(x = space)
x
x
Timing
x
God, help me
With devotion
Not the famous kind
I don’t think
I could hold that well
But quieter,
Between the two of us
And any interested
That we all might
Turn
And turn again
So that you and the sun might
Bleed together
And everything
Be many
And be one
x
Maybe it is famous,
After all
I learned certain moments
From someone
To begin with
And the well-known word
That ends
It all
‘Til next time
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C L Couch
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x
Photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
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Quantum
x
There is a
God of beauty
Who by our accounts
Is fickle
Beauty in a storm
In wrinkly babies
While we determine
Beauty in a car
(I like the lines)
Or a figure on a screen
Receiving millions
Of both kinds
x
Beauty truth
The eye of the beholder
Do we know anything?
I wonder
Extremists destroy ruins
That are also
A record
A child destroys the fragile
In “The Artist of the Beautiful,”
And I think
About that often
x
But if the cell is beautiful
And it is,
Then beauty cannot
Be destroyed forever
As long as we have
Nuclei
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C L Couch
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This is a photograph of a sculpture of 20 centimeters made with wire and pigmented beeswax.
By Ordnajela Zenitram – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44982588.
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(x = space)
x
x
Whine
x
Exhale the scolding
From the heart person
Who called this morning
Should heart people
Scold? Isn’t that bad
For my heart?
I need peace
More than ever, it seems
To me
External quiet should aid
The peace
Then again, I don’t want to be
A jerk about it all,
And everyone has bad days
And someone would say
There are those who have it
Worse than I,
Which certainly is true
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C L Couch
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Lady Gaga says the producer who raped her dropped her off ‘pregnant on a corner’ after locking her in a studio for months
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Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash
Poole Park, Poole, United Kingdom
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(x = space)
x
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Species Speak Out
x
Is there a dog
In doggerel?
How about a dog
In dogma?
And while we’re at it,
Should it not be called
Godma?
x
I’m sure there is
A certain species
That, should we understand
And grasp
The elevated obvious,
Should know
Things are better served
By catterel
And catma
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C L Couch
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Love between Dogs and Cats
Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Never Manderley
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Last night, I dreamed
About a white tiger
In the backyard
That sometimes
Had a cub with it
And sometimes
Turned into a dog,
A big dog—
And we were all trying
To avoid the tiger,
Which was fine because
It was past-time
For me to go
x
I went through
The house
One last time,
Placing my bundles into
A canoe, set
In moving water
Out front of the house
And when it was time
To leave at last,
I found the canoe
Had sunk into shallow water
So I’d have to stay
With the people there
For a while longer
Then I awoke
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C L Couch
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Bangor Castle (built 1852, photo taken, June 2019).
Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash
Bangor Castle, Bangor, Northern Ireland, UK
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(x = space)
x
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Faithful Skeptic
(spiritual humanist)
x
I sin
And then I go to church
How does that work?
We sing that it is well,
Which Saint Julian proposes
We pray for the world
And for concerns
In the parish
We sing some more
We’ll pray some more
Then there will be teaching
(word and sacrament
for those who have sacraments)
Through it all,
We’re singing now
And thank goodness there is
Justice in that
Mingled with grace and mercy
x
Through sin and virtue
Through indifference and zeal
Through exhaustion and desire
There is something
Going on,
Something moving
Call it spirit
Call it the orbit of the Earth
And the pressing down of gravity
Call it God’s
Call it nature’s
Call it ours
x
And, yes, through it all
It is well
x
C L Couch
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Saint Julian of Norwich is a saint in the Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. Other traditional Protestant churches recognize her standing. Many Christians of all kinds respect her work in parish service and the service of the Christian Church, overall. Her name is not known: she is called Julian because that was the name of the church in Norwich, England where she lived. She had a cell there, not a jail cell but a hermit’s. She had a cat. Each day people of the town would come to her to speak with her through a window, asking her for wisdom and advice. I’m sorry, I should have mentioned that she lived and worked from the latter decades of the fourteenth century into the first years of the fifteenth century.
She wrote Revelations of Divine Love, a widely-read spiritual text. It is also taken as the oldest book written in English by a woman. Two things Julian is popularly known for asserting are the metaphor of the world as a hazelnut (long before William Blake asserted perceiving the world as and through a grain of sand). And she claimed that, no matter how grim or unhopeful or destructive the world might seem, all shall be well. She says this many times.
And all shall be well.
x
Photo by Külli Kittus on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Peaceify
x
I should pray for love
I’ll pray for peace
I should pray for faith
But I’ll take respect
To keep the world
From exploding
x
There are molecules
Of everything
In everything
We do our best to clean
The rest is undiffused
Or do I mean
Defused
x
There is you in me
And as naturally
Me in you
We have each other
And the answer
To my sibling’s keep
Is yes
x
I’ll butter your bread
You’ll butter mine
We will nosh
Then later sit down
For a meal
x
This is better than
Negotiation
We can assure
That each one has
What each one has
Better than
Mizpah
x
May the Lord watch
Between me and thee
While we are absent
One from another
Mizpah, church fashion
x
Nothing is better
For thee than me
Quaker Oats version
x
I’ve heard
Golda Meir made deals
In her kitchen
Over bread
I hope it’s true
But we can make it true
x
If adversaries sit
In homely comfort
Come to my country
I’ll come to yours
Sit with me
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C L Couch
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Bridge
Photo by Ronaldo de Oliveira on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
x
These are haiku. I understand that haiku go untitled. Maybe the series itself could be considered “The Modern Theban Riddle.”
x
x
[haiku on old]
x
I rock without a
chair and dream of golden age
when I’m nearing done
x
x
[haiku on youth]
x
I am new to Earth
and of my own volition
prizes on the way
x
x
[haiku on middle age]
x
they are on either
side, and I don’t know my own
inside anymore
x
x
c l couch
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x
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Quiet Place
(a sequel)
x
A song
A horror movie
A hyped-up culture
Maybe doesn’t want one
But I do
x
Something calm
With windows large enough
To witness nature
As it passes
With sun or wind
Or snow or rain,
Things better watched
And heard
From inside
With ceilings high enough
So I could imagine a cathedral
Rather than
A cave
(it’s all right—I am imaginative)
A place to live with my own noise
That is modified respectfully
With regard to
Neighbors whom
I might get to know
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C L Couch
x
x
New Forest Lane
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
New Forest National Park, United Kingdom
[cathedral]
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clcouch123 
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