The Futility of the Coccolithophores - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

The Futility of the Coccolithophores

In a careless moment, much to my grief
I lost the heritage of millions dead
And much like an unconscionable thief
Considered my atrocities, and fled

In reefs and shoals they lived, they worked, they died
From ancient times, and even until now
In patience layering their art with pride
Each tiny home and funereal how

Not even in their ruins can they now talk
Because I dropped and broke them – goodbye, chalk!

A Song of Liberation (a Russia series, 44) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

A Song of Liberation

Grandfather’s Saint George medal – hide it first
The ikon of Saint Seraphim – that’s next
Babushka’s crucifix – O, how she loved it
The picture of the Czar – away! Away!

Do not betray your thoughts – a careless word
A smile not authorized, a memory
A fragment from a cheerful Christmas song:
These do not advance The Revolution

Beneath our Brave Red Star they must lie hidden
While our dear comrades love and watch us all

Alone in the Parish Hall While Waiting for a Meeting to Begin - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Alone in the Parish Hall While Waiting for a Meeting to Begin

(smells kinda funny in here)

Words:

Behold the Lamb of God, Exit, Please turn
The air-conditioner off, NO SMOKING PLEASE
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic
Nicene Creed, 6th Grade Classroom, On this Rock

Things:

Crucifix, thermostat, coffee machine
American flag in a flower vase
Clock, napkins, chairs, a misplaced plastic fork
And folding tables unfolded to the light

Sounds:

A choir of refrigerators out of tune
With each other, and with Ordinary Time

Futurism (a Russia series, 43) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Futurism

Futurism acknowledges the past
But only to condemn it, discard it:
A song that was sung sweetly yesterday
By a pretty girl while driving to work

A baby laughing at a butterfly
A beagle pup chasing a rubber ball
Geese honking through their autumn pilgrimage
And former people who would not adapt

Reflecting on the mass graves it has filled
Futurism acknowledges its past

"Order 263...263...!" - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

“Order 263…263…!”

For Yue Wang Yidhna

And All Who Brew Morning Poetry for the World

You are neither barista nor priestess
Even though perhaps a little bit of both
You do not serve either McDonald or Tim
But rather the supplicants who approach

Who plead with you to offer them the Cup
Of transient peace and hope in this sad world
A layered paper chalice wherein is borne
Colombian savour, healing and warm

And it is from your hands that they receive
A special blessing, and strength for their day

Ellipses (a Russia series, 42) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Ellipses

Upon reading the poems of Anna Ahkmatova

…….. are most useful things; they hide
One’s thoughts from the …….. ………
Who search and sniff each line for any whiff
Of ………, ……….., or …..

Since …… …… in their arrogance,
…………. who forget their place
Will scribble heresies and call it art
But like to hide their plots in lots of dots

Say what you will (but you’d better not):
…….. are most useful things; they hide.

"May I Borrow Your Finger?" - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

“May I Borrow Your Finger?”

A small child asked another. An old man turned
To wonder about a question he had never heard
How does one lend a finger? But then he saw:
A fingerprint to open a little ‘phone

For children borrow from each other’s lives, and joy
In all the little daily ceremonies
Of childhood, giggling over telescreens
And, too, their hopes and dreams and ice-cream cones

A finger now a child may lend or borrow
And, as always, maybe his heart tomorrow

Dimitri in America (a Russia series, 41) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Dimitri in America

Did Mitya escape to America?
He might have changed his name to Bob or Al
Married Myrtle in the Methodist Church -
Myrtle, nee’ Agrafena Alexandrovna –

And worked the candy counter at Woolworth’s
Riding the trolley downtown every day
While saving up for a new Model T
In obedience to his New World staretz

Horatio Alger hissing behind a tree:
Was Mitya sentenced to America?

Another Non-Combat Death in Iraq - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Another Non-Combat Death in Iraq

She took an oath to defend the Constitution
But no one seemed to have taken an oath
                                                                      to defend her


(Now back to the Gridiron Dinner)

Contra Ivan Karamazov (a Russia series, 40) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Contra Ivan Karamazov

Though some maintain that parallels don’t meet
And three-point-something is the sum of pi
And whether X is found; no one knows why
(Is it lost, perhaps wandering in the street?)

Curious matters all Euclidian
Even for the bold mathematician
Are as obdurate as obsidian
Each an illogical proposition

To the rationalist impossible, and yet -
Parallel lines are at the Altar met

Soft Targets - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Soft Targets

“…schools, as soft targets, need to be fortified”

-the sheriff of Broward County

Perhaps we are Essenes in the desert
Or Sicarii fortifying Masada
A civilization fragmented, lost
Confused and lost, withering, withdrawing

We are in any event determined
To save something against the future time
Anything – so that men may pray again -
A rosary, an anthology of Keats

Deep in the dust deep in a cave upon a hill
While in the plain below dark armies drill

Chertkovo (a Russia series, 39) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Chertkovo

For Eugenio Corti

Perhaps the site is now a garbage heap
A parking lot, a drainage ditch, a field
Where little children chase a soccer ball
Among the flowers of a Russian spring

Whispering a memory of Italy
For here a poor Italian soldier died
His life ripped from him in a desolation
Of screams and violence and frozen horror:

But he is a candle, lit again, in Heaven where
His feet are always warm, and “Savoia!” is a hymn

Educational Leadership - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Educational Leadership

It’s for the children transparency
Because children are our most important
Resource we need to put this behind us
The children come first the healing process
Needs to begin the best interests of the children
Because we’re a team focus on the children
Distractions it’s all about the children
We need to move forward because we’re a family

He and his attorneys could not immediately
Be reached for comment for the children

Old Karamazov (a Russia series, 38) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Old Karamazov

Young Karamazov – once upon a time
Strolled dreaming through the happy hopes of youth
And surely wondered about spring and love
Wrote clumsy verse, perhaps, for a pretty girl

Then fell unfortunately into fashion:
The acquisition of proud vanities
Through the disposition of dreams and souls
Until he was only an old man who

Sat brooding through the bitter schemes of age
Old Karamazov – lost upon a time

Yes, Yes, But They Need Good Jobs in the Real World - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Yes, Yes, But They Need Good Jobs in the Real World

The plans for your construction are precise
The design and engineering are true
The foundations solid, the drains are laid
In mathematics pure, infallible

The offices are bright with light, well-aired
The flow of work geometrically set
The shops and stores convenient to the staff
In tactical practicalities placed

But do you wonder, at night beneath your lamp
Why you are building a concentration camp?

Vocations (a Russia series, 37) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Vocations

“I consecrate you to a great novitiate in the world.”

-Father Zosima to Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov

The monastery gate opens easily
If it really needs opening at all
The road outside also leads somewhere else
But then it just as often leads back again

The distance measured by a crucifix
Where a weary traveler can pray awhile
Or maybe Harry Bailey’s 1 hamburger joint
A cup of coffee and a cigarette

Offered by a pilgrim in the neon night -
The monastery gate opens easily



1 The Canterbury Tales

Upon Seeing a Shrew Beneath an Oak Tree - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Upon Seeing a Shrew Beneath an Oak Tree

No, no, not your teacher of high-school maths
But an animal so tiny it doesn’t belong
In this harsh world; rather in a fairyland
To live among our childhood imaginings

With spectacles upon its handsome nose
And tiny, delicate, artistic paws
And a fine grey coat, it looks exactly like
A little old man at home with his books

Dozing, dreaming beside his little fire
And never working out the sum of pi

News from Russia (a Russia series, 36) - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

News from Russia

The Brothers Karamazov, Book II

There was little news from Russia today
At Optina the midday liturgy
Was over around eleven or so
The faithful crossing themselves as they left

Mostly poor folk, walking to their homes for lunch
And then back to work. They hardly noticed
A party of their betters strolling about
Reading tombstones, giggling about the quaint monks

Waiting to see a reed swaying in the wind
There was little news from Russia today

Upper Respiratory Infection - a poem to accompany wheezes and sneezes and diseases...

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Green Chemicals Against the Evil U.R.I.

Mercy in green, green chemicals in green
Labeled with a catalogue of cautions
One desperately ignores in desperate quest
For a cessation of foul miseries:

The red, inflam’ed throat that censors speech
Fevers fogging over the ways of the mind
Agues arguing against those motions of the limbs
That other times do joy in youth and health

But…coffee next Friday morning you ask?
Yes, yes - I hope to be alive by then

Thank You for Your Service - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

Thank You for Your Service

He said that when he came home from the war
He thoughtfully packed all his uniforms
Into his good ol’ Marine Corps sea bag
Took it out to the back yard
                                                 and burned it