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All the Children

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All the Children

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It doesn’t take much

To go into a classroom

Filled with children

And a teacher

Carrying guns

And then proceed to shoot

There are no opponents

And no challenges

There

Where is the victory, then?

The mannish triumph?

Only destruction

Taking lives

Of those who don’t fight back

Cowardly command

Of a situation

Why not keep it to

A video game

Electrons make the hell of it

Pouring onto Earth?

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This does not address

The visceral:

The violence of bullets

Piercing children’s flesh

And what the bullets do,

Once inside

Was this accomplishment?

Or would the defense

Have been insanity,

Should the shooter

Plan to live beyond the killing?

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We’ll never know

There might have been no expectation

To live, after

It doesn’t matter

Unless to know

Somehow prevents another

Time

Of people killing children

Because they can

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C L Couch

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Here are the latest developments in the Uvalde elementary school mass shooting

As the town of Uvalde in South Texas mourns the killing of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school, a vigil was held for the victims at a community arena Wednesday night.

“Amazing Grace” was played as those in attendance wept and hugged.

The mass shooting on Tuesday has again spurred statewide and national conversations over gun control, following on two others over a two-week period —at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and a church in Laguna Woods, California.

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/texas-elementary-school-shooting-05-26-22/h_c348336110a9bff90edf25aeaf2acfbd

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Down Roads We Go

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

New Forest National Park, United Kingdom

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Shorelines

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Shorelines

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Sometimes

I get to the ocean

Some of you live close by

I could be envious

But I get there

Now and then

It seems to be important

That I do so

It’s not the shoreline in the photograph

I don’t know where that is

But it will do

Any such will do

To remind us

Of where might be our origins

Or our destinations

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Or the real thing

Better

To walk by when it’s early

To think about

Origins and destinations

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C L Couch

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Photo by Zac Harris on Unsplash

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Slip-Sliding Petition

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Slip-Sliding Petition

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God, I’m tired

Not tired of life

But from lack of sleep

Dreams

That wear me out

So that I’ve lived a day already

Then try to rise

Into waking,

Real agendas

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This is a prayer

Maybe I could ask for something

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I can’t think of anything else

I’ve drifted off

Into Saturday

Or something like

Is Saturday a prayer?

Amen

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C L Couch

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Photo by Daniel Olah on Unsplash

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Ex-Temporaneous

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Ex-Temporaneous

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It’s a dark day

Not enough for a

Ritual outside

And there’s rain

The sun tries

To come through

In patches

Dark hours nonetheless

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That might be spent

At midnight

In the loft,

A vigil

And an offering

Prayer life in the dark

Ages behind that

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Maybe a candle

Of the kind

That does not curse the darkness

But slices through it

If in, well, a fuzzy way

Batteries included

Diffuse Light and shadow

Diffuse

With unscripted words

Everything

Partnering

For the message

For the words

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C L Couch

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Photo by Zoran Kokanovic on Unsplash

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Fish and Bread for Breakfast

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Fish and Bread for Breakfast

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And he does

Jesus loves you

Grumpy we might be

Though post-resurrection letdown

A haze of liturgy

Formal words that don’t match up

With Easter

But here we are

Since the book is ours

Invited to have breakfast with Jesus

Fish and bread

Common enough fare

Or not

The English

And others I’m sure

Have kippers

That is herring

England is an island nation

Israel is by the sea

And by an inland sea

We’re having breakfast

And hearing about metaphoric sheep

From a shepherd who knows the work

Perfectly

And is calling us to do it

What

How can we take from perfection

Well, we can’t

But we’re all here

It’s what and whom we have

We can dine with Jesus

That is the Christian church experience

But then we have to be out there

Out here

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A message from white men

We need to hear from everyone

We need to hear the story

From the lips

And other parts

The parts that move,

That dance,

That look and try to look with love

On a good day

While struggling on another

This can’t be a message of perfection

It has to be real

And what do we know of perfect

That is real?

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And we are loved, anyway

And we must love

And it’s the best thing going, anyway

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C L Couch

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(church with preaching on John 21)

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Photo by Andrew Valdivia on Unsplash

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After Evening Service

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After Evening Service

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We could keep vigil

On toward midnight

When the new day is called

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A horn might be too much

But inside the church

The organ might be released

To greet the day

Subdued for lateness of the hour

Wanting to be good neighbors

Give our hearts some quiet room

As well

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I guess “midnight vigil” sounds

A quiet thing

To us

I’m sure in other lands

It does not go that way

There are noisy fanfares

Calls as announcement

Calls to prayer

Calls to say

(to play)

Even to shout

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This is a new day

Of the Lord

And the Lord’s creations!

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C L Couch

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Photo by Adrian Dascal on Unsplash

Washed Away Night

Midnight in Saint George, Romania

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Three-Syllables Agape or Two-Syllables Agape

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Three-Syllables Agape or Two-Syllables Agape

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Sigh

And what does love way

After all the vituperation

All the blame-casting

All the metaphoric bile

In the hate we bear?

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I don’t know

That we should care for ourselves

And each other

That if we loved God first

Everything else would work

Respecting those who don’t believe

There are good atheists

And good agnostics

Who treat believers

As a crazed minority

And to look at the evidence

Have a case

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But it’s sin, I guess

From within and without

Our choices, the choices of others

Choose to love

Choose to hate

And who cannot be struck

Without saying OW

That’s natural

It’s impulsive

And deserved

Though it’s not the end

It does not have to rush

To blame and retribution

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Take a moment

Choose something like a star

Stay inspired through the hurt,

Which is not masochism

But allowing thought

And heart to keep a hold

From everything turned over

Into the nether realms

Of rusting feeling

Gnawing hate

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Give peace a chance

Can’t we all get along?

It must be so much better

Than saws

And satire

The darkness follows light

Then there’s more light

Illumination

We are better than our hurts

Better than vile agenda

We could make agenda brilliant

And ambition

And profit

And plans

And when there’s a crash

Of accident

Or wills

We could act as EMTs

And then allow a moment

To reconnoiter

And to reckon

How to heal a rending world

Bring it back

To one whole thing

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Yes, I mean the war

And wars everywhere

But I also mean the virus

We forget

Unless we’re sick

Or around

Those who are sick

And inflation

And corruption

We can do better

To keep the world from burning

We must

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I should end on a note of love

A song of peace

Measured by hope

But there are questions

To be answered, first

That we must put to each other

Questions

And answers

Reactions and worked-out actions

A process for our accountable part

Of the universe

Yes, that much

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C L Couch

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“Choose Something like a Star“

Robert Frost

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So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

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Photo by Aldebaran S on Unsplash

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Await

(x = space)

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Await

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It is a gloomy day

God appears in clouds

And in fire

These were pillars

If the sky had been painted

With clouds

As it is today

Then how could direction

Have been offered?

But they were pillars

They showed the way

For the Israelites

Perhaps the pillars

Moved as

Progress was made

Perhaps they stood still

As if to say,

I’m waiting for you

Your jealous God is waiting for you

With expectation

With transcendence

And with love

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It you had not sinned

We would be together sooner

But knowing who are you

And loving you, all the same

I am waiting for you

Come to me

Come to my mountain

Come to my clouds

And fire

Come to my blue

Come to my laws

Come to my love

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C L Couch

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Exodus 24

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Photo by Ryan Yeaman on Unsplash

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The Given

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The Given

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God

Give us this day

One second and the next

The seconds stop

And a new timeline opens

Uncountable

Forever

Light and gold and glass

Given

Owned by no one

And forever

Salvation earned through grace

Which means not at all

Choice and belief

That sometimes overthrow

The tyranny of microscopes

Chained generations

Lines broken by agendas

Made circles

Joined to other shapes

For fantastic exploration

Of heaven’s heavens

Amen

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C L Couch

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Photo by Genessa Panainte on Unsplash

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