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The Lonely Makers

(x = space)

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The Lonely Makers

(an accounting for geneses)

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There is God

There is the Spirit

There has been Christ

As we have the story

There is Christ

Before Sarah

In fact

To speak to bring the world

Ex nihilo

Into something

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The world was made in six days

Each day therein

An age

Such as the day of the dinosaur

Or the days of Camelot

Count twenty-four

God could do it

But there was void at first

Then light and dark

How shall one count

In that

Before the world of clocks

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Christ speaks

And all is made

The Spirit moves

Behested to breathe life

After the first

Breath

Into the sky

Over the water

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Abstracts are done

And then

The species

Of the Earth

Come forth

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Creatures

With small spirits

Even

Our own

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Breathed out of dust

To live

To make our way

To make

Our own

Shares in creativity

By will

Because later on

We ask for this

Alone

And alone

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C L Couch

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Photo by Christine Kozak on Unsplash

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The Garden of Scheherazade

(x = space)

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The Garden of Scheherazade

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Imagine

An Arabian portico

A ceiling to the side

Under which is

Furniture with pillows

It is day

Then it is night

And in another place

Deeper inside

She meets with the husband

She volunteered to take

Even though

He is a maniac

Who kills after one night

To secure fidelity

x

And so you tell a story

Recalling all the things you studied

Texts

Everything told you

By your father the vizier

By his advisors

Students

The servants of the house

And when allowed to wander

(covered up)

Making stories out of comments made

Along the streets

Of a desert country

With oases

And mountains

As well

x

Legends

Narratives from

Math and philosophy

The history of men

(mostly men

aware of audience)

Through the ages

Sinbad

Aladdin

Ali Baba

So many more

Nearly three years’ worth

x

Though it was the first night

That mattered

And the day that followed

Keeping life

By keeping the killer

Entertained

And then the second night

Made all the difference

And the third

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While you stood

Or sat

Or walked

The garden outside

The blood-filled palace

Deciding

Crafting

Revising

Each narrative

For the night

Aiming for salvation

For another day

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coda

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I don’t know why I think of this

x

It

She

Came to me yesterday

Probably because

I was thinking about story

On its own

Not so much the content

But the abstract

And the purpose

The importance

The reality

A telling makes

x

Maybe not

To life and limb

Bur all the stories she got to tell

We got to hear

That were in context

So much fighting

For her life

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C L Couch

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A Thousand and One Arabian Nights is a collection framed by the telling of stories by Scheherazade, the daughter of the vizier.  She volunteered against her father’s wish, naturally enough, to marry the king as a defensive measure for the women of the realm—and because the realm was losing all its women, at least those suitable for a king to marry.  Whatever suitable means, especially given the circumstances.  And as an overarching cause because the king whose first wife cheated on him and was summarily executed made in the king an attitude of mania regarding fidelity.  And so each day he would marry a virgin and then each night have her killed.  Scheherazade, who was not only skilled in storytelling but in story content, went to the king, married him, and entertained him on the first night with a story and then, because he wanted more, on the second night and so on.  The king found good stories more enticing than slaying wives, which I guess is some kind of virtue even in one we can’t overall admire.  Finally, the king’s madness broke or something like that happened; and he thought to keep Scheherazade as his one (and lasting) wife.

Well, it’s a story within stories.  Or I should say without. But it adds an edge in the telling and our hearing.  An added edge like that of a sword, perhaps that of an executioner.

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Photo by Arsalan Rad on Unsplash

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New Song

(x = space)

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New Song

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Sing to the Lord

a new song

All right

A new song

And what shall make it new

New arrangement

Instruments we rarely

Have in church

Maybe there should be dancing

Like

The king’s before the ark

As it was taken

Across Jerusalem

(risking disapproval

of the court

the queen)

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Maybe not

A psalm

Of normalcy at all

By that I mean

New words

Phrased by us

And our understanding

A gift today

And as a record

Kept in legacy

With the music of

The music master

(female

or male)

x

What we keep

Because we made it

With a notation

Of the first time

It was read

It was played

It was sung

It was danced

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C L Couch

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Psalm 46

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Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash

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(if you want a story of the queen risking the disapproval of the king, then read Esther)

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annunce

(x = space)

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annunce

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do not be afraid

it said

how not to be afraid

before an angel

calling

might have been a good

lesson

from my mother

x

I bring you

good news

but I am betrothed to

a good person

and

the families

are not in conflict

so

what need have I

for

further prizes

x

you shall bear a son

not by Joseph

but by

the Spirit of God

pause

well

pause

what will they say

what will he

believe

am I being offered

something

may I say no

x

I know the fall

of Eve

was from will

to know the truth

of good and evil

and I hope

I know the truth

at least enough to

decide

x

I shall say

yes

what other answer

to an angel

and my Lord

and if it was foregone

then

I will risk

divine trickery

or naivety

to choose

and then to say

x

yes

angel

yes

to God

x

as it is

I know I risk

sanction

and refusal

doubt

and rejection

and if there is reason

these reactions are

reasonable

x

but I will

go with God

and go to Joseph

and to

mother

father

and shall hope

and in hope

prepare for motherhood

as a complex surprise

in my youth

rejoice

O young woman

in thy appointed youth

pause

rejoice

x

c l couch

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Ecclesiastes 11:9 (ASV)

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

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Photo by Bartosz Kwitkowski on Unsplash

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Be, My Soul

(x = space)

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Be, My Soul

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Be still

(imperative

second-person subject

that is

you)

This

That doesn’t mean

Don’t move

As much as to quiet

Everything

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The rush of blood

The frantic function of our organs

The ragged parts of breath

Meaning

The ragged parts of spirit

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Smooth out everything

For a time

And in that time

Hear

More than ears

What God might say

Or you and God

To each other

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C L Couch

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“Be Still, My Soul,” a hymn by Kathrina von Schlegel (1855)

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Psalm 46

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Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash

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First Comes Love

(x = space)

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First Comes Love

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What shall we say

For real

But that God loves us

And would rather

Love us

Even more than judge us

Though there’s judgment, too

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Remember the first one?

It was

That this is good

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C L Couch

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4 God saw that the light was good, . . .

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Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash

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Dreaming the Mushroom Cloud

(x = space)

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Dreaming the Mushroom Cloud

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I suppose it’s because

I knew the movie

Would appear today

And got me thinking

Stirring something

Too

As a surprise

x

I dreamed I saw the cloud

The mushroom cloud

Rising above the horizon

Of the tress

Near the place where I was standing

And I knew

Inescapably

The effects would be upon us

x

I could be atomized

The irony of the name for the bomb

As a result

(in addition to the cause)

Or I could be set

In winter

The awful winter without food

Or safety

And were the people inside

In the building near me

(in the dream)

Ready for a new companionship

Survival from the blast

And all the blasts

And then I woke

x

It’s been a while

Since I had a dream like that

I don’t think

Since childhood

When I looked up on summer days

To wonder if a silver missile might

Arc out of the blue

And toward the ground

x

No matter what the season

Counting

It was the famous cold time

For a war

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C L Couch

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(I think it’s today that the film Oppenheimer premieres)

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Photo by Alen Smola on Unsplash

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4

Greetings from Earth with All Things Earthly

(x = space)

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Greetings from Earth with All Things Earthly

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So what’s new

The day is new

It’s re-creation

Isn’t it

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Some would say

The day’s the day

It’s yesterday’s day

Redone

And nothing new

Same sets of compounds

To have earth and sea

And sky

And we are nothing new

x

But cells are sloughed

There is room for change

There is age

There might be new growth

From where our cells

Land

Like the sower’s seeds

Some on good soil

x

There is a thought

That built on yesterday’s

And does that count

As old or new

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How shall we measure

Ongoing

Something old

Something new

Something borrowed

Something blue

Here meaning

Blue for calm

Thankful for

The return of sky

x

And as for borrowed

It’s all borrowed

After all

We own our souls

We should own our skins

On Earth

Our thoughts

And our discoveries

To have

To share

x

Should be no fear

Rather with impunity

Or the fear of loss

Unrecompensed

x

So here’s

To a new day

It is founded

It is its own

It is tomorrow realized

It archives yesterday

As for what’s new to argue

Let’s first be

Thankful for the having

Then appreciate the cells

That change

The thoughts that build

That what we thought as next

Is now

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C L Couch

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Photo by Dave on Unsplash

Dancers

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Long-Distance Rates

(x = space)

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Long-Distance Rates

(for Susan)

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I live long distance

So must you

What with

E-mails

Texts

DMs

Chat rooms

And now the added layer

Of A-I

Bumfustication

x

Where are you

Where am I

We’re here

In our respective heres

We own our molecules

And due

The air we breathe

The ideal cycle of

Good air goes in

Bad air goes out

Oxygen

To carbon dioxide

x

We live with plants

They love us

For our air

And they make food possible

For us

x

Which makes me wonder if

Distance is

Migratory

After all

Driven by seasons

And circumstances

Dodge the volcano here

Fly around the first fire

Stay high

Over the earthquake

x

Closeness might be relative

With our relatives

(hah)

Or when we convene

From Mars

It will only work that way

In the irony of distance

Safe with colleagues in

The interplanetary room

Then

Even the distance

To the moon

Will seem as close

As Artemis

Hunting

Dancing

With her followers

x

But back

To you and me

Where it starts

And where it counts

God inside

They say

We say

And we believe

And let spirits

Manage that

x

Flesh is something else

We know

We zoom

And those are electrons

We hurry

But that’s style

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We touch in the same place

And anymore

That’s miracle

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C L Couch

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Photo by Resource Database on Unsplash

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