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tomorrow is Juneteenth

(x = space)

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today is Father’s Day in the USA, and I wish happiness for fathers; since I have no earthly Father anymore (and for some time) and got to thinking about tomorrow; and not stopping in thinking about tomorrow, I offer this

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tomorrow is Juneteenth

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tomorrow is Juneteenth

when in Texas slaves

no longer slaves

and who were never slaves

by the will

that was creation

nonetheless are told

they are no longer slaves

and by legislation

for two years

or so

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you are free

but they knew that

they knew there was an enemy

that kept them down

that weighed the legs and feet

upon stolen ground

to earn crops

for another’s coffer

(boxes in the bank)

they knew

they would rise

they knew this sometimes

on occasion

while chains and fields

and white men’s whips

beat another message

upon backs

of backs and faces

on the legs

that did the work

that carried wealth

to a master

who was not a master

or an owner

but for thieving

against God

and integrity

who cared not for blood

that spilled on blossoms

as long as they looked white

in the sacks

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such evil

Lord

and why did you allow it

why is our will

so important

that we are enabled

to grab weapons

to split human hides

to take the rest from Africa

stuffed like oranges

in ships

to the infantile

and erstwhile

USA

and late give up the practice

through a war

a reckoning

for what all of us knew

was wrong

was evil

x

we cannot imagine

who were not there

though at least

we may tell stories

and send messages

through generations

to the future

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do not do this again

live a kind of sorry

if need be

and if recompense

be needed

well them

pay it

from those boxes

of the profiteers

whose gold inside

still shines

still funds

still mocks

the rest of us

for color

and all colors

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let freedom ring

we hear

well

let it ring

ring bells

ring all we have

that makes a message

and response

with decibels as words

that say

yes freedom

we must have it

we must try it

we must make it known

to all the Earth

and all the worlds beyond

and all the worlds

that are inside

and all the worlds

that we must share

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c l couch

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Photo by Wasil Ahammed on Unsplash

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Juneteenth in Days

(x = space)

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Juneteenth in Days

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Juneteenth

Again

It’s coming

Don’t you like the sound

There might be

A proclamation

Somewhere

But we know how it sounds

It sounds for freedom

Ring a bell

On the day

Those who know

Shall know

And shall proclaim

Inside the heart

That this was a good day

A needful day

Against the tragedy

Of people

Who possess the sin

Believing

We may own another person

Other people

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Treating

Counting them

As assets

Treating them

Like harvest

From the field

Or the factory

While building

Cities

Homely or large

Across the nation

In the heart

Of the land

And air and water

So many things

That should be willing

At no cost

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Burn

Then

For freedom

Have good days

And set

Domestic fires

Carefully

For warmth

And for tomorrow

The twentieth

And then midsummer

And all seasons

To be free

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C L Couch

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Photo by Wolf Zimmermann on Unsplash

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Gestation

(x = space)

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Gestation

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I don’t know

It’s Friday

It’s raining

We need the rain

The clouds have little texture

At least from here

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Nothing much to look at

A wet street

Spatter on the windows

We need the rain

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There is war

In Ukraine

More death today

More wounded

And in Sudan

We’re drawing up our diplomats

Telling tourists

To go home

Choose another

(for now)

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We know there’s trafficking

Where

Here

Of drugs

Of people

Contraband things that

Otherwise

Could be all right

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But you know

People

Never people

Sold

Which means someone is

Buying

Where

Here

x

Struggles for freedom’s

Hard enough

On good days in

(relative)

Safe places

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And they

The captured

Kidnapped

Bought and sold

Are not all

But tend to be

Children

Women

Who

We know

Struggle for freedom

Already

Hard enough

More than should be

Enough

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On Friday I could cry

But the sky

Provides

As if behooving

I could say

Nature weeps for me

As in

Instead of me

And that

Nature weeps for all of us

In distress

But it is nature’s

Well

Nature

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That’s all

And that’s enough

The rain

Provides

Other good things

x

But I’m thinking now

There should be

Laws

For freedom

To work within one’s

Bearing

Bearing

Who we are

What can we do

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And freedom of our bodes

Politic

Personal

That many of us

Think we have

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Let’s check the laws of nature

And our charters

I think it’s there

Many

Freedoms

Already

There

Officially

And by

Who made rain

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We may read wet leaves

Or our own pages

Fearfully

Consider

Wonderfully made

And what

To do

With what and whom

When made

When with accountability

Co-making

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Rain

Tears

Freedoms

Fridays

Notions

Not like the old

Department-store

Departments

(but) Full-blown

Like glass

Full-grown

Into ideas

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We do

Need these

A good weekend

Please

For you

You deserve it

It’s deserved

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Does rain mean freedom

I don’t think so

Sometimes

It’s relaxing to watch

To hear

Sometimes

It’s fearful

The median response

Might have something to do

With inconvenience

Maybe this is part

Part Friday

Too

Of freedom

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C L Couch

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Psalm 139:14

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Photo by Sharon Pittaway on Unsplash

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Brittney Griner

(x = space)

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Brittney Griner

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I’m glad she’s back

Aren’t you?

Return the others, please—and

We should say

You may have your own

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We don’t like each other now

Except maybe in passing

On the street

On the subway

In the store

Real people

Real person to real person

We pick each other up

In small ways all the time

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More real than politics

That makes a war

Forgets the real people

But counts numbers

Of them

Plays them on a map

And in a mortal dream

Of conquest,

Acquisition

To rationalize

Before the rest

Of temporal authority

That needs speeches

Bites for press releases

Justifying

All those people

In the street

And the street

No longer,

Well,

No longer there

Picking up each other

That we no longer do

Because we were made numbers

Then like gum on penciled math

The strategy erased

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C L Couch

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After Release from Russian Custody, Focus Is on Providing Brittney Griner and Her Family Additional Support, Officials Say

Story by Aya Elamroussi • 6h ago

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/after-release-from-russian-custody-focus-is-on-providing-brittney-griner-and-her-family-additional-support-officials-say/ar-AA157twN

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Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Disruptive

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Diocletian Martyr

(x = space)

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Diocletian Martyr

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In my cell I see a bird

I think the bird is

The spirit of God

I don’t know for sure

Until the bird speaks,

Speaks to me

Without words

This is a real cell

A cell from which I will be taken

To die

At the hands of one

Who can command it

Though cannot command anything

About my soul

God has come to comfort me

To tell me I belong to God

And will be meeting

With God, soon

In a closer way

I could not know on Earth

The pain might be quick

It might be long

The bird does not tell me,

Imperial will having its own way

Despotic yet

Graced with freedom

As is mine*

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I could have been quiet

I needn’t have said anything

When questioned

Or at the corner

Where I told the story

Of God’s goodness,

Standing on the edge

Of all I knew

And soon would lose

I don’t know what happens next

In terms of what I gain

Maybe a mansion

Maybe nothing

I don’t permit myself an expectation

But relationship

Knowing my loved ones

Once here,

Beholding curing

Of my enemies

And me of them

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Great harmony

Before the Lord

And the Lord

Who might dance with me

While the angels sing

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C L Couch

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*(in freedom

   maybe grace

   we are all despots)

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Looking Up

Photo by Prince David on Unsplash

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An Appointment with God

(x = space)

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An Appointment with God

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I don’t’ have so many appointments

Lately,

For which I’m grateful

In a time of my kind of PTSD,

It’s the weight of stressors

I don’t have to bear

So much

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To get there

To show up on time

To be here when I’m called

To have everything I

Might be needing

Relieved of this

Makes for a better day

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I’d like to live easy

I don’t have much

But to have time

And on the flip side

Lack of bother

On the A side

Coffee and toast

And morning

And a day for you

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Someday will arrive

I keep forgetting

You will arrive

To take me to home

By then,

Maybe I shall be glad

Meanwhile, I keep my faith

With me and then I

Hope with

The Amish

Who say, one by one,

I hope so

When asked about assurance

Of salvation

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C L Couch

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I think it was the poet Julia Kasdorf, as I may have said before, who told me about the typical response when Amish are asked the salvific question.

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Waves

Photo by Bernd Dittrich on Unsplash

Frankreich

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How They Carry the Good News

(x = space)

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How They Carry the Good News

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I’m not sure what I’ll

Write today,

But there will be something

Something about me

And you

God and the whole world,

Which we sing is in

God’s hands

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I suppose an earthquake

Might mean

That something is slipping through

The fingers,

A flood might mean

Too many tears

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The birds might carry news

Carried by the wind,

Another agency

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They hear the talking

In the trees

And what stones say

Between buildings

Some shining,

Some in ruins

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I guess there are words

From all over Earth

While the moon

Sings in response

And the stars

Oscillate their notes as well

For any

Who are listening

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Let those who hear,

May—not

With ears

But with supernal apparatus

That repression

Or suppression might affect

But is with us, still

Too deep, perhaps

Though there is

A law of freedom

That

I’ve heard about

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C L Couch

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“How They Carried the Good News from Ghent to Aix” is a poem by Robert Browning.

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Photo by Christine Benton on Unsplash

At a gymkhana show in Warner Springs. These two make a formidable duo, galloping across the arena and then coming to a sliding stop to make a sharp turn around a pole (out of range to the left). They take my breath away.

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Law of Love

(x = space)

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Law of Love

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What does

God want of us?

Through the prophets,

We are told

To walk humbly

With an arch concern for

Justice,

More generally

To repent

And turn toward God,

The people

And the nation

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Through Moses

We are given

Laws from God

On Sinai,

Starting with

The ten laws that

We know,

Most of which

Tell us what not

To do

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God speaks

Through angels

And sometimes

Maybe

God speaks through us

In smaller ways,

Perhaps

One to another

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The measure,

The pendulum

That swings with ease

When set with

Accord

Should be love

That might be difficult

And hard

And sacrificial

But moves with equanimity

Respecting all

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Sometimes in silence

Bearing nonetheless

The message

Of the prophets

Of the angels

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All enact

The law of love

(James would say

the law

of freedom)

And thus

Are closing in

On what God wants

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C L Couch

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12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2 (Christian New Testament, New International Version)

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The Old Bell

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

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“The Rape of the Lock”

(x = space)

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“The Rape of the Lock”

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Is a poem-story

About a theft of hair

(a basis for satire)

From times when

“Rape” meant abduction

(bad enough, though

if you know

The Fantastiks, then

you know)

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Even so, not a good

Word, made worse by

The way we use it

Now—given charge

And change

With reason

Words have power,

Don’t they?  Sometimes

More than action: try

Proclaiming “dictator”

Inside democracy

(listen to the only

speech in Chaplin’s

The Great Dictator)

Or cry “freedom” inside

Tyranny

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Then there’s

“Joy” in a

Cheerless place,

Challenging the time

Another way

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Have a gentle day

And mind (and mine)

Your choice of words, and

Take comfort from

The people with whom

You don’t have to

Fret so much

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C L Couch

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Photo by Kristian Strand on Unsplash

New York, United States

Type

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