(x = space)
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Just-So Story
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God is like dust upon the floor,
Too easily swept up,
Cast out, forgotten ‘til it
Appears again
And we take it as
Nuisance
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No, it is not God
(bits of God’s creation)
But a metaphor,
Since we so easily ignore something
That is everywhere
So easily ignored
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And move to name detritus,
An inconvenience to
Our just-so lives,
Just so
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C L Couch
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Rudyard Kipling wrote Just So Stories. Note from an English teacher.
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photo by Chalaphan Mathong on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Quasi una Fantasia
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More gray skies—
I know the sun is healthier
But the gray doesn’t show
The dust bunnies in
Their warrens, which
Creatures I’ve
Discovered like to roam
The place at night,
Which is why there are
So many new signs
In the morning
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Like gray skies, I’ve come
To like dust bunnies;
They do not eat real carrots,
And the only thing
Like pellets is
More dust upon the floor
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C L Couch
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Photo by Mattia Astorino on Unsplash
Riserva Naturale Torbiere del Sebino d’ Iseo, Corte Franca, Italia
I see you
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(x = space)
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Inaugurations
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January enters
Like a wet
Dog,
Poor dog
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Winter is
Allowed
But the ground
In PA is
Spring or
Fall swamp-like
Instead with
Additional on the
Way (which
means more
rain)
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Four-year change
Is coming, not
A holiday
I wonder
x
But something
In the USA
We do so that
Change
Keeps things
The same
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Not that we
Are the
Exemplar
We believe we are
Or
Should be
To the world
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What do you know?
A real dog is
Barking, below
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Go inside,
Dog,
Go
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Leave certain
Things
Outside to
The oath-owners
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C L Couch
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Go, Dog, Go is a story (about dogs) written by P. D. Eastman.
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Photo by Victoria Palacios on Unsplash
Sequoia National Forest, United States
Glory and wonder here on little old earth. This shot is from a particularly magical hike through the Sequoia National Forest. We were so up high in the mountains that the clouds decided to settle around us and create a mystical fog all around us.
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(x = space)
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A Domesday Counting
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It’s a count of calendars:
For some, the year
Has started with Advent
Or the solstice
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There is the Jewish calendar
(look at the cornerstones
of buildings),
The Islamic calendar,
And the Chinese calendar
That will incite fireworks
As well
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There are those who count
The days by weather
And the local seasons
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We’ll watch and listen to
The fireworks in Sydney;
We’ll note the islands
Near Fiji where
The dateline says
The new year starts
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All of our computers will
Tell us that it’s started
Not to mention resolutions
And all the sauerkraut
x
Which is to say
The new year is relative;
It is traditional
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C L Couch
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Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash
Year 2021 Is Coming
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Domesday Book : Britain’s finest treasure | The National …
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk › domesday
Domesday [The Domesday Book] is Britain’s earliest public record. It contains the results of a huge survey of land and landholding commissioned by William I in 1085.
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(x = space)
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Remembering 28 December
(in liturgies)
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Yesterday there was a lesser feast about
The slaughter of the innocents
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Frankly, I don’t know how to bring
It up, the murder of many children or
The killing of one child
Two years old or younger
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How does one speak to that?
How does one do it, in the first place?
The answer is, one doesn’t
But tells soldiers and slaves to do it
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The children are only
Targets, after all, unreal as people
If we never look at them
Or what we commanded
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Being Idumean,
Herod might even have considered this
An act of war against
An enemy Jewish people
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But we are right to say
That it was local genocide,
Even of boys the
Killing of a generation
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Foes from which there would be
No reprisal,
No fighting back would be
Expected
And thus a tactically successful
Maneuver and campaign
Designed by a crazy person who
Had the kind of power
Democracy should slay
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God would address the Herods
Later on:
You don’t really think
Herod and his would
Get away with murderous
Abrogations?
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We cannot count the children;
We do not count them now,
Though so many
Live inside danger
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They are not wood or cardboard—they
Are not shades behind
A chain-link fence or
A craftier, a solid-seeming barrier
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They starve, they bleed,
They cry as a divine signal
To the rest of us
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Listen to them, see to them—in this,
The parents are the world—and
Then we can rightly damn
All Herodian kings
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C L Couch
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Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash
Saemangeum-ro, Gunsan-si, South Korea
Solar Eclipse
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Matthew 2:16-18
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Acts 12:20-23
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According to documents and legends, Herod the Great and Herod Agrippa (grandson) both died lingering and painful deaths.
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(x = space)
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On a Colorless Land
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That’s the problem with winter,
Isn’t it?
Everything is pale, unless
It’s dark with age
Or even death,
Blasted trees and such
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Snow is romantic
While it’s falling,
But if the temperatures stay low
Then the ground is white snow or,
Well, ground
For a long while
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There is no solution;
Painting earth won’t help
And what of the limpid winter sky?
Besides, there’s learning here
Via looking out,
Remembering that colors all are
Grand and
We should cherish them and use them
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I know, pretty straightforward
For a poem;
But I was thinking about
Recessive traits:
I have freckles on pale skin,
Blue eyes,
Left-handedness,
All sorts of other things, I’m sure
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For these, I don’t think
I’m worthless
Or you for your recessives
Or you for your dominants
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We can (all) have bold things,
Brings the colors in—
Keep them inside in other ways
Along with textures and
Unearthly sounds
And bell-like laughter
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The senses are bright
And always so
As we might manage them
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Taste and see,
Hear and touch,
Smell—and time be released
For these
(from time to time)
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I don’t know about a wonderful life,
But it can be
And more so
A sensate life
In any season
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C L Couch
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Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Mixed media painting inspired by Stonehenge.
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(x = space)
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Midnight Sun
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I can’t help but imagine
A quiet and dark place
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Maybe a church
Maybe a campsite
Maybe in the desert
Maybe a quiet place at home
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It is late
There is candlelight
And whoever’s there
And there are people there
Is praying
x
They are praying for the world
As if it were outside
And in greater peril
Than experience has known
In ages
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Great hunger lurks
And plans
x
But here there is silent love
Propelling urgent works
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Peace
And intercession
Then knowing what to do
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C L Couch
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Photo by Emily Hon on Unsplash
Aurora shine the whole night.
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(x = space)
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Tactics
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It’s not as if we haven’t
Heard of war before
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It’s all around us, if we look
Around as a world
x
There are civil wars in Yemen
And in Syria;
We have sent weapons to these
For the profit
And the power
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They fight each other in Lebanon,
In South Sudan
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Soldiers and often terrorists
In their own uniforms
Barely removed from uniformity
x
And there the war
Of oppression,
Fought inside nations such
As those in Asia
And in the USA—
Call it something better,
If you wish,
If you must
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It’s not a peaceful world
But know peace:
We’ve heard of it,
We learn it,
And we teach it
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We negotiate
As if we deal with children
And sometimes with children
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There is an age
We have an age
When will the prophecy
Be Monday
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C L Couch
(from the USA)
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Photo by Foad Roshan on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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A Night to Remember
(Christmas Eve)
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So there’s this sleigh
A regrettable homonym;
It might be as big as a spaceship
In a science-fiction series,
One that might carry generations
To the next set
Of sun and planets
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The sleigh could have a crew,
Though
We know of only one,
The captain and the power
That comes from reindeer
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There are deliveries to make,
Though what might be most important
Is the trip around the world
In certitude
We have a world to play with
And work on
For keeping homes
With some promise of a future
Under brick and wood and canvas,
Stone and shale
x
Will it be a merry Christmas
For those who don’t believe?
Well, why not
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No punishment is promised inside
Skepticism;
One might simply enjoy
The colors, the materials, the brilliant
Detritus, after
All the domestic parties
‘Round a tree or in another
Fine arrangement
Or in a place that looks the same
As it did the day before—
Thank goodness, there are no requirements
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It’s a day,
A unique day we’ve held
In the offing
In anticipation
For a while
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C L Couch
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A Night to Remember is the name of an old, bittersweet movie.
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By Sierra Nevada Space Systems – Sierra Nevada Space Systems, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25460329
Artist’s conception of the Dream Chaser commercial human space transportation vehicle docked to the International Space Station.
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