Friday, February 9, 2018

The Olympics and Cruella De Vil - column

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

The Olympics and Cruella De Vil

The squabbling and politics began before the first competition of this year’s purported Olympics (which are not on Mount Olympus at all).

A male American athlete is reportedly suffering a wall-eyed hissy-fit because a woman will carry the national flag in the processional march and he won’t. After a tie vote the issue was decided by a coin toss. In an anti-social media posting of presidential dignity the male athlete said the coin toss was dishonorable.

The North Koreans will be permitted to compete in the games in South Korea, and South Koreans despise the U.S.A. as much as the Norks do. Don’t expect a tribute to the thousands of Americans who died protecting ungrateful South Korea.

The Korean peninsula is, well, Korean, divided in the middle between Koreans who don’t like each other except when they do, and then they both hate Americans. Let the Koreans sort it all out. Further, Chinese imperialists are strutting around in the area with their shiny new navy, so the Koreans should talk them into choosing sides and paying for the privilege, instead of our depleted Navy and Air Force. There are precedents - no American seems to miss funding bases in Viet-Nam and the Philippines.

The Koreans have promised to stop selling dog meat for the duration of the Olympics. How nice. Dachshunds will be off the menu for a month. If Charles Schultz’s Peanuts is printed in the newspapers in Korea, the appropriate and of course respectful cultural adaptation would be to have Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the other kids slaughter, dismember, and barbecue Snoopy.

According to http://koreandogs.org/ (I do not know how reliable this site is, but other sites concur), Koreans, north and south, prepare pooches for supper with the little things being “electrocuted, hanged, beaten, have their throats slashed, or are boiled or burnt to death.”

Just imagine a television cooking show in the Koreas: “Today, folks, we’re going to take this adorable little beagle with the cute, waggly tail and the big trusting eyes, put him through the blender, and then braise the beagle bits to a nice golden brown…”

The mascot for the Korean Winter Olympics is the Korean white tiger. Perhaps after the games he, too, will be eaten.

Another public relations issue and plumbing challenge at the Korean Olympics is the norovirus is spreading among staffers and possibly competitors. Norovirus, as you remember, is a Latin medical term which means “puking your guts up.”

The source of the current strain is unknown. Perhaps the puppies weren’t cooked properly.

Oh, yes, let us all be enlightened by the spirit of the Olympics.

-30-

Thursday, February 8, 2018

More Jolly Fat Confederates (re-enactors), Jefferson, Texas - photographs


Song of the Vulgar Boatmen (a Russia series, 17) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Song of the Vulgar Boatmen

(In which good fellowship between Russians and Americans is probably not advanced)

Start the Evinrude – pull!
Grandpa’s Evinrude – pull!

Where is my sunblock? Where!
Over by the sodas – there!

Start the Evinrude – pull!
It won’t start, Dad – %^&*!

Where is my +*^% phone? Where!
There by your fishing hat - There!

Start the Evinrude – pull!
Grandpa’s Evinrude – pull!

Watch those tree stumps! Where?
&%#*ing tree stumps! *@#$!

Start the Evinrude – pull!
Grandpa’s Evinrude – pull!

Drift to that cove, now – there!
Cut the engine, now – shhhh!

Where are them fish, then - $#@%!
They ain’t here, Dad – *&^%!

Start the Evinrude – pull!
Grandpa’s Evinrude – &#%&!

(Chorus fades as the sun sets over Tovarisch Bubba’s Bait, Beer, ‘n’ Borscht)






Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Books and Art, Jefferson, Texas - photograph


Civilization Requires a Little Effort (a Russia Series, 16) - poem

Lawrence Hall
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

“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

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

Jolly Fat Confederates (re-enactors, Jefferson, Texas) - photograph


The Natural Curiosity of Lot's Wife - poem

Lawrence Hall
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

Steeple, Methodist Church, Jefferson, Texas - an unremarkable photograph


Former People (a Russian series, 14) - poem

Lawrence Hall
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...

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

Bar, Jefferson, Texas - photograph


A Letter from Ekaterinburg (a Russia series, 13) - poem

Lawrence Hall
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

“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

Interior, Methodist Church, Jefferson, Texas - photograph


Uncle Vanya and Lady Godiva (A Russia Series, 12)

Lawrence Hall
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

Little Bighorn - "U.S. Soldier...Fell Here..." - photograph


A Russian Series, 11: Strelnikov is still Wrong - poem

Lawrence Hall
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

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.