Crusoe

(x = space)

x

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Crusoe

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It took me years

And years to come

To understand

The need

The requirement

To have a life

To have a life to offer

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Then there is a story

Pages

Chapters

With an ending

That might satisfy

A larger world of woe

And grace

Even rescue,

Notwithstanding

x

What is left

Is little time

The gift grows smaller

Like some things

In other tales

But we have time

As is

On this side

And choices

That are not invisible

In fact,

Are rife with potency

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The grace of God

Love and understanding

Growing up at last

The tragedy

The humor

The finality

Of wisdom

On this side

Then to another shore

An irony for Crusoe

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C L Couch

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Photo by Jordan Steranka on Unsplash

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Five in Five

(x = space)

x

x

Five in Five

(memoriam)

x

Out, out, brief candle! but

A candle isn’t brief

That’s on us for

A metaphor

Sometimes a real one, I guess

Sometimes the candles

In the church

Are pretty short

And thus available

For show

x

But the candle length

Is years,

I guess we know

Three score and ten

In made-up inches

Or in centimeters

Or real ones

(as in church)

To illustrate

x

You see, they are ubiquitous

Both real and imagined

x

The length may vary

By abstraction

Fate

I guess

And relativity

Macbeth’s flame is undone

Too soon by happy counting,

Not as an end

To tyranny,

His tragedy of making

x

But this is not a nation

Or a clan

Though Scots be in it,

Great text

Or a metaphor

(sorry to mention

then dismantle)

Simply a life

As it was

And as it’s gone

Always

Every hour I think on it

Too soon

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C L Couch

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Photo by Rob Wicks on Unsplash

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Earthquake in Indonesia

(x = space)

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x

Earthquake in Indonesia

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Pray for the souls

Of victims

Dead and living

And the

In-between

We don’t understand the hundreds

Because we are not there

We’ve seen pictures

These are not enough

What would we see for real?

What would we smell?

What would we taste?

What would we be allowed

To touch

And whom?

And all the misery

We’d hear

From the keening of the living

And the demons overhead

And underground

That scream a victory

x

Nature is corrupted

We’re claiming the win

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C L Couch

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Boy, 6, pulled alive from wreckage of Indonesia earthquake

Story by Masrur Jamaluddin • 1h ago

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/boy-6-pulled-alive-from-wreckage-of-indonesia-earthquake/ar-AA14sWsL

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Photo by Chris Zhang on Unsplash

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distracted

(x = space)

x

x

distracted

x

in the concluding

of the service

we sang

in the hymn

behold his hands and side

and I stopped following

x

that’s hard

the hands and side were pierced

there was blood

out of its natural place

and it ran away

from the body,

stealing life

and we are to behold all this

x

it happens to others, too,

the bleeding

from a fall

from a blade

(the scalpel blade is good)

or from a bullet

or from shrapnel

or part of a car or truck

or other crash

and we can talk about

what missiles do

x

we release so much blood

and it becomes

the thief of life

x

what was Thomas thinking?

maybe he knew brutal living

and the dying

all too well

and didn’t mind the asking,

blood for proof

or the holes in hands

and mark of the spear

at least

x

was he chagrined?

he knew his master

and the following

restored

for everyone, as far as

Thomas might be concerned

and in euphoria

he might not have cared so much

about the scolding

because blessed are those who

don’t need such evidence

for proof

x

whatever

he was back

he was alive

the gruesome marks

the signs of blood,

blood now thwarted

in thievery

x

the marks he saw—and

did he touch as bid?—either way

concluded,

concluded

everything

x

c l couch

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x

photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash

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the story of Thomas doubting is in the twentieth chapter of John’s gospel in the Christian New Testament

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Yesterday’s Statistics

(x = space)

x

x

Yesterday’s Statistics

x

Only a few hundred died

From COVID yesterday

Only a few hundred

We must be getting better

And maybe we are

Except for the families

Friends and neighbors

Of a few hundred people

Who died from COVID

Yesterday

x

But who’s counting

The CDC is counting

WHO is counting

Sometimes it’s on the news

But even news programs

Want for ratings

Vie for them

x

One more day to help;

Live as if

x

As If

x

As if tomorrow is a question mark,

Which it is

As if love is uncertain

And life the mystery

With or without a number

As always

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C L Couch

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Photo by Yuval Zukerman on Unsplash

Peterborough, NH 03458, USA

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The Game of Life

(x = space)

x

x

The Game of Life

x

I’m not ready

I wasn’t ready for my

Comprehensives

I did fine

I wasn’t ready

For my mother to be sick

I did what I could

I contributed

She rallied

I won’t be ready

For the next big thing,

I think in children’s media called

The NBT

I doubt we’re ready

For most things,

You know?

They happen anyway

And we respond

We do well

We don’t

We try

We retreat

We come out again

x

We are changed

For the next time

Though it might not be

In kind

But we pick up things

They get tucked away

Consequently,

And whether consciously or not,

We can reach into the drawer

Of the file cabinet

Pull open the door

Of the mind palace

At a little more

Since in the keep

As in the world

There are treasures

Set from the beginning

And we’re always

On the hunt

Solving the riddle

Finding other puzzles

Finding keys

x

Life, folks

That’s what we got

In all this

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C L Couch

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A Game of Concordia

Photo by Karthik Balakrishnan on Unsplash

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When Great Pain

(x = space)

x

x

When Great Pain

x

If God exists

And God does exist

And if God loves

And God does love

And if God has power

And God has the most

Then how

Then why

I don’t know,

Why are things so messed up

So screwed up

So damnably awful?

We could ask this and these

On calmer days as well

It’s fair

x

All things of substance are good

Really

You move toward evil and the devil

Then you move toward nothingness

And nothing

These will increase, day by day,

Until that’s all

(so much worse than Porky Pig)

There is nothing

Not black

(black is good)

But a void

Out of which God has created

But not us

Nothing we have will last

Except as legacy

Then memory

Then

(let a couple of beats go by)

x

We are on the side of flesh

Who value flesh

(I am ignorant about

mortification)

And what’s inside

Flesh is not bad

It is ours and was made for us

By the true owner

Of the universe

Who keeps with perfection

From the smallest moment that we know

And smaller

To the next

x

And what of pain?

Why is there pain?

How can there be a God of pain?

Well, there is

Who is the God of love

Who promises alleviation

And for you

Family

And friends and neighbors, too

For a broken

And a splitting-further world

x

Pain is a stake

(and stake)

It is on the table of the world

It is not ours

Though we can wield it

The way we can

Wield healing and solutions,

Too

These are realities and means

And we have so much to do with them

For now

We can move with

Pretty much anything we want

Inside

Outside

Toward ourselves

Toward our neighbors

Toward the world

x

Persist

Sometimes is all there is

When pain is great

The next moment

And the next

One moment

Two moments

Enough accomplishment

Until everything’s incorporated

And we stand up

And move

Not move on as in forget

Move on as in everything’s a part

Of us now

x

And I know

It’s hard

To say we’re not alone

When we are alone

Without the peace of it

But we’re not

A lesson for the speaker, too

We’re not

There is companionship

And company

For life

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Conor Sexton on Unsplash

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, United States

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Dramatis Personae

(x = space)

x

x

Dramatis Personae

x

The cast

Our parts

Shakespeare

Jaques

Elvis

We fret upon the stage

Curtains between acts

Performance

And performance

The show is over

Take a bow

Remove the makeup

And we’re done—

Cast party, maybe

x

Someone directs

The writer is in the audience

All our family, too,

And with our friends

x

The spirit has been able

The flesh does what it can

There has been some interest in

Memorizing,

Though much of the performance

Has been impromptu

And once it’s done

Everyone gets to be a critic

x

Though it’s the producer

Who decides

How long shall be the run

How many weeks

How many seasons

x

There is stage fright,

Of course

There doesn’t have to be

(and we can use it)

We can train

We can learn tricks

And once out there

We can have joy

Seven stages

For a scene

A play

A résumé?

Take more

Even have some fun

There will be reviews

(nerves in the offing

and then after)

But to get to do this is a treat

And not a one to miss,

If it at all possible

x

Than can be profit so

Variously drawn

But once you’re here

That part is taken:

Costume well

Though for a queen or king

There are many fools

Either can look splendid

Or look drear

x

There are rehearsals

We can practice

How much to worry—not

So much as we do

We can expect each other

From the wings

There are many places

On the stage

Some of which

We get to choose

x

I don’t know if

The play’s the thing

We deal here in metaphor

What is real

Is what happens after

This cold reading

x

C L Couch

x

drafted while watching (and hearing) a play within a play

x

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Garage Theater is a theater company from Qom, Iran. Garage Theater researches in the field of Laboratory theater.

Photo by mostafa meraji on Unsplash

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The Telling

(x = space)

x

x

The Telling

x

Pain and need

And maybe quotidian pleasures

This is a lifestyle

And it could be worse

It is, I know

x

Which means it is all maudlin

From time to time

Though sometimes

Easygoing

When meeting with friends

Or hearing someone else’s story

God bless the phone

x

And should there be

Accomplishment,

Not quite

An accident of birth

Then gratitude should follow

With what might be appropriate

Surprise

x

But don’t we grow each day?

I like to think so

Maybe it’s a matter

Of discretion,

Not today I will be brilliant

But I’m writing and I’m reading

I’m listening

So closely sometimes

The grinding of old Earth

Is heard

The motion, twenty hours at a time,

Is felt vibrating ‘neath the heart

In the center

Of synapse

x

We grow, we also

Slow down

Three score and ten

I hope we take it with us

To the next stage,

Arriving in time

To be useful there

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Omar Mohiuddin on Unsplash

Pakistan

(there is a painting by Turner of a moving train that this reminds me of

and, yes, there is a reference to Star Trek here–in the words, that is)

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