Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
But She’s not my Wife
Most nights I go to bed
with Agatha Christie
My wife and dog are quite okay
with that
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
But She's not my Wife - not a Spenserian amoretti moment
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
The Utility Pole at the End of the Rainbow - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Utility Pole at the End of the Rainbow
Rain, dreary rain all day,
falling in sheets
(Or maybe in comforters and
counterpanes)
The whole world shakes to
the thunder’s wild beats
And water ponds in the green
fields and lanes
But then at dusk the
clouds part just right
Allowing the sun to make
the sky fire-red
And in the east, a rainbow
all alight
But behind a utility pole
(it must be said)
The convention is gold at a
rainbow’s end
But electricity too is a
useful friend
Monday, May 17, 2021
At Dawn: Unremembered Dreams - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
At Dawn: Unremembered Dreams
The Temple veil is torn
And I no longer see
Sunday, May 16, 2021
Graduation Speech Soup
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Graduation Speech Soup – Simply Stir and Serve
Have you noticed that despite
all speakers’ efforts, graduation speeches sound very much alike?
“Keep the torch alive to pass
to a new generation with the key that unlocks the road to the future follow
your passion the unemployment will follow woo-hoo we’ve been through some
amazing times together make a difference to thine own self be true woo-hoo commencement
means a beginning not an ending woo-hoo as we go forth life is a journey not a
destination we made it all the hard work we’ve put forth to this point in time
these are the best time in our lives as one door closes another door opens
because a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step to make the
world a better place trust your instincts you don’t find education in books we
are the future bright with promise some see the future and ask why but we see
the future and ask why not Habakkuk 2:7 woo-hoo we did it I can’t believe we’re
here believe in yourself live your dreams to be all that you can be God has a
plan for you woo-hoo we have the responsibility to build a new world if
opportunity doesn’t know build a door don’t follow the path blaze a trail
because there is no one like you because you are an individual just like those
other hundred or so people your age and all dressed just alike because life is
what happens while you’re making plans woo-hoo live, laugh, love you have to
look through the rain to see the rainbow dance like nobody’s looking (even
though they are, and they’re laughing at you) aim for the moon and if you miss
you’ll hit the moon (or something) life is not waiting for the storm to pass
it’s about dancing in the rain because you are a new generation called to miss
100% of the shots you don’t take because we were all one big family who have
lived, laughed, and loved together hey and remember the time (name) barfed on
the stairs we’ll all that that shared moment to remember together woo-hoo we
can’t save all the starfish but I can make a difference for this one because as
a great man Robert Frost said in “The Road Not Taken” we can make a difference
for all the starfish in the sea of life woo-hoo today is the first day of your
rest of your life oh, the places you’ll go like maybe eternal stasis in front
of a MePhone I don’t know why they asked me to be the speaker shout-out to Mom
wear sunscreen because your future’s so bright close your eyes and remember
when hey, an air horn, that’s so cool, no one’s ever done that before woo-hoo I
want to congratulate each and every one of you on your incredible talents and
abilities as you begin your journey to a bright and shining future because we
are the best class (name of school and a shout-out to the mascot) has ever
graduated (since last year) woo-hoo a dream is a
wish your heart makes and you can become anything you dream to be or wish to be
or something #lifehack #hashtag now go forth and make your lives exceptional woo-hoo
although on Monday morning we’ll wake up and realize we’re just more unemployed
Americans.”
But now, as John Milton would
suggest, this “tedious song should here have ending,” and it is time to wish much
happiness to all of you always.
-30-
For Training Purposes this Life May be Monitored - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
For Training Purposes this Life May be Monitored
An examination of
conscience is good
Thinking about things at the
end of each day
Hail Marys mixed in with exasperation
Rough words that should
never have been spoken
Reading casual cruelties
on the InterGossip
Whatever God’s plan might
be, that wasn’t it
Gratitude for work,
gratitude for meals
Gratitude for peace at the
end of the day
And as for the occasional
bitter cup
Your Mother taught you
right: offer it up
Saturday, May 15, 2021
A Metternichian State of Repose - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Metternichian
State of Repose
in a Concert of
Leaves and Light
Up before dawn and out among the quiet
Concelebrating with God the leafy light
That falls as blessing upon the lawn’s soft turns
From grey to gold to green to springing life
And then from meditation to liturgy
The Opus Dei of Saturday mornings
With rake and shovel and fire against the litter
That shoals into corners and along the fence
The feeblest remembrance of God’s mighty hand
Shaping chaos into order and meaning
Friday, May 14, 2021
A Student Walkout with Hissy-Chants - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Student Walkout with
Hissy-Chants
But
I heard of one student who refused to go
Who bravely thought for herself, and so said no
And she’s the one student I want to know
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Talmud Portion for Today - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Talmud Portion for Today
In the Talmud portion for
today we read
Of the priestly
appointments for stacking wood
And of other liturgical
usages
As preparation for the
sacrifice
But some must read their
portion for the day
By a battle lantern’s flickering
light
Deep down in a bunker
among the tombs
While rockets fall upon
Jerusalem
Thus blood still splashes
against the Temple walls
Thus blood still forms the
letters of the text
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE
Thus saith the comma-less
yellow plastic bags
Fitted to the gasoline
pumps of the nation
Where men are free from
fuel and punctuation
Free not to take vaccines,
wear masks, or vote
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE
The check is in the mail
that does not come
Or maybe in a hijacked
delivery truck
Silhouetted by a burning
liquor store
Where dreams of lottery
winnings go to die
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE
And there’s nothing left
in the looted shops
(Let’s blame the teachers,
Asians, and cops)
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
A Cargo Cult - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Cargo Cult
Conversations are about
packages
Packages considered,
packages ordered
Packages delivered and
packages stolen
Packages as the cosmic
medium of exchange
Conversations are about
packages
Packages that give meaning
to our lives
Packages pinched by plundering
porch pirates
Packages snatched by
maskers in masks
What is it all about? the
thinker asks -
What if the packages are
filled with
masks?
The Cargo Cults of the South Pacific
(sjsu.edu)
And other
sources
Monday, May 10, 2021
After Momma's Funeral - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
After Momma’s Funeral
Three Voices:
Where does – I mean, did –
Momma keep the coffee?
That cupboard over the
coffee maker
The preacher prayed a fine
funeral for her
He’s an idiot; no one
believes that stuff
Momma did; I say that’s
what important
Let’s not argue; Momma
wouldn’t like it
It doesn’t make any
difference; she’s gone
And let’s not babble about
what Momma wants
I’m not babbling; Momma
raised us right, okay?
I want her Bible.
Fine; I want her car
Sunday, May 9, 2021
A Joyful Mystery - haiku
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Joyful Mystery
May we all someday
Be presented in the Temple
In spite of ourselves
Saturday, May 8, 2021
He was Hollerin' Jesus on Nowhere Street - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
He was Hollerin’ Jesus on Nowhere Street
The madman shouted in the market place. No one stopped to
answer him.
Thus it was confirmed that his thesis was incontrovertible.
-Dag Hammarskjold, Markings,
12.22.57
He was hollerin’ Jesus on
Nowhere Street
At the Corner of Life and
Death, ‘way gone
Where there was a grocery
store when we was kids
Next to a soda fountain
with pinball machines
He was hollerin’ – sinners
can’t hear, I guess
And beatin’ on his Bible and
dancin’ about
Like a man with a devil in
his soul
And that ol’ devil was
wearin’ him down
He was hollerin’ among the
ruins, a shame
When he looked at me
and hollered my name
Friday, May 7, 2021
We're Here for Nancy Pelosi's Laptop - mindless doggerel
Disclaimer: I have no idea
if anything reported is factual; we have no Edward R. Murrow, only conflicting
ideological sites purporting to report the news.
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
“We’re Here for Nancy Pelosi’s Laptop”
This is Homer, Alaska, Ed Murrow reporting. Homer, which is no stranger to bad tidings,
received news today that that Nancy Pelosi’s laptop is still missing…
-as Edward R. Murrow did not
say in 1940
Up pops the F.B.I., bashing
down the door
Guns drawn, handcuffs out,
better hit the dirt
Laptops taken, closets
searched, they want more -
Maybe Hunter’s pix, or Tom
Brady’s shirt
Up pops the F.B.I.,
warrants locked and loaded
Looking for rightista
revolutionaries
With secret maps all
Q-Anon coded
Bound in bamboo ballots
from Buenos Aires
Up pops the F.B.I., yes, pop,
pop, pop:
“We are here for the
senator’s laptop!”
“Here in Alaska?”
“I dunno; I’ll ask her!”
6 May
2021
Search warrant reveals why the FBI
raided an Alaska couple’s home (msn.com)
Alaska woman says feds searched home
for Pelosi's laptop (apnews.com)
Thursday, May 6, 2021
A Texas Ranger on the Trail - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Texas Ranger on the Trail
For Ranger Brandon Bess
His steely eyes stare into
the microscope
Following a bloody track
of DNA
Across the scrubby badlands
of the lab
And into computer analysis
His gun hand targets
matching saliva swabs
With a hair-trigger spectrophotometer
Double-loaded with
HLA-DQalpha
Against Minifiler STR at
high noon
Say, pardner –
If you commit a crime in
Texas, then you had best
Beware the Ranger with a
Teichman test
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Scheduling the Execution of a Friend - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Scheduling the Execution of a Friend
Oh, yes, that oak is a
friend, a fine old friend
Happy companion of lazy
summer days
When I sat in its shade
and drowsed over a book
Gently fanned by the
leaves in those dreaming hours
Home to the mourning doves
and angry jays
Preening cardinals and shy
chickadees
Flying squirrels by night
and grey squirrels by day
Armadillos, opossums, and
raccoons
But dying now upon its grassy
lawn -
The tree service will come
for it at dawn
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Can Internet Service Providers be Saved? - not exactly a poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Can Internet Service Providers be Saved?
Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.
-Leonard Cohen
Multiple Voices from an
ISP:
Our order support team
reported back…
you had 2 work orders.
Your work order with us
has been cancelled and the
email you forwarded
to me is the installation
group you will need
to contact about scheduling.
Sorry…We have received
this work order that was
already scheduled for 5/8
morning. There are no
notes from any dispatcher
speaking to you and
changing the appointment
date/time. Below are the
notes on the account
and no appointment changes
have been made.
Called to t/s modem; modem
is offline…
t/s modem is
offline…Upgrade for
the Unlimited Bronze
12…set expectations…
I do not know who this
sales group is. They
do state you are scheduled
for 5/4 but the work
order they sent to the 3rd
party installer
shows your [sic] scheduled
for 5/8. We do not
have techs in your area
tomorrow…I have sent
your account to the order support
team…Your appointment
scheduled [sic] has been
updated…Changes have been made
to your ViaSat account.
API INSERT (Note)
04/30/2021 11:01:56 AM CDT BEP scheduling work order during creation. API
UPDATE (Schedule Date) 04/30/2021 11:01:56 CDT Unscheduled Unassigned API
INSERT (Note) 04/30/2021 11:01:53 AM CDT
Installation notes…Our
records indicate…
We need to confirm your
appointment…Your appointment
schedule has been updated…as
your preferred date
could not be accommodated.
We sincerely apologize…
We have been trying to
reach you with the number you provided…
We have received your work
order and would like to confirm…
Sorry, we were unable to
deliver your message
to the following address…Your
Viasat Internet
payment failed…Payment has
not been received…
If you do not make a full
payment soon…
relaying denied…To avoid
interruption
of your Viasat service…You
may also call us…
agent assist fees may
apply…
Thanks for being a Viasat internet customer!
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
About that Bicycle Leaning Against a Sunlit Wall - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
About that Bicycle Leaning Against a Sunlit Wall
About that bicycle leaning
against a wall
All artsy and stuff in the
slanting sun
“Take my clear photograph!”
it seems to call -
Nah, put away your Leica -
it’s been done
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Physician and Poet - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Physician and Poet
For Allan Pulliam
Texas A & M ‘21
I used to admire your poetry…I shouldn't admire it now. I
should find it absurdly personal. Don't you agree? Feelings, insights,
affections...it's suddenly trivial now. You don't agree; you're wrong. The
personal life is dead in Russia. History has killed it.
-Strelnikov in Doctor Zhivago
Don’t write to be approved
by masters who
Wear Rolexes in the Name
of the People
Don’t write to be approved
by masters at all
But be your own authority
and see
Your work, your words are
nobler than manifestos
The latest noisy Guelphs
and Ghibellines
All Power to the
Constituent Assembly
One folk, one nation, one
waffle with syrup
Write freedom through
verses, and disobey
Anyone who wants to take your
voice away
Monday, April 26, 2021
“Now This Ain’t No S---” - poem (of a sort)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
“Now This Ain’t No S---”
The old chief took a slug
of coffee and said,
“What’s the difference
between a fairy story
And a war story?
One of ‘em begins with
‘Once upon a time’
And the other with ‘Now
this ain’t no s----'"
And it is so.
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Kryptonite Rocks and Invisible Magic Coins - Weekly Column
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Kryptonite Rocks
and Invisible Magic Coins
Most
ideas are merely structures – things built on bits of knowledge and insight you
already possess. If the knowledge you possess is in error, the structure will
be flawed.
-John D. McDonald, “Reading for Survival”
In my youth comic book ads offered mail-order invisible helmets,
sea monkeys, x-ray glasses, jet planes you could actually fly, kryptonite rocks,
nuclear submarines, machine guns, army tanks, life-size moon monsters, hypno-coins,
frontier cabins, silent dog whistles, time machines, and Count Dante’s Deadly
Fighting Secrets, all really-real!
This was pretty stupid stuff, but it was directed at naïve
children, and sold well for generations. An adult, of course, should see
through such mummery.
Unfortunately, many do not. Adults continue to buy this
century’s invisible helmets offered in new forms.
A modern variant of x-ray glasses and kryptonite rocks are
invisible magic coins.
The sales patter is that modern fiat money has no value,
and so we should all invest in invisible magic coins. These invisible magic coins
are generated by computers grinding away in their circuitry for hours. After the
computers have spun millions of numbers around within themselves they come up
with things that don’t exist, and those who control the computers propose to sell
to us these things that don’t exist.
And how does the awe-struck victim buy invisible magic coins?
Why, with that worthless fiat money.
The victim fails to consider that if invisible magic coins
possess value, and fiat money does not, then the possessor of the invisible magic
coins would hang on to the invisible magic coins and leave everyone else to
their fiat money.
You don’t need x-ray glasses to see through invisible magic
coins because they don’t exist. They are magic beans, the emperor’s new
clothes, a fortune teller’s readings, a political party’s promises, magic
crystals, your rich uncle in Nigeria, the South Sea Bubble, the Great Texas Emu
Bubble, the Dot.Com Bubble, Enron, and whatever Next Big Thing is being peddled
this week.
You might as well invest in one of those old comic book hypno-coins;
you’d at least have a disc of pot-metal or plastic with a swirly image. You
could look into it and say to yourself, “You are getting smarter…smarter…smarter…get
a job…a job…a job…”
-30-
A Footprint on the Road to Santiago - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Footprint on the Road to Santiago
A footprint on the road to
Santiago
It has meaning - a footprint,
and another
An indent from the ferrule
of a stick
Toward a vision of a Field
of Stars
Sin-weary and sunburnt, a
pilgrim plods
Through weeds and dust and
sometimes traffic lights
And idlers mocking from
across the road
Toward a vision of a Field
of Stars
Where free from sin and
pain and blood and scars
He may at last find peace
in that Field of Stars
Saturday, April 24, 2021
He Just Walked in Front of the Train - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
He Just Walked in Front of the Train
He just walked in front of
the train, they say
Off in the woods, the
lonely woods, the night
The rails as screaming
horror in his wild death
Blue
jeans, yellow shirt, no identification
He just walked in front of
the train, they say
The black-box cameras will
show something of it
But not the emptiness that
chased him there
Blue jeans, yellow shirt,
no identification
He just walked in front of
the train, they say
Blue jeans, yellow shirt,
no identification
Friday, April 23, 2021
A Polite Response to an Invitation to a Crawfish Boil - poem, but not a good one
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Polite Response to an Invitation to a Crawfish Boil
Aquatic roaches
Foul, malodorous decay
Exoskeletons
Thursday, April 22, 2021
"Dear Valued Customer..." - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Poetry
Magazine Responds
Dear Valued Customer We
have received
your email and it has been
assigned
to one of our e-commerce
team members.
Should we require
additional information
we will contact you.
Otherwise please be assured
that your request will be
processed in a
timely fashion. Sincerely,
Customer Care Department
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Online Certificate Program in Novel Writing - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Online Certificate Program in Novel Writing
“…that led me to answer an advertisement in the Sunday Times
and
take a job…with a correspondence school…”
-Elizabeth Bishop, “The U. S. A. School
of Writing”
And a certificate!
The ad presented as a
joke, only it wasn’t:
(Famous Name Brand School)’s
Continuing Studies Program
Will make you Hemingway
for eighty dollars
And there is a student
testimonial
And a certificate!
Embrace the tools solidify
develop
Accomplished authors craft
tutorials
Dedicated dynamic cohort
peers
Passionate instructors prestigious
fellows
And a certificate!
Achieve the goal for which
you have been aiming!
(And a certificate,
suitable for framing)
Only eighty dollars
“The U. S. A. School of Writing had been raided by the police
shortly after I left…”
-Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth
Bishop’s poetry is rightly praised, but her prose, less often noted, is equally
delightful in its construction and content.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Oath Peepers Security Cameras - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Oath Peepers Security Cameras
The security cameras
around the house aren’t much
The cheapest available on Yarmuk.com
They take dim pictures of
the UPS guy
And fuzzy grey shots of
‘possums at night
A problem is that they
think they’re Army cameras
That the batteries they
took never expire
That the science of optics
has been betrayed
And that light is whatever
they want it to be
Along the windowsills they
belch and *art:
“Tina Modotti is a traitor
to art!”
Monday, April 19, 2021
A Morning Cup of Coffin: No Straight Lines in Nature - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
No Straight Lines in Nature
That commonplace of art
instruction is true:
From the rainbow to the
tomato worm
And in the rhythms of our
chambered hearts
Creation curves itself
around our lives
A straight line is of the
imagination
Repudiated even by that
famous crow
Who flies as he will and
not according
To the abstracts of
mathematicians
Nothing in nature chooses graphed
confines -
Of course the man-made coffin
– that features straight lines
Sunday, April 18, 2021
Spring in the Air, Springs in the Air, and a Brick - weekly column re spring wind and hail and wreckage
Mack Hall, HSG
Spring in the Air,
Springs in the Air, and a Brick
There will be no firewood shortage this coming winter. A tree-shaded
lawn is a homeowner’s dream, a tree in repose across the lawn less so, along
with trees across the roads, trees taking down power lines, trees fallen across
the children’s swing sets, trees crushing the lawn chairs where the old people
sit on pleasant mornings, trees, trees, trees, and shoals of hail that did not
thaw until evening, all set picturesquely among a landscape litter and debris.
Along the highway I saw a trampoline upside down, blown
through the air at least hundreds of yards because there are no houses nearby.
It was an occasion not only of spring in the air but springs in the air.
Among all the debris at my country estate was a brick on
the lawn. A brick. It had been blown about thirty feet from a pile of brick and
concrete bits.
A heavy steel chair of the sort one used to see in barber
shops (along with those delightful pictures of poker-playing dogs) was blown
about forty yards into the field, although small, light objects on a patio
table at the chair’s point of departure had not been disturbed at all.
And there was the loss of two of my apple trees. Well,
more firewood.
The song of the chainsaw is heard again in our land,
following nature’s rhythms of winter ice storms, spring hailstorms, and summer
tornados. It’s how we live; it’s what we do. These rhythms keep us humble, and remind
us how aesthetically pleasing are the words “JASPER-NEWTON ELECTRIC
COOPERATIVE” spelled out in a festive green or “PRECINCT 3” in subdued black on
the sides of bucket trucks and pole trucks and crew trucks and truck-trucks.
Their dignified progress along our mucky roads is as joyful as a religious
procession.
Here along Beer Can Road and County Dump Extension the
power was out for about seventeen hours because the winds and trees took down
at least one pole and transformer and any number of lengths of power line. And
that was just one or two miles of the hundreds of miles of lines in our service
area.
As in February’s ice storm, Mr. Bialetti served our
morning coffee.
The Bialetti coffee maker is a work of Italian genius in
function and art, and still made in Italy. Designed almost a hundred years ago,
the Bialetti is elegant in thick aluminum, and consists of only three parts. The
base is the water chamber, and when the water is just the right heat the
physics of the matter bubble it up through the aluminum coffee filter and into
the upper chamber, which is the coffee pot proper.
The Bialetti is not decorated with “PRECINCT 3” OR “JASPER-NEWTON
ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE”, although those would be nice too, but with a picture of natty
little man with a natty little moustache, Signor Bialetti himself.
The Bialetti is designed for a stove top, of course, and
it works fine on a camp stove (OUTSIDE; OPEN FLAMES INSIDE ARE NEVER A GOOD
IDEA).
Before you start cleaning up the windfall, you need a cup
of coffee served by Mr. Bialetti.
-30-
Morning Coffee with Signor Bialetti - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Morning Coffee with Signor Bialetti
Wreckage is everywhere,
two apple trees down
Limbs and leaves and
litter, shingles and wood
The lawns are white with
shoals of springtime hail
The lines are down and the
power is out
But Signor Bialetti from
Italy
A super-hero in aluminum
Is pleased to take his
place on the camping stove
Twirl his moustache and
stride through Sterno fire
Singing songs from his
favorite libretti
While making us coffee – O
brave Signor Bialetti!
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Afghanistan, Graveyard of 19-Year-olds - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Afghanistan, Graveyard of 19-Year-Olds
“You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
-Holmes’ first words to Watson in
A Study in Scarlet, 1887
Ghosts shriek in the wind from the Hindu Kush
Falling upon the lowlands in despair
Of any reality beyond death
In the blood-sodden sands where sinks all good
Walls, monuments, souls, hopes – all blow away
In the wreckage of long-fallen empires
Their detritus trod upon by tired men
Whose graves will be the howling dust of time
And yet the empire masters will return
And leave fresh offerings of more young men:
A British Enfield, a Moghul’s lost shoe,
A cell phone silent beside the Great Khan’s skull
From The
Road to Magdalena, Lawrence Hall, 2012, available via amazon.com
“Afghanistan,
graveyard of empires” is a common saying whose source is unknown.
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Awarded the Chair of Poetry - poem (he said without irony)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Awarded the Chair of Poetry at a Leafy Rural Tree
Among its ancient gifts
are acorns and leaves
But the most generous stipend
is peace
Oh, sure, we have our
academic rivalries –
Just last night a raccoon
occupied the chair
And the cardinals and jays
squawk a bit
Mostly about seeds, seldom
about verse
For arguing with Keats and
Yevtushenko
Is my great pleasure and
duty, not theirs
Who knew –
That an old steel chair
dragged onto the lawn
Could be a center of
civilization?
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Moo. Herd Immunity. Moo. - poem (of a sort)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Moo. Herd Immunity. Moo.
"I don't know what
herd immunity is, but when you add that to the people who have acquired
immunity, it looks like it could be very close to herd immunity.”
-Texas Governor Greg Abbott,
as quoted by the Washington Post
via The Houston Chronicle
Moo. Herd immunity. Moo. Simple
math.
Moo. Very close. Moo. Vigilant.
Moo. Proactive.
Moo. Efficacy. Moo.
Calculation.
Moo. Dashboards. Moo. Trackers.
Moo. Asymptomatic.
Moo. 70% Moo. 80%.
Moo. Fourth surge. Moo.
Waves. Moo. Gaps. Moo. Pockets.
Moo. Complications. Moo. Misunderstandings.
Moo. Factors. Moo. Threshold.
Moo. Duration
Moo. Emerging. Probable.
Moo. Data.
Moo. Equation. Moo. Very
close. Moo. Died.
“I don’t know what herd
immunity is…”
Moo.
Monday, April 12, 2021
Our Antikythera Mechanisms - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Our Antikythera Mechanisms
Chariots of the odds and
ends of life
Wooden boxes of bronze mechanisms
By which we navigate the
memories
Of all the golden islands
of our youth
The hidden anchorages of lost
love
And barefoot beaches of youth’s
innocence
Beneath bright sunlit hills
of wild must grapes
That taste of our desires
in dreaming hours
All lost, alas, fallen
into the sea
The sea of remembrance,
eternally
Sunday, April 11, 2021
On the Necessity of Merry Old Scoundrels - weekly column
Lawrence Hall, HSG
On the Necessity
of Merry Old Scoundrels
Whenever the topics of England or the royal family arise,
newsies with limited vocabularies are sure to employ two of the most tiresome
and pointless fillers, “fairy tale” and “across the pond.”
The English monarchy is arguably 1500 years old. There have
been dynastic changes and of course the interregnum of that genocidal maniac
Cromwell, but always the monarchy continued. Even those New Men, those Progressives,
those Men of Destiny, those Modernists Napoleon and Hitler, with all their up-to-date
engines of destruction, could not topple the purportedly out-of-date monarchy. The
continuance of stable government against satanic evil is not a fairy tale.
Further, the Atlantic Ocean is hardly a pond, and the
metaphor sank into the depths of obscurity long before the Titanic.
In sum, fairy tales are for Disney, and the pond is out
back (watch out for the snakes). Adult
reporters should know these things.
The
loss of Prince Philip is very real – he was a survivor of national and family
instability in his youth (it’s never good when your grandfather is murdered and
your father barely escapes a death sentence), a hero of the Second World War, a
patriot, and, essential to all of this, he was a right merry old soul.
Any
institution needs a merry old soul, and they feature in most of Shakespeare:
Bottom the Weaver, Falstaff, the Prologue in Henry V, Macbeth’s doorkeeper,
the cobbler and the soothsayer in Julius Caesar, Constable Dogberry and
the lads in Much Ado About Nothing, and others. Prince Philip’s great
sense of incorrect fun, which never degenerated into mere buffoonery, added a
bit of spice to the necessary seriousness of the monarchy. And he was a loving husband,
father, grandfather, and great-grandfather upon whom all in his life depended.
Harry
could have learned all this from his grandfather, and could have taken his needful
place as Jolly Old ‘Arry, a bit of scandal and naughtiness around him, but
always kind and loving and loyal to the nation and his family.
But
he didn’t.
The
difference is that Prince Philip chose a life of duty to his Queen, his family,
and his nation, and despite a good beginning Harry has not yet found anything
more interesting than his own self-pity.
-30-
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