessings
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
Salutation
(meaning health)
x
I hope this is
A good day for you
You deserve it
I know it’s Monday, but
It is as full of opportunity
As yesterday
Tomorrow
And the next time
x
I’m not saying
Everyone has the same
Opportunity, because
In no way
Do we all have the same
I wish we did
x
But the hours are
Ahead of us,
And the moments of now
Have arrived
What shall we do, not
To pass the time
But to make it
Into something that is
Prosperous and peaceful,
Ancient wishes
Rendered imminent
For all of us
Here and now
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C L Couch
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There is a good book by Henri Nouwen entitled Here and Now. And by Jean-Pierre de Caussadethere is The Sacrament of the Present Moment. Each book is brief, imperfect, yet brimming.
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Nobility of Time by Salvador Dalí
(photograph) by fabiolah, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51922306
x
(x = space)
x
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Papa
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I’ve said this before
Because Hemingway once said
Once a dishonest thing is written,
Nothing honest can be written
Again
But Hemingway might have known
Nothing about repentance,
Which might explain
Why tries at reconciliation
Failed
x
He liked Spain so much
I’m sure he met some priests;
Maybe they were trout-fishing, too
Or he might have talked of God
With someone else
Who knew
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C L Couch
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Photo by Alejandro Piñero Amerio on Unsplash
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clcouch123 
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