four

Four Is the Magic Number
(here if not on the School House Rock)

Honestly
There’s God
And also me
And you
And Earth

And what is self
And what is other
Goes fluidly
In
And through
And between
All things
In all dimensions

And we are close
And we are far
Apart
And yet
Always the next best thing
Is you
And/or me
And Earth

It’s what we got
There might be
Nothing nearer
Or more
Joyful
Either

So relish in existence
Keep it simply
Joyful
In the four things
Four elements
Four essences
We have
With currents
Moving through
And ‘round
And in between
All four
Or if you have it
Fewer
Or more

C L Couch

Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash

(x = space)

How Are You

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

None can be the same

In Earth

Or heaven

(our daily petitions

for)

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

Cheerleaders,

For goodness sake

Honor students

Good people, all

The kind you’d like

To get

To know

And if not our cup of tea,

We don’t shoot

At them

For that(,

crazy people)

And now

Their lives are changed

For the worse

Forever

We shoot our children

We can say

We are afraid

We are threatened by

The unfamiliar,

Anymore

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

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

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

n. b.

Yes, without guns

We’d say

We’d use knives and sticks—well,

Okay

C L Couch

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Photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash

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

Four. One of my six words. And the image of the Celtic knot with imposed heart. What do they mean, and how do they work together? A paragraph about this is the assignment, I think.

Four

There’s a fancy word for that Celtic sign, which reminds of the fancy word for phobia of the number thirteen. I chose the word because it implies existing through relationship. Four is not one and certainly is not zero. Four is more, and four works because it is in companionship. Four have come together. Four isn’t that important symbolically in religion or folklore. I mean, there are things it can represent, though other numbers do more and are better known. So four can be more personal and intimately appreciated. The Celtic symbol of the Trinity is old and represents a merging of two ways: an ancient world of many gods and the world of the one God come to be known and loved. The Celts themselves had to give way to the Romans regarding religion—I mean the Roman Christian Church that made the Celts give up their Christian understanding—and for a time this symbol went away. Or was hidden. But it’s back, telling us that worlds and understandings deserve their time. And older insights need not be thrown away because something new, even better, comes. After the first day, I chose the symbol with a heart imposed upon it. The heart for me is paradoxical. It is vital for understanding faith and life, I do believe. But my heart is diseased and struggles to function in the center of me.