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To My Friends Back from Antarctica

(x = space)

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for fun—no penguins were brought back or harmed in these productions, though penguin company was enjoyed “chez lui”

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To My Friends Back from Antarctica

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It’s

World Penguin Day

(25 April)

You may let the penguin out

Whom you’ve been keeping:

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With all the

Mechanicals

Around,

Who’s to know?

x

If you remove the lid from

Your freezer,

Then to the room

The machine

Is in

Close the door,

x

Will you have

A habitat?

x

Remember to keep throwing

Fish

Inside

From time to time

x

All the time,

The bird reminds me

(all the time)

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Jay on Unsplash

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2

“The Smallest Things,” “Peace Relative”

(x = space)

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The Smallest Things

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It’s cold

There is a blanket

There are enough things

For morning coffee

And toast

For breakfast later on

There is sunlight

So our whole planet

Has another

Day

There is water

I can drink

x

I can wash things

I can

Wash me

x

I have trash

Lined up in bags

Somewhere to take it

I have other piles

(boxes)

By the door

That should I have the

Help

Can go away

Be useful for others who

Might need some things

I had

x

My

Neighbors

Beat the ceiling

But there are no literal explosions

We are lucky

We have things

We can share

When

We want to

We can live in peace relative

To what’s inside

But peace for war

All

The same

x

C L Couch

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Peace Relative

x

Relative to war

And to shutting doors

To keep things out

As if

We hadn’t seen or heard them

Once before

Or every day

x

Relative to shining in

With sunlight

Rather than

Explosives

Something negligent

Or something planned

x

Maybe not peace everywhere

Not yet

And peace organic

Certainly not remaining

Only

Peace from graves

x

Gravesides are pretty

And they’re quiet,

Mostly

We can do so much better

We should

We must

x

We want

To be there

At the end

And how about

A single turning page

Into the story of

Today?

x

Be there for that

Lift each other

The greater adventure

Is not war

Or even matter turned to energy

(it should go

the other way around)

But matters

Of the story

Withheld until we know

We have

Today

x

Next chapter

Please God

Please

Each other

Please

Let’s have the next

Have the next

Now

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Now

Now

And now

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Nowshad Arefin on Unsplash

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Surly Cat Blues

(x = space)

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Surly Cat Blues

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SING with me

Cat

Or let me sing with you

Or beat the cans or something

With the alley cats of night

Do you know

Top Cat?

I use to watch

When I was a child

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I’ll call you Surly Cat

To avoid any trouble

And sorry

It’s a surly day

I didn’t sleep much

I’ve had some coffee

Do I want some more?

I am

Debating

x

Do you want some

Is that where a

Face comes from

Having caffeine

Or not

x

Maybe chocolate

NO

Not for a cat

(or caffeine of any kind

either)

x

Maybe Andrew Lang

Painted you

Or Christopher Smart

Elegized

As with Jeoffry

But I imagine you

More

A cat

With a guitar

Or base

Plucking

Singing about

Mouse

The adversary

x

I don’t know

You might be a good cat

Avoiding

Everyone

Eschewing toys

Lousy on laps

Except as a surprise

A time of your own choosing

Interest

Combined with

Human inconvenience

x

Now I wonder

HEY

It really does look good

Outside

Temperature is moderate

There is a

Range

Of blue and green

And white and black

And gray

Maybe I could take a walk

You could stay in here

The old glass

Allows for sunlight

You might

Feel

Righter with the

Feline, human

World

x

Or hatch new plans

While you’re asleep

x

C L Couch

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I don’t know if Kliban invented cats who sing the blues, but I can’t help but imagine the two (cats and blues) in Kliban fashion when I think of cats as characters (all kinds) making music in addition to purr, meow, growl.

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I decided not to cite the famous cat with the famouser face.  Too current, too popular.  So I made up Surly Cat.  It’s mine.  You can’t have it.  Unless you ask nicely.  Imagine a cat with fists and an expression always saying, You should see the other guy.

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Top Cat is an animated cat, the main character in an eponymous cartoon series in the sixties.  It was a delight of ours when children to meet the actor who was the voice of Top Cat.

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Photo by Max Simonov on Unsplash

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7

worship

(x = space)

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worship

x

we sing songs of praise

sometimes we dance

we are led

then

by the arts

sometimes we touch each other

safely and affirmatively

we pray

we confess

we ask for pardon

we pray for others

those we know

to give their names

crises in the world

praying for the stranger

we listen

there is teaching

churches wise as serpents

collect the money first

with more music

sometimes the teaching

takes up half

which means

we have a love of learning

and a need for it

mostly

there is a response

to scripture

verses are selected

and expanded

credence is affirmed

doctrine promoted

our identity

defined

more so

though

we take in points for living

taking up points for life

after the service

x

sometimes we stand

sometimes we kneel

gestures of faith

that say

even without saying

that there is a presence with us

we acknowledge is great

is good

as in virtuous

worthy of our tries

at praise

and obedience

x

is God

x

c l couch

x

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photo by grant whitty on unsplash

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happy birthday, bard

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3

At Last the Rain

(x = space)

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At Last the Rain

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The rain falls

It is behind me

I should turn

Push things aside

Look out

Listen

Think on justice

As the thunder rolls

The water rolls

The watershed

Has more

x

Drought

Negotiated

Amos

(not)

Notwithstands

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C L Couch

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Amos 5:24

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Photo by Evelina Friman on Unsplash

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How Are You

(x = space)

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How Are You

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We have shot four youth

This week

In the USA

One young person’s dead

All were hit

Wounded first

One died

Three are treated

One hopefully recovers if, oh,

So slowly

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None can be the same

In Earth

Or heaven

(our daily petitions

for)

x

Now we pray

We shouldn’t have to

We should be

Praying for

Their joy

In youthful living

Not in

Struggling

To live

At all

x

Cheerleaders,

For goodness sake

Honor students

Good people, all

The kind you’d like

To get

To know

x

And if not our cup of tea,

We don’t shoot

At them

For that(,

crazy people)

x

And now

Their lives are changed

For the worse

Forever

x

We shoot our children

We can say

We are afraid

We are threatened by

The unfamiliar,

Anymore

x

But really, now,

We shoot children

Because

We can

The shooters being with us,

After all,

These locked in due process

And shall be heard

x

The victims cannot speak

Nearly so well

At all

And had no plans

Before

Except to live

You know, to adolesce

To grow

To live

And be alive

x

That’s over now

If they live,

They’re grown up now

We grew them

When we shot them

This week

In the USA

Our nation of

Domestic

Intimate

Gunplay

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n. b.

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Yes, without guns

We’d say

We’d use knives and sticks—well,

Okay

x

C L Couch

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In Six Days, Four Young Americans Have Been Shot after …

1 day ago · KANSAS CITY, Missouri. In the span of six days, four young people across the U.S. have been shot — one fatally — for making one of the most ordinary and …

Nobody Is Talking about the Four Black Students Shot in …

February 17, 2023 · It’s hard to believe, for instance, that had four teenagers been shot leaving school in one of Pittsburgh’s wealthier, whiter suburbs — say Mount Lebanon, a borough …

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Photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash

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(well, there’s Pogo who observed that we have met the enemy and it is us)

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2

Prayer inside the Wire

(x = prayer)

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Prayer inside the Wire

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Oh

God

We need you

As the song says

(sings)

Every day we need

You

Your presence matters

In the morning

All the hours

We are fortified

Knowing there’s something

More

Than us

And the world

And the hope we want

To have

In the universe

x

Grant us

An audience through prayer

Much better communicating in

Heaven

We suppose

x

But we reach out

As best we can

Here and now

And again there’s something

That responds

More words than our own

Sometimes the timing

Miraculocity

In change

The water parting

Unseasonably

Exactly when we need

Land to cross over

x

Toward a promise

Provision

On the other side

x

And then we’re there

On the other side of prayer

Build an altar

For remembrance

Pocket and snap the urgency

Of interest

Free now

For beholding

Many possibilities

x

And rest

For being heard

Before we rise

And go

x

We thank you

You are God

Not to make things splendid for us

All the time

But to give us

Moments

For our hopes

And fears

(all the years)

And for our chances

Before and after

Stretched out through the day

And in the night

(barring night shift

who will have the day)

Still

And still

For thoughts

Praying down

The day

The day to come

And now

The now in which we pray

And as it happens

Or is given

To the hearers

Whichever

Apparatus

Opened

And the rest

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God and the angels

Listening

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

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“I Need Thee Every Hour”

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“O Little Town of Bethlehem”

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1

3 Links in a Chain

(x = space)

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3 Links in a Chain

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1

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I slept half a night

That was half a morning

My eyes are strained

(they hurt)

I have a heart test later on

And another to have

On my own

By the next visit

x

I feel like Peter Pan

In that

I won’t grow up

Neverland must be nice

All that woodwork

A heaven for Bob Vila

(remember him?)

It might be

On a co-ed trend by now

And so

A better microcosm

I suppose the wireless

Is terrible

x

2

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Funny how

Wireless is back

When it was so antique

As a term

For a long while

x

A hundred years ago

Or so

It was what the radio

Was called;

I suppose we have both usages

In large part

To Tesla

Thank you, Nikola,

And also for your notion

Of offering the capacity

Free for everyone,

Which would be

Quite

The advancement

Over air

And underfoot

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3

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Maybe that’s my

Secret hobbit name

Mister Underfoot for when

I’m on clandestine

Business

Eschewing riders

Not from Rohan

But from Mordor

Or

The busybodies

By daylight

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C L Couch

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Image by Micha from Pixabay 

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Prayer Practicing

(x = space)

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Prayer Practicing

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The best place to pray

Is at church

Or at home

Or in the car

Or on the sidewalk

(watch your

step)

Or beneath a tree

Or inside a tree,

Having climbed

Up

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With others

Or all alone

Or with numbers

In between

One and many

x

On a farm

Or in a skyscraper

On the water

On a hillside

Atop a mountain

In the valley

At the entrance to a desert

Far within

x

While walking

While

Sitting still

x

So anywhere

And when you’re feeling

Where is

Nowhere

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Amen

x

C L Couch

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View of Mount Cook, circa 1930, New Zealand, by Margaret Stoddart.

Photo by Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash

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