Merry Whichever

(x = space)

x

x

Merry Whichever

(greeting)

x

Merry Whichever

Happy New Year to your calendar

And all your months,

However they are named

May each day be ingested

With wisdom and

Delight,

Wisdom for the ages,

Delight in the pleasures

Of the day

x

May you know love

More than in the abstract

Some good learning beforehand

Wouldn’t hurt;

Might you have peace,

If the worlds great and small

Agree

x

Most of all, may

All of you

And any

Know the presence

Over us

So great,

So small as to be

Working inside

Our capillaries

x

Call it God

Or the Spirit

Or the impulse of the ages

The human push

Toward improvement

And a symphony of

Maybe out-of-tune,

Asynchronous

Possibility

x

May the one

Or many there

Protect you

And keep you

In each other

x

C L Couch

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Part of the painting “my take on an ion.”

Photo by Jené Stephaniuk on Unsplash

Los Angeles, CA, USA

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Ready or Not

(x = space)

x

x

Ready or Not

x

God is coming

God is here

God is a child

God is a teen

God is a grownup

God is a spirit

God is love

Everything at once

The Medievals didn’t mind

Neither should we

It is a time

Of amazement

Dare I say, magic

x

Each year God comes down

While angels rise

We look up

And on the Earth

Feel our investment firmer

x

Prophecy

And miracle

A merging of all tenses

Where

And when

God is involved

All things

Work for good

x

It is our age

Sick, healthy

Corrupt and even

We merge tenses, too,

Hoping for

Everything

To work out right

What’s left is

What there is

Illuminated by a star

The gift

The trash

The holes

The holes filled in

x

Whether or not

We are ready

For the light

It is an age of light

It was

It will be

x

C L Couch

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x

Photo by Krissana Porto on Unsplash

Paris, France

x

Wrong Wright

[x = space]

x

x

Wrong Wright

x

Destroy their bike shop

In Ohio?

Because Ohio doesn’t want to be

First in flight

Because the Wright in Wright-Patterson

And Wright State

Is enough

And what’s the big deal

About flying, anyway?

We have a shiny building

Or a parking lot to build

Because Dayton has no room to grow

In any other way

It’s not as if it’s surrounded

By flat land

x

Why not move it to Yellow Springs?

Really

Really, I think they can reconstruct

And deconstruct it there

x

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C L Couch

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Panel OKs bid to demolish Wright Brothers’ 1st bike shop

https://www.abc27.com/news/us-world/national/panel…

17 hours ago · The Dayton Board of Zoning Appeals has approved the city’s request to demolish a 129-year-old historic building that once was the site of the Wright brothers’ first bike shop.

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The wingtip of an A330 MRTT/ KC30 from the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) shot through the rear door of an A400M belonging to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) [at the] Singapore Airshow 2020.

Photo by Bing Hui Yau on Unsplash

Changi Airport, Airport Boulevard, Singapore

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Spiced Life

(x = space)

x

x

Spiced Life

(Advent)

x

A season starts

Tomorrow

On my grandmother’s

Birthday

She would be

Well over a hundred

The season’s been around

Since

I imagine

Medieval times

x

We light candles,

One Sunday

By one

Four candles

We might use another candle

Lighting the four

Or a candle might

Appear later

Set in or near the others

Call it

The Christ candle

x

A circle

A wreath

Is a common design

And practice

Into which we set the candles

All four there

(light them

one by one)

There are songs

I think my favorite

Is the song about

Keeping mortal flesh

Silent

To stand rather

In fear and trembling

Because it’s God who comes to

Earth

And is near

As at creation,

First birth of everything

x

It is typically

A darker season

Church rooms slowly rebuilt

With light

Ideally, it is a quiet

Time, though

The world gets noisier

All the time

And in our

Insides, too

A challenge it might be to find

Minutes

Inside hours

Inside and out

To sip, to think

To have quiet words

With company

Or for oneself

x

Not that Christmas noise is bad

Because it’s not

With bells

And open presents

Come enjoyment

And, if we have it right,

Joy itself

I hope joy arrives for you

Starting in the quiet

Building toward a jubilee,

Even a

New year with

All menacing overthrown

All things allowed

That need to

To begin again

Or simply better days

In coming

x

C L Couch

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Three candles lit for the three first Sundays of advent.

Photo: Niklas Nordblad – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1488786

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Taproot

(x = space)

x

x

Taproot

x

The brown blade sinks

And feeds the seed

That was a part

x

Seeds that sleep through

Cold time

Far enough

North or south

x

Something new and all the same

For being new

Will rise in spring

x

C L Couch

x

x

The Colors of Nature Caught on a Hike

Photo by Don Raridon on Unsplash

x

All These Worlds

(x = space)

x

x

All These Worlds

x

God, help our

Nation to be good

Our world to be great

The cosmos, when

Receiving us,

Never-ending wonder

And discovery

x

Liturgic wishing

Into prose action

New metaphors required

Upon each arrival

In a spaceship

On a new shore,

Bearing guilt and hope

Germs and solutions

x

Ready to eat there and

To take some sips from

A silver sea

x

C L Couch

x

x

The International Space Station

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

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Impromptu

(x = close)

x

x

Impromptu

x

I get started

I get tired

This is something new

Age or medications

Take your pick

But sometimes when I’m

Relatively still

My eyes want nothing more

Than to close

And sometimes I follow through,

Which is also something new

x

I set aside my small machines

Stretch out with

A pillow

Here or there

Close my eyes the way

My grandfather closed

His,

Afterward

Saying

Just resting my eyes

x

C L Couch

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While watching the lions on the right and 100 meters far from us, we did not see this nice guy was sleeping 3 meters next to us in the bush on the left side of our car. But he did awake gently . . .

Photo by Andreas Berlin on Unsplash

Okavango Delta, Botswana

x

The Once King without a Future

(x = space)

x

x

The Once King without a Future

(23 November 1963)

x

We were told he was a king

Who lived in Camelot

I didn’t know

I was a child and

At home

We didn’t talk about the king

I have a memory from school

Then at home

In following days

In front of the TV

My mother ironing, behind

x

A king

A coup d’état

The vice-king became king

The jesters all moved over

And up one

x

Mostly, he was killed

His wife picked up a piece of him

For the doctors

The killer then was killed

And that killer died

x

And we all moved over in the nation

Though we did not move up

There was no domino

There was a funeral

That everyone attended

For me

And children like me,

It was in black and white

x

C L Couch

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Photo by NASA on Unsplash

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Wounded Eagle

(x = space)

x

x

Wounded Eagle

x

Did Ben Franklin really want

The emblem of the nation

Be the wild turkey?

Maybe so,

Though it’s hard when

One sees eagles in flight

To pick something else

x

In Cincinnati

At the zoo

Was an enclosure

For a bald eagle

Wounded and then rescued,

An enormous structure

For the one

Who would only fly

Partially again,

Such was the hurt

x

Netted magnificence

Still magnificent

Worthy for a nation

That’s somehow wounded, too,

And still can fly

x

C L Couch

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While living in Cincinnati, I used to visit this eagle at the zoo.  I trust I remember enough and am witnessing correctly.

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For one season, I was able to photograph eagles at a nest. They were not bothered by my presence and in the morning the light was reasonably good. Sadly, that winter the tree blew down, and I have yet to find such an ideal site for eagle photography.

Photo by Richard Lee on Unsplash

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