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Midnight Sun

(x = space)

x

x

Midnight Sun

x

I can’t help but imagine

A quiet and dark place

x

Maybe a church

Maybe a campsite

Maybe in the desert

Maybe a quiet place at home

x

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

x

Great hunger lurks

And plans

x

But here there is silent love

Propelling urgent works

x

Peace

And intercession

Then knowing what to do

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Emily Hon on Unsplash

Yellowknife, Canada

Aurora shine the whole night.

x

3

Tactics

(x = space)

x

x

Tactics

x

It’s not as if we haven’t

Heard of war before

x

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

x

They fight each other in Lebanon,

In South Sudan

x

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

x

It’s not a peaceful world

But know peace:

We’ve heard of it,

We learn it,

And we teach it

x

We negotiate

As if we deal with children

And sometimes with children

x

There is an age

We have an age

When will the prophecy

Be Monday

x

C L Couch

(from the USA)

x

x

Photo by Foad Roshan on Unsplash

x

3

A Night to Remember

(x = space)

x

x

A Night to Remember

(Christmas Eve)

x

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

x

The sleigh could have a crew,

Though

We know of only one,

The captain and the power

That comes from reindeer

x

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

x

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

x

It’s a day,

A unique day we’ve held

In the offing

In anticipation

For a while

x

C L Couch

x

x

A Night to Remember is the name of an old, bittersweet movie.

x

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.

x

0

Set the Table

(x = space)

x

x

Set the Table

x

We need a deal for

Christmas:

x

  • Cessation in the

Holy Land

  • Bring children to their

families (everywhere)

  • Maintain a different kind

of readiness

(everywhere)

x

There, that should do it

For this year

x

Maybe there could be

Codicils

x

  • Let snow fall where it

will, again

  • Give something to the

Earth not to forget each

other

x

It’s not the triumph of a

Sect,

Though tradition’s strong

x

We are given again

A God-given chance

To revel in some revelry

With rules

x

  • Give everyone a

turn

  • Give everyone a song

as in karaoke (and as

is often badly),

x

Remembering that birth

Is the only way

For any generation,

x

Any Earth,

Peace on Earth

x

C L Couch

x

x

By דן וינקלר – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68503689

x

note

In the original, the bulleted sets of lines are indented. I still can’t get WordPress to let me cut and paste the way I want. Grrrr. I mean, uh, I hope we all have a grrrr-eat holiday! (Now I sound like Tony the Tiger.) I hope the reading’s clear enough.

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0

Through and Through

(x = space)

x

x

Through and Through

x

Francis would say

I think

That God is in the split

Between the seasons

x

That God knows

When it happens

And is there

To bless

The ending,

The beginning

x

The solstice has passed:

God bless the solstice

x

God bless new time

As gift

And chance

To get it right,

To let the garden

Sleep where

In Eden

Seeds of love were sown

x

We rest over this

And what may grow,

Some of which

Say half,

Say maybe more,

Is our side of the promise

With the gardeners

x

Keepers

Turned farmers outside

And warriors

And slaves

And liberators

x

Inventors,

Criminals,

And movement-starters

x

So much has happened

In the seasons;

Here’s a season now

x

Decide,

Go to it

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by John Hult on Unsplash

Smedjan, Tollered, Sweden

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0

Heliopolis

(x = space)

x

x

Heliopolis

(for the solstice)

x

The Earth is torn today like

The veil in the temple;

The ground might not move

More than

Mountains explode and

Ice retreats

Anyway,

x

These days

In the climes especially

We are half-making,

Maybe more than half

x

We still don’t have it right

To count,

Though we’ll more or less find

The moment when the Earth

In contract with the sun

Leans the other way

x

We’d do just as well to consult

Ancient sources

x

A new season to begin,

The longer light graduated

Like a cylinder

(remembering the lines

are part of measuring, too)

Or a class of learners

Marked into life

x

We try to know:

Julian and Gregory have tried,

And now the atom

(also split)

And the nanosecond try

x

But we know

There is a cycle,

And it’s always new

x

A new season is born

That will have its dog days,

Some somber days,

Some driven

By some of us on either side

x

There are sides now,

We must admit,

Between the foe of nature

And of us

x

But we know that

There’s a cycle,

And it’s always new

x

C L Couch

x

Photo by Ryuichi Itakura on Unsplash

Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom

Stone Henge

x

1

Doctrine Inside a Mask

(x = space)

x

x

Doctrine Inside a Mask

x

Grace is sufficient

It is miracle

It is salvation

x

It is surprise

Totally untimed

Kairos, never chronos

x

So what shall we have?

Salvation’s disguise

They seek it here

x

They seek it there

We have a

Pimpernel

x

A small, red flower

Maybe a Z against the wall

A bag of gold

x

Tossed through

My window by

Valentine or Robin Hood

x

Or with Meg

Atop the seeing stone

After cosmos-saving

x

Or while the saving

Happens (I doubt that

grace is averse to

en media res)

x

Stories for our souls,

Enough awareness

For our

x

Noticing in time

To say thank you

And our hero’s

Gone,

x

Because

Another rescue’s

Needed there

x

C L Couch

x

x

the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle

x

image by fabrice Verrier – originally posted to Flickr as Mouron rouge Anagallis arvensis, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11333678

anagallis arvensis mouron rouge Seine-Port avec racines jardin

x

…Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.…

Berean Study Bible · Download

(Second Corinthians 8-10)

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0

Hard-Going

(x = space)

x

x

Hard-Going

x

The metaphors

Should be everywhere

x

The land should be

Replete with them,

North and south

x

Here is the quiet earth,

There the earth is passionate

With green,

The seasons are alive

Either with slumber or with

Breaking through

x

Both are organic states,

Necessary,

And beautiful

x

In the human world,

There should be holidays

And there are:

Hanukkah enjoys a full menorah,

Christmas is but days away

So all is anticipation,

And the colors of

Kwanzaa adorn

x

Not to mention, anciently,

The solstice is tilting toward us

More and more;

There will be festivals

Set on stone

Or rather around them

x

The planet

With or without our help

In counting

Shall split into seasons

x

What is compelling?

I don’t know

x

The virus,

The ugliness of politics

In the USA,

Danger in so many other

Places

x

There’s room for verse,

The call is clarion

But heavy goes the craft:

Can you feel it?

x

Questions deserve answers,

Most of them;

Brittle is the monolith

The keeps on moving

To allow a phallic message

To be realized

x

Brittle yet taking

Many hits until it has a

Home or many homes,

Leaving scooped-out earth

So that the

Female has a say

x

Though one has to ask

Why the say is always second,

And there are more options

In the day

x

It is difficult;

Next time might be typical,

Greeting cards make

Silly sense again;

And the metaphors that

Make the text

And move the world be

Open from the cupboard

Of the Lord

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

x

0

Snow Living

(x = space)

x

x

Snow Living

x

The snow fell several times

in the night.

Now the sun is out on

x            

ground that is too white,

under blue that is

relief

for clouds innocuous.

x

Trucks with blades

but already parts of roads

are closed

because of accidents,

x

no doubt caused

by those who think

the weather makes no

difference.

x

Stay inside if you can—

advice cast

through

the air and over wires. Yet

x

we know how to

live inside,

thanks to

our mutual situation.

x

Turn away, perhaps,

from uncurtained

windows.  At least wait

‘til dusk.

x

Look inside (instead) to

think about

holidays, vaccines.

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Bogdan Cheșa on Unsplash

x

0

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