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Arts and Sciences

(x = space)

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Arts and Sciences

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It used to be

That art was the vision

Science the practice

(of the vision)

Thus there was connection

As between birth

And grown-up life

That was not ineffable

But practical

Workable

For visioning, producing

Of an age

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Now we don’t like each other

The theoretical

The practical

We grumble and we look

The other way

Well, to our way

If we must, we sigh

Whisper nearly sotto voce

For a bit of theory

Or a bit of usefulness

Or industry

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Music, math

The Renaissance

Philosophy

Reading, writing

How to build community

Through argument

And pipes

And water fountains

Statuary for the ages

Buildings that make sense

Can be maintained

And are beautiful

x

They’re coming back, perhaps

I see new works in small towns

Better than returning is

Moving forward

Time for a new alliance

New connections

New community

x

Make new friends

And keep the old;

One is silver

And the other gold

Not bad for an age

Every day a merger

Every breath a hope

In vision

Words

Plans

Building

And-or preserving

The streets, the place,

And planet

We all live along

Each one

Each other

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C L Couch

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Light in the Law Quad

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

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“Make New Friends” is a scout and camp song (a round) whose creators are unknown and whose lyrics have variations.

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armageddon morning

(x = space)

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armageddon morning

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all earthly alliances

whose treaties are for war

in violation

with a claim

to win the world

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God will fight us

weeping

with the rain

no doubt of victory,

would rather gather us

on a field

for celebration

will take the victory

if we shall give it

insisting we are right

in no other way

x

dawn after

final skirmishes at night

surrendered remnants will

be healed

and taken home

surprising what was won

in defeat

who was the foe

we battered in the dark

who struck

who struck

we have forgotten

or will forget

with a will

x

the place is clean

Earth an altar

all other altars served

without knowing

the template

last sacrifices needed

and these weren’t

x

we will come home

quiet first

names

and wounds

the celebration shall come

later when renewed

x

when we awake forever

a universe

to get to know

and new assignments

x

there is a party

only for an age or so

inside new heaven

over new Earth

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c l couch

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photo by Dan Senior on Unsplash

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2

Abe Shinzō

(x = space)

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Abe Shinzō

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Shinzo Abe

I’m sorry that he’s gone

Taken by insanity

And criminality

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Two questions remain:

What made the killer

(first question

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and second)

What may we remember

And be changed by

From the living

From Abe’s having lived

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For

He is among the generations

Now

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C L Couch

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安倍晋三

Abe Shinzō

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Photo by Daniel Seßler on Unsplash

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2

On the Ecumenism of Species

(x = space)

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On the Ecumenism of Species

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Dogs and cats should share

Often, they do

They share heat when it’s cold

They can share toys

They can treat each other

As toys

Food is another matter

Their systems are different

So unless it’s An Incredible Journey

Situation,

They should eat apart

And eat apart

Be who each other is

They can rest together

Often, they do

And enjoy God’s-creature status

Both, together

All, together

Now

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C L Couch

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x

Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash

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2

Sextant

(x = space)

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Sextant

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I have no idea how

One works

Somehow the sextants

Set

The way we need to take

In relation to

The stars’ own courses

x

Like the lodestone

The sunstone

A compass

Or the stars themselves,

We go with an absurdity

Of faith

Considering how wide

The water

x

How minimal the shorelines

And they

Save us against

The ocean’s

Featureless horizon

x

A journey by design

Or an irony of pressing,

A crossing by

The sextant’s parsecs

Tentatively ending at

A port-of-call

x

And the decision not

To yield but

To carry on,

Wayward sailors

Wayward children

x

Seeking the

Navigator’s colors

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C L Couch

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U.S. Navy Quartermaster 3rd Class, practices using a sextant as part of a navigation training aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), 2018

By National Museum of the U.S. Navy – 180423-N-DL434-149, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70793138

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0

Dog Days Days of Dogs

(x = space)

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Dog Days Days of Dogs

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I imagine dog days

In August,

But it’s been so hazy

And it’s been hot

I think of dogs

Such as bloodhound

Dogs (whatever looming,

drooping species)

Owning dropped places on

Front porches,

The kind of porch that drapes

From end to end

Or side to side

x

And the dogs, they are

Listless shapes of

Tired, teaching something

To the rest of us

About not being

In the way

When the way is not

A deal

And we do better

Owning places

Away from doors

And under windows

x

Like the dogs of summer

Something for

The cats of winter, too

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C L Couch

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Photo by Francesca Albert on Unsplash

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5 July

(x = space)

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5 July

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Post-parade

As we must be

After battle

We have to count the wounded

On the field

The dying

And the dead

x

In Chicago

And across New York

Wherever we commit

And find,

To make the discovery

Again

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That we are bestial

Worse than,

Since we weaponize

Our extensions

Limb

Tooth and claw

For killing

Over distances

And up close

x

Conviction is an odd word

That cuts at us two ways

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C L Couch

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Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

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4

Birth of a Nation

(x = space)

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Birth of a Nation

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It’s the Fourth of July

In the USA

It’s hard to miss

What with all the sales

In the computer

x

And all the local booms

That will happen

Between buildings

In the neighborhood

This evening

Upsetting dogs

x

The bell did not crack then

And the document

For the assembly

And the criers

Wasn’t ready then

More like the sixth

And no one need worry

x

A day was selected

For the start of freedom

And a nation

Approving thirteen groups

That did not want to fight

But would fight

A famous army

With a storied king

From faraway

Now home

x

Home needing freedom

From political

And corporate interests

That took more and more away

Until at home we said,

Enough

x

And war is war

It would not be kind

Or clean

Though ranks set on the field

Were tried

And when to start the battle

x

Really

How farmers

Children died

Holding guns

Or something enough like

To draw fire from the foe

x

There were strategies

And spies

And those with local knowledge

Of terrain

And somehow

Against the European mind

For monarchs

The war was won

By merchants and farmers

Fugitives and foreigners

Identified

Foregoing slaves

To free

Only to count

x

With vision to admire

Yet with fractures

Like the bell that was fractured at

Other times

Now we had to form a nation

With all the blunders

And the cheating

All the buildings

And the farmland

All the expanding

All the settling to come

With treaties

Skirmishes

And battles

We borrowed names

America

The United States of America

x

We asked for God

Too often after everything arranged

Maybe we could do better at that

Now

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God is known in many ways

Inside this land

The values of the heart

And mind

And neighborhood

Remain the same

x

Reasons abound

For trying God first

Each day

In every time

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In a nation born

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C L Couch

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United States flag painted on the side of a Saturn V rocket.

Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, United States

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0

on the altar

(x = space)

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x

on the altar

x

lord

what shall we give

but everything

and what is everything?

if i offer myself upon an altar

then will you send an angel

to stay my hand?

if i offer up my part in relationships

will you have an angel

tell me

not so much

before i am alone?

if it’s my wardrobe or accounts

or the corporation or the army

(like saint francis)

or plans

x

earthly luxury

or earthly victory

will you send a hallelujah chorus

to tell me, no, not that much?

or will you tell me to keep

going:

my body to begin with

as a living sacrifice,

my mind turning only as you turn it,

the sadness of

living against the world

for the renewing of my mind

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my body as a sacrifice

in worship

without sacrificing animals

or the worldly counterparts

but sacrificing me

the only thing to set apart,

holy for you

x

could you ask that much

or do you ask that much all the time

while i do not hear?

then i should listen with the

hearing that you gave me

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c l couch

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romans 12:1-2

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photo by ricardo gomez angel on unsplash

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