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Hour of the Gun

(x = space)

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Hour of the Gun

(I don’t like writing this)

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I don’t know

Maybe killing with a gun

Is just close enough

And far away

To feel wretched accomplishment

And to objectify

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There is blood

Do we know that?

Do we anticipate

A little

Or a lot?

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The organs that will stop

Inside the perpetration

The time of life

That’s ended

Before time

Allowed

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The evil that may celebrate

While there’s scurrying

To get away with it

Or another resignation

Takes over

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As I say,

I do not get it

But I don’t have a gun

Though I have been driven

And I’ve known

That things

Overwhelm

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C L Couch

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1 killed and 7 injured in shooting in Oakland, California

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/us/oakland-shooting-california/index.html

. . .

Just hours earlier about 40 miles southwest of Oakland, seven people were killed and one was critically wounded in shootings at two locations in Half Moon Bay, officials said. A 67-year-old suspect is in custody.

And in Southern California, 11 people were killed in a mass shooting Saturday night in Monterey Park.

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add Idaho and everywhere else

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Photo by Luis Domínguez on Unsplash

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4

Tent Revival

(x = space)

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Tent Revival

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God of my thoughts,

You guide me

As I’m open

You fill the vessel

Pour it right

Not that there aren’t miracles

There are

You guide me

When I refuse to guide myself

It is the other side of faith

The pledge we made

A while ago

You can guide the pain that’s there,

Which is good when I am

Overwhelmed

Help me, Lord

I’m tired

I don’t know what I am doing

What a good time

For an angel to intrude

There is pain

You can use it

With the rest of me

All yours

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C L Couch

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Photo by Should Wang on Unsplash

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8

bunny hop

(x = space)

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bunny hop

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it is new year

for those who follow moons

for time

and these keepers are many

and in asia

and in places of diaspora, they remember

rabbit

now,

swift and camouflaged

yet hunted down

with or without impunity

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each animal in

the zodiac

is vulnerable

yet each has qualities

to remember

and apply

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the rabbit is

all harmonious muscle

on the outside

and inside

and on the outside and the inside

it can hear

and smell

and learn much through its whiskers

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bless the rabbits

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yes, they can overrun—the

stuff of a horror movie;

rabbit kill

(term for an event)

like deer

might be decided

so that everything

humans design for

a post-eden balance could

be done

(achieved

kill, design, and balance)

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happy new year, rabbits

and to the dragons

that will bear you

in asia

the pacific rim

new york and san francisco

and so many, many places

all within your range

because you

are magic

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you dwell

inside the earth,

taking care of beasts;

bring one creature

out

each year,

this year we know

the rabbit

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bless the rabbits

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c l couch

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notes (3)

yesterday began the time and the celebration of the lunar new year

there is a horror movie from the 1970s called night of the lepus

the bunny hop is, well, it’s something; you may look it up

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photo by nick fewings on unsplash

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God = Not a Sadist

(x = space)

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God = Not a Sadist

(read God equals not a sadist)

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Pain is good

It teaches us

It tempers us

We come out wholer people

Better for it

Pain is the megaphone

Says Lewis

Pain is loud

Ginsberg might say

(might say)

Pain howls

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But it doesn’t howl

Because it’s good:

Pain is bad

It hurts

Great pain hurts

Great

After great pain

The formal feeling comes

Does God allow pain?

Does God wish it?

I don’t know

Christ in the garden

Asked not to feel hurt

And he was

Severely

Bloody

Hurt

Until he died

We say he had to die

Well and good

For theology

And there was real joy

In his returning

Perhaps he felt it first

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I don’t like to hurt

I hope you don’t

I’m in pain now

My neck, my lower back

My eyes from lack of sleep

I have heart disease

And it seems my heart and lungs

Work against me

When it hurts to breathe

Though they are not the source

They are victimized

By fluid

That should not be flowing,

Pressing there

x

Worse, my brother dies from cancer

And it hurts

The medicine might help

It also creates new trials

A passing between pain

And something like sedation

And somehow in the middle

Is what’s living

x

And you hurt

I don’t know how

And the world hurts

In every fracture

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So where is God?

Where is the love of God?

Where is God is love?

God is there

Love’s there

If God allows

Much less or much more

Created pain

Then there is love as well

Also created

And I think

Preferred

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But pain is hard

It’s not good

We say pain is gain

But it isn’t

Pain is a signal that

Something’s wrong

And we’ll find out

Everyone finds out

The world dissembles, but

Pain is true

Pain sometimes teaches

Usually after the fact

Or in someone else’s story

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I think if pain

Could not be real

If we couldn’t have it

That would be

Better

We might say we’d

De-evolve without it

Maybe so

But then

The world would have to change

And would be changed

We don’t know how

We live with pain

We even bear it

When it won’t

Go away,

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Which doesn’t mean

We should like it

That God should like it

Wish it

Before the fall,

We might well guess

There was no pain

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Sorry

There’s pain now

I don’t wish for you

Your pain means

A great deal to me

I cannot make it

Magic

Go away

Or mine

We’re stuck

And while we’re stuck

Comes all the learning

All the tempering like

Metal fired

And then struck

At least we’re not the ashes

At least we’re here

For everything

Imagined,

More so

Realized

And that’s what we have to say

Pain is real

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C L Couch

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(a Sunday School discussion from James 1, an epistle in the Christian New Testament)

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notes (references)

Mere Christianity

“Howl”

“After Grean Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes”

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[photographer’s narration] When we visited Utö, the most outer island of this beautiful archipelago in the place we call Finland, I allowed myself to be guided by the incredible energy of Inca, the daughter of the family we were visiting there. She took me to a series of abandoned bunkers from the times this island was a military strategic point and there I found this graffiti that represent very well the feeling of all that has to do with military, war, conflict and drama. With love from Korpo.

Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

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Poor Evangelist

(x = space)

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Poor Evangelist

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I am a Christian

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I hope anyone who

Needs to know

For good or ill

Knows that

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The things is

I don’t mind if you are not

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In fact, if you are from

Another faith

I’ll find that interesting

And want

To know

Something of your story

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It’s bad evangelism

I know

And I’ll be glad

Typically

To tell you more about my faith

x

But I am entrenched

(without the trenches)

With respect

x

I want

To respect your tradition

Or your lack of one

Or somewhere in between

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I think this is what we need

In the world just now

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With respect,

We might withhold our fingers

From the buttons

x

We might shut up our cant

Or rant

Instead to listen

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Stories are personal

And of a people

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After and while happening,

Most stories deserve

To be heard

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Shut down the hate

To hear

And have your circle of perspective

And acceptance widened

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Hope to be treated

The same way

And that the Earth will hold

Together

From our destructive devices

Not only military

While we listen

And by impulse,

The way we are constructed,

Learn

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To say

To welcome

And to hear

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C L Couch

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Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

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3

Secular Benediction

(x = space)

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Secular Benediction

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It’s Friday

And you should have a good day

You deserve it

Yes, because you are

And because

You make it

For yourself

And if circumstance allow

For you and someone else

Or others

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You do

You are

And so this Friday is for you

In all suburban glory

The pub afterward

Or coffee klatch

Or whatever fun and healthy thing

(there are these)

At hand

Or with a small investment

In play

And for the forty hours

Ahead

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And if you don’t have a weekend

Maybe Monday and Tuesday

Shall be yours

There should be laws

Why, there are

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C L Couch

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Photo by Bob Chisholm on Unsplash

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0

First Page of Every Book

(x = space)

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First Page of Every Book

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What might God say

But that

There was a word

The word in fact

Was God

And in our words

God breathes

And the making of the Earth

Was God’s

And our keeping

Or rejecting

Is our own

x

This from opening

The gospel

Pick a book of books

For all the horror

The unmaking

The possessing

And abandoning

Of spirits

We say good news

Inhabits

And abounds

Hope for ourselves

The grownups

And the children

Hope for the world

Of people

And of ground and water

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For in the beginning

Was a word

Beside all words

It was love

And inspiration

Breath of God

And God

A word that made

From nothing

Gave us

Everything

With the proviso of

Two trees

And one rule

x

So much for that

We’re here as are here

There is hope left

In the box

Made of word perhaps

And this its second purpose

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So many stories

Now

For elucidation

And companionship

Upon the journey

In the other way

From a detail of

A flaming sentinel

An ersatz beacon

Showing us

The way

We may not go

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C L Couch

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Photo by Andrew A on Unsplash

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A Prayer for Running Fast

(x = space)

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A Prayer for Running Fast

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God,

Keep us this day

A helicopter crash in Ukraine

Kills civilians

But then it is a war at home

Battlefields lost their discretion

Long ago

x

There are fires

In my area

With human loss

And then materials

House fires

Are fearful to contemplate

To see

To hear the testimony

On the news

Of loss

And victims

Who are hurt

Who die

Who die later on

Because house fires have consequences

Changing life

After what happens now

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There are changes

Some by force

We can blame nature

Or each other

The neighborhood beneath the bridge

Is ending

By the hands of institutions

Other hands will help

With the newly homeless

So that there will be

Breathing out

That problem resolved,

We’ll say for now

Then think about other things

Quickening

Our palates

x

So what do we care about?

What happens to ourselves

That’s natural

Our reaching toward

The plight

Or the good news

Of others

That is an instinct

From an impulse

God-given trait

Or capacity

We train

And practice

Like a discipline

Like any discipline

Run fast?

Care for others

x

Be a coach

Be a pal

You are sovereign

God of gods and

Lord of the self-styled lords

You are our king

Our queen

Allegiance

And tribute

Are ours to give

To pledge from our own knowing

And our gifting

And yet you’ll turn around

To teach us

And provide

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It is a mystery

A frustrating mystery

Of labor

Sweat

And drops of blood

Each day

In all our stations

And yet we ask

In all our stations

Be with us

Start and close the day with us

Talk with us

Provide

Not as a tontine

Not as prophecy

But like love notes

Or neighbors come to coffee

And to be with us

When we stumble

Or when

Dear things

Dear lives

Must crash

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C L Couch

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Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash

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Ukraine’s interior minister among at least 14 killed in helicopter crash

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraines-interior-minister-among-at-least-14-killed-in-helicopter-crash/ar-AA16t1eO

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Plane Crash in Nepal

(x = space]

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Plane Crash in Nepal

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preamble

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And if you think of other planes

Dimensions, even

Torn and torn apart

I think you’re tragically

Correct

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story

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If you’ve ever seen

A landing in Nepal

(I saw one, recorded)

Then you saw

How steep

How brief

A perilous experience

Considered normal

Was there sudden wind

Inside the mountains

Of Himalaya?

Was there ennui

Among the pilots

Who got too used to doing this?

Was there worse

Or better

Doesn’t matter

To the loss of life

That’s final on this side

And for us

All the keening

And investigating

A place of peril

On a good day

This was not a good day

It was a horror

Out of normalcy

We like to think plane landings

Are ho-hum

Not a terror

The humdrum fabric

On the loom

Ripped apart

The frames of bodies

Broken

Flung and sung away

For furies

Or other agencies

Who mission is to surprise death

Out of our ordinary

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This was ordinary

Leisure

Otherwise, uninteresting

Now the count

The cost

The loss

The news

Prayers lining up through ages

A horrible new age

Unending sorry

Ending

Beginning

Some kind of cycle no one

Wants to live through

And live through

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C L Couch

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Photo by Rahul Lal on Unsplash

The Other Side of Himalays

Pokhara, Nepal

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