Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
To Always be Splitting Infinitives
Those who neither know nor care
[about split infinitives]…are a happy folk…
-Fowler’s Modern English Usage,
1926
I seem to always be
Splitting infinitives
And between you and me
These are definitives
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
In the Season of
the Perseids
Most people find beauty in everything:
An old Peterson’s pipe, crickets, Irish coins
Fire trucks, fountain pens, a favourite old book
Cattails growing in ditches along the road
Short strings of words that breathe and sigh as songs
Sunflowers fainting in the afternoon
A treefrog pulsing on the windowpane
Ladybugs drowsing on a tomato leaf
Even so, how hard it is to feel beauty
In late July’s wearying, withering heat
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Paper Sacks I have Known – 2
Like a block of marble
waiting to be carved
A paper sack is art
waiting to be made
Because after Mom puts the
groceries away
The empty sack is full of
possibilities:
A royal crown with
construction-paper jewels
A Robin Hood hat if you
fold it just right
A Halloween mask for a
scary trick-or-treat
(Smell my feet; give me
something good to eat!)
A boat
A puppet
A pinata
A brave knight’s armor
A cat toy
A three-year-old-daughter
toy
A pony express rider’s
mail pouch
A kite (I could never make
mine fly)
A book cover without adverts
A canvas for crayon art
A luminaria
A matte to be cut out,
crayoned on, and framed
And after your art is sent
into the world
That tuckered-out sack,
that sleepy little sack
Is tucked into bed in the
warm garden soil
To awaken in the spring as
flowers for you!
Childhood - no batteries
or programming required
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Paper Sacks I have Known - 1
When I was a lad I was a
sack boy at Mixson’s
I stacked and sacked
coffee and corn and beans
To carry out to cars along
the street
In a little town that no
longer exists
Sacks in three sizes were
my tools of trade:
The little ones for Papa’s
cigarettes
The mediums for tonight’s
milk and bread
The big ‘uns for the
Saturday in-towns
Mixson’s is closed, as is
my little town
And paper sacks, too, just
cannot be found
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Cardiac Clinic Consulting
Room
One’s bubble goes off-bubble a few degrees
For now there is nothing to do but sit and wait
No longer in control of anything
“Is there in your family any history of…?”
Pleasant young people in scrubs come and go
With papers and charts and machines that buzz
And in between the book is open but unread
While silent morning light louvres across the walls
The doctor enters with paperwork and optimism:
There are still possibilities in life
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Abject Horror in the
Microwave
There are few crimes more likely to drive a man
A man, a sensitive man, a thinking man
To existential despair
Than the foul stench of cooking broccoli
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Pre-Existing
Conditions
The topic of trust came up the other day when one of the prisoners I visit each week remarked on the challenge of knowing how to find reliable
information about the Virus-of-Many-Names.
Trust is a big deal – after all, Jesus was murdered
because a provincial governor believed gossip. And it may be that some governors
still fail to think critically.
When I was a small boy I did not know that the key to a
car or pickup was removable. I understood that the key was a part of the magic
that made the engine go, but I thought it was a fixed part of the vehicle, like
the starter switch on the floor and the gearshift on the steering column.
I was surprised when in a movie at the Palace Theatre of
happy memory I saw a driver park his car and remove the key, and I asked my
parents about that curious behavior.
My father explained that in cities people stole things
from each other and the character in the movie removed his key so that wouldn’t
happen.
When some years later my parents decided that locking the
house when they were gone had become a necessity, they had to look for the door
keys. That was also about the time they began pocketing the key to the pickup
truck.
The trust was broken.
When later in life I had occasion to visit London with my
mother and daughter we noticed that because of the compactness of so many shops
young mothers often left their babies in prams at the door, along with the occasional
dog. This was surprising, and especially troubling to my mother, who asked
someone about that. A nice lady assured her that the children were in no danger
because everyone who walked by was as a matter of routine looking at each baby
to see that all was well.
We observed for a few minutes, and yes, that was exactly
what happened – everyone walking along – teenagers, men in overalls, men in
suits, rough-looking lads with cigarettes and attitudes, women dressed for
business, shop girls, hippie chicks – gave each child a visual check while
passing.
Which is the way it’s supposed to be.
This is no longer a practice in London; indeed, children everywhere
are the targets of knifings and shootings and abductions. When we read of a
child being shot because one group of idiots chooses to shoot at another group,
the topic of trust is far beyond car keys.
Which is not the way it’s supposed to be.
As for the question of the Virus-of-Many-Names, my
response, as always, is that the best source of knowledge is the MD or NP
sitting across from you in a consulting room.
“I saw a doctor on tv, and she said…” won’t do.
“I saw a doctor on the news, and he said…” won’t do.
“I read on a reliable site on the InterGossip that…” won’t
do.
“My buddy said that his doctor said…” won’t do.
“My favorite guy on the Hamster Network said…” won’t do.
“All my friends at work said…” won’t do.
“My cousin in Houston who almost finished nurses’ aide
school said…” won’t do.
What will do is the MD or NP whom you know and who knows
you. And then you must put on grown-up thinking skills – not feelings or trends
or moods - and make an adult decision about what’s right, not for you but for
MeeMaw, babies, children, and other vulnerable people around you.
Sometimes you get the idea that there are among us some
who, if they were transported back in time to July 5th, 1863 to see
the 50,000+ dead on the fields around Gettysburg, would dismiss all those young
men with, “Well, they must have had pre-existing conditions.”
-30-
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Too Much Coffee Can Cause Your Brain to Shrink
(Hey, it was on the InterGossip; it must
be true)
Coffee causes your heart
to beat too fast
Coffee causes your heart
to beat too slow
Coffee causes your heart
to beat just right
Coffee alters your DNA and
your mind
No, it doesn’t!
Yes, it does!
Doctors say…!
Studies show…!
Say yes, say no, say so,
whaddaya know?
Now pour me another cuppa that
joe!
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Texas, Our Texas,
All Hail the Secret State
"The Biden administration is
not being transparent…”
-Governor Greg Abbot
Governor Abbot so loves his Texas folk
That he orders state troopers to keep them away
He surrounds himself with a security cloak
And with his good ol’ boys, the ones who pay
God forbid that the people who voted for him
Should forget their place, and dare to approach
The corporate hangar guarded against them
And risk his Praetorians’ stern reproach
Even the press is locked out, alone and lonely –
The government of
Texas is for Members Only
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Last Time I Saw Van Horn, Texas
Van Horn, Texas is a
penile colony
Eruptions delivered through
a cosmic gap
Woo-hoo emissions into
curvy space
And then limply falling back
down, down to earth
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Daily Lesson Plans
This day is part of our
assignment on earth -
I think I need to take
more careful notes
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo…
They say (because there’s always
a “they” to say)
That a new variant has
come to harry us
With death, the fear of
death, the denial of death
Even along crowded
corridors of death
Where masses stumble over
war metaphors
In the torchlight of
perpetual outrage
While clenching fists and
chanting molossus shrieks
In their world lit only by
glowing screens
But you and I – we have our
garden to work
Children to raise, and poetry
to write
And God in Whom to trust
(Molossus
– the three-beat metre, not the dog)
(Grow up, get the jab, wear the mask, and don't yell at people.)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Brief and Self-Indulgent Morning Offering
Dear Lord,
Thank you for this day
I ask you that I may
Pray it
Play it
And
Work it
Most to your pleasure
To the pleasure of those
whom I love
To the pleasure of
everyone I meet today
Rather more for me that
you did yesterday
(but we’ll say nothing more about that)
And nothing for Satan
‘Cause he’s an ass
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Bob Newhart and the Treadmill of Sisyphus
“Hi, Bob!”
Exercising While Watching Bob
Newhart
Several times each day I
roll myself up
The torturous treadmill of
Sisyphus
I am more of a marshmallow
than a rock
Which is the point of this
tiresome endeavor
Several times each day I
find myself back
At the foot of the
devilish device
To wheeze myself wheeze
step wheeze step wheeze step
To promised abs of steel
at the rainbow’s end
Dr. Hartley is on line one
because
Sometimes you need
A telephone call from your
driving instructor
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
This Poem is Your Work Too
This poem is your work too;
you are its hope
Every poem is for the
reader who gives
The poem a mission in its words
and lines
A safe place to land, as
McKuen says
This poem is your work too;
you are its voice
So, please, dream it, breathe
it, build it, shape it
Into something you want or
need or love
Arrange it in a vase of
summer flowers
This poem is your work too,
a gift of caritas
Think it by lamplight;
play it in sunlight
After all, you are its
reason for being
Thank you
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Some Nights Around
0400
Some nights around 0400
The silence calls you up for a dreamless dream
About your future and about your past
About that somenight when your dreams are done
The dancing figures of the flickering past
Figure across the pages of the night
Some as happy memories
Some in sorrowful rebuke
Your scope of activity is limited now
But what will you do in the morning?
Lawrence
Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Happy to be Bourgeoisie
All
cozy in my clichéd’ atmosphere
With a
hammock beneath a backyard tree
And my
riding lawnmower and a can of beer:
I am
happy to be bourgeoisie, you see
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Because That’s
What Momma Would Have Wanted
We’re angry – Momma attended this church
Thirty years ago, and no one remembers
No rosary; we’re not Catholic, praise God
Not since we put Momma in the nursing home
We’re angry – the priest shoulda remembered her
Even if he wasn’t even here then, and no music
Because that’s pagan; just get it over quick
And then let’s get on to the cemetery
We’re angry - just a damn’ Cath’lic service, okay?
Because that’s what Momma would have wanted
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Dressers of Sycamores
“I am a herdsman and a dresser of
sycamores”
-Amos 7:14
Amos speaks blunt truth in
humility
And being commanded from
the fields to the roads
To remind us of our duties
to God and His People
Is a disruption, not a
promotion
We all dress sycamores in our
own ways:
Carrying groceries,
tending the sick
Plowing a field, repairing
a broken truck
Mending a fence, taking a
child to school
We should listen to Amos
and to ourselves
For our service is noble
if for the King
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
If Everyone is an Iconoclast, Then There are no
Iconoclasts
They pose as ever-bold
iconoclasts
Though they never met an
iconophile
And do they even know what
an icon is?
Icons are flat;
iconoclasts are flatter
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Time is But the
Livestream I go a-programming In
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
-Thoreau
Someone near and dear to my pancreas gave (“gifted” is not
a verb) me one of those clever aluminum MeWatches that claim to make one’s life
more interesting in many ways and which come without any instructions because
not sending instructions with a product is such a cool thing now.
Thus, I pensioned off my old $10 Timex which, like
Jeeves, served its owner discreetly and professionally, and took up a
temperamental Sloane Square bit of art that lights up and makes noises whenever
it can be coaxed into doing so.
Even as I type I am looking look at the bit of art which shows
the time adjacent to an assemblage of curved lines in red, green, and blue. Or
bleu. One of those lines is said to tell me how many calories I have burned
today, another how much strenuous exercise I have taken, and the thirds how
much time I have stood, but I don’t which line is which and there any scales or
frames of reference.
But it’s pretty.
The watch will not work without bonding spiritually with
my MePhone. When I attempted to preside at the wedding the MeWatch said that
the MePhone wouldn’t do and refused to take vows until the MePhone was updated.
One of the household stayed up much of the night with Harry
Potter movies and the MePhone while a
creeping line, cosmically tethered to the InterGossip, slowly, slowly indicated
that the MePhone’s enneagrams or ouijas or something were making tenuous
contact with The Great Beyond.
Upon arising with the dawn I discovered that the MeWatch
and the MePhone had made peace overnight, and I passed a few hours presiding
over their union with frequent references to the Gospel apps according to the
InterGossip.
The MeWatch tells me the time now. It also says the temp
is 80 (which appears to be so) and that the day is fair. I don’t know what “fair”
means in MeWatchSpeak; the day is dark and grey and gaspingly damp, and flings intermittent
rains upon the sodden earth.
When I push a little “heart” thingie the MeWatch tells me
my pulse is 90, but no, it’s 70, but no again, it’s 85, but no yet again it’s
110, all within a few seconds, and I haven’t moved.
When I push something else some tiny print tells me that
I can swap out the confusing dial for dozens of other confusing dials.
When I push the figure of a runner the MePhone tells me
that I have taken 11 minutes and thirty-four seconds to walk 391 feet, when in
fact all I have done in that time is sit at the glowing screen of the
Abominable Autoscribe (cf. A Canticle for Leibowitz).
I touched the screen a few minutes ago and the MeWatch said,
“Time to stand! Stand up and move a little for one minute.”
And I obeyed The Machine and did so.
Now it says “You did it! You’ve earned another hour
toward your stand goal.”
Do I get a ribbon for that? Or a gentle pat on my frontal
lobe?
Thoreau’s concept of time is much better ours – to go fishing
and not think about time at all.
I wonder if this shiny MeWatch would make a good fishing
lure?
But the MeWatch is made in
The-Country-That-Must-Not-Be-Named, and is probably full of toxins. It looks
pretty, though; I’ll leave it on my wrist.
-30-
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Bouncing Baby Hyphen
Tiffany-Cherise
Snark-Ponsonby (Tiffy)
And Terence-Rock Smith-Hoogerwerf
(Rocky)
Married and hyphenated
their hyphens
And made sweet hyphen in
hymeneal bliss
And as these things
happen, their hyphen was blessed
The old women of the
parish counted the hyphens
To see if nine or fewer
hyphens had passed
When Tiffy-Rocky were
blessed with a beautiful hyphen
At the baptism they
sprinkled in some apostrophes
For their daughter, Su’mm’er-D’awn-A’pril-Bre’eze
(Who was born in February)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
When is a Man Ripe for Harvesting?
Sunflowers are easy enough
– the petals turn brown
And the base is yellow, or
better yet
When in the heat of summer
birds and squirrels
Present themselves in your
garden as dinner guests
But humans, now – that’s a
bit trickier
It would be most undignified
to be eaten
And pills and electrocardiograms
Are even more undignified
in their own ways
Autumn would be better, on
a golden day
Yes, autumn, bright autumn
when the geese are
calling
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Brandeis University Promulgates an Edict Against
Thinking
“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood
and
fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education,
the
remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
-Justice Brandeis, 1927
Addict homeless person
prostitute you guys
Rule of thumb picnic
wife-beater trigger
Warning disabled victim
survivor
Lame freshman spirit
animal insane
Because
Potentially oppressive
language gender
Exclusive ableist culturally
appropriative
Terminology reinforce
systems of violence
Identity-based language
gender binary
Brandeis teaches a language
of fear -
Scary enough at $60,000 a
year!
Justice Brandeis on freedom of speech
(bureaubrandeis.com)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Bagram Air Base
(Under New
Management)
Shelley was Right
I met a veteran from an antique land,
Who said – “A looted fortress of concrete
Stands in the desert...Near it, on the sand,
Half sunk lies a computerized spreadsheet
Whose clever numbers and totaled-up tallies
Tell that our keyboard commanders well read
The shifting winds in political rallies
(Never mind an accurate count of the dead)
And on the side of a wrecked deuce-and-a-half:
My name is Builder of Democracies;
Look upon my Works, ye Mighty – and laugh!
The well-built airbase remains yet today
To that colossal base still standing there
The Chinese army speeds from far away.”
Lawrence Hall, HSG
When the Rescuers
Stood Down
When the rescuers in
Surfside, Florida were ordered to stand down last Saturday night they left their
prayers, their desperate hopes, and their bitter tears upon those troubled
rocks where they had poured out their love. They poured out their very selves
in searching for the living and for the lost. After they were commanded to back
away so that the explosives for demolition could be placed, they were empty for
a time.
The unfallen parts of the
building were unstable and could have fallen at any moment. Even so, the search
and rescue squads worked under the shadow of that menace for ten days and
nights. With the coming tropical storm and its strong winds a difficult but
necessary decision was made to pull them off the line and reduce the remnants
in a controlled fashion.
What was left was brought
down late Sunday night: concrete and steel, toys and dolls, Mama’s pictures, kindergarten
art made from beans glued to paper, letters from friends, ‘phones that won’t
ring anymore, high school yearbooks, shopping lists, hiking boots, crucifixes,
menorahs, eyeglasses, that lost sock behind the washing machine, souvenir
coffee mugs from vacation trips, fountain pens, walking sticks, all that toilet
paper stored in the covid-time, the apple pie in the refrigerator, lesson
plans, books, spare change, Army medals, clocks, thermometers, flashlights, beach
towels, flip-flops, concert tickets, keys to doors that will never again be
opened to friends, unfinished poems, and unfinished lives.
As soon the explosions were
over, the building fully down, and the smoke blown away by the wind, the
rescuers returned through the floodlights to search those desolate hills of
rubble because their hearts are in that wreckage. They will not leave anyone
behind. They are first responders. That is what they do. That is who they are.
Have not I commanded
thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed:
for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
-Joshua
1:9
-30-
Lawrence
Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Land of We’ll Get Right on It
–
Songs of My People
You
are a valued customer
No
public restrooms
We
don’t carry parts for that
Restrooms
out of order
We’ll be
out to make a bid tomorrow morning
No
public restrooms
We’ll have
your mower fixed this week
Restrooms
out of order
Our driver
couldn’t find your house
No
public restrooms
Your call
is very important to us
Restrooms
out of order
My
best mechanic ran off with my wife
No
public restrooms
Our service
tech will be there between eight and four
Restrooms
out of order
Our next
representative will be with you shortly
No
public restrooms
Click…if…buzz…you…know…brrrt…your…click…party’s…buzz…extension…
Restrooms
out of order
We’ll
call you just as soon as it’s ready
No
public restrooms
The
pump reader doesn’t work; I’ll just take your credit card inside
Restrooms
out of order
All
our representatives are busy right now
No
public restrooms
Our
Monday Hours are 9-11 and 1-3
Restrooms
out of order
Your
security question is…
No
public restrooms
It’s
$250 just to take the dashboard off for a look
Restrooms
out of order
I
charge $75 an hour starting as soon as I drive out of the shop
No
public restrooms
Our
breakfast menu ended at 9
Restrooms
out of order
I’m
just not going to make it this morning, but I’ll be there tomorrow
No
public restrooms
I need
you to unplug the modem and look for…
Restrooms
out of order
I’ll
have to call you back, honey, there’s a customer (sigh)
No
public restrooms
We
don’t work on that model
We
don’t work on Saturdays
We
don’t work
Closed
for Emergency
Closed
for Lunch
Closed
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
When the Rescuers Stood Down
Surfside, Florida
When the rescuers stood down
last night they left
Their prayers, their
desperate hopes, their bitter tears
Upon those troubled rocks where
they poured out love
They poured themselves,
and they are empty now
What’s left must soon come
down:
Concrete and steel, toys
and dolls, Mama’s pictures
Letters from friends, ‘phones
that won’t ring anymore
Eyeglasses, fountain pens,
lesson plans, books
Spare change, unfinished
poems, unfinished lives
The rescuers will return,
and try again
Because their hearts are
in that wreckage still
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
So, Newsreaders on National Public Radio, So, Like
Dear NPR Newsreaders:
You don’t have to begin most
stories with “So”
Nor
the rest of the reports with “So, like”
You could begin with a useful
noun, you know
And speak professionally
into that open mike
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Scheduled Maintenance
Electrical mails and
postcards announce
That my
Dog
Roof
Car
Air-conditioner
Heart
Colon
Eyes
Are due for routine
checkup and maintenance
The dog is fitted with a
muzzle for her exam
My colon isn’t so lucky
