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silent flesh

(x = space)

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silent flesh

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god made into flesh

while divinity wasn’t noticing

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how else could perfection

give up eternal everything,

knowledge and power

and everything we want

and some of us think we should have

right now

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jesus, god and human

how hard must that be

and who among of us would do it

knowing invincibility would be

a memory, only

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as mortal, god would know us

as god might know a deer

or a rainbow

or unrequited love

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that is, from the inside out

from the other side of creation

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god will know us

as we live

give up a cure for every illness

prevention in perfection

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excruciating

loving

all love because

there is no other reason

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c l couch

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notes

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reading a prayer that mentions (I think) God made flesh (or maybe it was human) in a baby

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thinking of an old hymn whose lyrics I find haunting (with a haunting melody):

Let all mortal flesh keep silent

And in fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded;

For with bless in his hand,

Christ our God to Earth descended,

Our full homage to demand

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Wellcome Collection, London, United Kingdom

The Body

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Heliopolis

(x = space)

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Heliopolis

(for the solstice)

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The Earth is torn today like

The veil in the temple;

The ground might not move

More than

Mountains explode and

Ice retreats

Anyway,

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These days

In the climes especially

We are half-making,

Maybe more than half

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We still don’t have it right

To count,

Though we’ll more or less find

The moment when the Earth

In contract with the sun

Leans the other way

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We’d do just as well to consult

Ancient sources

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A new season to begin,

The longer light graduated

Like a cylinder

(remembering the lines

are part of measuring, too)

Or a class of learners

Marked into life

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We try to know:

Julian and Gregory have tried,

And now the atom

(also split)

And the nanosecond try

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But we know

There is a cycle,

And it’s always new

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A new season is born

That will have its dog days,

Some somber days,

Some driven

By some of us on either side

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There are sides now,

We must admit,

Between the foe of nature

And of us

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But we know that

There’s a cycle,

And it’s always new

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ryuichi Itakura on Unsplash

Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom

Stone Henge

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Doctrine Inside a Mask

(x = space)

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Doctrine Inside a Mask

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Grace is sufficient

It is miracle

It is salvation

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It is surprise

Totally untimed

Kairos, never chronos

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So what shall we have?

Salvation’s disguise

They seek it here

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They seek it there

We have a

Pimpernel

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A small, red flower

Maybe a Z against the wall

A bag of gold

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Tossed through

My window by

Valentine or Robin Hood

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Or with Meg

Atop the seeing stone

After cosmos-saving

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Or while the saving

Happens (I doubt that

grace is averse to

en media res)

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Stories for our souls,

Enough awareness

For our

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Noticing in time

To say thank you

And our hero’s

Gone,

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Because

Another rescue’s

Needed there

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C L Couch

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the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle

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image by fabrice Verrier – originally posted to Flickr as Mouron rouge Anagallis arvensis, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11333678

anagallis arvensis mouron rouge Seine-Port avec racines jardin

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…Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.…

Berean Study Bible · Download

(Second Corinthians 8-10)

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A Wish for Light

(x = space)

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A Wish for Light

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Deep blue

And silver

Dreidel

Chocolate coins

An outsider’s perspective

Become somehow wistful

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Eight candles

Sometimes nine

What do I know

But this is festive

Quiet for prayer

Then noisy with the spinning

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Did they know,

The temple keepers,

Did they ask for miracle?

Or did they use up what

They had,

Oil in lamps,

Then settle in their minds

For darkness after?

Did they ask for miracle?

Do we ask?

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Deep blue and silver—

Light!

Eight days for festivity,

Community

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Many blessings

In both solemnity

And fun,

Contemporary miracles,

And simply

Happy Hanukkah

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C L Couch

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Image by Danny H. from Pixabay

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The Present Season

(x = space)

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The Present Season

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It is Advent I know

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Last year I wrote

A perambular devotional

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It comes without

My help and does in

Fact mean coming

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As it is a season

A loving kind

Of pre-Christmas warning

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Well I hope it is

Such a good season for you

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The kind of joy

That prophets might

Foretell but that

By planned devotion

Or surprise

We get

To live anyway

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Let all of us

As if from Santa Claus

Delivered

To the city- and cave-dwellers

And those who live

Under palm trees

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Or on high mountains

Inside windy forests

Or on moving sand

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Have such a season and

At the season’s end

Such and more so

A merry day

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C L Couch

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Photo by Sebastian Fröhlich on Unsplash

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Neighborly

(x = space)

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Neighborly

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I’ve just read a story

About a neighbor,

No one I know,

Living in Florida

(I’m in Pennsylvania);

He was accosted

Just the other night;

Someone stood outside

His door, trying to

Bash it in; he broke

The door but did not get

Inside; the neighbor

Had a gun but did not

Want to use it, and

He didn’t; well, 911 was

Called, and here’s

The shameful part—police

Came and waited

Some distance away;

They didn’t get involved

Until the perpetrator

Came up to them,

Which seems to me

Lucky and convenient

Law enforcement;

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As you can imagine,

An official line is

Spun from the department

While the incident

Is under investigation;

My neighbor and his

Neighbors now

Live knowing nothing

Happened that was

Helpful, not by the

Police; and the first

Person, my neighbor

(I do not know him)

Must was his dog

While keeping pocketed

His gun, should inaction

Require shooting

On his part

The next time

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C L Couch

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‘Sheriff, hurry up please.’ Disabled man battles intruder as cops wait down the street

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/crime/fl-ne-police-response-intruder-ss-prem-20201128-ibp6eequqjf3lhgvowzcwlhaee-story.html

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Photo by Nathan McDine on Unsplash

Spotted

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Invitation from Earth and Sky

(x = space)

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Invitation from Earth and Sky

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Briefly then,

There are good things

On the earth

And inside sky

And inside far below

We can ask for

Closeness to good things,

And we should:

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For good warmth

From the sky,

Good feeling in our bodies,

Good reason for

Decision-making

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The substance of the

Asking might be

Prayer of a kind of

Cosmic negotiating

For agnostics

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Either way

Or with simpler hope,

We can let goodness

Have its way

With core and crust

And breathy atmosphere

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Inhale, exhale—

Walk to stretch things out

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Extend our fingers,

Reach out with our palms,

And turn our wrists

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The cosmos will

Appreciate our reaching out

So and more so

Would the mortals

And the ineffable

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Let all mortal flesh keep silent

And in fear and trembling stand

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Each year there is an advent

And most days,

Our response invited

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Our planet awaits

As does everything beyond

The sky that our shiny satellites

Detect, now draw from

For extraterrestrial

(extra-lunar)

Samples

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The maker awaits

Here and there as well,

Inviting us inside

Community, one by one

And altogether

To believe

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C L Couch

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Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Strong wind, frost and rays of sunlight created this wonderful pattern on my windshield.

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“Let All Mortal Flesh” is an old hymn out of the Christian tradition.

A newer hymn, “Earth and All Stars,” also comes to mind.

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The Twenty-Third Song

(x = space)

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The Twenty-Third Song

(a paraphrase)

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My life is wrecked

I feel ruined

And here you are, Lord;

I don’t know if I asked for you,

And I am so relieved

That you are here

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I thought there was a desert

But, look, there’s water

Cold and clear;

It is the best that I have tasted

And I have no doubt

That it is good for me

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This is more than I deserve

And maybe I should leave—well,

I feel your hand

Guiding me back;

I should stay a while

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I thought this was the end,

That I could not lose any more

And it was getting dark;

But you are here,

And maybe you were with me

While I was stumbling

Back there

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Look, here’s food:

And who are those around me?

They don’t come any closer

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Before I eat, please

Bless all this

And maybe me;

You are the one

To do it, after all

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Should you be with me

Through all that is to come,

Then blessings

Will continue, even in

The splintered times

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And because of you,

Your presence in my life,

When this life is done

And the next mystery begins,

I shall be with you

With a living place in heaven

Or on Earth renewed

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C L Couch

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Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash

Rome, Italy

The Forum, Roma

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To Pilgrim

(x = space)

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To Pilgrim

(at Thanksgiving, USA)

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Pilgrims

On Thanksgiving

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We make fun

Of their hats

And buckles

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They might as well

Have been a foreign

People to the

(rest of the)

Whites as all the

Indigenous to

The whites

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And they were:

They were a foreign

People

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They carried faith

And dignity,

Faith in dignity,

To what all the western

Coastal, European

People called

A new world

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Through stratagem

Or accident, they

Settled too far

North

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They struggled;

They strove

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Everything was

Struggling and

Striving to them

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Moving, going

On their way

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For them, to be

A pilgrim was

An action

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On a journey

Neverending, ‘til

The end of this life

Start into another

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C L Couch

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Photo by Dhimas Widrayato on Unsplash

It was 22:39, I went out to get some fresh air after some coding session then I saw a big moon on the sky, so I grab my camera then go to open space to shot this picture. The photo was taken in Tangerang, Indonesia.

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