Most of Our Penguins are Scotch-Taped Now - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

Most of Our Penguins are Scotch-Taped Now

Civilization is sometimes held together
By the stern parsimony of Scotch Tape™
Which locks tattered covers and pages in bond
To await opening by old hands or young

Young is better; for we were young, and too
The world was young, and is, as Camelot
Sends forth each day noble adventures, ideas 1
In battle luminous against chaos and evil

Civilization is always held together
When old and young face the dragon in unity


1 An allusion to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King

But Yevtushenko Might Corrupt Our Jailers - a tribute to Penguin paperbacks

Lawrence Hall
mhall46194@aol.com

But Yevtushenko Might Corrupt Our Jailers

A tribute to Penguin paperbacks

When they
Someday
Take us away
For reading
For thinking
For writing

Those Penguin paperbacks all tattered and taped
Discovered when they empty our pockets
          will
Be used against us in their courts of law

But Yevtushenko might corrupt our jailers




17 July is Yevtushenko's birthday (1932)

Penguins and Oxford Blues - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Penguins and Oxford Blues

Poor sailors and poor students parse the past
Between the paper covers of poor Penguins
Poor crumbling pages and crumbling civilizations
Held together with rubber bands and Scotch tape

And when in middle age The City of God
At last succumbs to the barbarians of time
A fresh one is built up in Oxford blue
By Vivian Ridler, who saved for us the words

And yet - the arguments of several Romes
Were somehow fresher at $3.75