(x = space)
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Who Knows How to Live
(not a question)
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It’s evening now,
An old movie is on TV
If there were a cat
As there has been,
She would be sleeping
Until she wakes, eats
Something, demands
Face-rubbing, then
Goes to sleep again
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C L Couch
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Los Gatos Theatre, Los Gatos, United States
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(x = space)
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For Those of Us Not Good at Praying
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Good God,
Please grant us
Clemency,
A fancy word
In church or court
For mercy
But don’t be fancy with us,
We need help, that’s all
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Simply and, well,
In miracles
There are hungry people
Many sick with disease
There is disease of mind
As well
And those who want
Their way and want
The rest of us as well
And there is evil in that,
The kind you say
In your book
Is under the sun,
Meaning every day
And most likely every hour
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So we must pray for food
(safe water)
And for freedom
A cure when your nature
Hurts us, a cure when
Others try to bring us down
In the other way
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We might be
At traffic lights, just now
Sitting in back seats of cars
With ear-pods in
Our ears
Or other things
Distracting
Sorry, we get around to this
Too late at times
Well, most of the time
(most of us)
We are not saints
Whoever they might be
We are only
People in need
Amen,
We should say amen
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C L Couch
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Photo by Kristy Kravchenko on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Storied Creatures
(story people)
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Elves could come
At night
And cobble me some
Shoes;
Maybe a storied dwarf could spin
Some straw (maybe
the recyclables)
Into gold–
And since I know the name,
We’d keep
A healthy distance
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The kraken could rage at
All the red tide
In the bay;
A dragon could riddle me
For treasure
(I could offer books
in which these
serpents with wings and other vanities
appear to
good effect)
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A dryad could point out
Poison ivy
While I walk, while
A sibling naiad
Translate calls from frogs at ponds
For me, because
I’d rather be an ally than
A foe
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I’d like to know the spirits
From the stories
Even though there’s eldritch strength
With talent, which I
Could never touch
Or could be
Burned by
Since these creatures are magic
And their skills,
While we are mortal and
With what we do
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But, oh, the draw of living out
Some lifetimes
As these supernal creatures
Are supposed to live
(and if so,
then they must live
even if in tragedy of feeling
or of fate)
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But let’s say in the meantime
We tell all the stories
Though
Their foundation be–
Maybe the key to knowing them be–
Separation
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C L Couch
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Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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2021
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Say the new year
With me
We’ll be allowed to have
More expectations
By then
Except for the things that got
In the way
Of righteous living
All the ploys
In my land
In Washington
(no stimulus until I get my way;
hand him the derivative
fiddle while
Rome burns)
The groups that have socked
Billions
While those who live
Day by day struggle
To maintain
xxxxx Is this the saying that
xxxxx War is good
xxxxx For the economy?
There will be a
Reckoning,
Though we’ve got better
Living to do now
Maybe in November,
Starting
Maybe next year
For those still here
And breathing well, at last
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C L Couch
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Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash
National Day Fireworks
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(x = space)
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Night Is Gracious
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I can’t think of what
I deserve
Because I deserve nothing
Too well I understand
(with Protestants)
The wages of sin,
Not
Because I’m criminal but
Because I’m sinful,
Maybe in the way
Of all who’ve sinned and so
Deserve extinction
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But sinful state and actions
Might be
A prelude unto grace—and so
Some say there must
Be evil on the way,
And I wonder
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They don’t really go by halves,
And shadows are not evil
Evil isn’t natural
Though insistent
And when we think
The evil life is
Shadow life—they don’t combine,
Not really
Decide what you will
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Let evil sublimate for now
But shadows can delight
At night
Or teaching about night
In day
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In daylight we’ll have Parousia,
I suppose
Thought at night perhaps
We’ll celebrate,
Then rest
The rest we should have had
In Eden,
Now a rest
For all to merge
To bathe of goodness,
Leaving all distinct
Forever
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Each one a player and a part
(not the player without
an upstart part,
as Jaques laments
an irony of stasis)
In everything revealed
By light, by shade
All shades of existence
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Under the sun
(evil abrogated)
While always under stars
Belonging to night,
Where we also
Always
All belong
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C L Couch
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Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center, West Allis, United States
Taken from the Sky Lift at the WI State Fair, August 2017
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(x = space)
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Waves
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What do I want
To say to you
That it’s a lovely day
In an eccentric way
Everything is played down
The takeover of fall
Changing tones on trees
And on the ground
Everything played down
Under a graying sky
With brighter sunlight
Coming through
From time to time
As if the wind
(I see it on the leaves)
Were pushing the clouds out
Or the sunlight in
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C L Couch
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Photo by Fineas Anton on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Sabbath-Worthy
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Today should be a restful day
There’s law in it
And lore
There must be allowances
For first-responding
Daily labors that utilities
And farms require,
And I hope they’re given sabbath
Time another time
Those who take care of us
So we might have time
To eat and think and play
In ways that still
Qualify as still, that is,
Sabbath-worthy
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C L Couch
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Photo by Liset Verhaar on Unsplash
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note
And do I need to say this? (Maybe, if only for me.) Sabbath may happen on any day, as tradition or exigency requires.
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(x = space)
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Really
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My wish for you
Is that you know some peace today
Even if you think
You don’t want it
Yes
I’m praying for something
You don’t want because you’d rather enjoy
Vengeance
The passion that comes
In blaming someone else
For all misfortunes
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My sibling friends
Enjoy some peace
Not that I give it though I’m asking
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You might think it’s stupid
Weak and empty
Like a promise that we
Conveniently forget
But if Blake is correct that
Energy is delight
Then
I’m going to add a step to the syllogism
And argue A equals B equals C
(equals A)
That peace is energy
Leading the better way
To the rest
Of meaningful
Always in motion
Life
With all existence
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Peace is energy is delight
Thank you
Mister Blake
Thank you
Power in prayer
Even when
Upstart offered
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C L Couch
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In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake writes “Energy is eternal delight.”
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Tivoli Gardens, København, Denmark
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(x = space)
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Counting Days
(days that count in pandemic time)
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You know, folks
Have a good weekend
I know there are fires
I know that in my land
The President is sick
So somewhere there are those
Discussing the Twenty-Fifth
While I imagine
He will act as if he’s tougher than disease,
Though he is not
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But we need to live
And it’s Friday afternoon
I will stop counting days
When I no longer lose
My way
If you told me it were
Tuesday,
I’d be inclined
To believe it
This should be,
As I say,
The year of doing nothing
What we need for life
Yes, fighting the fires
And retraining other violence
From nature, then,
And tragically
Of our design
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Otherwise, it should be
Science and care
Support the end of the disease
And watch out for each other
In the mean time,
Such watching out meaning
We’re busy
Feeding, sheltering,
And yes occupying
Each other
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It’s Friday afternoon
(I’m pretty sure)
Have a good weekend
Pray for the President
Pray harder
For citizens who
Did not ask for this
Pray for you
Pray for me
Praying for our aching world
Pray for peace in nature
And our designs
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C L Couch
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Photo by Keyvan Mansouri on Unsplash
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