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Remembering WCW (MD)

(x = space)

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Remembering WCW (MD)

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The light of dusk

Against the tree

Light blue behind branches

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Across the street,

Part of a red-brick building

Bricks shining orange

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There is no wind

No noise

This is life, still

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Maybe it’s true

That so much depends upon his

Scene in twilight

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C L Couch

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XXII

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so much depends

upon

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a red wheel

barrow

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glazed with rain

water

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beside the white

chickens

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Williams, William Carlos, “XXII,” Spring and All (New York: Contact Editions / Dijon: Maurice Darantière, 1923).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Wheelbarrow

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used to drive my students crazy

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Photo by Namroud Gorguis on Unsplash

Red brick wall of an old barn.

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Slowdown Season

(x = space)

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Slowdown Season

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Lent could mean

Anticipation,

If we would allow for that

In the midst of conversations

About sacrifice

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Having given up

On chocolate, we need

Something to talk about

How about why?

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Sacrifice for its own sake

Being good,

Don’t get me wrong

Though we can

Say more

About the season

About church

About reading

About us

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Lent means getting ready

Or it might

Lest we forget

Why we gave up the chocolate

Or the coffee

Or, I don’t know,

What do people give up

Nowadays?

(maybe screen time)

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It seems we give up

Something somewhat bad

Somewhat good

Maybe it’s the excess

We surrender,

Which a good ancient Greek

Will say

Is always good

A lifestyle to adopt

x

Well, we’re not here

To parse

We’re here, in fact, because

We’re unified

We want one thing

Even if delivery

Is holiday disarray

x

We want a happy Easter

With rabbits

And eggs

(rabbits who lay eggs)

And back to chocolate

Like a former friend

Now reconciled

x

There is more

But it’s not mine to say

You must, must not

It is yours to say

To own a resurrection

Shown in nature

Told as story

A question and an answer

Of belief

It’s yours to say

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C L Couch

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Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Walk the Line

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1

Left Words

(x = words)

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Left Words

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I look at another

Blank page,

Which is all right

There’s something down

Already,

Already stained with

Letters

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One letter by one

Formed into words

Making a shape on

The page

Out of many shapes

(sanserif)

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Once I read a

Single poem that

Trailed along the left

Side of the page

With a lack

Of syntax but

Replete with

Meaning, nonetheless

I could tell

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The letters were sizable

And the name on top

Was famous

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And that’s how

It’s done,

I supposed

It appears in

Someone else’s book

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C L Couch

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Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash

Howard Hotel, 57 Howard St, Sheffield S1 2LW, UK, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

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Sun on Sunday

(x = space)

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Sun on Sunday

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It’s dim outside

And raining

I hear wet tires

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A gloomy day

I do not mind

The Addams genes at play,

I suppose,

The kind that make

A lark of dark days

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I’m a day into

The new shot

Feels like the flu shot

And every vaccine that

I’ve had since

Childhood

The site is sore

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I don’t mean to comment

I want to respect

The courtesies of others

That are challenged

Only in

Contagious situations,

Where they make

The issues grim

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Like guns, I guess

We know what we know

And I might be wrong

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But let’s not make it politics

But practicalities

There is an epidemic

I’ve lost people to it,

Which gives me added rights

To nothing

But my sadness

X

C L Couch

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Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

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1

Protocol

(x = space)

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Protocol

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Sorry that this must be news

This should be ordinary

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There will be a shot today

Not heard ‘round the world

Simply a needle into skin

With the release of

New chemicals inside

The body

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Then another shot, as is the

Protocol, in a while

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C L Couch

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Image by Markus Distelrath from Pixabay

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Proportional Response

(x = space)

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Proportional Response

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It’s an eye for eye

Without, we hope,

Everyone going blind

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But then the blind we have,

Over-sensate in four ways,

Might have to lead

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The only ones who know

How to have sight

Without the eyes

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C L Couch

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https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-u-carries-airstrike-against-233431848.html

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By Airman 1st Class Chad Warren – US Air Force Public Affairs [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7377988

A flight of F-15C Eagles from the flies during a solar eclipse in Okinawa July 22, 2009.

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Mything Thursday

(x = space)

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Mything Thursday

(in pandemic time)

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There are few untouched

Places on Earth

For when we see the,

We have touched them

They are changed

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I wonder if the virus

Might be made of plastic,

A natural invention

And response to our touch

We needed plastic

In the war,

Then its convenience took over

Making things

And we blew it into the sky

From our factories

We could wish for coal

And dirt and rust and oil

In the air

Though they have needed

Cleaning, too

x

To places needing cleaning,

There seem to be two

Options: clean them

Or ignore them

Throw a carpet over it

Go to another room

And finally another place

x

Or do a half-done job

A sloppy job

Of making do

Because there is no profit in

Cleaning up

Except for cleaning companies

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So let’s have cleaning companies!

People who know how

To fix a world

Rearrange it, replace broken

Parts, dust everything

So we might move again

Into timeworn places

Inhabitable again

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Know how to rebuild

And build new

So we don’t poison ourselves

So much, again

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C L Couch

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Photo by Antoine GIRET on Unsplash

Albanie

Mountain of rubbish and garbage on the beach by the sea[.]

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Easy Snow

(x = space)

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Easy Snow

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I might have gotten

In my car, not looking

At three inches’

Newfallen snow

Then got out again

Once I knew the source

Of the sudden darkness

(were it day)

These spits of snow

Have been the normal

For a while

Late winter?

Early spring?

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The groundhog is famous for

Inaccuracy,

Though the fairs are fun

In Punxsutawney

And who trusts a pampered

Creature to tell the weather,

Anyway?

We’d do better to

Look at the sides of wild trees

For direction

And the thickness of the fur

On the denizens

Therein

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C L Couch

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Photo by Babette Landmesser on Unsplash

Sun shines through winter trees on beautiful snowy ground.

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Wineskins

(x = space)

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Wineskins

(parabolic)

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I don’t know much about

Old wineskins

I had a bota once

From Spain

I imagine that my father got it

While on tour in the Navy

I probably put water in it

(the bota, not the Navy)

And tried to drink

I say this because I have a memory

Of playing with the trail of water

As they do with botas in Spain,

Letting the thin arch

Run out farther and farther

From the mouth

(the boca)

Part of the fun

In having such a device

Out of which to drink

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Does bota mean bottle?

I think botella

There might be some sort

Of origin

Shared at least in etymology

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I don’t know much

About new wineskins

I’ve probably never been

Next to one

And so there’s this whole tradition

Of which I’m unaware,

Which is how to deal

With wineskins

x

I imagine they are made

From the skins if not the organs

Of animals—

Cow, goat, sheep, I don’t know

And according to the power

In the parable,

A wineskin only gets one use

What happens next?

It is made into shoes

Or a backpack

Or a purse?

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I hope wineskins always were

Recyclable

And more so if they’re still

Used today

I imagine they could

Be lined with something

That would take new liquid well

So the skin could be used

Time and again

(which I wonder that the bota can)

But now to people

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Old wineskins, once emptied,

Are now useless of their

Single purpose

New wine will require

New wineskins

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Now, what is the wine?

It is new thought

New purpose

The Spirit as device

(and metaphor)

Has offered something new

Not to overthrow the old

So much as to complete it

I think that’s what

Jesus would say

As in, I have come not to abrogate

The law

But to complete it

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The story is more personal

Perhaps

Or might be taken that way

Personally, communally—these

Will happen:

Should we have thoughts

And instincts that

Merely weigh us down

More with suppression

Than belief

And where’s the wisdom

Let alone the joy

In that?

If we-always-did-it-that-way

Is only an alienating

(try I-always-do-it-this way,

too)

Quality for now,

Time for new thinking

And new acting

Or old acting

With new thinking

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C L Couch

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Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:18-22, Luke 5:33-39

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Photo by Biljana Martinic on Unsplash

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