Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
A Summer Processional in Honor of Structured Poetry
[I]ambic
pentameter…is the very breath of English verse.
-Stephen
Fry, The Ode Less Travelled
Wind
August heat drought grass shade lawn tree crows ‘possum headache mourning doves
clouds and sun blue jays humidity cardinals longings for autumn egrets unseen
airplanes lawn chairs heat-shimmering hayfield early acorns bees grapevines
trumpet vines porch fans spinning in futility just any old way
Bolts
and locks in chaos waving and rushing up against and to and into our exiled poetic
minds
Ahem!
Order and method, please, poet 1
Who
amid the alien Saint Augustine grass 2
Sets
fading roses in order serviceable 3
Sets
the sky aright, above the oaks
Sets
meter, orderly and elegant
Sets
doves in chortling chorus to coo the hours
Sets
flowers about in casual good taste
Sets
lawn chairs in English here-and-there-ness
Those
thrones from whence we serve rather than rule
And
the days, bearing blessings as vexilla
Process
among us with quiet dignity
Singing
the verses we write from nature
Until
all manner of things shall be made well 4
1 “Order and method,” Agatha Christie’s Poirot
2 “Amid the alien corn,” biblical book of Ruth and numerous other sources
3 “On the Eve of Christ’s Nativity,” Milton
4 “Showings,” St. Julian of Norwich
