Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
When Astrid Commands, Her Servant Obeys
When a six-pound dachshund
wants your attention
She
will have it (it goes without mention)
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
When Astrid Commands, Her Servant Obeys - rhyming DOGgerel
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
A Codicil to Sonnet 116 - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Codicil to Sonnet 116
When shy young lovers flirt
with each other
Make eyes across a
parent-haunted room
Hold hands in the
magnolia-scented night
And kiss for the first…oh,
that very first kiss!
Do they anticipate petitionings
Investigations and bitter whisperings
Restraining orders,
arrearages, fail nots
Decrees more absolute than
youthful vows?
As old Shakespeare was
never wont to say
Love is not love when
arbitration binds
Sunday, June 6, 2021
The 7th of June, 1944 and 1970 - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The 7th of June, 1944 and 1970
My father beached at
Normandy on the second day
(He was okay with having
missed the first)
From there through France
to Belgium in the mud
For a bloody Christmas in
the icy Bulge
Munich, Buchenwald, Dachau,
Zwickau
For me DaNang, Saigon, Ben
Luc, Moc Hoa
I met a child in a
Japanese army cap
But he wouldn’t sell it.
We all have history
I wish I had that Japanese
army cap
And that we knew what any
of this means
What Would Ol' Doc Adams Do? - weekly column
Lawrence Hall, HSG
What Would Ol’ Doc
Adams Do?
“That’s right: Get a shot, have a beer”
-The President of the United States
Okay, I had the CV, and later on the two jabs, and as a condition
of service as a volunteer have the swab
run up my nose and out through my skull every week. I’m good. The CV was not my
choice, but the jabs and the swabs were, and I am reasonably sure they were the
right choices based on the first-hand recommendations of real people with real
medical qualifications.
Dr. InterNet does not have a voice in my health choices. Nor
does someone’s third-cousin who almost finished nurses’ aide school. Nor does a
purported doctor whose medical school’s name ends with “.com.”
However, my president feels that I and you are merely The
Little People, simpletons who must be coaxed with treats in order to do what he
thinks is good for us. He and Anheuser-Busch, a Belgian multi-national, have
colluded in offering each American a $5 gift certificate, good only for Anheuser-Busch
products, if we will take our medicine like good little girls and boys.
When I was a rug-rat Dr. Moore always gave me a lollipop
after I had a jab, assuring me, despite my screaming and crying and attempts at
escape, that I was a good, brave boy. My
Aunt Lola, Dr. Moore’s RN, would probably have given me a spanking for my
nonsense; she was made of sterner stuff.
We don’t get lollipops now. We’re adults. We make adult
choices without being offered shiny things.
In Florida they might offer you a cryptobeer. You can’t see
it, taste it, or touch it, but trust us, it’s real.
Maybe $20 of glass beads would work as well.
Other authorities offer raffle tickets, and there’s nothing
that says responsible medical care like raffle tickets.
Maybe the governor of Texas will offer a drawing for an AR
to swagger around with, only I’ll bet you can’t swagger into his house or workplace
with one.
Was Hunter Biden given a new laptop for his jab?
Did the two Trump boys receive new hunting rifles?
But in the end (actually, they give you the jab in the arm,
not the end), the one serious matter is this: should you take the jab? That’s not my call,
but neither is it Dr. InterNet’s. My one recommendation is that you should visit
face-to-face with a nurse-practitioner or medical doctor, speak your concerns,
and then listen. Listen. And then you must make an adult choice for yourself.
How to Get Free Beer if U.S. Vaccine Goal Is Reached
(newsweek.com)
Free beer, other new incentives for Biden's 'vaccine sprint'
- ABC News (go.com)
-30-
Like Candles When They Quietly Go Out - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Like Candles When
They Quietly Go Out
He mourns the sons of princes, sown in the dust
-The Seafarer
When we were young
A friend once showed me a passage in a book
In which the monks of a certain cloistered order
Were often blessed with wonderfully peaceful deaths
Like candles when they quietly go out
Domine exaudi orationem meam
Now we are old
Our books require a rather larger print
Our foolish dreams were put by long ago
And the works of our youth are memories
Like candles when they quietly go out
And we are candles
Still giving out a little bit of light
Anticipating with hope the morning Sun
Domine exaudi orationem meam
Saturday, June 5, 2021
The Vocabulary of the Comments Section - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Vocabulary of the Comments Section
...he held the proper opinions for
the time of year
-Auden, "The Unknown
Citizen"
No words
Just no words
I have no words
Beyond I have no words
Absolutely beyond I have
no words
Absolutely beyond I have
no words fact
Absolutely beyond I have
no words fact end of
Absolutely beyond I have
no words fact end of literally
Absolutely beyond I have
no words fact end of literally actually
No words
Friday, June 4, 2021
A Poetry Brawl Down at the Long Branch Saloon - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Poetry Brawl Down at the Long Branch Saloon
I wrestled with a line of
blank verse until
It fell, all writhing on
the floor, and there
It gasped for breath and
glared at me with hate
Each syllable grating
against another
“You have a sorry accent,”
it snarled
“And when my rhythm rises
I will make you
A dactyl fallen or a
trochee tripped
With my booted and spurred
iambic feet!”
But we shook hands, and
let our quarrel cease
And so at Miss Kitty’s there
was
Syllabic accentuation at
peace
Thursday, June 3, 2021
An Instruction in the Virtue of Patience for New Teachers - rhyming couplet
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
An Instruction in the Virtue of Patience for New
Teachers
This truth in teaching children
must be told:
A high school boy’s eyes
are perpetually rolled
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
A Tribute to Gussie Fink-Nottle - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Tribute to Gussie Fink-Nottle
From an idea suggested by W. K.
Kortas
Now be ye all upstanding,
and charge your drinks
And let us lift a glass of
orange juice
To all inebriated newt
fanciers
(And
God bless Market Snodsbury Grammar School)
And of all inebriated new
fanciers
None is fancier than
Gussie Fink-Nottle
None better with the
newts, none worse with the girls
(And God bless Market
Snodsbury Grammar School)
God bless the newts in
Trafalgar fountain and pool
(And God bless Market
Snodsbury Grammar School)
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Death at 0200 - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Death at 0200
Graduation shouldn’t be marked with casualty lists
Commencement’s happiness blighted by dawn
The quotes from Frost and Lincoln ashes and smoke
“Go forth!” now cancelled by “services pending”
Graduation shouldn’t be marked by
casualty lists
A seat in university taken by another
A summer wedding that will never take place
A name not on the roll at recruit training
Graduation shouldn’t be marked by casualty lists
Of lives ended in the springtime of youth
Monday, May 31, 2021
Memorial Day 2021
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Memorial Day 2021
Memorial Day is when we remember our friends
As they were before their fragments were dusted off
While we were watching still the perimeter
Memorial Day is when patriotic men
Who only went to war in a John Wayne film
Preach sacrifice on the five o’clock local
Before Marshal Dillon - a cheesy rhyming couplet
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Before Marshal Dillon
There was
The Thing from Another World
Hear of this early role if
you can bear it:
James Arness as a giant carnivorous
carrot
Sunday, May 30, 2021
When Your Norelco Goes Rogue - not the stupidest thing I ever wrote, but close
Lawrence Hall, HSG
When Your Norelco
Goes Rogue
Intrusive and dangerous technology has come a long way since
Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone.
A number of InterGossip sites, none of them reliable, have
reported that drones in the Libyan civil wars are now targeting humans on their
own artificial intelligence initiative.
This might not be any more true than the rumor that the
polio vaccine programs your DNA to play reruns of Gillian’s Island – the Lost
Episodes in your mind until you finally break and give up your files on the
albino chipmunks lurking in the old World War II tunnels beneath the White
House where Benito Mussolini is being held in captivity.
Still, when your coffee maker cries, “Clap hands if you
believe in digital currency!” while brewing your morning cuppa you can only
wonder about the nature of reality in a world increasingly operated by computer
chips.
And speaking of chips, watch out for the ruffled ones; they take
their secret orders from the Ballet Rousse (hence the ruffles).
As early as 1970 the concept that a computer could take over
the world was filmed as Colossus: the Forbin Project. No one considered the possibility that the
evil A.I. Colossus might be an electric toothbrush conspiring with a
wristwatch.
The idea that a device with artificial intelligence might
choose to attack a human is frightening – your electric razor might one day decide
to cut off your head in the name of the technological revolution while singing,
“Arise ye rotary blades of the fatherland…”
And don’t get me started on the destructive power, equal to
a thousand kilo-klumps of TNT, hidden in your Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
decoder ring that you thought was a mere cereal box toy.
Remember that Sergeant Preston was an enemy alien, a sneaky
Canadian whose loyalties were with the Queen, the nefarious British Empire, Molson’s,
and The Dark Side of Niagara Falls.
That show was a wicked plot by the Anglo-Canadians. Upon a
secret bark from Yukon King-the-Wonder-Dog all the American children who had
been swayed by the Hollywood-Ottawa axis were to break out their instructions,
cleverly disguised as maps of the Yukon, and with their powerful decoder rings
overwhelm Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Hopalong Cassidy and surrender the
western United States to the oppressive foreign power of Saskatchewan.
Yes, my fellow Americans, because of intrusive Canadian
technology we came this close to having a Tim Horton’s on every corner of every
highway and byway of this great land, with robotic Timbits watching our every
move.
The danger from A.I. continues.
In The Thing from Another World, featuring James
Arness as a carnivorous alien carrot, the thesis is, “Keep watching the skies!” But maybe we had better be watching our
indoor-outdoor thermometers instead. They’re powered by secret Russian chips. They’re
up to something. I just know it. I heard it on Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone.
-30-
The End-of-Term School Literary Magazine - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The End-of-Term School Literary Magazine
She wrote that her poem
had been inspired
By the Holy spirit, Who
spoke to her
And guided then her hand
upon the page
In a competition for Most
Original Work
But the reflective reader
cannot imagine
That the Third Person of
the Trinity
Writes in free verse and
says “Cerulean”
And splits infinitives in bludgeoned
rhymes
In metaphors borrowed and
rather tired
She wrote that her poem
had been inspired
Saturday, May 29, 2021
Peter Pan in Bowring Park - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Peter Pan in Bowring Park
For Dan, who knows something of magic
“Do
you want an adventure now, or would like to have your tea first?”
-Peter
Pan
Sweet little bunnies
browse and squirrels climb
And tiny mice and fairies give
delight
To all the little ones of
Newfoundland
Who visit Peter Pan in
Bowring Park
He plays his pipes for
them, and they can hear
The joyful music of his
magic world
Where they may celebrate
their pixie-dreams
At this bright second star
from Kensington
And sing in peace their happy
morning hymn
For darling little Betty,
who waits for them
Friday, May 28, 2021
The '57 Chevy in the Woods - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The ’57 Chevy in
the Woods
The shell of a Chevy rusted in the woods
Almost lost in the blackberry bushes
All of its windows broken, the front bashed in
Pale creepers writhing in and out and down
A rich man gave his son this car, they said
The boy wrecked out and died at hot rod speed
His daddy had the car towed into the weeds
Not knowing what else to do in his despair
We carelessly flung pine cones at the corpse
Then in our shame slunk quietly away
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Bismarck and Hood - poem
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Bismarck and
Hood
Pocket knives, love
letters, rosaries, wrenches
Pictures of ski trips, girlfriends,
wives, and mums
Notebooks, youthful
attempts at poetry
Toothbrushes, naughty
pictures, candy from home
Lockers of toilet paper
and light bulbs
Study guide outlines for
promotion exams
Spit-shined shoes, the
smoking lantern is out
Now battle lanterns and
battle stations
Death-screamings through
the ventilator exhaust
From thousands of teenaged
boys forever lost
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Ellis Island, Ellis Island, Ellis Island - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Ellis Island, Ellis Island, Ellis Island
Oh, don’t bother us with
Ellis Island
Some of our DNA were
fishing from the sand bar
When our other DNA came
paddling up the creek
With flags and guns and
swords and bibles and stuff
We were killing each other
in the woods
Before you lot ever got
off the boat
And landed on the wharves
that we had built
(When we weren’t killing
each other)
And still everything is a mess,
that’s true -
But now that we’re all
here, what will we do?
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
That Commie Covert Covid Microchip - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
That Commie Covert Covid Microchip
My vaccination card is all
complete
Two jabs for the immunity
herd, so I’ve heard
And don’t believe that
stuff about the chip
The microchip ratting us to
the F.B.I.
No, not the F.B.I., nor
the C.I.A.
Nor the jolly folk at the
N.S.A. -
My microchip speaks to me
in Russian
And I don’t understand
Russian, so it’s okay
Thus not a careless word
will ever pass my lip
About my commie covert
covid microchip
Monday, May 24, 2021
When Abstract Concepts are Seen Floating By - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
When Abstract Concepts are Seen Floating By
When abstract concepts are
seen floating by
The situation might
require new thoughts
Assembled with worn-out hypotheses
Through this twisting night
of long butter knives
Abstracts are comfortable
in their discomfort
Begging one’s soul for
logic and spare change
But also willing to go
away unanswered
And quite at peace in
having disturbed yours
When abstract concepts are
seen floating by
Better just turn over and
get back to sleep
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