Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Civilization Requires a Little Effort (a Russia Series, 16) - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Civilization requires a little effort
Ties must be knotted correctly, shoes must be polished
Cuffs must be linked, but not at all gaudily -
Elegant understatement at all times
On every occasion say, “Thank you” and “Please”
When addressing a lady one’s hat is off
And if tomorrow they are going to shoot you
Or beat you to death in a re-named street
Do comb your hair, and try to stand up straight -
Civilization requires a little effort
mhall46184@aol.com
Civilization Requires a Little Effort
Upon reading Amon Towles’
A Gentleman in Moscow
Civilization requires a little effort
Ties must be knotted correctly, shoes must be polished
Cuffs must be linked, but not at all gaudily -
Elegant understatement at all times
On every occasion say, “Thank you” and “Please”
When addressing a lady one’s hat is off
And if tomorrow they are going to shoot you
Or beat you to death in a re-named street
Do comb your hair, and try to stand up straight -
Civilization requires a little effort
"Sounds, and Sweet Airs..." - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Be not
Afraid
Iambs
Are just
The way
We speak
They are
Our natch
Ural
Rhythm
Or:
Be not afraid; iambs are just the way
We speak; they are our natural rhythm 1
Sometimes they must be squashed a bit, and then
(Hear “natural” as two syllables, a pair
Othertimes “natural” is read as three) –
Be a skilled artist in your poetry!
1 “Rhythm” is a trochee, not an iamb
But let it stay, that poor, little lost lamb
mhall46184@aol.com
“Sounds, and Sweet Airs…”
Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
The Tempest III.ii.129-130
Be not
Afraid
Iambs
Are just
The way
We speak
They are
Our natch
Ural
Rhythm
Or:
Be not afraid; iambs are just the way
We speak; they are our natural rhythm 1
Sometimes they must be squashed a bit, and then
(Hear “natural” as two syllables, a pair
Othertimes “natural” is read as three) –
Be a skilled artist in your poetry!
1 “Rhythm” is a trochee, not an iamb
But let it stay, that poor, little lost lamb
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
More Former People (a Russia series, 15)
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
You see them, sometimes, lurking in the shadows
Slipping away furtively, trying not to be seen
They’d rather clutch a volume of Dostoyevsky
Than try to act like good, plain, honest folks
They always thought they were something special
Always thinking about stuff, reading books
Not chanting the day’s slogans when they’re told
Not joining in, still thinking the old thoughts
We don’t need them. Our Leader will provide
You see us, sometimes, dying for ration books
mhall46184@aol.com
More Former People
You see them, sometimes, lurking in the shadows
Slipping away furtively, trying not to be seen
They’d rather clutch a volume of Dostoyevsky
Than try to act like good, plain, honest folks
They always thought they were something special
Always thinking about stuff, reading books
Not chanting the day’s slogans when they’re told
Not joining in, still thinking the old thoughts
We don’t need them. Our Leader will provide
You see us, sometimes, dying for ration books
The Natural Curiosity of Lot's Wife - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
When Lot’s wife shook with
Anger or fear, and looked back -
What there did she see?
mhall46184@aol.com
The Natural Curiosity of Lot’s Wife
When Lot’s wife shook with
Anger or fear, and looked back -
What there did she see?
Monday, February 5, 2018
Former People (a Russian series, 14) - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
For W. K. Kortas
We Former People have no reputation
So we are free to starve to death in peace
Or if we are unsightly in the street
Free rides to The Palace of Workers’ Justice
We might be beaten, we might be given a meal
Before we’re freed to a courtyard echoing
With the rattle of mop buckets and screams
And stood in liberating rows and shot
In glorious sacrifice to the Cause
Of progress and equality for all
mhall46184@aol.com
Former People
For W. K. Kortas
We Former People have no reputation
So we are free to starve to death in peace
Or if we are unsightly in the street
Free rides to The Palace of Workers’ Justice
We might be beaten, we might be given a meal
Before we’re freed to a courtyard echoing
With the rattle of mop buckets and screams
And stood in liberating rows and shot
In glorious sacrifice to the Cause
Of progress and equality for all
Jean Paul Sartre and Francis Thompson Walk into a Bar - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Jean Paul Sartre and Francis Thompson Walk into a Bar...
I fled it, down the minutes and down the hours 2
I fled it, from each InterGossip troll
I fled it, despairing, with weakening powers
But I could not escape the super bowl
1 No Exit, Jean Paul Sartre
2 “The Hound of Heaven,” Francis Thompson
(I recused myself from the annual high holy day liturgy sacred to the Republic, but can't escape the morning-after conversations.)
mhall46184@aol.com
Jean Paul Sartre and Francis Thompson Walk into a Bar...
No Exit 1
I fled it, down the minutes and down the hours 2
I fled it, from each InterGossip troll
I fled it, despairing, with weakening powers
But I could not escape the super bowl
1 No Exit, Jean Paul Sartre
2 “The Hound of Heaven,” Francis Thompson
(I recused myself from the annual high holy day liturgy sacred to the Republic, but can't escape the morning-after conversations.)
Sunday, February 4, 2018
A Letter from Ekaterinburg (a Russia series, 13) - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Dormition of the Theotokos
1917
Dear Alexei,
We are enjoying a beautiful summer –
The days have been perfect ever since spring
Cooler mornings now, and that’s about it -
Nothing exciting ever happens here
How is the new government working out?
Some of the banknotes are overprinted
With vague slogans covering the Czar, but
Nothing exciting ever happens here
Petrograd must be exciting for you, but
Nothing exciting ever happens here.
Write soon,
-Mitya
mhall46184@aol.com
A Letter from Ekaterinburg
Dormition of the Theotokos
1917
Dear Alexei,
We are enjoying a beautiful summer –
The days have been perfect ever since spring
Cooler mornings now, and that’s about it -
Nothing exciting ever happens here
How is the new government working out?
Some of the banknotes are overprinted
With vague slogans covering the Czar, but
Nothing exciting ever happens here
Petrograd must be exciting for you, but
Nothing exciting ever happens here.
Write soon,
-Mitya
"One of the Only" - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Why do men write of “one of the only”
Since one is only, and only is one
A singular figure, alone and lonely
“One of the only?” Oh, let it be done
With.
mhall46184@aol.com
“One of the Only”
Why do men write of “one of the only”
Since one is only, and only is one
A singular figure, alone and lonely
“One of the only?” Oh, let it be done
With.
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Uncle Vanya and Lady Godiva (A Russia Series, 12)
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Uncle Vanya came strolling down the road
Wishing he had made something of his life
His young friend Anne loquaciously agreed
And with remarkable vehemence urged
him to endeavour to remediate his perceived inadequacies in the many precedent matters that burdened him…
Don Quixote suggested that worries were giants
Cassandra said, “There is only one page left”
Nick Adams whispered, “Shh! You’ll scare the fish!”
Ambrose Silk asked the way to the world’s end
And young Lady Godiva, sans chemise
Outsourced her image on souvenir tees
mhall46184@aol.com
Uncle Vanya and Lady Godiva
Uncle Vanya came strolling down the road
Wishing he had made something of his life
His young friend Anne loquaciously agreed
And with remarkable vehemence urged
him to endeavour to remediate his perceived inadequacies in the many precedent matters that burdened him…
Don Quixote suggested that worries were giants
Cassandra said, “There is only one page left”
Nick Adams whispered, “Shh! You’ll scare the fish!”
Ambrose Silk asked the way to the world’s end
And young Lady Godiva, sans chemise
Outsourced her image on souvenir tees
Friday, February 2, 2018
A Russian Series, 11: Strelnikov is still Wrong - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
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.
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 life – yours - is 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 pushes you what to say
mhall46184@aol.com
Strelnikov is still Wrong
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 (film)
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 life – yours - is 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 pushes you what to say
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Contents of that Secret F.B.I. Memo - poem (of a sort...)
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Next week the world is going to end again
When the north pole and the south pole switch places
According to secret radio transmissions
Secretly beamed from the secret headquarters
Of the secret Club of Rome far beneath
The Vatican and secretly aligned
With the secret sword of the secret Knights
Templar with the secret star WD-40
By our secret Masters on the secret
Planet Xenophobe in secret accordance
With the ancient prophecy of Cranium
The Elder discovered in a Prince Albert can
By the Portuguese philosopher and
Explorer Almoso Nutellaeus
Who thus received the dark secrets of the
Atlantean sorcerers in a secret
Language which only he was able to translate
When the Moon God Myrtle of the Aqua Kirtle
Blessed his Radio Shack TRS-80
With a rare pixie dust which can only be
Found in a certain secret plain in the
Sahara Desert at the Winter Solstice
Marked by a Bionic Blood Altar cursed
By the Knights of Toledo in a strange
Ceremony which can only be witnessed
By the Initiates of the Order of
The Cumulonimble Secret Ferrets
Of the Discalced Colossus of Roads
Whose emblematic pilum can be discerned
By pouring lemon juice over the pictures
Of the Caesars in a sacred clearing
In the secret Wood of the Thirteen Oaks
And a Loblolly Pine made when The Primal
Pole-er Bear from Beyond Time set up
The North Pole and the South Pole, and gave the
North Pole Santa Claus and the South Pole Little America
Station, and this Manichaean duality
Has set the planet in opposition
To itself, resulting in the cancellation
Of Gilligan’s Island after only three seasons
Because Gilligan and The Skipper were close
To discovering the Pre-Raphaelite
Anaemic Amoebic Astrolabe in yet
Another papier mache cave infested
By toxic golden hamsters of existential doom
Guarding a time-and-space portal leading
Directly to Oak Island where Captain Kidd’s
Lost cuff links (the ones with little pictures
Of Elvis golfing with leprechauns) can
Be found, the cuff links that channel the energy
Between The North Pole and the South Pole enhanced
By the chakra of a Hoover vacuum cleaner
Once used by Winston Churchill’s housekeeper
During the Blitz before she married her second
Husband, Trevor, who was the Hereditary
Keeper of the Keys of the Guernsey Privy
And thus a carrier of fairy blood
As required by Ye Ancient Lawes of the Booke
Of…something-or-other…which was carved in runes
On Roman skulls just before the loss of
The Island of Anglesey to Governor
Suetonius who was told by The Voices
That the Druids invented rock ‘n’ roll and
Must be destroyed so that the harmonic
Harmony of the North Pole and the South Pole
Could be restored to their primordial
Nordic vanilla pudding.
mhall46184@aol.com
Contents of that Secret F.B.I. Memo
Next week the world is going to end again
When the north pole and the south pole switch places
According to secret radio transmissions
Secretly beamed from the secret headquarters
Of the secret Club of Rome far beneath
The Vatican and secretly aligned
With the secret sword of the secret Knights
Templar with the secret star WD-40
By our secret Masters on the secret
Planet Xenophobe in secret accordance
With the ancient prophecy of Cranium
The Elder discovered in a Prince Albert can
By the Portuguese philosopher and
Explorer Almoso Nutellaeus
Who thus received the dark secrets of the
Atlantean sorcerers in a secret
Language which only he was able to translate
When the Moon God Myrtle of the Aqua Kirtle
Blessed his Radio Shack TRS-80
With a rare pixie dust which can only be
Found in a certain secret plain in the
Sahara Desert at the Winter Solstice
Marked by a Bionic Blood Altar cursed
By the Knights of Toledo in a strange
Ceremony which can only be witnessed
By the Initiates of the Order of
The Cumulonimble Secret Ferrets
Of the Discalced Colossus of Roads
Whose emblematic pilum can be discerned
By pouring lemon juice over the pictures
Of the Caesars in a sacred clearing
In the secret Wood of the Thirteen Oaks
And a Loblolly Pine made when The Primal
Pole-er Bear from Beyond Time set up
The North Pole and the South Pole, and gave the
North Pole Santa Claus and the South Pole Little America
Station, and this Manichaean duality
Has set the planet in opposition
To itself, resulting in the cancellation
Of Gilligan’s Island after only three seasons
Because Gilligan and The Skipper were close
To discovering the Pre-Raphaelite
Anaemic Amoebic Astrolabe in yet
Another papier mache cave infested
By toxic golden hamsters of existential doom
Guarding a time-and-space portal leading
Directly to Oak Island where Captain Kidd’s
Lost cuff links (the ones with little pictures
Of Elvis golfing with leprechauns) can
Be found, the cuff links that channel the energy
Between The North Pole and the South Pole enhanced
By the chakra of a Hoover vacuum cleaner
Once used by Winston Churchill’s housekeeper
During the Blitz before she married her second
Husband, Trevor, who was the Hereditary
Keeper of the Keys of the Guernsey Privy
And thus a carrier of fairy blood
As required by Ye Ancient Lawes of the Booke
Of…something-or-other…which was carved in runes
On Roman skulls just before the loss of
The Island of Anglesey to Governor
Suetonius who was told by The Voices
That the Druids invented rock ‘n’ roll and
Must be destroyed so that the harmonic
Harmony of the North Pole and the South Pole
Could be restored to their primordial
Nordic vanilla pudding.
A Russian Series, 10: A Soldier Smoking a Cigarette - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
A soldier lay beside a railway line
Smoking a cigarette, not thinking of much
Among some hundreds of other conscript lads
Upon a grassy glacis above the fields
The boxcars waited in the stilly heat
The soldiers waited like young summer wheat
Occasionally stirred about by winds unseen
And finally stirred about by orders unheard
They rippled aboard, and were taken away:
Beside a railway line a shadow lay
mhall46184@aol.com
A Soldier Smoking a Cigarette
A soldier lay beside a railway line
Smoking a cigarette, not thinking of much
Among some hundreds of other conscript lads
Upon a grassy glacis above the fields
The boxcars waited in the stilly heat
The soldiers waited like young summer wheat
Occasionally stirred about by winds unseen
And finally stirred about by orders unheard
They rippled aboard, and were taken away:
Beside a railway line a shadow lay
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
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