Annunciation school and church
shame
what is the shame
humiliation in
allowing such things to happen
such
awful things
and those who seek to move the world
but
cannot keep children safe
by lesser measures than vainglorious
and is that
it
we cannot say
one cannot say
I did this
and the mountains shook
the seawaves vibrated
by my hand
I pressed my enemies into the ground
beneath the beneath
and
took on God’s role for myself
over heaven
over hell
no
we simply mean to keep our children safe
most of us
that is
to remove the means
for harm
from them and from those
who’d
just as soon hurt them
to let Annunciation
say
these are the children
these
are welcome
we will keep these in the world
and
rise and fall by how we do
to have them in the school for learning
in
the church for faith
at last madness all to own
and
did it say
I hate those Christians
for
what is there to believe in
not myself
only the power I might bear
a little while
‘til I’m caught
‘til my
life is over and what
do I care
this is significance
blood
and flame
I’m like a king
a stupid
conniving
thieving king
a king
of nothing
this is what I am
what I’ve
become
and by such cruelty
and madness
I shall die
only
for remembrance
of them
not who I was
but
what I did
and even then only the loss
and hoped-for judgment
of
the flames
except for those
forgiving
even though I hate the Christian
almost
as much me
then
as I must hate
certainly deny
if not
forget
their God
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MINNEAPOLIS — Mass was underway Wednesday morning to mark the beginning of the academic year at Annunciation Catholic School when bullets started to come through the glass.
. . . which killed two students and wounded more than a dozen other people, . . .
(MSN)
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/ways-to-help-victims-of-the-annunciation-church-mass-shooting/
(KSTP)
photo by Jacob Bentzinger on Unsplash
celestial travel ecumenical
the journey crost
over
the bar
a star that guides
the journey each of us have to
take
hoping the water’s navigable
and the pilot
knows the way
and has firm grip upon
the wheel
and can command the crew
both technically and
kindly
then Tennyson has sailed this way
crost to the other side
and
we might do the same in variants of
faith
and transport but
to arrive
to disembark or simply step
from this life into
heaven
or
what you call it
how you get
there
that
we may study
talk about
while we pursue
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Crossing the Bar
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
after Tennyson composed the poem, he requested that it appear at the end of all published collections, and it did
photo by Gene Gallin on Unsplash
"Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach Ferry, North Carolina, USA"
2 poems about perspectives (and prompts)
anyone by Tennyson
(reflecting on “Ulysses”)
and if
Ulysses leaves
then
something wrong in Ithaca
something rotten
like the other precedence
to say
maybe his administration by which
his parting
will take the ill with him
and
shall we be ruled
then
by Penelope
who knows how to weave and
keep
the promise
loyal as all promises
are pledges
in
themselves
and so security humanity
in adventures bearing truth
and
at home
bearing love
reliably
secure
the place for that pursuit of happiness
also from the Greeks
to know
and so by wandering and settling
to have
yet
do not settle
say Ulysses and the followers
though
yet there must be a place
of ours
enacts Penelope
and
shall Telemachus serve as medium between
the parents
and the warring notions
of the heart
and will
battle well
the main place
the parts
where battle matters
“Ulysses,” a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published originally in 1834
the ray
these
things that Bing promotes
the rays that fly through water
by Galapagos
they swim
they point the way they’ve gone
to mark the way
for what should follow
also
to defend
and promise that through the long black
point
that each possesses
and they do all of this
these creatures
and
the species
thousands of miles from here
though there are analogues
closer in
the beings have a mind
but no mind about this
they
do not move aware
of us
as we think we should be observed
and
recognized
rather
they move in life
and life
is what they know
both need and celebration driving
which is all to strive
against
our vanities
a lesson in moving existence
in all
“spotted eagle rays in the Galápagos Islands”
presented by Bing/Microsoft (Tui de Roy/Minden Pictures)
homepage 8/15/25
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photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash
Lisbon Oceanarium, Esplanada Dom Carlos I, Lisbon, Portugal
two poems about help
once cadging up
God
you got me moving
if only a little
that you’d have me take more steps
and reach within my limits
if
all right
on the inside first
too many things are plain
yet I can’t see with any sense
worldly
or
soulful clarity
too easy to feel down
and
while there
from looking up at shapes there
perilously blurred
while what is
to see
is round confusion and so
where
is the way
I cannot get for
steps
or if there were a ladder hiding from
me
existentially concealed
and who’s to say
for ears
to hear
look
there is the way
still in prayer
tired
too tired to look up
too doubt-pressed
if
something about the hills and rescue
though I think that is reaction
wishful
thinking for a rescue
that in a better
mind we know that if comes
it shall come
from
wherever
any direction
of
one source
then why to look at hills
maybe to inspire
prayers
in
nature
sign of encouragement
by the sign of rising
earth
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. . . from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121 1b-2
KJV
(some think question and response)
photo by Marc Babin on Unsplash
a couple of cosmic verses
two nebulae
birthplace of stars
and
were we a nebula before
if so
what shape
and
did someone name us
for a form
maybe matching a myth
from
their own lore
and will they tell us
our own story
for
a reach
we do not have
older than us
sure
and yet extant with penchants for
visits
and conversations
unaware of angels
a favorite story
the older couple who
entertained divinities without
awareness
yet greeting needful
strangers
as it seemed
gave welcome to their shoddy place
and
offered the last food and
drink they had kept for themselves
before they’d
die from their own need and
lack
and yet in that meal
the plate
and pitcher
kept refilling and would
do so
forever
by the way
and after sleeping
the two awoke to find their hovel
changed into a manor
filled with
all signs of prosperity
to own and live
while
the valley town that would not
welcome anyone
or open
anything to strangers
more so those who did not appear
as they
well
that
town with the valley
now was flooded as gods
in judgment
and in brutal mischief
may decree and
do
(it’s a story of Greek gods, cited by Saint Paul as well)
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photo by Kevin Mueller on Unsplash
simpler green day near
solstice calls the summer start
then shorter green days
orange autumn day
equinox incites the fire
by red longer night
winter silver blue
longer days the promise bear
by solstice we met
spring the ground awake
spring equinox pale-promised
pastel growth begins
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photo by Bozhin Karaivanov on Unsplash
central Texas
one death we struggle
getting over
so
so how to comprehend a hundred
deaths and
more
storms and floods
destroying
like Time’s rolling sons in
the old hymn
taken
the material and
lively
debating over quick response
especially in a time of
cutting funding
for
all kinds of services
mostly
though a matter
now
of rescue
and the dreadful counting
receiving
aid
enduring then
to take
on
against all pushes of despair
considering
instead how to rebuild
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” by Isaac Watts
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the op’ning day.
(excerpt)
flooding town next over
(from mine in Pennsylvania)
Carlisle
one day
for storm floods
that were
severe
boating on streets
through town
no chance to pass through
radiating intersections
all the trees and parts of trees
that fell
and the delicate
dangerous dance
with
electricity
now nature helps to dry
in its irony of
having
delivered all the water first
the human focus next
on
taking
finding stock
and then rebuilding
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photo by Wes Warren on Unsplash
2 poems about consciousness assigned
anthropons
we talk to things
don’t we
our cars
that
if we’re at it
we should praise as well
as curse
I was talking at the ceramic
chickens
some
minutes ago
making sure I would say something to
the roster for
the sake of the hen
and
then there are the Milnes
who watched
to see how Christopher would
react when given
toys
talking to ourselves
I guess
though I think there’s more
an innate
wanting to believe
to have an audience
to have them
by
some listening in the cosmos
hear us
and
respond especially in the way
we’d like
which the mis-anthropons
among us
if there are
won’t engage
or
not nearly enough
to the animals who love us
(if they do)
why did the dog
save
the soldier
how did it know
serving
as a mascot
only
how to do that
and the cats who wake us
to our faces
when
the house afire
then the humpback whale who
journeys back
to visit with the human
specialist
and rapport-provider
as the mammal can and
may
every year
while
this all might be
mammalian
furred creatures breathing oxygen
who
know
each other by degrees
leaving fish
and arthropods
to fend
while we might
get
to know each other
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photo by Zach Lezniewicz on Unsplash
like inhalation-exhalation in a day
the eternals
breathing
an accomplishment
that mostly our conscious selves
have nothing to
do with
which
is good
or we’d suffocate by distraction
God bless autonomics
though
they were God’s idea in the first place
like
species diversity that course through
the multiplicity of kinds of
media on and of
the Earth
on
or in land
above
below the water
in the sky and as a by the way to feed
our inspirations out of
flying
and then in the vaporous places between
and
who knows maybe dimensions
too
our own multiverse
an interplay of quanta differences
could be helped
by
canalwork of blackholes
(all
sizes)
all of which to say
we might barely know the wonders layered
large or
infinitesimal that sounds close to
infinity
an eternity of
animated
animating choices if
well
fourteen billion years or so
[from the window]
yellow on the trunk
leaves dark green in shade by blue
angled panes look black
there is some green wind
behind it all that is blue
ether wanderland
something old or new
borrowed and the something blue
quasi una fantasia
thinking summer’s not
so bad
until dust and heat
blow in from the street
and I wish for cold of fall
and
could it come
by miracle
tomorrow
and better still tonight
I have some plans that hot
are melting like the water on
the witch
who
ironically has asked before how about
a little fire
well
it’s not bad in that
I am not burning
with flames
anyway
but still I’d like a similar distinction
to the comedy
if sardonic
in that
this one is not for burning
(The Lady’s Not for Burning by Christopher Fry)
things that don’t matter
melted ice cream
if you can get some
or
it’s only on the sides
with firm-enough substance
in
the middle
yelling
unless it’s about traffic
and the thing that’s big and stumbling
uncontrolled in
your way
war
except that the effects are
hyper-
real
as they are horrifying
institutions that grow beyond
their purpose
to serve and instead require if not
demand
serving of them
a wilted flower that matters
but that as detritus
may
feed the next generation
from
the Earth
things that speak to some kind
of annihilation that
be purposed
like the wilting
or
without decent aim
like
the warring
effects to the side
I’m hungry but not hungry
and I try failingly
not
to eat for boredom
but the medication gets
to me
and my digestive systems cries
unfun and
something like how dare you
quaint salvation
(Sunday or Saturday or Friday or another)
today’s for God
but
then
distractions of the devil
ah
we didn’t think so sly
to feed excess as the virtue
thus quietly destroying
or to render
quaint
virtue by its sponsor
truth
which is not
to say
the sabbath should be punishing
quite contrary
the day is for the positives
of
rest for
re-knitting of one’s own
plus
good for sharing
easy play
reflection on
the life one wants
the lives we all
want
a grip
I write in the dark
I guess
I think it’s less distracting
but
(the teacher
shudders)
I have the TV on
and must confess that’s
how I’ve done
a
lifetime of homework
though now the noise and images
are balancing
tinnitus
with insanity
too late
to get the condition
well
impairment
to hope for adaptation
so my daily invitation to go
mad
and trying to create as an alternative
though I hear
craziness might be
required
by great tradition
for
the art
some progress
how much time is left
and
how shall it go
the challenges accumulating
the ones
overcome
the others that add hellish
layers
to
the shell of
consciousness
free movement through
and
through
and when the crises go inside
as if to stay
and years go by
and
breathing’s labored in
its ways
and also all that means
so time
gets harder to go through
much
less command
while maybe years are lessons
that so much control
is either
an illusion or
best kept by someone
from
the start
wherever
and
yes
divine always
the first noel
(Christmas in July)
the angel did not say
but God
to God
and the host
let’s make things
and
by things that must be good
and so the days for
and in
the rings of creation
and all moves in orbits
of creation
the first song
imbued with sacredness
being sung
by
the sacred
source with perhaps more
supernal voices
joining
then comes the new age of noel
the second song to
sing
that after so much time
of sad and tired revolution
more like
a civil war within oneself
drawn
into partisanship
there should be hope for peace
and God
to God will buy that
for you
so we might have purchased
ransomed
dealings with the devil
freedom purchased
like our own
created
created once again
as if Eden recalled
the angel with the sword
finally
permitted to stand
down
then we
as prophesied
might rise
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photo by Geronimo Giqueaux on Unsplash
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