hap
(valueless until we add value)
what shall I say
it’s Wednesday of
the arc
day before a holiday in
this case
USA Thanksgiving
when we observe and also
ignore
the colonial experience
we celebrate
the Indians
misnamed
who kept the settlers alive
so
they could lose their land
and lives
push their identities to arid
places out west until
mineral wealth
pushed
them farther
fish to fertilize
corn a gift from the Americas
with
turkey
and pumpkins
and may I go back to say a word
in favor
of popcorn
boon to so many
watching
movies
black and white
the natives were in color
two groups as there must be
two groups
not
one nation-tribe
and yet they came together
hunger
and fear
righteousness
after
survival
and we have so many
mores now
to practice
they are idle
parades
in which practitioners aren’t
idle
football games for distraction
snacks
and later tryptophan
and
maybe
snacked and
drugged
the day will go easy
on gathered
drama
perturbations
and
then to plan
any adventures for tomorrow
when
we might rush the stores
predawn
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photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash—A Rooster and Turkey Fighting c. 1680 Melchior de Hondecoeter (Dutch, 1636–1695) Netherlands Oil on canvas John L. Severance Fund 1986.59 https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1986.59
for an old Advent song
Christmas is coming
and I hope the fat goose
is rescued
and the old man
gets at least
two pennies in the hat
and
God bless you
the goose
the man
the Cratchits
(vegetarian)
and you
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Christmas is coming;
the goose is getting fat.
Please to put a penny
in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t a penny,
a ha’penny will do;
If you haven’t a ha’penny,
then God bless you!
(an old, famous, English doggerel—more antique-feeling, at least in these parts, with the extinction of the penny)
photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash
Back of a union shield penny.
new year’s eve
the last week of the year
by the counting
of
the old
and present church
a purple season coming
or it’s popular
in blue
the green of churches
as well
and gatherings to
make it so
sometimes with soup
maybe chowder
(I
imagine chowder)
after
and thus these colors begin
with
poinsettias
red or pink or white
to be added
and
maybe there will be a tree
somewhere with
ornaments
could be
Chrismons
for ornaments
and
who knows whose presents
service
or wishes
underneath and all around
while some churches
will go
bare
for budgets or beliefs
and let the Christ child enter
to save alone
any human season
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photograph by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash
there will be
there will be
no sorrowing there
Jesus
himself has gone before
to take a cross
to set it down
maybe horizontally to make
a bridge
between
God and us again
as
at Eden
he
for he and she
went through the valley
first
and shall come back
maybe
by angel agents representing
either way
we shall go through
and at the start
or
in the middle
or at the dale’s ending
we shall be told
we may
set our crosses down
no longer needed
since
there will be no longer
any
sorrowing there
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photograph by The Walters Art Museum of the ink-and-color work of Ishiwata Koitsu “Twilight at Imamiya Street, Choshi 1932” via Unsplash
pale gray without lines
no deep curves and shadow-play
I’d rather rainclouds
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photo by Giang Nguyen on Unsplash
whose to know
I know you
as I
(existentially)
might know that goes
from
much to nearly
anonymous
as I don’t know you
and so
don’t know
what’s
healthy for you except generally
and to an extent
doctrinally
I hardly know
myself
it seems
and all the parts inside that work
well or that are inclined
yet
to rebel
not in
appreciable or creative ways
and so who am I to say
except I wish
for
wellness
I pray for healing of my niece
as I might know you
I pray
and encourage you to pray less blankly
more fully
(knowingly)
for what others and elsewhere need
also
you
and I guess that’s it
let’s pray
and might we know there’s power
in that
intercession
as well as
self-directed
if
could be with the proviso that
faith
hope
and love show up
by prayer
and anyway
and are willing to remain
first
two
the third especially goes nowhere
if all
imperfectly through us
and
perfectly from the one we know
and seek to know
even
through evidence unseen
yet
so believe
to ask
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(1 Corinthians 13:13, Hebrews 11:1)
photograph by Christina Ioannidou at Unsplash
Chamaemelum nobile.
Corinth, Greece
a life only for Teresa
miracle
like so many products
and
mystery
like so many books
and plays
becoming movies
miracle
and mystery
foundations for
an extraordinary life
of
visions
mountaintop
and valley encounters in
the world
but more so of
the Spirit that both inhabits and
visits
the attending and inquiring
soul
and
do we elevate in ecstasy
and what of those who
don’t go anywhere
but stay
below to pray and hope for on-the-ground
situations and
experience
those of us who do not move
who cannot leave
not
to paradise
or the next
town
who are tied where we are tied
and shall go to nowhere
save
to struggle like the caged
or otherwise enclosed
or simply call it
where we are
and where we work
for now
not
to leave with any notion of abandon
not
to go wild
but
to stay put until Parousia come for all
and so
free or encumbered
we might hope to know God
yet
must live where we are
between the peak
and the vale
hoping for
interior conviction for
a life of faith and
love
a life somehow material
and holy
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Saint Teresa de Ávila wrote The Interior Castle
photo by Florian Haun on Unsplash—I was out working for our local newspaper [photographer’s story]. The weather was clear in the beginning but changed quickly. I turned round and saw the hut called “Zimmereben” in the region of Mayrhofen/Zillertal/Tyrol. The black and white gives that photo a touch of mystery to.
an intrusion of angels
a well-written angel in the story
and
how many stories
“Littlest”
“The Bishop’s Wife”
Clarence
you know
we know
also in A Wrinkle
and in a short story by Donaldson
a while ago
I read
if
starting and ending mid-
sentence
and with the might and glory
of
that being only appearing in the moment
when most needed
then
to humble
if
homeless into the next assignment
and I belabor this
(and
these)
because it seems we like the angels
or
we fear them
or
we need them
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“Unworthy of the Angel” by Stephen R. Donaldson—I looked it up to remember
the word for a group of angels, well, there are several words—choir, host, flight, pinion, and legion—and I made up intrusion
photograph is by Dennys Hess at Unsplash
(oh, the prompt is a depiction of an angel, so I believed or decided, in a teleplay)
older now
I have to move and around
so many things
and did I want
sure
I did
or perfected beyond style or budget
and these were simply hopeful
the things
that should now go away
because
the space around me shall go smaller
I believe
as well as
somewhat institutional
organized by age
and
as the stage from which to go to wherever
next
and how to feel
and I don’t know I feel
a plan
and execution
then
a feeling
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photo by Zalfa Imani at Unsplash
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