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Cold Comfort

(x = space)

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Cold Comfort

(without irony)

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I’ve gone on before about

The cup of cool water

I mean it’s cool

And it’s water

And to offer it

Is so good

Is it easy?

In an applianced culture,

Maybe,

Where ice is a small push away

But in a desert land,

One must find the water

And if inside rock

The water might be cool

And we can offer it

To relatives

To friends

And strangers

Even adversaries

Enemies who might need

To drink first

Before starting negotiations

Or given simply because

The gift of water

Is small

Amazement

Brings peace to the home

And for any

Table

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ilya Plakhuta on Unsplash

Ukraine

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Counting Back

(x = space)

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Counting Back

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Those who lived long ago

Did not count their time

Backward

We do that for them

With B.C. or B.C.E.

While in their time they lived

Counting forward, adding years

Toward forever

As we hope to do

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C L Couch

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Photo by Murray Campbell on Unsplash

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Pilotless Wheel

(x = space)

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Pilotless Wheel

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God is great

Traditions affirm

Many of them

Most of the living world

And the world before

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God is good

A source of mercy

Even for

Those who do not know

Those who deny

Given space and time

Mercy in these

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But, God, what kind of

Rotten world governed?

There is beauty

There are delightful moments

There is too much injustice

Too much lack of protection

Too much destruction

In the name

For the cause

Of politics and profit

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You are in charge

We are

It is a war itself

Of wills

We think that you arranged this

We believe

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In this alliance is

The cause of misery

Of evil

The stakes are high

They must be

This is real

Everything must matter

Assignments

Consequences

The religious call them covenants

And so they are

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Sometimes the wheel is left alone

Sometimes there’s a grab for it

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C L Couch

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Photo by Maximilian Weisbecker on Unsplash

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Middle Age

(x = space)

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Middle Age

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I’ve been watching

The History Channel about

Medieval times

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I wonder how it was

How it might be

To work outside

The ruined Coliseum

Or another broken

Roman place,

Knowing that the time before

Was more advanced

Than ours

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We can look up

Look back

Behold the slowly falling

Structures

That we loot for stone,

For wood for fuel

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There was a golden age

And if we knew

A golden age before that

And another

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All better times than hours

We work

Cutting grass

Bearing water

Hoping that the overlords

Should they invade again

Should leave us something,

After

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C L Couch

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The Dark Ages on (by) the History Channel

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Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

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Death Toll in Kentucky

(x = space)

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Death Toll in Kentucky

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I am from there

I am from other places

Doesn’t matter

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I don’t need to know

The topography

The lay of the land

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The floods have happened

People have died

Many things are ruined

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The count continues

While the water rules

And there’s no good way through

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Forgotten parts of the world

Except in songs

Shows from NPR

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There are storms, I know

And people die

And land is ruined

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These people are one by one

Discovered

And remembered

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There are stories

There will be more

And we should be grateful

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Some places might rise

When dry

Some remain below

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In hollow places

In the Earth

Inhabited

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Uninhabited

For ages

The hollers

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Remembered

Unremembered

We can only hope

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All the counting

Numbers and greater meaning

And their stories

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C L Couch

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Kentucky Flooding Death Toll Rises to 37 as Governor Says Hundreds Remain Unaccounted for

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/01/weather/kentucky-appalachia-flooding-monday/index.html

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Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

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Something to Talk About

(x = space)

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Something to Talk About

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If I pray to you

and boldly ask for something,

what then?

Will I get it

or a consolation prize?

Will the words,

the urgency

even get acknowledged?

How would I know?

How do you?

I’m willing to take

spiritual direction:

is there something

in that? a way, a technique

for understanding,

for confidence,

for divine allowance for

our requests?

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Do I pray again?

Are repeats

allowed?

I hope so, ‘cause

The human predilection

is to keep going,

keep after

what we’re after

until there’s resolution,

either victory

or some other

satisfaction,

which doesn’t have to mean

we get our way.

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C L Couch

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Photo by Jeremy Hynes on Unsplash

White-Tailed Doe and Her Fawn

Please tag @hyneseyes on Instagram for credit, thank you 🙂

Published on July 31, 2022

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House of Answers

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House of Answers

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Here’s what I can do for him

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With what did she wash

Anoint

The feet of Jesus?

The story says perfume

And she used her hair

We think to mean

Devotion

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God was there

God is here

The preacher says it’s so

I agree with the preacher

About this

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Then I use books and glasses

I can read the variations

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I can keep these in my heart

Except for this

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C L Couch

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John 12:3

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Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

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Homilies

(x = space)

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Homilies

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Church tomorrow

Virtual and virtuous

Teaching about Lazarus,

I think,

The one from Bethany

Who with his sisters

Was a friend of Jesus

Having hosted him

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Then Lazarus

Gets sick

Or something

Like that happens

Because he’s clearly dying

And the sisters

Contact Jesus

Who delays in coming

Then their brother dies

Martha comes to Jesus

Speaking words

Of faith

While Mary cannot move

It’s all right, Martha

Jesus says

I know it is in heaven,

She replies,

When I shall see Lazarus

Again

Yes, and I mean more

Than that

Mary manages

To say something

Reproachful

And then Jesus goes

To where their brother

Lies, wrapped and

Spiced in burial

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Take away the stone

Lazarus, Come out!

Jesus commands

And Lazarus emerges

From the dead

Into the living

Into his sisters’ lives

Again

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There is a meal

Mary breaks a bottle

Of perfume

And with the oil

And the scent

Bathes the feet of Jesus

Judas reprimands her

For wasted expense

Jesus turns on him

As only love can turn

Teaching him about

The poor

And when it’s all right

To be rich,

Say, when we’re

At the feet

Of Jesus

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C L Couch

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John 11, first part of 12 (in the Christian New Testament)

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Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash

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August on Deck

(x = space)

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August on Deck

(easy greetings)

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It’s Friday

Anticipate a weekend

Late summer

Final trip before the school year

Work at home

Clean at home

Leave the home

For the park

For stores

For church

Find company

Leave company

Hours on one’s own

The quiet might invite

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Or out into the world

A different way

A drive, a walk

To nowhere in particular

A new nowhere

Untried

Something heard of

Or an inviting opening

A path into

Some inviting part of the world

Keep safe

Why not

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After the anthem,

Play ball

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C L Couch

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Photo by Maksym Tymchyk 🇺🇦 on Unsplash

Ukraine

I look at this

I can smell the stalks, the petals

Memory, I suppose

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