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Christmas Tomorrow

(x = space)

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Christmas Tomorrow

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Christmas is

As Christmas does,

Which makes little sense

To say

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I must watching and listening to

Doctor Who messing about

With time and space

And tense

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Then, again, why not

Do Christmas, the

Way some of us

Do lunch?

Or, better yet,

Lunch can be a verb

Without

An object’s help, as in

I lunched

With so-and-so today

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Christmas as a verb,

An action that helps people

In a newborn way

Maybe toward reconciliation,

Maybe simply

Opening a gift of

Time, of small materials,

Of love

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To Christmas every day–

Merry Christmas Boxing Day

And Merry Christmas New Year’s Day

And Groundhog’s Day

And equinox

The other solstice

Then the first one

Again

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And, more importantly,

Merry Christmas in

Our ordinary time

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C L Couch

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Photo by Valentin Antonini on Unsplash

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Word Processing

(x = space)

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Word Processing

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In the beginning

There was God with the host

There were earth, darkness, abyss

And water

There were words

To explain

To initiate

Decrees

Then division and formation,

Creation as we know the story

Happened

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Later when the story’s told again,

We will say

Everything was made

With a word

The word could have been gravity

Or love

It was love

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C L Couch

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(Einstein is quoted claiming that the greatest force in the universe is not gravity but love.)

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Photo by David Carboni on Unsplash

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Feed the Animals

(x = space)

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Feed the Animals

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I wish all cats

To be adopted

And dogs

And chinchillas

Guinea pigs

Hamsters

Snakes

(not with hamsters)

And everything

That makes a pet

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The rest returned safely

To the wild

To wild places kept safe

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I know we eat animals

And wear parts

Of them

I guess we have to

Though there are other

Sources of protein

And for leather

So that we could live well

Without the slaughter

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There are industries

That would have to be

Taken care of

First and well

(keeping jobs,

well, transferring

maybe

transform

if not transmogrify)

Before such universal

Change

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But we can do that

We can do so many things

We can do this

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We can restore so many

Things

Establish new traditions

Remembering the old

Not in chagrin

But to say

We were that

Now we are this

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coda

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We’d have to feed our carnivores

The large and small

The wheel turns

Maybe there are substitutes

We’d have to find out

Very carefully

And thoroughly

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C L Couch

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Photo by Javardh on Unsplash

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The Peaceable Kingdom

(x = space)

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The Peaceable Kingdom

(Isaiah 11:1-9)

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Cheetahs wouldn’t have

To kill,

And they could run with their

Great speed for delight

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There would not be war,

For everything we wanted

Could be gotten

In a better way

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We’d have peace with each other;

We’d have so much

Extra time

To do good things

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Peaceable admittedly

Is an antique word,

But it speaks to potential

To talent

And to quantity

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Who makes this peace?

God does–

But what shall we have

In the mean time?

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It’s in our time,

Our will

To make it happen

From able to have peace

To having it;

The worth is us and

Our mortal talents

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The Earth burns,

Weapons are secretly supplied

To war:

It is crazed comfort

(in both aspects)

To wait for an apocalypse

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We have now–

Heaven, in fact,

Might be waiting for us

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C L Couch

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Photo by Hari Nandakumar on Unsplash

Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

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Love Speaks

(x = space)

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Love Speaks

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I don’t think I’m crazy

When I think about

Love speaking

Love speaking through

Moving water

Shakespeare’s gentle rain

Or more literally

Through the tap

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Love speaks

Through wind

Yes, the angry kind

Also the zephyr when it’s gentle

Or through anyone’s

Exhalation

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Love speaks through the ground

I don’t mean in earthquake

Though that’s true

As much as through the

Increments of growth

We cannot see

In roots below

And plants above

And with accompaniment

Of horses’ hooves

And deer

Or

Smaller critters

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Love speaks

Through the seasons

Love speaks through you

I should listen

I really should listen

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C L Couch

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Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

—Hamilton Wright Mabie

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Photo by Christophe Maertens on Unsplash

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Spiced Life

(x = space)

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Spiced Life

(Advent)

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A season starts

Tomorrow

On my grandmother’s

Birthday

She would be

Well over a hundred

The season’s been around

Since

I imagine

Medieval times

x

We light candles,

One Sunday

By one

Four candles

We might use another candle

Lighting the four

Or a candle might

Appear later

Set in or near the others

Call it

The Christ candle

x

A circle

A wreath

Is a common design

And practice

Into which we set the candles

All four there

(light them

one by one)

There are songs

I think my favorite

Is the song about

Keeping mortal flesh

Silent

To stand rather

In fear and trembling

Because it’s God who comes to

Earth

And is near

As at creation,

First birth of everything

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It is typically

A darker season

Church rooms slowly rebuilt

With light

Ideally, it is a quiet

Time, though

The world gets noisier

All the time

And in our

Insides, too

A challenge it might be to find

Minutes

Inside hours

Inside and out

To sip, to think

To have quiet words

With company

Or for oneself

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Not that Christmas noise is bad

Because it’s not

With bells

And open presents

Come enjoyment

And, if we have it right,

Joy itself

I hope joy arrives for you

Starting in the quiet

Building toward a jubilee,

Even a

New year with

All menacing overthrown

All things allowed

That need to

To begin again

Or simply better days

In coming

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C L Couch

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Three candles lit for the three first Sundays of advent.

Photo: Niklas Nordblad – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1488786

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All These Worlds

(x = space)

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All These Worlds

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God, help our

Nation to be good

Our world to be great

The cosmos, when

Receiving us,

Never-ending wonder

And discovery

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Liturgic wishing

Into prose action

New metaphors required

Upon each arrival

In a spaceship

On a new shore,

Bearing guilt and hope

Germs and solutions

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Ready to eat there and

To take some sips from

A silver sea

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C L Couch

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The International Space Station

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

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Empathic

(x = space)

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Empathic

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How pleasant

To talk like Gollum

Without the throat-call

But to say eggses

And even Baggins,

We hates it

Forever

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It don’t know,

It is a menace

And a villain

But all the buzzing

All the hissing

Like bees and snakes

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They fuss

They sting

There is a threat

To suffocate and kill

They are all villains

Without sympathy

And yet they call for sympathy

The sounds

The creature

Of their origin

And all origins

Of s sounds

Of sympathy

And of pain

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C L Couch

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wrote in a room in their house.  At his feet, there was an electric heater, the kind with a plastic face that looks like flames.  He loved languages (I hope) and with his words created the epic Lord of the Rings.

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I [threw a] rock into [the] lake with [the] intent of photographing the ripple effect and with the thought of how when we are kind to others [it] grows out in ripples to others who in turn spread kindness to others.

Photo by John Peters on Unsplash

Whistle Lake, United States

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A Comedy Tonight

(x = space)

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A Comedy Tonight

(the raven tells)

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Demons

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I imagine they are

Real,

Waiting for an open

Door:

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We can dismiss

The fictive accounts

As speculation

But there are

Real reasons

To avoid them through

Prayer and

Spiritual companionship

And there are other rites

x

I guess it can be gross

And feel dark,

Trucking with demons

Always

On assignment

Looking through the fissures

To take over,

Listening

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Yes, I think they’re real

Not in a

Gothic sense

They are not luxuriant

In empty, mansioned halls

They have us

When we let them

In

I don’t think by accident

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Maybe by believing

They are means

For desire

Or revenge of

Something like

A genie’s wish

But in the lighted, wakened,

Wounded world

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Hel

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Is there a place

Of hell?

Most likely

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Is it flames

And unquenched heat,

Blasts of judgment

Against dissolving

Souls?

I do not know

x

Maybe it’s all

Purgatory,

A final chance

For rescue

x

Separation from God

Is a popular

Definition, and

Why not?

That would be final

Final fate

Worst of all,

To discover something after

That is good

And lasting

And not to be a part of it

x

Maybe Jesus

Walks across the fissure

To harrow, hollow hell—to

Remove all residents

Should they wish

To go

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Since a gentle God

Even then

Must leave eternity

A choice

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Paradiso

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Nothing like

Angels on clouds

Holding harps

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Nothing static

The most action

We have ever known

With energy

And work

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Only with good bodies

For it all

No weakness

Though the gentle

Supervise

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Passion

Drama

Interest

Investment of

Our muscles

And organs, say,

Our hearts and brains

Restored

To Eden’s intention

And agenda

x

We’ll have things to do

In action

And in freedom

Nothing less

Only more

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Impulse

And instinct

Perfected

Everything we want

Is heaven

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C L Couch

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Photo by Kevin Mueller on Unsplash

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