Remembrance of Things and People Past

(x = space)

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Remembrance of Things and People Past

(Memorial Day 2023)

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My grandfather was a doughboy

Another one

(I knew him more)

Cooked for the

Army in

The second war

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My father served

In the war that followed

The war no one remembers

But cost lives

Of bodes and the souls therein

And for lack of

Remembering

Because remembering

Matters much

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It’s a thought

A salute

And a parade

To visit flags on graves

Before we shop

Before we picnic

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Mind you

Shopping and picnicking

Ain’t bad

Rights and privileges

Secured

Silly to you

Perhaps

There’s also watching war movies

On TCM

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Arcane remembrances

We still make war movies

We still shop

And eat outside

Save rain

To drive companionship

Inside

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Be inside

Be there

Be aware

Remembrance is a near miss

From experience

What follows war

Was bought for us

Our own secular

Allegiances

And promise

In significant

And blessed silly

Existence

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God bless peace

And forestall war

And keep us faithful

To each other

More so to you

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C L Couch

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Photo by Wesley Mc Lachlan on Unsplash

Corning, Corning, United States

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A Simple Faith

(x = space)

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A Simple Faith

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A simple faith

That says

I love you

God

I know that you

Love me

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Help me

To love the world

You made

The child you gave

To save it

Keep me

Not giving in

Except to you

In faith

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Let goodness

Not be slight

Or slighted

Not by me

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Help me to love

My family

And friends

And stranger I have yet

To meet

Or never shall

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Pearls

And swine

Doves

And serpents

Not to cast with

Or to invoke

But to be reminded

Of my worth

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You are God

Deserving all that

God is due

But I must take you

Day by day

It seems

To love you best

Your world

To my listening ear

And the people

Here

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While we are here

‘Til there

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C L Couch

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“This Is My Father’s World” is cited and adapted

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Photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash

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Everyone and Everything

(x = space)

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Everyone and Everything

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Our God

Our God

Why do we forsake you?

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Well,

We can’t see you

That doesn’t help

We have great stories

They’re not ours

We can imagine heaven

Get it wrong

We have you

Because we say so?

Not to invent you

But to have you

Nothing required

But a choice

No initiation

Though we have written rituals

And applied water

And

A party

(and why not)

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Then there’s

Metanoia

The changed life

That could cost

Something of mortality

What we think we want

And really want

Again

To have for taking

Like the food

Upon the table

That is

For everyone

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New life

That dresses like the old one

Sounds the same

Tastes different

Taste and see

The Lord is good

We do not eat the Lord

But consume

All the same

x

We may break

With ingestion

Live on our own

And what we think is food

Is good

(usually, we know)

Molecules to eat

In such a way

To threaten finite balance

In the universe

x

Yes, sometimes

We are that important

x

Back to God

Or forward

Mostly forward

Though repentance

Is kairotic

One day into another

Until the day is perfect

With

Perfect night

x

Questions are important

Doubt is part

Faith isn’t stupid

Isn’t tricky, either

Have it

Eat it

Live it

If you want

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Then ready for the world

(as is)

With, as we say

Or someone says,

Truth and understanding

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An amen

Without the end

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ryunosuke Kikuno on Unsplash

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The Good Book

(x = space)

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The Good Book

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The Bible,

Well,

It’s an awful book

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There’s sex in there

And violence,

All kinds of aberration

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There’s slavery

In stories,

Even though promises

Of freedom abide

As well

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There’s poetry,

Truth in metaphor

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An animal

Talks

Not to another,

Rather to a person

x

There is nudity

(animals

by nature are

naked)

x

And realized

Punishment:

Rules draconian set by

The pettiness

Of kings

And queens

x

In retribution

And

For

Mortification,

There is the

Anger of prophets

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There is the punishment by God

x

And did I mention many

Miracles

For sustaining life especially in

The wilderness?

(there’s a good deal of

wilderness)

x

So

Why should we read

This book?

x

Because there’s life

Rendered with great beauty like

The facets

In a jewel

Emblazoned by the sun

And cool

By night

x

It is a book

That does not float on

Waves

But nonetheless

That saves,

Requiring ingestion

As one reads

Or good hearing while

Another person

(or maybe Balaam’s donkey

for a further

miracle)

Reads

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Good book

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C L Couch

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Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

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MS. Found in an Electric Bottle

(x = space)

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MS. Found in an Electric Bottle

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How do I keep

These?

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Mostly, they’re electrons now,

Some of these a day

Over some years

Now

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Shall I print them all,

Keep them like spells

Inside my crystal cave?

x

Well,

Maybe

Maybe I should

x

I can select from there

With those

To hope for publication

Or another egress

Out to you

To share

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My part in the circle

And the stars

And the spells

x

We share our pages

With the magic words

That say

I’m here

With everyone

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Read us;

Hear us

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C L Couch

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“MS. Found in a Bottle,” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe

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Photo by Douglas Bagg on Unsplash

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Timothy Keller

(x = space)

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Timothy Keller

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The author of

The Prodigal God

Has died

I’m sorry

Though we know

Where he is going

He was good

At challenging

What we know

By using

What we know

Take the Bible story

Of the brothers

And their father

He tasks us

To consider

Problems and virtues

In each attitude

And then reminds us

That the final action’s

Missing

Which is do all three meet

Together

For the feast

Provided

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C L Couch

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Timothy James Keller (September 23, 1950 – May 19, 2023) was an American Calvinist pastor, theologian, and Christian apologist. He was the chairman and co-founder of Redeemer City to City, which trains pastors for service around the world. He was also the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and the author of The New York Times bestselling . . . [beginning of Wikipedia entry]

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By Z thomas – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67989122

Milano, Cimitero monumentale, edicola Galbiati (“Il figliol prodigo”, scultore Enrico Butti, 1885).

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The Shape of Water Music

(x = space)

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The Shape of Water Music

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There is a shape

In text

Maybe like the way

Shape notes are sung

While

Both sets look beautiful

Upon the page

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I suppose the sound

Might matter more

Unless only looking’s possible

But all of it

(the music, too)

Are cues

Upon the page

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To signal

Let us in

Move us on

Toward more

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By the way

There is no shape here

That I know

Simply words set down

With some thought

You know

For mental pauses

So maybe in that way

I move

I music you

Along

Maybe a little

Maybe more

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C L Couch

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C major scale, in the 7-shape shape note system of Jesse Aiken.

By Opus33 at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Bulwersator using CommonsHelper, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17740280

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Monday Possibilities

(x = space)

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Monday Possibilities

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God is love

God is a spirit

God is a lion

Too

And a rock

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Not a rock

Though we might paint

“Jesus Saves”

On one

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There was such a place

I was ridden by

Then drove by

While I was growing up

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A rock

Next to a pool

A stream

Some kind of moving water

Because

The place looked dark and fresh

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“Jesus Saves”

Why

Yes

He does

God who is that spirit

And that love

Even a lion

Helps to make it so

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There is a trinity

A kind of multiplicity

Who knows how

Wide the

Godhead

In all the dimensions

When day by day

In all our wandering

We know barely more

Than three

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A kind of multiplicity

Is God

That made the rock

And made the paint

(though did not sell it

though somebody

could)

But doesn’t sleep

xxxxxThat’s energy

xxxxxInside the Earth

xxxxxAwaiting

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I guess it’s Monday

I’m thinking about

The possibilities

While I have mean neighbors

But friendly faces

In my life

To recall

At will

And call with real immanence

As well

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Where is the lion

But in a free place

Offering

(a big paw)

An invitation

For us

There

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C L Couch

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Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

A statue on display in the Grand Egyptian Museum.

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Waiting for the War to End

(x = space)

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Waiting for the War to End

(words I heard offered rhetorically in a sermon)

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Who goes today?

Who’s gotten

Sick?

Will there be meals?

Will there be

Water

To rely on?

x

How much less?

How many

Lost?

Only questions

In the catechetic style

Absent

Of answers

What is said

Depending, not depending

On a side

A leadership

Misleading

x

How long?

The first day when

Everything blew apart

Making

Normalcy

Seem paradisal

Now

x

When is the end,

The end we

Have,

Because we’re still

Here?

For those who have electric,

Normalcy is

Elsewhere

Where we can watch it

Hear it

Happening

Without explosions

News

Of explosions

Near

x

We’d be envious

Were we not preoccupied with

Terror

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C L Couch

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Photo by Marc Szeglat on Unsplash

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