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Smart People Eschew Politics

(x = space)

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Smart People Eschew Politics

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It is said

I’ve cited this before

That smart people

No longer run

For anything in politics

They are repulsed

They are not chosen, anyway

The crisis is

Bipartisan

The last smart person said

Was Adlai Stevenson

Who is before my

Voting time

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Labels don’t count

(smart is as smart does)

Neither degrees

Nor Rhodes

Nor anything metal

Or on paper

(smart is as smart does)

x

Let the intelligence in

Again

(not referring to spies

you know that)

With some reach toward relevance

Un-degreed

Degreed

Either, more, less

I hear smart is as smart does

Journey to Hodgenville

To start

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Where someone looked up

At the stars there,

Too

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C L Couch

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Direct image of a supermassive black hole at the core of Messier 87.

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Meet You at the Place by the Sign

(x = space)

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Meet You at the Place by the Sign

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At the end

We find ourselves,

Which is why I do not understand

The quest

Yes, it must be in the journey

Why not take a journey?

Find an agent, first

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We don’t want to kill a dragon

There are too few

We don’t really want the Arkenstone

Too hard to find a buyer for

Too much destruction

In the selling

Or the having

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The map is fun

We’ll take the treasure map

Though we might have to earn

Some credibility

For display

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Sigh, all right

We’ll go

Make our final preparations

In the evening

Leave in the morning

Our weariness shall be

The last convincing item

For the start

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C L Couch

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Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

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sure things

(x = space)

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sure things

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the child

dressed up as a cowboy

or a football player

dream and irony

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even then

the heart

might be folded badly

not closing right

or opening

for blood and air

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and did I feel it?

ask the child

I’m asking later

I don’t know

no one told me

maybe no one knew

until later

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when the heart attacks

and surgeries

and the device implanted

were and are

sure things in

the older self

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c l couch

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photo by elias maurer on unsplash

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Homely Revelation

(x = space)

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Homely Revelation

(Psalm 19:2)

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Maybe

It will start

On what we’d call

A clear, calm day

In fact, cerulean

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The armies might be

Lined up, anyway

In the desert

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On all borders

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A day for maintenance,

Patrols

With no shots fired,

Nothing pointed launching

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Mary out of blue

(cerulean)

Shedding all colors

For us

Might come first

With John and Michael,

All directing

That the fighters clear their vehicles

While things are peaceful,

Rather easy

Before a miracle

Of rust shall have the

Armor and the gears,

The nuclei of fuel

Returned to earth

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Before a rain shall fall

That satisfies the thirsty

While frustrating

All the radar,

All the targeting procedures

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Like the cartoon

In which the prey

Like a magician

Causes flowers to appear

Inside the muzzle

Of the hunter’s gun,

Children shall be

Fed and entertained while

Parousia take

The unexpected

And frustrating

Lack of determined war,

The crazy metaphors

Made real

That taught us for an age

To give us

Love and time

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Frightening things

Might happen:

God’s arrival in

Healed flesh and sprit,

The judgment of the wicked,

Victory in nothing gained

But love’s perfection

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Awful as in awesome,

These should be

Enough;

The day shall satisfy

As water and air cover

And fulfill

The valley before

Baucis and Philemon

And perfectly

The entire Earth

Of us

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C L Couch

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Photo by Andrew Sterling on Unsplash

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The Magician’s Children

(x = space)

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The Magician’s Children

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Lately,

I’ve been seeing my face

In other faces

I look for a few moments

Sometimes stare

Then realize

I’m looking for

More signs of me

In you

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C L Couch

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Photo by Guillaume Bleyer on Unsplash

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Narrative for Veteran’s Day

(x = space)

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Narrative for Veteran’s Day

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I hope the veterans

Have a good day today

They served

Time to be serving them

Certain restaurants

Will do that literally

(track the ads)

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There was a draft

I was in school

A war for oil fomenting

As if primordial

Muck were heating

In the gulf

(not that war

in the gulf

or the next one)

There was an energy crisis

Hiding profits

x

I didn’t want to fight

For companies’ oil

But when on the application

I was asked

If there were anything I would fight for

I had to answer yes

And so ruin the deal for c-o

And the draft board changed

My status

(they won’t admit to punishment)

From 1-H to 1-A

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Well, that war didn’t start

There were numbers

But no draft

I finished school

And then the next one

And with Watergate

Had reasons to feel bitter

Toward my government,

Which since then

Has become increasingly

Stupid and useless

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But love of country

All the stickers

All the posters

The Bicentennial

If we forget who is in charge

There are superlative reasons

To be serving

And they have served

Time to be serving them

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My brother

And my father

And my grandfathers

Came back

My friend Patricia

Returned, retired

A full colonel

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There are those

The many, many those

Who did not return

And have their days

And who cannot remember them?

Anytime and every time

We should?

x

Red poppies will festoon

And sides of buildings carry

Words of verses

“In Flanders Fields”

And that is London today

Here there will be flowers, too,

And flags

And I hope everywhere

That she has served

And he

And they

And all the fields

Nourished by remembrance

With all the hopes

And wishful strategies

To change

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C L Couch

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carrying the burden of a nation

Photo by Joel Rivera-Camacho on Unsplash

U.S. Marines with Combat Logistics Regiment 17, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, conduct vehicle recovery drills on Camp Pendleton, California, Apr. 6, 2021.The Marines of Motor Transportation Platoon pride themselves not only on their vehicles, but on each Marines’ hard work, dedication, and drive to excel in all they do.

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Fallbrook, United States

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Nicole

(x = space)

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Nicole

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Hammering the east side

(no hyperbole)

Working its way over now

To wreak havoc

Like the dogs of war

On the panhandle,

Then move north

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We’ll get remnants

No one seems to care

Up here for here

(good)

But six hundred thousand people

Without power

How shall they do?

How shall they cook

And read

And watch TV

Manipulate keyboards and screens

And stay cool?

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It’s still Florida, after all

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What can we say

To habitual destruction

Only to build the same, again

And maybe many times?

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I’ve not been there enough

(not enough)

To understand the charm

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Their politics are weird

But I wish for them

Electricity,

Dry days

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I could wish that

This would learn us all

Something of our neighbors,

Their catastrophes

That linger years

In loss and less than everything

In daily rise

And style

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For now,

Floridians

We pray for you

Really for now

For all the wreckage

You must live through

And as they come

For fair winds

And following seas

And maybe for

A long, long while

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C L Couch

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Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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Our Turn

(x = space)

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Our Turn

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What does God say

But something that

Could be without words,

Could be in a breath

Of moving air,

Could be something

In the quiet

Or in cacophony

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Order speaks,

Chaos works its way,

There’s miracle in timing

Though the measure isn’t ours

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Someone else is keeping time

For music we can’t hear

But moves us

Like vibration through the floor

When a band we know

Is playing

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The universe is a song

Whose senses are involved,

All of them

Measured out

To everyone

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With a constant invitation

To the dance

Whose steps we know

For having once been made

And being made again

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Yes, and fallenness

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Get up,

Step away

Into the dance

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C L Couch

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Photo by tabitha turner on Unsplash

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Sides, The Earth Is Ours (2 poems)

(x = space)

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Sides

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If God is for us

Whom shall stand against us

Well, they will

They are they

They will

These are not shadows

Except in meaning,

Haunting for a while

Our better selves and motives

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They are there

They are ghosts

(with apologies to ghosts)

Who look as if

They are substantial

And their weapons

Somehow

Wound and even kill

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They (with those)

Tempt us from our fate

One by one

And altogether as

People loved by God

Who have a purpose covered

For the moment

Until the glass

Is clear

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The battle won

Life prefigures death,

Better shows the shape

Of life again

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C L Couch

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If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

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Earth Is Ours

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Do you hate the sides?

I often do

Jerusalem and Antioch

East and west

(Istanbul and Rome

as part of that)

China and Taiwan

Town and gown

City and countryside

North and south

And much, much worse

Cain and Abel

So that only Seth remains

For legacy

One without three

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We need our groups

We don’t need the borders

In between

We should have the joy

To have our own

The strength in defending

Everyone

The Earth

Our own

Everyone’s Earth

To own

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What does this mean?

It’s right to ask

Since we ask

And everything is lent

And legacy is life that

We cannot gift ourselves

But there’s a promise

Prophecy

Assurance in or as

What we believe

x

What we shall own

Though frankly we must share

The bigger parts

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C L Couch

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Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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