Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Cosmic Inertia of a Six-Pound Dachshund
Why is the resistance
factor
In shifting a six-pound
dachshund
Who does not want to be
shifted
Greater than that of tons
of iron?
Saturday, September 28, 2024
The Cosmic Inertia of a Six-Pound Dachshund - short poem
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Boeing, Studebaker, John Deere, and my Tupperware Coffee Cup - an elegy
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Boeing, Studebaker, John Deere, and my Tupperware™
Coffee Cup
“The days are gone…
When wonderful things were worked among them”
-The Seafarer, trans. Burton
Raffel
My Tupperware coffee cup is
as a chalice
With which I salute the beginning
of each day
Cool, colorful, comforting craftsmanship
An honest, utilitarian work
of art
We are told such things will
be no more
“Made in USA” is “Factorum
Romae”
Younger nations will find us
camping among the ruins
Of works and arts we no
longer comprehend
A colonial soldier might note
that once we were a great people
His colonel will reply, “Tosh!
They’re simple savages.”
Smart*ss Watch - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Smart*ss Watch
It clings to my wrist like a faithless
friend
Good fun to pal around when
we met
But getting just a little
tiresome with time
Unreliable in his many
promises
He fails to make the
appointments that we set
Or note the weather or mark
activities
I dunno; maybe he’s making
time with that Timex
My long-time steady who could
sure tick my tock
Sweet face, delicate hands -
she’d been around, but
Maybe I was wrong – I think
I’ll dial her
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
On Reading a Poem by Du Mu - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
On Reading a Poem by Du Mu
Everything is far away
China is ever so far away
The dynasties are far away
A golden dragon might fly us there
The moon is across the river
The blue-black river in the mist
A fishing boat is tied to the gate
The water-gate of our inn
What do they mean, the moon and boat?
Maybe the moon and the boat mean nothing
They simply are; they are themselves
Or perhaps we mean the moon and boat
Because of Du Mu and his words
The moon and the boat are forever
The blue-black river is forever
In reading of them so are we
“A Night at the Inn While Travelling”
Three Hundred Tang Poems
Translated by Peter Harris
London: Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 2009
Monday, September 23, 2024
Hobbit Day (short poem)
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Hobbit Day
22 September
I read that today is Hobbit
Day
On the autumn equinox every
year
I was both delighted and
surprised
Even though in our shared
adventures, dear friends,
Every day is Hobbit Day
I first read The Hobbit in Viet-Nam in a discarded paperback I found at the Station Hospital in DaNang
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Someday Such Men Will Live in Palaces - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Such Men Will Someday Live in Palaces
Cf. Saint Matthew 11
I am only a visitor here, unqualified to speak
Of the incessant sufferings of men of God
Who may not go beyond the compassing wire
To see a reed shaken with the wind
For they sometimes are wind-struck reeds themselves
Planted for a time in this desert of penance
But they are men, and do not easily shake -
When the bitter wind blows they stand up straight
They do not raise their fists against the wind
But rather their hearts in manly strength and faith
Such men will someday live in palaces
Friday, September 20, 2024
At Rao's Bakery - Coffee, Croissants, Children, and the Constitution - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
At Rao’s Bakery - Coffee, Croissants, Children, and the
Constitution
At dawn - hot coffee and a fresh croissant
A family grouping at the table next
And a little child whispering to her
mother
The Preamble to the Constitution
I turned and said, “Oh, I want to hear
that again”
Proudly the little girl stood beside
her mom
And in a strong, clear voice began: “We
the People…”
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.
I can’t do that anymore. Can you?
The child certainly earned an ‘A’
today
This coffee / croissant / American
day
A Road Crew Singing "Red, Red Wine" - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Road Crew Singing “Red, Red Wine”
A road crew of only two
riding with the fill
In the bed of a county pickup
truck
Patching potholes in the late
summer heat
Singing “Red, Red Wine” over
and over
“Red, Red, Wine”
One takes off his sweat-soaked
striped shirt
A voice from the cab tells
him to put it back on
They stop and take shovels
and out they leap
To shovel with the shovels
fill into holes
“Red, Red Wine”
They sing those three words
over and over
The only words of that song they
know
“Red, Red Wine.”
On a road cratered with holes
and emptied dreams
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Move the Metaphor; Move the Needle - short poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Moving the Metaphor
“Moving the needle” isn’t moving anymore
As a metaphor it is out of the groove
Although politics are spinning at 78
The needle is quite worn down, and so am I
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
If Mr. Vance Says You Ate Someone's Pet Cat Then Obviously You ate Someone's Pet Cat - not really a poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
If Mr. Vance Says You
Ate Someone’s Pet Cat
Then Obviously You Ate
Someone’s Pet Cat
“Show me the man and I will show you the crime”
-many attributions, usually to Lavrentia Beria,
sometimes to Stalin
"In Springfield, they're eating the dogs…They're eating
the cats.
They're eating the pets of the people that live there.”
-Presidential candidate Donald Trump,
10 September 2024
"If I have to create stories so that the American media
actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's
what I'm going to do."
-Vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance on CNN,
Sunday, 15 September 2024
Little children in school are threatened with bombs
Because someone said that someone said
That someone ate someone else’s pet cat
Patients in hospitals are threatened with bombs
Because someone said that someone said
That someone ate someone else’s pet cat
City office workers are threatened with bombs
Because someone said that someone said
That someone ate someone else’s pet cat
A Lutheran university is threatened with bombs
Because someone said that someone said
That someone ate someone else’s pet cat
A few Proud Boys [sic] stumble around in the street
Because two Heroic Men of Destiny said
That someone ate someone else’s pet cat
Monday, September 16, 2024
I’m Proud of My Childless Cat Lady Daughter - two lines to rebuke certain stuffy old politicians
Lawrence Hall, HSG
I’m Proud of My Childless Cat Lady Daughter
Some call her a childless cat lady
At work the staff call her “Doctor”
The Terrifying Creepy Chilling Iconic Sniper’s Lair - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Terrifying Creepy
Chilling Iconic Sniper’s Lair
Some call it the sniper’s lair, some the sniper’s nest
Some call it a creepy lair
Some surely call it chilling and iconic
Because to InterGossip posters everything
Is chilling, iconic, jaw-dropping, and a bombshell
It’s just a sad, sagging old chain-link fence
With some sad old man’s wannabe G.I. Jerk
Army wannabe soldier-toys hanging from it
The Kalashjackov was real enough
The poor fool’s mind, not so much
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Runes Recently Discovered - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Runes Recently Discovered
We have mysterious runic messages still
Appearing this morning – there, on the road – see them?
Some say these irregular scrawls mark utilities
But you know, there are Wee Folk in these woods
15 September 2024
Saturday, September 14, 2024
If Li-Po Were my Houseguest - quatrain
Lawrence
Hall, HSG
If Li-Po Were my Houseguest
If Li-Po were
my houseguest tonight
I’d probably
have to drag him inside
After he’d
been drinking to the moon’s silver light
And heave him
into his bed with a gentle chide
We Don't Understand, But We Hope - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
We Don’t Understand, But We Hope
We don’t understand it, but we hope in it
The change from that which is to that which isn’t
Or is the change back again and no change at all
Which maybe means the blood and pain remain
We recline in a rented banquet room
We follow in fear along a narrow street
We watch in horror upon a death-haunted hill
We are called to an empty tomb which isn’t empty
We are called to a dented Cup which also isn’t empty
(Maybe $200 at the church supply store)
Cradling a Mystery from before time
A plate of bread that looks like bread but isn’t
The Altar is where the arc of history bends
Mystery
Who among the servers did the dishes
And did she accidentally drop a Cup?
(That part’s not important)
Friday, September 13, 2024
I Had a Flat Tire Along the Silk Road - not-a-Tang-quatrain
Lawrence Hall, HSG
I Had a Flat Tire Along the Silk Road
A bandit-princess stole my trail-lost
heart
To play with carelessly one
idle day
She teased me a road sketched
on her magic chart
But I had a flat tire along
the way
In reading Li Po (variant pronunciations and spellings in English) and others, and trying to understand Tang quatrains, well, I don’t understand much. The forms and content are so varied as to make the term almost undefinable to my simple English soul. But nature, irony, loss, and separation are apparently common, as well as rhyme, so I took them and iambic pentameter for this not-really-a-Tang-quatrain.
Tropes, Dopes, and Culture Worriers - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Tropes, Dopes, and Culture Worriers
I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.
-Tolkien, from a letter rebuking a German publisher, 1938
One does not imagine Tolkien schlubbing about
In a garish cartoon tee and baggy shorts
A Glock strapped to his 50-inch waist
Shopping the dollar store in a Trumpy cap
One does not imagine Lewis following QAnon
Encouraging Peter to take an AR to Latin class
Or quartering the Cross of good Saint George
With a swastika’s spidering wheel of shame
Not all evil comes from outside the Shire –
Sometimes evil is our own internal desire
On the time J.R.R. Tolkien refused to work with Nazi-leaning publishers. ‹ Literary Hub (lithub.com)
Why does Lord of the Rings appeal to the radical right? – The Irish Times
Behind the Catholic Right’s Celebrity-Conversion Industrial Complex | Vanity Fair
Thoughts of Home from Behind the Wire - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Thoughts of Home from Behind the Wire
Over the South China Sea
We could see China past the portside
wing
The forbidden land of our enemy
Who encouraged the Viet-Cong in our
destruction
But allowed us peaceably to pass
Refueling in Japan
We could see Japan from behind
chain-link fencing
The industrial land of an ally now
They sold us tape recorders and
radios
And airplane fuel from beyond the
wire
Thank you for your service
Honored fighters for freedom almost home
from the wars
Penned freely behind pig wire and
gates and bars
My Grandfather's Hayfield - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
My Grandfather’s Hayfield
From my own fields I can hear the band
The high school marching band, oom-pah, oom-pah
From several miles away, with merry songs
and merry cheers around the homecoming bonfire
That was my grandfather’s hayfield in my youth
Before the town and school replaced the past
The shaking baling machine compressing grass
Where the team captain gives his whup ‘em speech
I found a terrapin where the cheerleaders dance
From my own fields I can see my youth
The White Lady of the Well - a senryu
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The White Lady of the Well
She visits at dusk
She’s watching you;
turn around -
She’s just over there
Thursday, September 12, 2024
We Have all Written Poems about September - and, yes, this is a poem about September
Lawrence Hall, HSG
We Have all Written Poems about September
(Not applicable on that half the planet where September is a springtime month)
(Certain taxes and fees might apply)
(Offer void where prohibited)
(Some assembly required)
Everyone writes poetry about September
The cooling of the summer-sun-beaten earth
A few more hummingbirds with maps of Mexico
A first leaf skittering across the grassy lane
The sky looks a little different somehow
A fresh breeze rises with the gentle dawn
Sitting outside at dusk is comfortable now
Notebook and pen are easier to the hand
Everyone writes poetry about September
As every worker and dreamer ought to do
We Have All Written Poems about September - and, yes, this is a poem about September
Lawrence Hall, HSG
We
Have all Written Poems about September
(Not
applicable on that half the planet where September is a springtime month)
(Certain taxes
and fees might apply)
(Offer void
where prohibited)
(Some assembly
required)
Everyone writes poetry about September
The cooling of the summer-sun-beaten earth
A few more hummingbirds with maps of Mexico
A first leaf skittering across the grassy lane
The sky looks a little different somehow
A fresh breeze rises with the gentle dawn
Sitting outside at dusk is comfortable now
Notebook and pen are easier to the hand
Everyone writes poetry about September
As every worker and dreamer ought to do
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
For English Pick Up the Anglophone - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
For English Pick Up the Anglophone
For English pick up the Anglophone
For French the Francophone
For others in Canada the Allophone
(“‘Allo! ‘Allo!”)
For Mandarin or Cantonese the Sinophone
For Portugal the Lusophone
In Deutschland perhaps the Deutschesphone
(or perhaps not)
And in Russia the Russophone
Please phone in, everyone
Because isn’t it wonderful -
So many phones, and each with a direct line to God
Monday, September 9, 2024
Li Po Writes to us from his Mountain - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Li Po Writes to us from his Mountain
Li Po, “Ancient Air,” p. 84
A Book of Luminous Things, ed. Czeslaw Milosz
We read of the poets of China
In the days of the Golden Tang
In the time of The Gathering of Kings
When The Silk Road carried dreams
Government officials were the poets
And poets were the government
officials
Who knew The Five Classics by heart
And wrote of China in Tang quatrains
They were writing to the Emperor
And now they are writing to us
Sunday, September 8, 2024
God in the Hands of Angry Sinners - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
God in the Hands of Angry Sinners
As Jonathan Edwards did not say
How do they find so much hatred in
their Book?
Why do they bind their scriptures and
themselves
In anger, duct tape, and camouflage
Why do they raise high the AR and
their fists
Instead of salvation and the Holy Cross?
Where do they find so much hatred in
their Book?
Why have they abandoned the altars of
Truth
For the flagpole idolatry of the pagan
state
In coven-circles facing each other and
a pole
Like Canaanites and their wooden Asherim?
Why do they find so much hatred in
their Book?
If they would look beyond their own perimeter wire
They would see
A Maiden dancing
In
Galilee
For Booger-Dog of Happy Memory - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
For Booger-Dog of Happy
Memory
And for his
pet human Max
The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this
selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves
ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.
-George Graham Vest
His
fuzzy little bed is empty today
His dinner
is untasted, his water bowl full
Awaiting
his ungentlemanly slurps
And
his favorite toy seems lonely and lost
He
will not claim space on my pillow tonight
Nor
chase dream rabbits while cuddling with me
Nor
lick my nose to wake me up at…
(Geez, Booger, do you know
what time it is!?)
Leaping
and barking to be allowed outside
He
will not bound into the kitchen at dawn
Happily
barking his joy unto God
Circling
and snuffling for his breakfast treat
A
bit of bacon or egg from a loving hand
Because
his brave little soul has flown
To
wait for me at the foot of that glorious Throne
Friday, September 6, 2024
Cleaning a Metaphorical Rifle - short poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Cleaning a Metaphorical Rifle
The Detachable Magazine Holds Ten Lines
There is no such thing as an unloaded word
And once a word has left the barrel it’s gone
You cannot call it back – were you sure of your aim?
Draft Beer, Not Students - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Draft Beer, Not Students
A slogan from the 1960s
In illo tempore:
A young man swaggers across the
‘versity quad
Smoking a Marlboro or affecting a
pipe
‘Way cool in his sports coat and
turtleneck
Shakespeare or physics held loosely
in his hand
A young woman passes through the
‘versity quad
Smoking a Parliament or checking her
mirror
‘Way cool in her pencil skirt and
layered look
Shakespeare or physics held closely
to her heart
Sed in tempore nostro:
Pronouns galumph across the ‘versity
squad
One fist raised in hate, the other
clutching a glowing box
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