Equinoxic

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Equinoxic

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Is it really in the sixties?

That is so nice

Today or tomorrow

Is the equinox

And fall will be official

We want it to be fall, I think

The leaves to turn

The air to be a challenge

Time for coats

And yellow schoolbuses

Easier to see

Take care

Autumn has its challenges

Practice looking out

For trick-or-treaters

First frost

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C L Couch

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in the northeast of the USA, northern hemisphere

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I looked at the temperature and said to myself the first two lines

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Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

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Hallmark Would Have It Rhyme

(x = space)

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Hallmark Would Have It Rhyme

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My circle has

Widened some

In lively ways

And souls

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Lois, John, Paul

(no George or Ringo)

Mandy, Lynn

Other blogging friends

Some of these from

Reaching out

A little

Some are a surprise

With or without

The reaching

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And I am thankful

The circle has

Ends meet,

Even braided

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Like the rim

Of that thing at Thanksgiving

Inside which are all

The fruits and nuts,

Wheat stems

Other good things

Of Earth

Like seasons

And like friendship

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Photo by Shyam on Unsplash

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I like Hallmark cards and enjoy sending them out for holidays.  I especially like the Peanuts cards at Hallowe’en.  (No, Hallmark people didn’t make me say this.  I’m sure they don’t know I’m here.)

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A Kind of Peace

(x = space)

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A Kind of Peace

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A weird kind of

Thing

Happens for no reason

A reason

We don’t know

Yet can live with, anyway

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Spirited

Even takes our words away

Fills us with

A moment when

We see

Each other

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When we know the world

Enough

To have enough

For being filled of

This other way

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C L Couch

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Earthrise

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=306267

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Errant Psalm

(x = space)

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Errant Psalm

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What shall I say, Lord?

I need you

I also need my friends

My family

A quiet place in which

To live

Normal noise, that is

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A covenant

‘Twixt you and me

Not like Mizpah where

We keep our weapons bound

Because we have no weapons

And, if we do,

Maybe we should

Behold them

Not to be afraid

But to be honest

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In deal-making,

Who else is there to trust?

The other contracts end

Mostly they fail

The living bonds

Sometimes they fail, too

But you are with me

And the best way

To have anyone

Or anything

Secured

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I wipe my face

And offer you the same

You will take our earthly

Molecules

And turn them with

The Spirit so that

Everything might last

Forever

And a day,

The day when we come home

To which you take us

And you greet us there

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Thank you, Lord,

For such reliance

Forever-keeping

In your gracious hand

Made out of

Everything that’s good

With which you make

Everything that’s

Going to remain

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Photo by Dan-Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash

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WordPress has changed the editing procedure for images; so far I don’t like it. We’ll see how it goes. And how I go. (Grr.)

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Silent War

(x = space)

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Silent War

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Most people

Can’t see beyond

Their own perspective

And why should they

We were made

Impulsively to carry

One

Those who can see

Beyond one’s own way

Become the diplomats

Negotiating

Everyone’s self-interest

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Every now and then

We all do better

It happened famously

At Christmastime

During the

Great War

When foes came together

They had stopped firing

To take up games instead

Drink together

Have photos taken

Then afterward,

Resumed the awful,

Blooded action

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For a time,

Everyone saw more

They saw each other

The different colors didn’t matter

They saw across

The horrible divide

Saw the real fundamentals

For a while,

Which are few

Human to human

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We can get it

We can have it

We can stop the war

Better than the appointed

Though they can

They can get it, too

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Which goes for the small wars, too

Maybe we can

Instinct over impulse

Will

Look over the trench

Of a mile or inches

Take on

Protect

The other’s way

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‘Pea Soup or Cocoa’, Longueval, France, World War I, Dec 1916. Taken in December, 1916, just after the brutal Somme Offensive (1 July – 18 Novemember) in the wooded area north of the Somme River. The mud of the ruined terrain covers the men and the small buffet station. A sense of humour is present in the cynical joke ‘Pea Soup or Cocoa’ – a dry comment on the quality of the limited food and drink available to troops at the frontline. Soldiers wrote with detail on food and drink conditions on the front.

Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

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Fractured Translationing

(x = space)

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Fractured Translationing

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Why can’t we

Call a city or a country

By the name its

Own natives do (native

to native)?

Why can’t we call

Florence Firenze

Spain España?

We call Bombay Mumbai,

Which is a step

Peking Beijing,

Which must be closer

I’m afraid I must agree

About the letters

English-speakers do need

English letters

An apology to the world

For that

But for the names,

We could at least

Ask the towns

And nations

What they want

That would be closer

And correct

And finally

Friendly

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Photo by vikram on Unsplash

Bandra – Worli Sea Link, Mount Mary, Bandra West, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

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Missioning

(x = space)

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Missioning

(for Mandy Shunnarah)

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It’s Wednesday

And a hump day

Too many cases breaking out

Al-Qaeda talking up Afghanistan

Fires in California

New Apple phones

Unveiled there

I need shoes

More importantly a place to live

Local friends are helping

And good thoughts

Come from everywhere

Faroff family stands by

I’m eaten up with nerves

They eat me

Consume the calm

Like the noise above

That means I’m leaving

After many years

Too many jobs

That took up all

My energy allotment

Concentration

And my attempts to rest

And now

Semi-retired

Accosted with all that

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My heart needs fixing up

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This should not

Be all for me

Too many people

Have revocable need

I pray

Others help

With worldly substance

So much more than I have

But this should not be for me

In what I cannot do

It’s to put out fires

Help first-responders

Let go those

Who have no perspective

Build up health

Yes

It’s true

And I must ask

For all of us

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Mandy Shunnarah has been writing about skateboarding and skateboarding—forthcoming book, Midwest Shreds: Skaters and Skateparks of Middle America from Belt Publishing (fall 2022).  Hers is a positive, inclusive, encouraging voice.

https://mandyshunnarah.com/

https://www.offthebeatenshelf.com/blog

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Skateboard on Dry Lakebed

Photo by Kelsey Dody on Unsplash

Alvord Desert, Oregon, USA

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Restocking

(x = space)

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Restocking

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Mid-afternoon is a good time

For grocery shopping

The pharmacists are more relaxed

More people say hello,

Sweetly apologize for guiding

Carts congenially in

Each other’s way

There’s someone close by

With whom to grieve

Products that are missing

And gripe with cordiality

To wonder what is next

For reduction if not elimination

Now, many of the shoppers have white hair

So might be moving slowly, anyway

But are the elderly polite?

Do they have to be,

Is there a law?

Rather it’s relief, I think

Knowing that the bellicose

Have already been or

Will go on later

But we can trust in these

Then there’s the way

The elderly feel deeply

That comes with age

To buffer and affirm

With civility

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In the parking lot,

Someone going in

Asked me if I were well

I said Good and you?

He said good,

Which sounds about right

To add some good to goods

Going out, the errantry

Going in

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C L Couch

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Fruit Display in Supermarket

Photo by gemma on Unsplash

Stillwater, OK, USA

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A Village Takes It

(x = space)

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A Village Takes It

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Schools in session

Offices are open

Stores

Factories are functioning

All in the time of cholera

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We have solutions

We blame the leadership,

So-called,

Whose message has been

Me first

Never you

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We can only hope

Diffusion brings

Immunity

Enough to keep a planet

Going

As after any plague

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And by the way

This is not

A Republican thing

Or a Democrat thing

Or any party

In the Italian assembly

And despots

Will be despots

Since it means

Healthcare for

Supposed elites

Never mind

The rest of us

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For the rest of us

There are risks

There were risks

When we swallowed

The polio vaccine

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In fact,

There are risks all

Around

More so for the rest of us

Who are the billions

Who inhabit Earth

And should inherit

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It’s a human thing,

You know,

Starting out microbial

Affecting animals

And now us (more)

There will be a cure

Enough

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Requiring

Behavior, practice

And that thing

You know,

Community

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A woman sits with her pet in a village in Madhya Pradesh, India .

Photo by Srimathi Jayaprakash on Unsplash

Ranipur, Madhya Pradesh, India

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