(x = space)
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Back from There Again
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Took a drive around and over
Through the mountains
Through tunnels
Up angles, down
The rounded Appalachians
Blue Ridge, Alleghenies
No rain or snow this time
There was wind
To blow my little car around
Clouds and sunshine vied
I got back
Hobbiton looks the same
Regarding what I left
Today,
I can only hope the cancer treatments
Work for him
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Photo by Sean Foster on Unsplash
Appalachians at midday.
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(x = space)
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Public Bear
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Pooh
Has entered
The public domain
Welcome, Pooh
And Piglet
Tigger
Rabbit
Kanga and Roo
Owl
And the blond boy
With buckles on his shoes
Who made a world
So that our world
Might be
Prettier
And kinder
And we can hope
A little wiser
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(Public Domain)
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(x = space)
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Old River
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There is sunshine I haven’t
Seen for a while
Western Pennsylvania had been
Living into its reputation
For precipitation
(there is a flood watch on
because the Ohio,
deep and wide
like the song,
could overmarch its primordial
lines)
I’m glad to be with family
Took two occasions—three if
Counting my sister and hers moving
Here—being New Year’s
And my brother’s illness
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Four out of five
Like the dentists
Have made it here so far
The fifth is coming soon
And I don’t know how to contemplate
What might happen next
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An elder brother’s murder
Was the dilemma for sibling Claudius
Here, cancer wants to commit
The crime,
The murder of my brother’s health
Unlike those of Claudius,
My words fly up with thought
And heaven catches them
I’ll keep offering
And offering
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In long ago, a sacrifice
Might help
But in the suburbs
No such help
Because we’ve grown beyond
The need
Some might say
(and should)
The laws have changed
Now it’s medications, institutions
On another altar
We can kneel and pray
Ancient of days
Will hear
As if it were the temple near
Whose opening we’d approach
As clean and ready
Bearing gifts
As we can be
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selah
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Now roll away, tumors
Like the stone that matched
An opening
So long ago
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Pittsburgh
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(x = space)
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Visiting with my Brother in Wintertime
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Tired now
Just got reconnected
And can write to you
Am in
The Renaissance City
City of Bridges
City of Iron
City of Steel
Where my brother is
And cancer in the city, too
In him
It seems to be consuming him
Turning him in
Like a folder being folded
Movements happens cruelly
The pain is slow
Tomorrow the severer
Treatment starts
How this will work in him
How it will solve anything
Well, it could
It might
I can only pray it must
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While skiing down the slopes of Big Sky Montana, I took the chance to slow down and look and capture the incredible beautiful scenery around me. Scenes like this seem to center me, with the stillness of snow settling in.
Photo by Jonathan Knepper on Unsplash
Big Sky Resort Road, Gallatin Gateway, USA
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(x = space)
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commencement
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the end of someone’s year
not the Jewish
or the Lunar
or the Islamic
the Christian year
began a month ago
there are those who only live by
seasons and experiences
maybe it’s Gregory’s
or the atomic clock’s
maybe it belongs
to Greenwich or to Zulu
the world says
it belongs to us
we celebrate
we cast lights off our bridges
launch them from our islands
we drop or raise
all sorts of things
to say
this is ours
we’ve grown
the new is ours
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End of 2018
Photo by Andreas Dress on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Perpetuity
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God give us
Something that we need
Who knows
‘Cause sometimes we don’t know
Not that random prayer
Is specified
In codicils
Sometimes we are confused
Burgeoning with something
Maybe burdened down
The words are stuck
Specifics unrequested
The angel or the saint
Will have to figure it out
Then convey it
To the proper desk
In heaven’s agencies
So that in-box to out-box
Happens smoothly
The business booming
With clientele
Requests
Resources
And responses
So we may say
Can we get
Amens
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Photo by Izabel d on Unsplash [inverted]
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(x = space)
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fit for Eden
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the egret spreads its wings
to the glory of God
its long neck and dagger beak
and claw will hunt
for Jesus’ sake
and in the spirit of the Lord
it will eat without thanks
all organs churning
in a Genesis of calling
and of impulse
the egret is its own sense of wonder
without apology
(either kind)
or gratitude
it because it is
because God made it so
then left it to the sky,
the water, and the land
a true denizen of Earth
the wonder and rightful holder of
first promises
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A Great Egret preens its feathers at Freshwater Lake in Cairns Australia.
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
Centenary Lakes Nature Play Space, Edge Hill, Australia
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(x = space)
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Tied Backward on the Mare
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I had
The worst
Dream last night
Someone
Was insane
Not me
Someone I knew
Worse
I had to watch
Her being
Pushed and pulled
(everyone
was wearing
white)
By men
While
The mother
Watched
It was
Awful, brutal
Intimate
I hope I
Never have
This dream
Or another like it
Ever again
Ever
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Photo by chrissie kremer on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Cancer Is as Cancer Does
(as we try to do to it)
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I don’t know what to say
I have bad news
My brother’s not well
That is not news
It’s gotten worse
That is
All who have siblings are aware
There is a care
A worry that each day
Goes well for them,
That overall they’re satisfied
And happy
I am the middle of five
There are larger
There are smaller
If you are there, then you may know
We never know our place,
Exactly
When is deference?
When is dominance?
It goes on
We simply have to stumble
Day by day
Tripping over stones of protocol
Loving all the same
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We are none of us
Young;
He has completed, just
His three score and ten
Though as we know
Statistics up the number and
The optimism
More
How will he live well
With his time?
What time is his?
I ask questions without
Good answers in this
Mortal place and
Bounded time
The news will be compounded soon
With prognosis and
Prescription and
Choices
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My words are getting thick
Everything is heavy
For a while
Before the legacy
Of sadness
Is poured out enough
For good choices
And actions
Of my own
Say, a prayer
Say a prayer
That’s invitation
With gratitude expressed
Now
While still beforehand,
Which is to say
Thank you
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for Rick
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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Vaccine-Based Immunotherapy from Novel Nanoparticle Systems. Researchers at the Texas Center for Cancer Nanomedicine (TCCN) are creating particle-based vaccines for cancer therapy. The particles carry molecules that stimulate immune cells and cancer antigens (proteins) that direct the immune response.
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