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clcouch123

In conversation, I prefer Christopher. My mom named me after Christopher Robin, after all. In writing, I use “C L Couch” (or, more simply, “c l couch”) because the form is genderless and also frankly easier to use. I have awful writer’s cramp. I am an educator more or less retired, more or less due to disability. At present, I live in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (USA). My writing here I mean to be occasional and also devotional. Either or both. The banner and profile photographs are by my friend and peer Debra Danielson. More of Debbie’s work to be enjoyed is at debradanielson.org. Thanks to each of you and both and all for coming to my blog.

And, But, Or, Nor, For, Yet, So

(x = space)

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And, But, Or, Nor, For, Yet, So

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What do I do

When God is gone?

A question I don’t have to ask

Because it doesn’t happen

God doesn’t go away

I do

I go away when I want

To think of someone else

Of something that I want

That I shouldn’t have

When I need

Or presume to need

Enough to bump out God

From my awareness,

Which qualifies the need

As something else

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This is straightforward:

I choose to have God in my life

Closer to me, anyway

Since God is there

Creating

Maintaining

Weeping or laughing at

What we do

Preparing for Parousia

Yet

Cherishing each moment

The now we have

We linear beings

Meaning for us

It’s a saving moment

To a saving moment

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God is close

God is inherent

In electrons

And cellular nuclei

God will become more obvious

As we wish

As we choose

As we ask it so

(the asking’s prayer)

The devil has many ways

To snare us away

It is agenda

Of the kind that pushes will

And understanding

Inside a frame that illustrate

An attitude

Against people and the

Environment

The Earth we stand or glide

Or rest upon

All of which, the devil says,

Is unimportant

When favoring

Profit

Unhuman strategies

(inhumane)

That only matter as

Winning so that the rest

Are losers

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Who is lost?

The burden’s hard

The burden’s easy

It’s paradox

Of faith

Of belief in God who’s only known

Through evidence unseen

Who wins a case through this?

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Such contradictions

Such opposites

The world we love must be eschewed

If we would live, there is first

The inevitability of dying

Sheesh

No thank you

Or thank you

Our will to embrace

To choose

To live in love

With the good in everything

With faith

And hard belief that has gentle edges

In what we show each other

(as in manifest)

In what we sense

And how we deal

With everyone

With everything

By which and in which

A spirit accompanies

For good

For upbuilding

For faith

And, yes, for love

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We live in hope

That God is there

That God is there when we return

Or when we turn around

In attitude

Repentance

Sorry and a new embrace

Of faith

Gove love this Earth

And the extraordinary creatures

That you’ve made

That is each of us

Not that we are perfect

Or perfectly anything

But in everyone

And everything

The three remain close by

The three remain close by

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C L Couch

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By Finoskov – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109525350

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benedictus

(x = space)

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benedictus

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we could be pleased

with what we had

and sad for what is missed

we could love what there is

let go the hate for

what was taken

who took it

we could love with a love

not pure, because there’s always

imperfection

we could correct and sigh

sigh and correct over faults

x

we could love

because alternatives shall drive us

into places where

no one really wants to go

or stay

more so, we could come home

to the dwelling of our hearts

and smarter thoughts

inside the land that God more fully made

that shall remain

when the rest

the doubt, the pain, even scorn

shall fall away

while love remain

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c l couch

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hoto by savvas kalimeris on unsplash

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Our Town

(x = space)

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Our Town

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If it were Our Town

Someone might say

Robb Elementary School

Uvalde

Texas

USA

The Earth

The mind of God

Who did not go in?

Everyone

Except those set there already

Children

Teachers

Targets

The few outside who wanted

To go in

Were kept away

An issue of control?

Of quieting bureaucracy?

It really wasn’t so bad

In there?

I know it’s unknown ‘til the time

What we would do

I’d be terrified

And I might count on those with

Uniforms and guns

To lead the way

Until they didn’t

We have to remember all of this

I’m sorry, but we do

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C L Couch

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More than 350 responding police officers took a “lackadaisical approach” to the Uvalde school massacre while accused gunman Salvador Ramos, who had never fired a gun before, killed 21 people, according to a preliminary report from the Texas House released Sunday.

Two teachers and 19 students were gunned down inside Robb Elementary School on May 24 while police, armed with weapons and protective material, lingered outside the school, then in the hallway for 77 minutes.

In that time, Ramos, 18, laid waste to joint classrooms, firing more than 100 times from a military style AR-15 rifle.

. . .

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-uvalde-school-shooting-robb-elementary-massacre-ramos-police-20220717-uclqp44oknh3tozaqrnp3rqsde-story.html?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=2022-07-17-Egregious-poor-

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“You know the old chestnut…all roads lead to Uvalde.”

(image and caption by) formulanone from Huntsville, United States – Uvalde! Uvalde!, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77144919

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Our Town, the play by Thornton Wilder

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The Impoverished

(x = space)

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The Impoverished

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It is another day

To wake up into misery

Sometimes a vivid

Dream

Takes me to

A place that is not

So spectacular but

I want to live there

And I wake up

And I’m here

I wake to the gray skies

Of war

Or my child is

Still sick

Or my child is gone

My children

x

There is my own pathology

It hurts

And there is no promise

Of change for the better

x

I wake into many

Who have problems

And they seep

Or crash into awareness

I have no money

Or my clothes are poor

My shoes don’t wrap around

My feet

So I have trouble moving

And I’m seen first

For the problems that I have

x

I’m seen first

For the problems that I have

That’s how my friends know me

Or my family

Or anyone

First, I am the sad one

Or the needy one

The one with problems

I am an individual

Also a family

Or a nation

I grow to hate waking up

Like this

I grow to hate waking up

Can someone make

The day better?

Can I?

x

A song could name this

But is no breath

For singing

There is no cause

Or there is

And I forget

It’s been too long

x

I could say, Help me

But I don’t know how

Sometimes it’s

Antagonistic

The responses that I get

When I used to ask

Mostly it’s apathy

With closed pockets

I never get close to,

Which is fine

I don’t want your pockets

I want my own

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I want what I used to have

Or maybe never had

I want what I need

And a little more

So I am ready

When I hear of

Need

Someone

A family

Or a nation

x

To give out of what I have

And a little more

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C L Couch

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Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

The Other Way

published 2 hours ago

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(leaves can testify)

(x = space)

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(leaves can testify)

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leaves can testify

an acceptable word tree

inherits earthly

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c l couch

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photo by guillaume bergaglia on unsplash

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Please Pass the Pray

(x = space)

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Please Pass the Pray

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Welcome home the victims

Heal the victims here

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Quick prayer for those who died

And those who are wounded

And still here

x

Something in the house

Or in the car

Aloud or silently

It counts

The most basic ask of intercession

x

Like asking God

Be with whoever’s involved

In that emergency

Who are these people?

Someone knows

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What is needed by way of comfort

Or of sutures

Or of passage?

Someone knows

We don’t know

Maybe we don’t have to

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Prayer is involvement

Even anonymous

That works

We may not know the outcomes

That is faith

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C L Couch

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Photo by Mikhail Volkov on Unsplash

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Photo by YANGHONG YU on Unsplash

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The Violence

(x = space)

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The Violence

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I guess nowadays

It seems to me

Not to wax

Not in a rant but with

Cold observation

x

A reader

And a hearer

And a watcher

x

We go to

Wicked without order

(yes, we know it’s good

in New England)

No vision

No plan

Make war not love

x

As if we’ve taken all the virtue

All the good things out of

Everything,

Which leaves us

(ask Oedipus

Creon

even Antigone)

Vanity

And hubris

A particular kind of cowardice

For bullying

An awful war

Frankly, an awful peace

x

On the inside first

Then interpersonal

x

Having arranged

For all of us

By all of us

Easy access to deadlier weapons

Lacking safeties

And restraints

And moderation

x

Intentions once machined

To the center

Now lathed

At a slant

Until the work breaks

In the machine

Our better parts left

Ragged

Rough

Deadly points

Untreated

Left unsmoothed

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And then the other weapons

Too easy

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C L Couch

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Antigone. Ismene, dear sister,

You would think that we had already suffered enough

For the curse on Oedipus:

I cannot imagine any grief

That you and I have not gone through. And now—

Have they told you the new decree of our king Creon?

(Antigone by Sophocles)

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Photo by Amber Kipp on Unsplash

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The Wonder Dog

(x = space)

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The Wonder Dog

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I used to let

The dog go

In the creek

Taking off the leash

Once we were behind

The houses

What a happy dog

Upstream was all right

There was freedom in that,

Too

x

Muscles got used

That needed using

The shaking of the chain

Hanging in the closet meant

That

All this could happen

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Once released

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C L Couch

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Water Flowing over Rocks

Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash

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Arts and Sciences

(x = space)

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Arts and Sciences

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It used to be

That art was the vision

Science the practice

(of the vision)

Thus there was connection

As between birth

And grown-up life

That was not ineffable

But practical

Workable

For visioning, producing

Of an age

x

Now we don’t like each other

The theoretical

The practical

We grumble and we look

The other way

Well, to our way

If we must, we sigh

Whisper nearly sotto voce

For a bit of theory

Or a bit of usefulness

Or industry

x

Music, math

The Renaissance

Philosophy

Reading, writing

How to build community

Through argument

And pipes

And water fountains

Statuary for the ages

Buildings that make sense

Can be maintained

And are beautiful

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They’re coming back, perhaps

I see new works in small towns

Better than returning is

Moving forward

Time for a new alliance

New connections

New community

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Make new friends

And keep the old;

One is silver

And the other gold

Not bad for an age

Every day a merger

Every breath a hope

In vision

Words

Plans

Building

And-or preserving

The streets, the place,

And planet

We all live along

Each one

Each other

x

C L Couch

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Light in the Law Quad

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

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“Make New Friends” is a scout and camp song (a round) whose creators are unknown and whose lyrics have variations.

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