Second Sight

(x = space)

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Second Sight

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Be Thou, my vision

Begins my favorite song

In church

God should direct my sight

I should set my sight

On God

Maybe to the classic hills

Where help does not come from

Though our mortal selves might hope

But from God

Who made heaven and Earth

And those hills

Behind which God will come

If God wills

The will of God

We want to know

We get in wrestling matches

So to know

But the outcome is unclear, as the child’s

Magic 8-ball used to tell us

And then we grew

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God wills

It’s no fun not knowing

Inwardly, we might turn into fatalism

And there are less constructive

Ways

Is there a knowing beyond knowing?

I imagine so

But without genetic arranging

Or supernal training,

I must wait my turn

With the rest

Who want to know when heaven comes

And this be paradise

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Or what to do about tomorrow,

As if clairvoyance

Or supernal understanding

Were a guessing game

Sorry

If such, then such should be respected

All of us may pray, if we may

And we should,

Then use our best impulses

And instincts

Our best use of faith

To go through the day

Hope for tomorrow

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Clarity, the better vision

Direction, as we know it,

And we have ways to know a lot

With faith and allowance

For the rest

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C L Couch

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Photo by Roland Seifert on Unsplash

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Robb Elementary School, After

(x = space)

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Robb Elementary School, After

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Irony of welcome

We know this

You are welcome now

Not your guns

Not your murderous intent

You may have a troubled mind

And still come in

There are counselors

In school and life

But really you should come here

For a reason

That not only fits the mission

But also the constituency

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Parents of our learners

Patrons of

Our special programs

Library volunteers

Or other signed-up, cleared

Helpers

We want our school

To be good

We want to welcome you

Bienvenidos

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C L Couch

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Outside, underneath the name Robb Elementary School, there is a greeting, Bienvenidos.  Welcome to our school.

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Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

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my own exegesis

(x = space)

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my own exegesis

(in response to the sermon)

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Exodus, Moses, pillars

foot of the mountain

young men sacrificing bulls

the blood upon the people

the purity of blood

they meet God

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this business about blood and purity

blood and sacrifice for purified results

I don’t understand it

I’m put off

if not revolted

I’m glad it’s done

thank God it’s done

by Jesus

thank Jesus

who for God and as God

sacrificed himself

whose blood must have purified the Earth

his blood purifies us

to be with God

now and forever

one sacrifice, one purity

for all time

the killing, bleeding business now is done

betrayal’s done

as is blood-letting

the blood of Jesus is

restoration

into garden-readiness

again

we could be back in Eden

we will be

new heaven and new Earth

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c l couch

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David Henderson preaching.  I wrote this after the sermon delivered 29 May 2022 at Covenant Evangelical Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana.

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Exodus 24

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Photo by Nguyễn Hiệp on Unsplash

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They Wave Farewell

(x = space)

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They Wave Farewell

(Memorial Day, USA)

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Red

(with white and blue)

Waving over fields

Dropping morning dew

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For us

It is remembering

A waving day of it

Poppy remembering

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Nature teaches

And must be

A burying place for war

The fields wave

The children wave

We wave

They wave farewell

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Nature weeps

With dew, with rain, with

Anything that falls

All of us may fall

And weep

We may weep

For the children

(all are children)

Of the world

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C L Couch

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Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

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I Hope the Dogs and Cats Are Well

(x = space)

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I Hope the Dogs and Cats Are Well

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I heard stories about them

Early in the war

Not so much now

There might be zoos

I remember that detail

In a story by Unamuno

About the end of the world

And the wild animals getting out

But dogs and cats need our help

They always do

We made them that way

Adapted them for use

And took away their other capabilities

How could they stand up to wolves

Or bears or badgers

Wolverines

Or unknown men and women

With machine guns

Who have no familiar smells

Nothing about them

To indicate

Friend

Or family

Or home

Cats and dogs might do all right

With welcome from the stranger

But in battlefields

The anonymities are too severe

And the cruelties

Tend to pile up

Where did they go?

Where are the ones I was protecting?

I do not know anyone

Anything

Anymore

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C L Couch

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Photo by troy williams on Unsplash

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All the Children

(x = space)

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All the Children

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It doesn’t take much

To go into a classroom

Filled with children

And a teacher

Carrying guns

And then proceed to shoot

There are no opponents

And no challenges

There

Where is the victory, then?

The mannish triumph?

Only destruction

Taking lives

Of those who don’t fight back

Cowardly command

Of a situation

Why not keep it to

A video game

Electrons make the hell of it

Pouring onto Earth?

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This does not address

The visceral:

The violence of bullets

Piercing children’s flesh

And what the bullets do,

Once inside

Was this accomplishment?

Or would the defense

Have been insanity,

Should the shooter

Plan to live beyond the killing?

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We’ll never know

There might have been no expectation

To live, after

It doesn’t matter

Unless to know

Somehow prevents another

Time

Of people killing children

Because they can

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Here are the latest developments in the Uvalde elementary school mass shooting

As the town of Uvalde in South Texas mourns the killing of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school, a vigil was held for the victims at a community arena Wednesday night.

“Amazing Grace” was played as those in attendance wept and hugged.

The mass shooting on Tuesday has again spurred statewide and national conversations over gun control, following on two others over a two-week period —at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and a church in Laguna Woods, California.

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/texas-elementary-school-shooting-05-26-22/h_c348336110a9bff90edf25aeaf2acfbd

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Down Roads We Go

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

New Forest National Park, United Kingdom

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Shorelines

(x = space)

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Shorelines

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Sometimes

I get to the ocean

Some of you live close by

I could be envious

But I get there

Now and then

It seems to be important

That I do so

It’s not the shoreline in the photograph

I don’t know where that is

But it will do

Any such will do

To remind us

Of where might be our origins

Or our destinations

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Or the real thing

Better

To walk by when it’s early

To think about

Origins and destinations

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C L Couch

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Photo by Zac Harris on Unsplash

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Ephemeral

(x = space)

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Ephemeral

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A loose hair

A tress, in fact

Something for keeping

As Victorians

And other nineteenth-century

People

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In a box

A remembrance of youth

Or younger days

Or the other day

When the lock was snipped

And tied with ribbon

And I remember you

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C L Couch

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Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash

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Unrequired Beauty

(x = space)

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Unrequired Beauty

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I drove by

What might have been

An accidental field

Of flowers

No fine edges

No uniform establishment

To speak of

If it had been planted

That was a while ago

Perennials, I imagine

Every year the patch returns

Of blue and purple

Rising

From brown earth

Like holidays

Like celebration

Slowly

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C L Couch

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Uva, Russia

Photo by Daniel Spase on Unsplash

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