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Watching Science TV

(x = space)

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Watching Science TV

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How the Universe Works

“Dawn of Life”

(4.5)

Mars had life back then

(it was a viable planet

could it have sent some life

to Earth?

my question

then the episode agrees)

Cyanobacteria

Turns green and then accepts

(takes part in)

Photosynthesis

Releasing oxygen

For other species

There are changes

And the theorist says

They’re random

A little taller, a little clearer in the eye

Both for better hunting on

The primordial range

I’m wondering

About the randomness

Changes for better living

(through chemistry)

But vital changes, really

Not simply for improvement but

For life at all

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And if it’s random

Like a guess from the universe

To say, look at that, we made things

Better for that one

That kind upon the plain

That must needs kill to eat,

Then is there no touch

Of evolution, let alone

Of the divine?

No working out

Or through of human need?

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These attributes are needful

It seems an existential crisis

(a crisis of existence)

To have left it,

Left the living to the

Throw of an indifferent die

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C L Couch

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Photo by Sam Wermut on Unsplash

Stockton Sand Dunes, Salt Ash, Australia

mars

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Love’s Labor

(x = space)

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Love’s Labor

(2020)

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Today is a gray day

But the temperature is down

Sunny and cool would be better

In the USA, it’s a holiday

I don’t know the story

And I doubt I’ll look it up just now

Too tired (too little sleep) and

An extra headache (maybe from

too little sleep)

Last night I saw and heard

Fireworks

In the small town near my own

I hope all the dogs are okay

No one could watch from the field

But fireworks are mostly

Shot into the air

So here’s an adaptation

To the disease that worked out

Pretty well, I think

Those several feet away from me

Had a good time

For many, this is the last hoorah

For summer

We start thinking fall thoughts, now

Expect the temperature to drop

(though it won’t really for a while),

Even look for turned leaves,

First invitation

To a change in color

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C L Couch

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Photo by Bryan Lopez on Unsplash

Estadio Juan Francisco Barraza, San Miguel, El Salvador

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Beadling

(x = space)

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Beadling

(pandemic time)

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It’s Sunday

I thought it was Saturday

Maybe you’re having this problem, too

So I should think church

(good Catholic or Protestant

Christian)

And I do

Though I don’t think I’ll go

Until the year of doing nothing

Has expired

Nothing but science and care

I do what I can

Pray for them

Send bits of money

Wait

Wish it were all over

For the living to be living

More fully

Perhaps more mindfully

Again

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C L Couch

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(a beadle, church officer, bearing

a rod with a feather at one end and a heavy ball

or other weight at the other

not for adults do we spare the rod

depending on how deeply was the parishioner

snoozing, he or she got one end or the other)

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Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash

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Antecedents

(x = space)

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Antecedents

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I told my students,

Not so many pronouns

Making sure the subject is at hand

And it agrees

Not for the writer’s sake

But for mine

And any readers—

Say, a boss

Or those who must approve

The presentation with

The recommendation

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Yet here I am, often

Making a mystery of it

I want you to work a little

Sorry

To track the subjects

And to understand

How often they are intertwined,

And that’s real

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We have antecedents, too

Those who came before

And sometimes it’s a mystery

That we work out

With records and with words

To have something

Of a story

The genealogists with

Wisdom

And best-guessing

Giving answers so the rest of us move

On in the present

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Where we come from

Is Earth

In a gorge that was a garden

In a crescent

By three rivers

It’s a story and a good one

Whether Genesis or

The Silmarillion

Or Gilgamesh or

Theogony (when he believed)

Or Metamorphoses (when he did not)

Or the God

Who placed a hand down from the sky

To Earth

To spread the plains and, around the edges,

All the mountains

Or one who came up from below

Closer to the ground

And loving it

Did make mortals when going below

Was needed

To sort out all the hot things there

(I made this last one up)

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But all (real) depictions

Seem to contain a fall

Divinity or demons

Or our bad choices

They all live with us

(divinity, demons, choices)

Not only for the Calvinists

But as a reason

For the failures in a day

In an hour of time

Under the sun

Or in the argent light of moon

Wherever we trip,

Try to right ourselves

To dance again

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C L Couch

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Photo by Matt Nelson on Unsplash

Vonore, United States

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Easy Therapy

(x = space)

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Easy Therapy

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Laughter’s good

Not the grim kind

But the kind that takes you

By surprise

The lungs get some exercise

Brain cells some extra

Charge

The mouth, it smiles

As if it had

Needed some dusting off

Some oil

Before cracking

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There’s mischief in the world,

We know

Sometimes devastation

Human or mineral

But don’t we need the laughter

For our health?

The kind that honestly

Erupts and might be shared

All around

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C L Couch

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Photo by Sithamshu Manoj on Unsplash

Bengaluru, India

Catching Smiles

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Petition

(x = space)

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Petition

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God is good

(it’s how we start

a certain prayer)

And God must bear

What’s evil

Not for lack of love

But for the gift of will

That was

A gift of love

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We think angels

Don’t have it

Yet there was a war

In heaven

They will match up

At Armageddon,

The last ranks

And those who last

Will join us in

New heaven

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Creation is broken

We have stories

We can mend it now

Imperfectly

But make a circle

Others know how

And would show us

If we bring down

The barriers

Yes, the real walls

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There is legacy

In circles

Protection, celebration

The will to live

Because there’s love

Unashamed

Enduring

Persisting when

That’s all there is

Because the rest

Feels on fire

If only for a time

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Wait as in be patient

Wait as in attend

But we have one gift to give

Give it now

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C L Couch

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Photo by Buzz Andersen on Unsplash

Kalapana, United States

I was visiting the Big Island of Hawaii with some friends and family, and my brother convinced the group to take a lava tour by boat. I always kind of balk a little bit at overtly touristy stuff like that, but I think everyone was a pretty shocked when we got our first look at the Kalapana Lava Flow after about a half hour boat trip down the coast. It’s such an awesome, phantasmagorical sight and, since they actually get surprisingly close to the spots where the rivers of lava meet the ocean and throw up sulfurous steam clouds, also a pretty visceral sensory experience.

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The Tell

(x = space)

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The Tell

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Another dark day

Good for hiding dust

No doubt the motes are flying, still

Informing the dust bunnies

Where to warren

Why not dust cats or

Dust crocodiles, I do not know

But we may delight

In invisible inhabitants,

All the same

The pixies that our cultures tell us

Do and don’t exist

The magic inside

Each of our stories, especially

Once shared

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Pull up some chairs, the four of us

Let’s play some cards

And, please, let’s talk

It isn’t tourney play, you know

Let’s show something of

Ourselves besides

The tells

We don’t think we have

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C L Couch

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photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

playing cards in a bar-room near Reserve, Louisiana

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Not a Game Day

(x = space)

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Not a Game Day

(maybe another day)

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We’ve had dark days

(two days’ packed clouds

and rain)

And that’s all right

We don’t soothsay

The weather, anymore

Storms are a nuisance

Comets intriguing

Too many withering days

Does not mean

God is judging us, though

God might have another

Idea, not about

Judging us through

Weather (God might be

glad we’ve outgrown that)

But keeping count

Regardless over

How we’re doing with

Created places

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There could be a book

Maybe a computer bank

Maybe angels tasked with

Keeping score

Except there are too many

Teams to count

And Earth and each day

Is not a game

(sorry)

Most of the time

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C L Couch

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Photo by Zhu Hongzhi on Unsplash

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Multi-Universing

(x = space)

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Multi-Universing

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You know,

With one mistyping

It becomes the thirty-ninth of August

While maybe

On another world that

Tilts only a little differently,

It is that day

For real

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And our two worlds will need

Adjusting, once

Interstellar communion

Has begun

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For now, inside out heads,

Where we travel and negotiate

Our future

Planet-faring selves,

We might make welcome places

For all we may discover

That will change us

In good ways if we’re ready and

Thankfully

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coda

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We can go

If we send our best

And a moral code

I don’t mean a crazy code

I don’t mean a conservative code

I don’t mean a liberal code

I mean a human code

Inspired by what we understand

As loving and wise divinity

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You think practicality

Will take us, and it won’t

For we all know that machines

Of all kinds

Work fine

Until they don’t

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C L Couch

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Photo by Frank Eiffert on Unsplash

Schloß Dyck, Jüchen, Deutschland

Castle Dyck, Germany, October 2013

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