small breezes today
the summer’s susurrations
sometimes hurricanes
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photo by JD Designs on Unsplash
companion pieces
final agreements
of course
I’m right
in
these
and maybe you should have been
nicer
though so what and in time
we all shall know
and by no credit but by
the Lord who
keeps
the truth and who is righteous
more than us and even
as we try to
learn
then to
live with some confidence
by
faith and might we say to each other
by humility
as well
to
beg wordplay and
for well
final agreements too
two
of course
you’re
right
in these
and maybe I should have been
nicer
though so what and in time
we all shall know
and by no credit but by
the Lord who
keeps
the truth and who is righteous
more than us and even
as we try to
learn
then to
live with some confidence
by
faith and might we say to each other
by humility
as well
to
beg wordplay and
for well
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photo by kwon soon on Unsplash
Practical Mysticism
I have food
through the assistance of myself
and
of my family and occasionally
the system
not this year
the system
and being poor is bad
a situation if not a moral
and
I suppose the anchorites are pleased enough
not
to have however much there was to have
and for love’s
sake as
well as interest
call it professional
passion
to give up everything and so by doctrine
and I think
by
miracle
to keep the world
as the gospel goes the other way
to keep the world first
and
lose the soul
so we surrender
and we
gain
and the mystics teach this by example
and we’re in the blending
somehow of what
to gain and
to let go
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photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
the title is itself the title of, by Evelyn Underhill, Practical Mysticism with the subtitle A Little Book for Normal People
tinyism
God is in the small things
by presence
not by
substance
God is not the cell
but God is there
negotiating
nuclei
assessing mitochondria
checking on osmoses rates for nourishment
and
further
fed
function
to revise things maybe
or
to leave as is by their own will
and God be satisfied
or sad
with how it is
in there
God rides the rings of Saturn
too
and the other of our neighbors that have
rings
and for delight the angels
might go ‘round on such system features
also
move out beyond the final cloud and barrier
and God is on the move
could tick
the Voyagers
though more urgently for news
look over nebulae
and
birthing stars
as well as how the circling ones are doing
what’s living
then
introduced in God’s moment or
for
a while
and what is to die
to mourn
and re-collect for matter and for energy
and as divinity
remembers everything
in
the same love that
creates
the subatomic or dimension-wide
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photo by MJH SHIKDER on Unsplash
3D rendering DNA with particles and blurry background.
Dhaka, Bangladesh
preflight check
when we land
will
we remember the simple gift
to
be free
say
shall we play
Appalachian Spring
newly
over mountain ranges
also
will we give thanks for fire and
for ice
by which we live
then will we indeed act as
supplicants to God with
a new
name on a new-ancient altar
then will there be relief and
then
cynicism set in
for
we forgot
the need that brought us
here
or when we
find the answers have not
changed
by
horizon
so
we might answer
then
with boredom
or
with war having got over
wonder and remembering
the old
destructions
from
acquisition
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photo by Lee Paz on Unsplash
“Starship SN9”
(three poems)
the learning day
it’s Monday
how many at this
we
might have
and pale
gray
how many of these
days
with this lack of color that for décor
might be all right
but
don’t we need the green and blue
and the myriad of flora and fauna
hues
and with the gray
and I suppose the panoply is
here
it’s only muted
maybe to tell us that some days
some hours
or
many moments we should
pad our expressions
instead
to listen
as we do better to receive
prudent and wise
when
the color like the noise we choose
learns and employs
quiet
ride
(leave out asterisks and asterisked if posting)
and
goodness
must there be a point*
and
could I let the beauty go
released
wildly
without the moralizing
yet still in beauty
of
the Earth and sky be
moral
sure
as in relax
and ride
like that moment in the ride
when the center
goes to gallop
still
boisterous the relationship
but smooth
to go
together
and let that be aesthetic
in blurred motion
and
delight
so fast it’s undefined
*(my way through graduate school)
the damage has a name
citing on
TV
the Ausin Toy Museum
old things in good shape
and
I’m hearing
and looking now and then
at what show
not
to hold the silence valueless
but to draw toward contemplation
while
the noise in my head painfully challenges
all
pacific activities and
notions inside
rather
my daily invitation to go crazy
and have
and fail
at background for distraction
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so I wrote a bunch of things and might post the later two, maybe three
they are overridden with first person, though maybe in the gaps (mind the gap) you shall fill in your own persona and experience (which I guess is how we read first person lines, anyway, as in Shall I compare thee to?)
a little hermeneutics for free (and belying the second post)
I left things as-is by the time of revision and a polish as a try for an edit—except line-spacing by WordPress, remains
photo by NIR HIMI on Unsplash
Iceland
(the ocean looks like Escher or the Escher looks like ocean)
poor disguise
when you don’t get what you want
or what you need
does God still
listen
does God still
love
if so
then why did we not get what we need
some would say
because I didn’t make it and bank it
then it didn’t matter
some would say
because
God
does not love me or like me
or no longer listens to me
for
I must be bad
certainly asking for bad things
even those things might be
my parent’s health
my child’s health
health
in the world
my own
why are we wrong
why does God not like me
and
some would say
I know the answer
and if you follow me
you’ll
know
and this becomes a lion in a skin
Aslan-fakery
the spirit that is tested and it fails
and
still is followed
and there will be a hand
and
it might not be ours
but it will formulate and re-formulate
according to the truth reminded
that
hadn’t changed
and doesn’t
which is justice then
mercy
and the best notion of freedom we are going to have
and what happens to false prophets
sometimes they are whomped on
sometimes
they run away
and
it’s a better day for the retaining faithful
and as for pain
we might have to own it
or
go through it
for a while
and it
will hurt
and I’m uncertain why
and would not wish that for you
it doesn’t
teach us to appreciate the positive
but
it might
teach us
something hopeful
after
or even in the middle
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photo by Bret Lama on Unsplash
the lion (fake/real) story is in The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
red hints on the land
autumn wants arriving now
cool sky is needed
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photo by Nan Chen on Unsplash
the overwhelming
of Nepal and Tibet
I’m lucky
I’ve gone
under
and come up again
not floods but enveloped
by
loss of breath and
danger to
recover
with scars and fears
yet
still here to learn and to offer
and take in
love
as has been directed by
the second great commandment
water
mud
current
overwhelming gravity
and
by the water
land
and force to still the muscle
take the breath
deliver death like
an angel
painting lintels on a certain
night in Egypt
only this
was from a glacier
that
maybe was
maybe was not supposed to break
and
send the killing ice to water
down
to overwhelm
the hundreds found with
hundreds missing more
to all
a hopeful rescue
or
arrivals
tentative to check
in morgues
for those we might have known
and to know or fear from
missing
so much destroyed and what
remains
and what
to do
and prayer has power
so does money
so
too
does presence
and all work together
present
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photo by Sanjay Hona on Unsplash
NBC News
August 28, 2026, 7:37 AM EDT
• At least 547 people are dead after catastrophic flash floods Wednesday along the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet region, authorities in Nepal said.
• Hundreds of foreign tourists are among those who remain missing in the area, which is popular with trekkers and pilgrims. Rescue operations have resumed in both China and Nepal after they were briefly suspended amid fears of renewed flooding.
• In China, where a mudslide hit a land crossing between Nepal and Tibet’s Gyirong county, authorities said five people were dead and 558 others were missing, including 260 foreigners.
• The State Department says 90 Americans are unaccounted for in Nepal and China, while three have been rescued in Nepal. It said it was not aware of any U.S. deaths.
• The deadly torrent followed a glacial collapse in the Himalayan region, which is home to many of the world’s highest peaks and a high concentration of glaciers.
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