In Vigil Hours
Light and shadow
Move across the ceiling
We know this
In so many ways
By living near the street
Or with a passing
Storm
Or
Oh
So slowly
Moonlight moving in the night
Shadow and light
To make illusions with
Our help
While
We lie below
And
Frightened or inspired
Have the hours
Of night pass
C L Couch
Photo by Augustine Wong on Unsplash
(x = space)
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Bilateral Stimulation
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Two candles
What do they mean?
That it is Sunday
Sabbath day
A day in Advent
Second Sunday
The candles on the wreath
Have meaning
The wreath has meaning,
Too
The lights remind us
Of the spirit
Also of faith
And how one fortifies
The other
There is more prophecy
Remembering
The job skill
Of the prophets
In not only future-telling
But foretell the present
As well
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What is happening now?
There are wars
Not for the first time
There drought
And the effects of drought
There have been
Flods as well
Ironically
We and nature
Have our moments
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There is politics
To trouble a way through
All
While not addressing much
And proposing less
Unless we press
Where governments allow
Or where they don’t
And here the prophets
Help us,
Too
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Two candles
Twice as strong
For support
Twice the light
For inspiration
Two times
The investment in the season
In our learning
Or reminding
Of an illuminated world
To come
Plus how each of us
May offer light
Into the world
All wintry to the north
Summery to the south
Though one
Season everywhere
Just now
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Adore the story
In the advent
Of the Lord
Into the world
Light the way
Even with small lights
Even the light
Of one
Though look for lights to add
Look around
Let senses say
Shadowed
And unshadowed
We have each other
In all seasons
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C L Couch
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Advent 2
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Photo by Rainer Gelhot on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Live from Punxsutawney
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Knob
Hollow
Gobbler
Turkey
Groundhog
Burrow
A manufactured life
Goes on tour
Speaking engagements
What is its thesis?
Moved in a cylinder
Men in hats
With groundhog faces
Thousands and thousands
I guess they have
Places to stay
TV, computer cameras
How it can it not
See its shadow?
Phil is not that accurate
Need we wonder
Why
Enjoy the day
Laughter
Celebration
Into spring
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C L Couch
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Photo by Ralph Katieb on Unsplash
Groundhog didn’t like the late April snow (she was in the middle of nest building when it hit).
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(x = space)
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Morning’s Delta Light
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Judgment light
As morning sunlight
Without shadow
On the blanket;
The light is warm
In a purifying way
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The light is yellow due to the
Sun’s agency:
On another world
What color might be
Informing the inhabitants?
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It’s good;
The light is living
Adding deltas
To the chemistry of
xxxxxReactions
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A preference for cloudy days
Should not impede
What must also come someday
In sun
(with shadows)
To assess
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Photo by OC Gonzalez on Unsplash
Day’s like this.
[looking east toward mountains]
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(x = space)
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We Climb the Stairs
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Groundhog Day should
Be fun, I guess
Fun is good
We need fun
But then there are these
Shootings from last night
(the news I got
last night)
In schools
With at least
One child dead
A teen
Someone’s child
I don’t mean to say
Forget the goofy
Or excess
I guess
I’m searching for perspective
Phil saw his shadow,
By the way
And by the way
He’s typically wrong
I think on purpose
For being yanked out of
His burrow
In midwinter
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Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
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https://news.yahoo.com/milwaukee-police-search-suspect-quintuple-161626587.html
https://kidsongs.com/song/me-and-my-shadow/
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(x = space)
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The Necessary Shadow
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If we
Turn toward light,
We’ll need some shade
Not the kind to throw
But that kind that is
Provided by
Glasses or
A hand over our eyes,
Better still by
Trees inspired by
Craters on the moon
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Unmoored,
The light might take us far
If our eyes will need contrast
Even shadows
Providing shapes
Familiar or strange
Along the way
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I’m not sure that
This is death
When it might be something new
That will bring us home,
Afterward
The end of an exhausting day
As at work
Or an amusement park
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Light and darkness
Shape and shadow
Strenuous meditation
And there is such a thing
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The quiet life is not
An easy one,
Given the world
And our natures
While listening
Is hard as well
And nothing automatic
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Listen for the litany,
Expression and response
Between root and branch,
Wing and song
Listen for the turn of
Earth and the stretching
Of the band with
Its own satellite
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We are part of all this interaction
The universe a living place
For us
Life in life
All loves excelling
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C L Couch
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Photo by Thomas Richter on Unsplash
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“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” a hymn
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(x = space)
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Night Is Gracious
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I can’t think of what
I deserve
Because I deserve nothing
Too well I understand
(with Protestants)
The wages of sin,
Not
Because I’m criminal but
Because I’m sinful,
Maybe in the way
Of all who’ve sinned and so
Deserve extinction
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But sinful state and actions
Might be
A prelude unto grace—and so
Some say there must
Be evil on the way,
And I wonder
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They don’t really go by halves,
And shadows are not evil
Evil isn’t natural
Though insistent
And when we think
The evil life is
Shadow life—they don’t combine,
Not really
Decide what you will
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Let evil sublimate for now
But shadows can delight
At night
Or teaching about night
In day
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In daylight we’ll have Parousia,
I suppose
Thought at night perhaps
We’ll celebrate,
Then rest
The rest we should have had
In Eden,
Now a rest
For all to merge
To bathe of goodness,
Leaving all distinct
Forever
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Each one a player and a part
(not the player without
an upstart part,
as Jaques laments
an irony of stasis)
In everything revealed
By light, by shade
All shades of existence
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Under the sun
(evil abrogated)
While always under stars
Belonging to night,
Where we also
Always
All belong
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C L Couch
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Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center, West Allis, United States
Taken from the Sky Lift at the WI State Fair, August 2017
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Keystone Groundhog’s Day
Tomorrow—that’s 2 February—
Is, well, Groundhog’s Day
And since I am in Pennsylvania,
Maybe I should say something
(Maybe not)
The groundhog is a creature
With variants: prairie dogs out
West (USA), like Texas
Armadillos in attitude and in
Treatment, so I’m told
Nuisance-being that somehow
Makes a hole we all attend to
On this day
Origins are fought over (the day,
That is, not the groundhog
Itself, made in the perfect,
Chortling humor of the mind
Of God), though likely it’s a time
And rite of spring brought up
Into present cultural moment
There is a town, and here it is
(Here’s how it’s spelled)
Punxsutawney (too bad—Spell-
Check defeated me again, this
Year by only one letter)
Here in top hats people (not
The beast—and I don’t know
Why anyone wears the hats)
Will withdraw the toothy animal
From its artificial den atop a
Hill in or near the town (pardon
Me, the borough, there being
No towns in Pennsylvania,
Municipally speaking, save one
Town for another day)
And then winter’s prophecy-
Predictor takes over the day via
Shadow—and that’s all
But I like the day because, unlike
Christmas or Easter or Thanksgiving
Or Memorial Day, we have not
Wrecked this one
There are no Groundhog-Day cards
(I know of), so you must make your
Own—and thus enjoy the day (or
Maybe not) in whichever way you
Groundhog-like
(Legend has it that on this morning, if a groundhog can see its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If it cannot see its shadow, spring is on the way. InfoPlease.com.)
ShenandoahNPS / Foter.com / CC BY via Google Images
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