nebulae give birth
we have stars like tree buds’ spring
there are so many
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photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
a song for Friday
pick a day
pale blue
near
gray and I’ll take the blue
since gray too easily
takes over skies
of days
the green is brighter as are their
branches with the thicker trunks of
the grander
holders
leading into
earth
the source with the running ground for squirrels
within its source and in
its interest
celebrating through existence
‘til
the blade
every micro-moment
smaller
then larger into day
followed by night
followed by
day
all things of matter
energy distributed in breezes
unless
a storm’s severity should conquer
or at least challenge what
sways
easily for now
what scampers
to
or lights upon the branch
then soars away
it’s a world
world of the backyard
without
a flag
and simply kept
though sometimes folk are hired
too
though I think it might prefer
the wild with enough
space for
grass and wood and leaf
and branch
with
skittering and flying creatures to have
room in which to enjoy
and sing about
freedom
that is natural
or
should be
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photo by Flavia Dragos on Unsplash
the trumpet call
prompted by “Subway Music”
and why not in New York
the biggest place
and
a small place
beneath
an open space near
a train
and if hell should be at all down there
maybe
the near trumpet call
will harrow hell
then
rise
to be heard by the rest
with all of us or
each of us
or in loving partnerships or groups
decide for faith
as if no one would not
and yet some
might not
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. . . 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
1 Corinthians 15
photo by Ryan Loughlin on Unsplash
Subway Music
Manhattan, New York
a local creed
pretty complicated
but it isn’t
God creates
out of
love
so much so we say that God is love
everything was made and we
were made
well
and then we fell
and the closeness we might have with God
fell
too
and so we live
God with us and God loving us
even
perfectly
and maybe part of the mischief is that God is at reach
but not physically clearly in the room
because
the company of perfection
is
too much
and breeds contempt
through dissociation
and so
how to come to faith
that way
but through fallenness or devil’s guile or other reason
we are on our own to
come to God
to believe
for life
as we live
life now
and
for life
forever
about which we’ve been told
and yet so much more
if
to our skeptical rue for now
but
to discover then
so
how to believe
believe
free to us
cost having been paid
which
is
a story and it’s true
yet
from us
nothing more to exchange
but
faith
for God
to start
which to think on it
maybe not think
on
it so
well
is a great deal
of ours
to give
if
God to receive
in all this
also
we might have an answer to the question of
what matters
because by love as well as reason
of faith
what
matters
is all
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photo by uve sanchez on Unsplash
big noises out front
BANGS the street where something leaves
something new come in
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photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
(BANGS goes with street; I have the former word in all-caps so that reading might beg the particular connection—and it could be fun to say the word aloud and LOUD or to think only inside)
Bilbo’s dream
and
in the dream
the hobbit wandered room
to room
looking for something
and not finding
it
and if a dream is working out by night
what
we can’t solve by day
then
what is it the hobbit wanted that
took a dream of blank spaces to find
well
to find what
or is a need expressed
to be on the move somehow
somewhere
maybe
to a lonely mountain
lonely
as his life
to look for something there
not so much treasure since
he’s well-to-do
but
the story of the treasure
then the quest
to find it
dealing with adventure on the way
and clear evil toward
the end
and to be done
everything rescued
deserving rescue
and
the halfling goes home
now out of
but having to tell
the story
won’t be as lonely anymore
with
mementos and
memories turned into
pages
and who knows what friendships
so to keep if neighbors go
on
thinking
he’s a strange one
anyone with Took then Tookishness
inside might disappear perhaps
a while
and now
he’s returned
Bilbo does disappear
or so
it seems from time to time and now
we hear of a big party in the making and
those with young imaginations
might recall
the wizard who arrived
before
and launched fireworks with
shapes both to fright
and
well
delight
everything dreamworthy now if with
some nightmares
added from the unanticipated parts
of stories
which
he might not have thought
of
even hearing at his own unexpected party
that dragons by day yet
terrify
note
then dreams of home might not
come across
so confusing now
since
he knows where he is
at last
or will Bilbo wander
time to time
through Bag End in waking dreams
still
looking as
any might look for something
and
not find it
yet
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The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (Chapter 4—and I’m writing from recall, since my copies of The Hobbit got mildewed; so where I might get text-details wrong, I’m sorry; where it’s interpretation, I cannot apologize except in the classic way of apologies, which is to explain)
photo by bypalm on Unsplash
keep looking up
though for safety-sake look down and out as well
it’s a cold cloudy day
whose clarity
is in
for me
my fondness of such days
the sun came out
so we had
that
and will return and I would miss
it
after a while
after
how many days
don’t want things clammy
and
humidity is risky
for inhalers
though
when there’s wind
we
get some help in breathing in
if only of adventure in
the sky
call Pegasus
or build a steampunk thing
for us
and our group
or let strangers be uncalled yet
flung together and
we journey to
wherever
and everything unfolds because no expectations
are
allowed
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(the title’s not so original, but I used to hear it as the last words called out by Jack Horkheimer who hosted what for me was a late-evening show on PBS)
photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash
passages of last events
could we line up
then
like the song about the sword and shield
by a river
bring our weapons down
set
them on the ground of history
let Armageddon use the angels as
it must
not they’d take a cue from us
but
shall have their orders
I suppose
and what shall it
take
for good to exist
evil annihilated
as
the promise
and now
for all
maybe we cannot miss the battle
but
maybe by the time it comes
with all signals
sent
we near the center of the valley
and
so tired of death by
propaganda
simply
stop
as if to say we’re tired
and we’re sure no good
will come of this
we’re going over there
both sides
to have a parley though really
to have something
like the truce
at
Christmas
1914
and if there must be Armageddon
and
there’s insistence we take part
you’ll forgive us if we leave
the angels to have the final battle
work out
the absolutes as they
know and they can
then
maybe all of us
for good could meet up
after
discussing blame one final time
and then consider
feasting on
arrival
if the leader over leaders is
all right with
that
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if I may then for Memorial Day in the USA and all remembrances of people and of strategy as well as what has been secured
“Down by the Riverside”
Revelation, last book in the Christian Bible
photo by National Library of Scotland on Unsplash
"It was the job of outposts like this to send back warning of any enemy movement."
killing the religious
shootings in the mosque
like
shootings in the synagogue
like
shootings in the Christian church
clearly
they prefer to shoot
though I’ve of
folk these days who
take
knives and try to kill the same
but
who are the targets if not
those who worship
who
don’t meet to arms except by spirit
of divnity
and company
who hates these
and
is it unbelief
ones so blank inside
there is no sensation left
but
to obliterate the different
and
the vulnerable
open to cowardly attack
by those
without conviction
self-deluded
by
maybe a self-styled leader who
is interested in moving pawns
to win
the game
though self means self
in
the final moments when the decisions
is no more but
to kill
as it there were a time for that
the Bible phrasing
Ecclesiastes teaching
in
no way
means to find a place
a place with a place
then
open first on targets objectified to
something like cardboard targets
on the range
the range of people
since
anyone may shoot
as there’s an insistence
of the why
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In rambling writings full of vitriol against a wide range of people, the teenagers who attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego this week, killing three men and themselves, left little doubt about the models for their violence.
Chief among them: the shooter who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.
. . .
The teens who attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego were latest to cite prior atrocities
https://apnews.com/article/christchurch-islamic-center-mosque-san-diego-47582ddae2690a0205e2af6439ee9e65
5/21/26 (1:30 p.m.)
photo by Vladislav Babienko on Unsplash
“bullet shells in snow”
clcouch123 
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