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The Two-Day Turn

(x = space)

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The Two-Day Turn

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Today is the day

After Labor Day

And the start of school

As God intended

The god of summer

And the god of learning

Negotiate

And merge

And tilt the seasons

So that the picnic on the holiday

Is sweet and sweeter

With only a bit

Like a zest in soup or cake

Of disappointment

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And with the bittersweet

We sleep inside the hours

Of the change

Waking up to fall term

With excitement

Now with the zest

Of jitters

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So the seasons’ wizened-wise divinities allow

So I think

They prefer

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C L Couch

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Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash x

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Kieran Levi

(x = space)

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Kieran Levi

(petition)

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He has been wonderfully named

Kieran for his Irish father

Levi for his Jewish mother

But he has gotten sick

With a respiratory disease we are told

Is severe and contagious

Over the weekend, his temperature dropped

From 102 to 99,

Which is something

My brother, his grandfather

Sent us a message with a photograph of

An infant surrounded by machines

If you have a moment and don’t mind,

Please pray for Kieran Levi

Birth might be traumatic

And three months is just a start

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C L Couch

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Photo by Yoksel 🌿 Zok on Unsplash

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The Valley of Weeping

(x = space)

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The Valley of Weeping

(Psalm 84)

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Loss

Patience with loss

Endurance

Not only keeping faith

But using it

While I might not know your suffering

God does

And God loves you for it

And will go with you through

Valleys of shadows

‘Til shadows encounter shade

A comfort in the desert,

An unknown place of suffering

Become familiar

Not in which to dwell

But through which

To cool our sight

Our sense

To know the way

To leave

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C L Couch

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Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash

[story that came with photograph—I think it’s apropos]

We were looking to capture a foggy sunrise view of Half-Dome in Yosemite, but the weather wasn’t cooperating with us. The fog that did show up was low-lying and moving quickly through the trees like a ghostly river meandering through the canyon, swirling around the tallest trees in small eddies. Like too many forests, the valley is infested with borers, which has killed thousands of trees. The splash of golden trees mixed with the green is actually really beautiful, but a sad reminder of how fragile the forest is.

Yosemite Valley, United States

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Proximate

(x = space)

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Proximate

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Shall we travel to the sun

Turn left,

Pass over Mercury

Wave toward our opposites

And move toward

Truly unknown

Unguessed worlds

Planets X

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In other systems,

We embrace Goldilocks

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We relish watery worlds

Turning around

Maybe blue suns

Maybe green

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With what resources

Might we land

And explore

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None for now

Except our senses at

Light years of distance

Through optimistic telescopes

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And bright machines

With energy in cells

Plus and finally

Inertia,

Which will get there first

Meaning to say hello

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Hello

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We keep our guns

And other interests

Home for now

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We hope you understand

While we offer

This agenda

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We hope you signal back

With whatever math

Might pass for your hello

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C L Couch

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Photo by Diana Deaver on Unsplash

Gradual

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Then Shall You Take Me to the Fair

(x = space)

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Then Shall You Take Me to the Fair

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What shall we say

It’s Friday

Have a good weekend

Remember the virtues in today

We know the now we have

Is what we have

Though it’s not amiss

It’s human

We are made for this

To anticipate

To plan

And if we must

Succumbing to our impulse for impatience

Count the hours

Anticipating freedom

According to allowances

Sometime Friday afternoon

School’s out

The bell

The whistle

Everyone released

Who can be released

Enjoy Araby

If bittersweet

Enjoy the festival

The fair

Enjoy the hours

Whatever you shall have

In the days

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C L Couch

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Photo by heni noviyanti on Unsplash

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White Lawns

(x = space)

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White Lawns

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“You’re Pastor Jennings?”

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Uyghur

Rohingya

Armenians

Boznians

And Pastor Jennings

We seem to hate them all

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But here we have our white lawns

That we pour white on

Through our sprinklers,

And we call police

When something not quite right white

Has come along

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C L Couch

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“Watering while Black: Anatomy of a Pastor’s Alabama Arrest” by Jay Reeves of The Associate Press for 1 September 2022.

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Photo by Padma Hazarika on Unsplash

Water drops in the hand of an 8 years boy.

[original caption with the addition of an n by the English teacher]

Assam, India

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When Great Pain

(x = space)

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When Great Pain

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If God exists

And God does exist

And if God loves

And God does love

And if God has power

And God has the most

Then how

Then why

I don’t know,

Why are things so messed up

So screwed up

So damnably awful?

We could ask this and these

On calmer days as well

It’s fair

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All things of substance are good

Really

You move toward evil and the devil

Then you move toward nothingness

And nothing

These will increase, day by day,

Until that’s all

(so much worse than Porky Pig)

There is nothing

Not black

(black is good)

But a void

Out of which God has created

But not us

Nothing we have will last

Except as legacy

Then memory

Then

(let a couple of beats go by)

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We are on the side of flesh

Who value flesh

(I am ignorant about

mortification)

And what’s inside

Flesh is not bad

It is ours and was made for us

By the true owner

Of the universe

Who keeps with perfection

From the smallest moment that we know

And smaller

To the next

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And what of pain?

Why is there pain?

How can there be a God of pain?

Well, there is

Who is the God of love

Who promises alleviation

And for you

Family

And friends and neighbors, too

For a broken

And a splitting-further world

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Pain is a stake

(and stake)

It is on the table of the world

It is not ours

Though we can wield it

The way we can

Wield healing and solutions,

Too

These are realities and means

And we have so much to do with them

For now

We can move with

Pretty much anything we want

Inside

Outside

Toward ourselves

Toward our neighbors

Toward the world

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Persist

Sometimes is all there is

When pain is great

The next moment

And the next

One moment

Two moments

Enough accomplishment

Until everything’s incorporated

And we stand up

And move

Not move on as in forget

Move on as in everything’s a part

Of us now

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And I know

It’s hard

To say we’re not alone

When we are alone

Without the peace of it

But we’re not

A lesson for the speaker, too

We’re not

There is companionship

And company

For life

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C L Couch

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Photo by Conor Sexton on Unsplash

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, United States

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Do Not Be Kept by Flowered Fields

(x = space)

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Do Not Be Kept by Flowered Fields

(from a teacher)

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Hump day, Amanda

Be nice, learners

Work and play with

Discipline and health

Do not rush to poppies

Or what might become

Another monument

We need you,

The young,

So much

On Wednesday

And for all the other days

You are so much more important

Than entities named

For exhausted gods

Than entities

At all

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C L Couch

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Photo by Malik Skydsgaard on Unsplash

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Infinite Pleasure

(x = space)

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Infinite Pleasure

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There are things that

Enthuse me:

People learning

Youth ascending

Good things to read

With sight to see them

Pleasance in sounds

Or none

Peace in the small things

Peace in the ideal

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The spirit of God

Moving across the water

Separating night and day

But keeping both

And rendering them

Necessary

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Brownies with walnuts

In them

Someone said it’s popular

Now

To talk about the smell of Jesus

(that smells like Jesus)

I think Jesus

Smells like brownies

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C L Couch

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Photo by Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash

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