National Hispanic Heritage Month

(x = space)

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National Hispanic Heritage Month

(in the USA, E.E.U.U.)

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It is

Spanish-American

Heritage Month

Smartly set

From mid-September

To mid-October

I probably should not

Off a tribute

With my schoolroom

Spanish

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Colors

Movement

Music

Dance

These are what we know

The heart

The heritage

We must learn

The Anglos

And the rest

All our lives

Would be so much better

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We need them here,

The Latinx

I don’t know what this

Says about

Borders

Except that they

Be porous

As I once experienced

When living in

California

Chula Vista

And took the bus

For fifty cents

To Mexico

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And drove into

The northern countryside

Toward Tecate

On other occasions

Buying tile for work

And bread

Dosed with sugar

Bread of many colors

That had to be eaten

In the day

After purchase from

The panadería

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And in the town

South of mine

Where I live now

Stores with Spanish signs

Because it’s where

The migrant

Workers and their families

Shop

And there are signs

For churches,

Too

A life I am not close to

Though in its own

In their own

It is full

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I think I might

Be welcomed

Should I walk inside

Even with

My schoolroom Spanish

Pero

No sé exactamente

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C L Couch

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Snapped this photo of my cousin while hiking in Colorado.

Photo by Sarah Cervantes on Unsplash

Breckenridge, United States

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The Dead and the Quick

(x = space)

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The Dead and the Quick

(9/11)

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It is a day we lived

Through,

Those who lived

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Like D-Day

Like Hastings

For the English

Or the entry of the Nazis

Into Paris

For the French

Like the storms in Indonesia

That killed thousands

In 2004

Like the killing

Of a good man

In Haiti

Recently

Wrecking the nation

For a time

Upon hurricane

And earthquake

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They are history

Beyond the idiom

And by those now gone

We rebuild and build

And sometimes pledge

Anew or new

We will take greater care

Cosmic care

Next time

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We might learn

If we should learn something

From allegories that were

Flesh and bone

And blood

Except that being found

Is good

Being remembered

Parochially,

Sometimes globally

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Forever with a double

Meaning,

9-1-1

How peaceful to be by

The memorials

A quiet place to count

And then to cry the names

Peacefully

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This place

These places

Are all over

Hopes we might be united

Everywhere

For once

An hour and a day

And then for keeps

For keeping

All the Earth

And us

For longer

So much longer than

The bugled ceremony’s

Time

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C L Couch

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(9/11/21, 11/9/21)

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9/11 photographs exhibition at photography festival Rencontres Arles 2019

Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash

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“Remembering Lorraine Bay”

(x = space)

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“Remembering Lorraine Bay”

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Newspaper headline

Human interest story

She was interesting

Loved her job

(with challenges)

As a flight attendant

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She was on the flight

The plane that crashed

Near a small town in

Western Pennsylvania

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C L Couch

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Shanksville’s Main Street in July 2006

By Aude – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1007438

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Sunday Best

(x = space)

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Sunday Best

(for Juneteenth)

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I celebrate from a distance,

Thinking of church

As an invitation

I received

Several years ago

In a Black church in Louisville,

Kentucky

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I was there for meetings

And on

Sunday morning

We went to a church

Some of us

Had known about

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Arms rose into the air

For hours, and the choir

Never seemed

To stop

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And, I’m sorry,

I don’t remember the

Preaching

But remember the music

And the dancing in the air

Of arms and words

Carried up

By song

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And if the Spirit could be

Smoke, we

We wouldn’t breathe

But as it’s air

We breathed in life

And exhaled

New visions

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And we were welcomed,

Such was love

In the airy cloud

That prismed every color

With invitation

Courtesy

And movement

For outsiders

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We were there for hours

Without knowing

This was Sunday best

At its best

I’ll be a part of it again

Someday

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For there

There was freedom in the

Spirit

As there should be a day for it

Then every day

Every day a work

And play

For freedom

Numinous

And real

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C L Couch

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Spirituality

Photo by Thiago Barletta on Unsplash

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Toward the Ending of a Great War

(x = space)

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Toward the Ending of a Great War

(for 6 June 1944)

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Today, many soldiers died

On all sides

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Many civilians as well

In their towns

And on their fields,

Whole families

And many animals

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For children

And for parents

We can’t imagine worse

Except for plague and

Drought, which are

Other kinds

Of war

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The despot didn’t die

And would lead its people

Through

Ongoing and great suffering

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Awful suffering,

Horrible—blooded,

Vivisected,

Tactical annihilation

By its hand

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Today, many soldiers died

And civilians;

Many soldiers and civilians live

Then and now

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C L Couch

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Photo by Shalev Cohen on Unsplash

Pointe du Hoc, צרפת

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Memorial Day in the USA

(x = space)

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Memorial Day in the USA

(2021)

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It is a holiday in the USA

I suppose the sales are good

And there will be

Shiny fireworks

Reminding us the day means,

Well, something

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There are days like this

Around the world,

As there should be:

Remembrances of those

Who fought and

Died in war

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The wisdom of strategy

And final choices

Is not on the program;

Like the Light Brigade,

There are those

Who served

Because they served

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Remember them,

Because their loss

Is the foundation

For unfought

Wars over silent

Battlefields

That were and are

And will be,

Someday

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C L Couch

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Golden Stars

Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

World War II Memorial, Independence Avenue Southwest, Washington, DC, USA

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Peace Polar

(x = space)

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Peace Polar

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At any moment now

It is time for the Eid,

One the absence of a moon

Is sighted—you know what I mean,

The new moon

Signing the end of Ramadan

And the start of Eid Al-Fitr

A celebration

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Israeli forces and Hamas

Have been exchanging

Rockets, missiles

Rocks and curses, too

Many have died

And, you know, there is a

Pandemic on

So the celebration must

Be marked by two plagues,

War and the disease

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Holidays and wartime

Go together

In the world

As “I’ll be home for Christmas”

Will tell you

I don’t know the technicalities

Diplomacies

Or lack thereof;

I don’t know if there’s a war

Declared—

It’s happening, anyway

Pray for our western Asian siblings

And send good thoughts

Their way,

And that will not nearly

Be enough

Though they should happen,

Anyway

But something else

Something more

Must transpire

Write about it, tell the stories

Act for peace

Keep planting the poles

Live peaceably

Not with weakness

But with strength

Peace, like love, takes

Muscles of all kinds

And actions

Action-heroes, even

Remembering

The brain, the will

Have muscles, too

The strongest, in fact

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Run the race for peace

And be kind for races, too

These are

The greater challenges

Beside these,

War is easy

(the picking-up is hard)

So, yes, pray for peace

Then act for peace

In the gentlest, strongest way

That you know how

Concretize the steps you take

The talk, the meals, loving

Your neighbors

So that what works

Might be taken again

In hope

Even (especially) when it’s hard

There will be fruition,

Promise

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C L Couch

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Shigar Valley, Skardu, Pakistan

Photo by Ijaz Rafi on Unsplash

[nearly new moon]

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Earth Day

(x = space)

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Earth Day

(2021)

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And

With Earthlings there

Is a relationship

Dysfunctional and thus

Destructive,

So say

All the tops of trees

Burned

By acid rain

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Earth survives

As it may

And sometimes must

Fight back

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We’re only guessing

But with all the metal satellites

Surrounding,

You’d think we’d know

Earth better than

To ruin it

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Yet we must ask

Victims of hurricanes:

The storm,

The flood that

Take one’s own

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Earth was no friend,

And who is with them

Now?

Earth and Earthers,

I can only hope

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Source of pleasure

Source of pain

(source of profit)

It is our world,

Though we eye another

It is our microcosm

And an old,

Old story

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Moon who watches,

Heaven beyond,

Hell below,

Ten circles in the center

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Everything we know

In the

Cosmic narrative

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Maybe it’s time

To release Cartesian

Orientation,

Since lines really

Do not hold down anything

And are twisted when

New encounters

Overthrow

The old

(which is

discovery)

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Time

To like the Earth

Again and like it better

We should know how

By now

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C L Couch

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Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

Satellite over the coast.

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Brothers

(x = space)

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Brothers

(on a birthday)

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I have three

Today is the birthday

Of one of them

Paul is a year and a half younger

Meaning I get confused

Trying to track the number

Most years

In the USA

(not this year)

It is just after tax day

So that there are two reasons

For celebration

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This is the brother

Who knows celebrities

And has worked closely with

Dolly Parton

At the park

On TV

And most recently on stage

He is a producer

Though he also knows the talent

From the inside out

Singing

Playing a dozen instruments

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His wife is better than he is

But what else could be expected

They are creative

Talent

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Years and years to come

And let the moments you have now

Be gold

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C L Couch

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Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash

Kalispell, United States

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