(x = space)
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Hurt Locking
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Sometimes sadness
Has a weight
If I knew, I had forgotten
It bears down on the face
Justifying frowns
It pushes on the inside, too
(and mainly)
Pushing things together,
Causing pain
Along with weight,
There is the freezing
An effect that has no
Temperature
What to do next in the world?
How to get there
Through the challenges
Of sadness
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And it simply hurts, you know?
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C L Couch
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Photo by Ricardo Arce on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Eeyore
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Mopey
To say the least
But if all I had was
A lean-to of sticks,
I might be
Sullen, too
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Then there’s
The tack-on tail:
I used to wonder
If it hurt
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C L Couch
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Photo by George Lemon on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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On the First Day of the Week
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God,
A petition for this morning
While the sky is gray
And the sun
Is in the offing
Waiting to push through
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Follow us
To catch us when we fall
Or to pick us up
Dust us off, after
Or simply be around
Because the negative is not
Enough
And if we rise with you,
A certain kind of sufficiency
Of economy
The science of
A real enough and more
May follow
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Really,
We don’t need so much
Less than we think we do
Then out of
Small largesse,
When that’s all we have,
We may help
The other
Not a sly metaphor
But a person
Real people
Real needs
Not holiday
But quotidian
Every day,
You know
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All this is real
And thankful
To be prayed
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C L Couch
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(x = space)
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“Remembering Lorraine Bay”
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Newspaper headline
Human interest story
She was interesting
Loved her job
(with challenges)
As a flight attendant
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She was on the flight
The plane that crashed
Near a small town in
Western Pennsylvania
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C L Couch
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Shanksville’s Main Street in July 2006
By Aude – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1007438
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(x = space)
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They Seek Him There
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O God, our help
In ages past
Our hope for years to come
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And what do we need today
But to know you are near
Some miracles would not go
Amiss, I must confess
(unless they do)
For a week of flood and fire
End or start to war
A sickness that has taken many lives
Corruption from the fruit of Eden
For the way we ate
For the way we live
For the way we want to live
On this side or that
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C L Couch
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title borrowed respectfully from The Scarlet Pimpernel
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by Lawn Weeds – Scarlet Pimpernel, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85377914
Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) is a summer annual plant and a member of the primrose family. As its name suggest[s,] it has bright red/orange flowers, which only open when the sun shines.
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(x = space)
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Doctrine for Three
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In dim light,
Something was handed me
A gift
In the dark outside,
We talked about
His father
Who had died recently
Whom I liked
(whom he liked)
And of family, generally
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His father’s legacy
Was to share outside
The family
I being one
I could argue worthiness
But then I’d miss the point:
Grace is free
It really is
Without conditions
And has to be
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C L Couch
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Anatomy of a dying stormcell. A stormcell dissolves over the San Francisco Peaks.
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(x = space)
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Amen for Catharsis
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You came
Dear God
And you were here
You were what I couldn’t see
The voice beneath the noise
Something soft yet muscled
Beneath the brittle strength of
The world
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I don’t know about the timing
I wasn’t thinking clearly but
Have no doubt
Your arrival
Was perfect
In the way
Every plan from you
Is manifest
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Now in a time of peace
An hour, the next minute
Maybe a day–this
Side of things
Is too partial
And imperfect
(not like grammar)–
And now I go about
Again (imperfectly)
To try to serve
To try to balance out the wills
Of people
And of nature
With my energy
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And have I said it simply,
Lord
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Lord,
Thank you
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C L Couch
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Part of one of my acrylic paintings.
Photo by Paul Blenkhorn @SensoryArtHouse on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Petitioning before the Storm
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Later today
Ida comes to call
With too much rain
For an area
That is soaked already
There should be floods
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I’m sorry
I’ve been praying for myself
I’ve been praying
For you, too
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But I need the power
The electricity
My heart needs the help
Frankly, in the summer heat
And afterward
I’ll need to get around
For bread
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Maybe I’ll get or keep
(since nothing
will have changed)
My petition
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But I need the prayer for me
I hope there’s understanding
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C L Couch
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Sinai
no, Italy
Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash
Alpe di Siusi, 39040 Castelrotto BZ, Kastelruth, Italy
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(x = space)
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Dramatis Personae
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The cast
Our parts
Shakespeare
Jaques
Elvis
We fret upon the stage
Curtains between acts
Performance
And performance
The show is over
Take a bow
Remove the makeup
And we’re done—
Cast party, maybe
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Someone directs
The writer is in the audience
All our family, too,
And with our friends
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The spirit has been able
The flesh does what it can
There has been some interest in
Memorizing,
Though much of the performance
Has been impromptu
And once it’s done
Everyone gets to be a critic
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Though it’s the producer
Who decides
How long shall be the run
How many weeks
How many seasons
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There is stage fright,
Of course
There doesn’t have to be
(and we can use it)
We can train
We can learn tricks
And once out there
We can have joy
Seven stages
For a scene
A play
A résumé?
Take more
Even have some fun
There will be reviews
(nerves in the offing
and then after)
But to get to do this is a treat
And not a one to miss,
If it at all possible
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Than can be profit so
Variously drawn
But once you’re here
That part is taken:
Costume well
Though for a queen or king
There are many fools
Either can look splendid
Or look drear
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There are rehearsals
We can practice
How much to worry—not
So much as we do
We can expect each other
From the wings
There are many places
On the stage
Some of which
We get to choose
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I don’t know if
The play’s the thing
We deal here in metaphor
What is real
Is what happens after
This cold reading
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C L Couch
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drafted while watching (and hearing) a play within a play
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Garage Theater is a theater company from Qom, Iran. Garage Theater researches in the field of Laboratory theater.
Photo by mostafa meraji on Unsplash
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