a billion's one
cheering up
I’m watching Santa claim that
and then provide
for the children in a town
a neighborhood
where
it’s easy for children to go unnoticed
when grownup heads are set
too high
and there things like gentrifying that
compete with
cheer
and children
until now homegrown
and so problems
and solutions applied
locally
where all ages have lived
and want
to live
and if we say
thee is a holiday spirit
and an intention
for one day
and if
we
mimic
starting in October if
not August
might we not consider genuine
which might sound saccharine
to say
except in addition to old
neighborhoods
to
venerate
there are atrocities to consider
everywhere
have
you read about the killings in Sudan
or
do you know in the USA
how many will go
hungry
tonight
meaning to question whether
nuclears or
profiteering generally
is
all to count worth while
or is each one
viable
not as a cardboard target but
as really what
we’re made
of
we hear of hundreds
that are killed by
nature or
by us
and the tolls go into recent thousands
and by the end of term easily
a million
tracking COVID
say
unless you conveniently misbelieve
do you know how many
are in
needs
try
one
it’s one
all the billions make up one
that we can
know
and be
and help with practicality
and love
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photo by Efe Yağız Soysal on Unsplash
I look at this and see a big red hat (trimmed white) that’s shaking out snowflakes through a winter sky, while it’s more practically an overhead (drone?) image of a place along a coast in Türkiye. (Me not the photographer talking.)
southern exposure
now it’s Tuesday
out back
the red looks brown
near-
winter brown
already
though the red out front
more fiery
by sunlight pouring through
the backs and
fronts of leaves
so
maybe it’s a matter
only of shadows
only
of daytime hours
and if the light could shine out back
there would
be fire art
out there
as well
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photo by Klim Musalimov on Unsplash
so much depending
red outside
at last
plus nearer the back window
late fall
but fall
scratching
speaking to the season
as
colors from cold
should
and if
there’s no relation
then
it’s all anticipation
falling
as it were
into each one’s magic
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photo by Natalia Fogarty on Unsplash
on the way
All Souls
El Día de los Muertos
parades
so much energy
by skulls for decoration
costuming
with many made by sugar
for the rite of
having meals with the dead
that will
happen in cemeteries with warm light
by night and everything set out
with
the living family
attending
assured that those who’ve gone before
are still close by
if
also on their journey
a paradox of pleasure
more straightforward in
affection
as affection’s
due
and shall the families appreciate
the veil
of ritual and lore
and love by incarnation of
the ways we know
each other
here
and there while all of us
are on the way
and so the three days
go
while I don’t know who really counts
them all
together
preparing for each day and finding
new energy in each
that
might be by candy
all the carbohydrates
though
more so by
meaning of the ages
shared so often
simply and complexly
close
to home
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photo by Edgar Cavazos on Unsplash
devastating
we share the peace
in churches where we share
the peace
and
do we mean it
I think so
in the moment
anyway
then move on
through other liturgical obligations
then
there’s the peace outside
or lack of it
as
we know through local violence
and through war
wherever
in the heart that hates
justified by someone
for
some cause
and
yes
causes are important
but not the hatred
hatred’s not important
even though it causes loss
and
yes
destruction
of homes
minds
and hearts
and spirits can go wounded for a while
a long while
and what’s the restitution
we can talk reparation
but
what’s needing fixing is not money
or material
as I think you know
but soul
that needs repairing
by God and angels
though
while we’re here
through our pardon and our love
love
as pardon
for each other
and who can speak love
along bombed streets
leaning houses
if
houses at all
or what if the rival has learned nothing
in fact
in a state
keeping the world’s profit
even adulation
after all
after all the sacrifice
all the tortuous existence while conflict knew
its own
and took our parts of us
that
might remain wounded
even gone
for the foreseeable time
and
what does love call for then
while revenge
is warm
while damage is assessed then funded
and fixed
as best as can be done
and then tried patience for
the rest
but
that we try
on the gray days
with
autumn colors fading
barren winter
still
to come
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from actually inspiring events in response to the KKK intrusion in the town
Mechanicsburg Residents Pack Town Hall in Response to KKK Recruitment at Halloween Parade
story by Alton Northup
• 12h • [noon, 10/30/2025]
WHTM Harrisburg
and while reading “The Peace” by the Hermit Poet
at Edge of Humanity Magazine
photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
abstract muscling
so now we know
that what’s material is important
but what is
unseen is important
too
why things were made this way
we may take up with our
creator
later
ideas
a belief in peace
love
visions
dreams
hope
and faith
and the presence of the Lord
as well as our
unspoken prayers
and
yes
these maybe prompt the material
the moving of solid matter
relying on
the coursing
blood
the muscles of our bodies
things come to mind
anyway
naturally enough
and
we may choose and guide their way
as well
of all the unbodied items that
move through
we
may also choose what
to choose
and then enflesh
meaning
then
to the apologist or
less formally
the friend
we may choose to think on God
to
have that count
as evidence unseen
(you
know)
and maybe to transfer like
any other abstract from
a real
if unsubstantial place
in us
through all dimensions of our being
vision
thought
and flesh
throughout the day
and
to the wonders we’re assured that
should
be following
as after fair winds
also hard
to see
apart from its effects
that can try
all our senses
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1, KJV)
photo by Ben Gillam on Unsplash
the inside work that is our own
so God
and shall we believe
and
we don’t have to
that’s the reality
of
will
which we know from looking back
at choices we have made
all our own
as well as
looking in the now when we decide
what’s
coming now and most likely
into next
and this is different
from God-sense
in
things
we know but do not know
from what there is and what could be
I mean
we dream
we intuit
we use all sorts of abstract notions
from
abilities that don’t require muscle
but synapse
and yet we think God
too far from us
for
being not material
except for sometimes roses
in the faithful’s
coat
which becomes a story of
someone else’s meaning
which
we might
take to hear or
not
that’s up to us
as what the most important is
ideas
wishes
wills
not of the wisp but
of our souls
the more important unmaterial
part
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photo by Karl Raymund Catabas on Unsplash
fair children
(because I started Tuesday)
Mundy
like Grundy
and
that sad
poem
imposed on children
for
the learning of the days of the week
like the A text in the primer
with
the other letters
that
trends toward grim
and imposing
daunting
as it is doctrinal
and then what comes to mind
that seven-stages
speech
by Jaques in the play
that
is ironic
and I think so bitter
like
the speech on Yorick without
the humor
however darkly
to
receive
how often to be cynical
by art
how often
to be turned toward empty
cubicles of thinking
of
resistance unapplied toward
better thought
even
of joy
to be alive if
yes
I know it’s hard
from time to time
and
some of us
it seems
by style
so Monday’s child
fair of
face
and is there beauty on the Earth
and inside
and where is fair
but as we think and feel
and act
which all seems obvious
I know
like
great
truths we all have heard
and maybe
can recite
yet get our governments with
the governing
the
governed
in
each one by each one
then corporate
actual
to apply
and so give fairness of the Earth
all
children of the Earth
a chance
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(New England Primer, As You Like It, Hamlet)
photo by Yannis H on Unsplash
good and gay
born on Sunday
though
there are other sabbath
days
if
Sunday seems to be the thing
bonnie
pretty
blithe
with elastic goodness
promising to last
to lengthen throughout life
like
the toils of Saturday’s
child
good as in moral
as
in making choices
to delight the
faithful
and confound the worldly
gay
that has been joyful
and still
such a child
always
a child with the rest and so
to grow up with these qualities
yet
shall we say
only
a rhyme that indicates devices
learning days
or
and as
the qualities set
for
these and as the week is covered
for us all
to consider when we’re placed
and so how
we’ll
live
though the magic more so
remains in decisions
that is to say
and
as you
dear
know
in the will of each and every
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here’s the verse as I remember
Monday’s child is fair of face;
Tuesday’s child is full of grace;
Wednesday’s child is full of woe;
Thursday’s child has far to go;
Friday’s child is loving and giving;
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
but the child who’s born on the Sabbath day
is bonnie and blithe and good and gay.
(easier or more difficult for the Sabbath child?)
photo by Allec Gomes on Unsplash
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