Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Daily Lesson Plans
This day is part of our
assignment on earth -
I think I need to take
more careful notes
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Daily Lesson Plans - poem
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Delta Variant - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo…
They say (because there’s always
a “they” to say)
That a new variant has
come to harry us
With death, the fear of
death, the denial of death
Even along crowded
corridors of death
Where masses stumble over
war metaphors
In the torchlight of
perpetual outrage
While clenching fists and
chanting molossus shrieks
In their world lit only by
glowing screens
But you and I – we have our
garden to work
Children to raise, and poetry
to write
And God in Whom to trust
(Molossus
– the three-beat metre, not the dog)
(Grow up, get the jab, wear the mask, and don't yell at people.)
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
A Brief and Self-Indulgent Morning Offering - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Brief and Self-Indulgent Morning Offering
Dear Lord,
Thank you for this day
I ask you that I may
Pray it
Play it
And
Work it
Most to your pleasure
To the pleasure of those
whom I love
To the pleasure of
everyone I meet today
Rather more for me that
you did yesterday
(but we’ll say nothing more about that)
And nothing for Satan
‘Cause he’s an ass
Monday, July 19, 2021
Bob Newhart and the Treadmill of Sisyphus - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Bob Newhart and the Treadmill of Sisyphus
“Hi, Bob!”
Exercising While Watching Bob
Newhart
Several times each day I
roll myself up
The torturous treadmill of
Sisyphus
I am more of a marshmallow
than a rock
Which is the point of this
tiresome endeavor
Several times each day I
find myself back
At the foot of the
devilish device
To wheeze myself wheeze
step wheeze step wheeze step
To promised abs of steel
at the rainbow’s end
Dr. Hartley is on line one
because
Sometimes you need
A telephone call from your
driving instructor
Sunday, July 18, 2021
This Poem is Your Work Too (at least the good parts...)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
This Poem is Your Work Too
This poem is your work too;
you are its hope
Every poem is for the
reader who gives
The poem a mission in its words
and lines
A safe place to land, as
McKuen says
This poem is your work too;
you are its voice
So, please, dream it, breathe
it, build it, shape it
Into something you want or
need or love
Arrange it in a vase of
summer flowers
This poem is your work too,
a gift of caritas
Think it by lamplight;
play it in sunlight
After all, you are its
reason for being
Thank you
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Some Nights Around 0400 - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Some Nights Around
0400
Some nights around 0400
The silence calls you up for a dreamless dream
About your future and about your past
About that somenight when your dreams are done
The dancing figures of the flickering past
Figure across the pages of the night
Some as happy memories
Some in sorrowful rebuke
Your scope of activity is limited now
But what will you do in the morning?
Friday, July 16, 2021
Happy to be Bourgeoisie - doggerel
Lawrence
Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Happy to be Bourgeoisie
All
cozy in my clichéd’ atmosphere
With a
hammock beneath a backyard tree
And my
riding lawnmower and a can of beer:
I am
happy to be bourgeoisie, you see
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Because That's What Momma Would Have Wanted - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Because That’s
What Momma Would Have Wanted
We’re angry – Momma attended this church
Thirty years ago, and no one remembers
No rosary; we’re not Catholic, praise God
Not since we put Momma in the nursing home
We’re angry – the priest shoulda remembered her
Even if he wasn’t even here then, and no music
Because that’s pagan; just get it over quick
And then let’s get on to the cemetery
We’re angry - just a damn’ Cath’lic service, okay?
Because that’s what Momma would have wanted
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Dressers of Sycamores - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Dressers of Sycamores
“I am a herdsman and a dresser of
sycamores”
-Amos 7:14
Amos speaks blunt truth in
humility
And being commanded from
the fields to the roads
To remind us of our duties
to God and His People
Is a disruption, not a
promotion
We all dress sycamores in our
own ways:
Carrying groceries,
tending the sick
Plowing a field, repairing
a broken truck
Mending a fence, taking a
child to school
We should listen to Amos
and to ourselves
For our service is noble
if for the King
Monday, July 12, 2021
If Everyone is an Iconoclast - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
If Everyone is an Iconoclast, Then There are no
Iconoclasts
They pose as ever-bold
iconoclasts
Though they never met an
iconophile
And do they even know what
an icon is?
Icons are flat;
iconoclasts are flatter
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Time is But the Livestream I go a-programming In - weekly column
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Time is But the
Livestream I go a-programming In
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
-Thoreau
Someone near and dear to my pancreas gave (“gifted” is not
a verb) me one of those clever aluminum MeWatches that claim to make one’s life
more interesting in many ways and which come without any instructions because
not sending instructions with a product is such a cool thing now.
Thus, I pensioned off my old $10 Timex which, like
Jeeves, served its owner discreetly and professionally, and took up a
temperamental Sloane Square bit of art that lights up and makes noises whenever
it can be coaxed into doing so.
Even as I type I am looking look at the bit of art which shows
the time adjacent to an assemblage of curved lines in red, green, and blue. Or
bleu. One of those lines is said to tell me how many calories I have burned
today, another how much strenuous exercise I have taken, and the thirds how
much time I have stood, but I don’t which line is which and there any scales or
frames of reference.
But it’s pretty.
The watch will not work without bonding spiritually with
my MePhone. When I attempted to preside at the wedding the MeWatch said that
the MePhone wouldn’t do and refused to take vows until the MePhone was updated.
One of the household stayed up much of the night with Harry
Potter movies and the MePhone while a
creeping line, cosmically tethered to the InterGossip, slowly, slowly indicated
that the MePhone’s enneagrams or ouijas or something were making tenuous
contact with The Great Beyond.
Upon arising with the dawn I discovered that the MeWatch
and the MePhone had made peace overnight, and I passed a few hours presiding
over their union with frequent references to the Gospel apps according to the
InterGossip.
The MeWatch tells me the time now. It also says the temp
is 80 (which appears to be so) and that the day is fair. I don’t know what “fair”
means in MeWatchSpeak; the day is dark and grey and gaspingly damp, and flings intermittent
rains upon the sodden earth.
When I push a little “heart” thingie the MeWatch tells me
my pulse is 90, but no, it’s 70, but no again, it’s 85, but no yet again it’s
110, all within a few seconds, and I haven’t moved.
When I push something else some tiny print tells me that
I can swap out the confusing dial for dozens of other confusing dials.
When I push the figure of a runner the MePhone tells me
that I have taken 11 minutes and thirty-four seconds to walk 391 feet, when in
fact all I have done in that time is sit at the glowing screen of the
Abominable Autoscribe (cf. A Canticle for Leibowitz).
I touched the screen a few minutes ago and the MeWatch said,
“Time to stand! Stand up and move a little for one minute.”
And I obeyed The Machine and did so.
Now it says “You did it! You’ve earned another hour
toward your stand goal.”
Do I get a ribbon for that? Or a gentle pat on my frontal
lobe?
Thoreau’s concept of time is much better ours – to go fishing
and not think about time at all.
I wonder if this shiny MeWatch would make a good fishing
lure?
But the MeWatch is made in
The-Country-That-Must-Not-Be-Named, and is probably full of toxins. It looks
pretty, though; I’ll leave it on my wrist.
-30-
A Bouncing Baby Hyphen - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Bouncing Baby Hyphen
Tiffany-Cherise
Snark-Ponsonby (Tiffy)
And Terence-Rock Smith-Hoogerwerf
(Rocky)
Married and hyphenated
their hyphens
And made sweet hyphen in
hymeneal bliss
And as these things
happen, their hyphen was blessed
The old women of the
parish counted the hyphens
To see if nine or fewer
hyphens had passed
When Tiffy-Rocky were
blessed with a beautiful hyphen
At the baptism they
sprinkled in some apostrophes
For their daughter, Su’mm’er-D’awn-A’pril-Bre’eze
(Who was born in February)
Friday, July 9, 2021
When is a Man Ripe for Harvesting? - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
When is a Man Ripe for Harvesting?
Sunflowers are easy enough
– the petals turn brown
And the base is yellow, or
better yet
When in the heat of summer
birds and squirrels
Present themselves in your
garden as dinner guests
But humans, now – that’s a
bit trickier
It would be most undignified
to be eaten
And pills and electrocardiograms
Are even more undignified
in their own ways
Autumn would be better, on
a golden day
Yes, autumn, bright autumn
when the geese are
calling
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
An Edict Against Thinking - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Brandeis University Promulgates an Edict Against
Thinking
“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood
and
fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education,
the
remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
-Justice Brandeis, 1927
Addict homeless person
prostitute you guys
Rule of thumb picnic
wife-beater trigger
Warning disabled victim
survivor
Lame freshman spirit
animal insane
Because
Potentially oppressive
language gender
Exclusive ableist culturally
appropriative
Terminology reinforce
systems of violence
Identity-based language
gender binary
Brandeis teaches a language
of fear -
Scary enough at $60,000 a
year!
Justice Brandeis on freedom of speech
(bureaubrandeis.com)
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Bagram Air Base - Under New Management
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Bagram Air Base
(Under New
Management)
Shelley was Right
I met a veteran from an antique land,
Who said – “A looted fortress of concrete
Stands in the desert...Near it, on the sand,
Half sunk lies a computerized spreadsheet
Whose clever numbers and totaled-up tallies
Tell that our keyboard commanders well read
The shifting winds in political rallies
(Never mind an accurate count of the dead)
And on the side of a wrecked deuce-and-a-half:
My name is Builder of Democracies;
Look upon my Works, ye Mighty – and laugh!
The well-built airbase remains yet today
To that colossal base still standing there
The Chinese army speeds from far away.”
Monday, July 5, 2021
When the Rescuers Stood Down - as a weekly column
Lawrence Hall, HSG
When the Rescuers
Stood Down
When the rescuers in
Surfside, Florida were ordered to stand down last Saturday night they left their
prayers, their desperate hopes, and their bitter tears upon those troubled
rocks where they had poured out their love. They poured out their very selves
in searching for the living and for the lost. After they were commanded to back
away so that the explosives for demolition could be placed, they were empty for
a time.
The unfallen parts of the
building were unstable and could have fallen at any moment. Even so, the search
and rescue squads worked under the shadow of that menace for ten days and
nights. With the coming tropical storm and its strong winds a difficult but
necessary decision was made to pull them off the line and reduce the remnants
in a controlled fashion.
What was left was brought
down late Sunday night: concrete and steel, toys and dolls, Mama’s pictures, kindergarten
art made from beans glued to paper, letters from friends, ‘phones that won’t
ring anymore, high school yearbooks, shopping lists, hiking boots, crucifixes,
menorahs, eyeglasses, that lost sock behind the washing machine, souvenir
coffee mugs from vacation trips, fountain pens, walking sticks, all that toilet
paper stored in the covid-time, the apple pie in the refrigerator, lesson
plans, books, spare change, Army medals, clocks, thermometers, flashlights, beach
towels, flip-flops, concert tickets, keys to doors that will never again be
opened to friends, unfinished poems, and unfinished lives.
As soon the explosions were
over, the building fully down, and the smoke blown away by the wind, the
rescuers returned through the floodlights to search those desolate hills of
rubble because their hearts are in that wreckage. They will not leave anyone
behind. They are first responders. That is what they do. That is who they are.
Have not I commanded
thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed:
for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
-Joshua
1:9
-30-
The Land of We'll Get Right on It - Songs of My People
Lawrence
Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Land of We’ll Get Right on It
–
Songs of My People
You
are a valued customer
No
public restrooms
We
don’t carry parts for that
Restrooms
out of order
We’ll be
out to make a bid tomorrow morning
No
public restrooms
We’ll have
your mower fixed this week
Restrooms
out of order
Our driver
couldn’t find your house
No
public restrooms
Your call
is very important to us
Restrooms
out of order
My
best mechanic ran off with my wife
No
public restrooms
Our service
tech will be there between eight and four
Restrooms
out of order
Our next
representative will be with you shortly
No
public restrooms
Click…if…buzz…you…know…brrrt…your…click…party’s…buzz…extension…
Restrooms
out of order
We’ll
call you just as soon as it’s ready
No
public restrooms
The
pump reader doesn’t work; I’ll just take your credit card inside
Restrooms
out of order
All
our representatives are busy right now
No
public restrooms
Our
Monday Hours are 9-11 and 1-3
Restrooms
out of order
Your
security question is…
No
public restrooms
It’s
$250 just to take the dashboard off for a look
Restrooms
out of order
I
charge $75 an hour starting as soon as I drive out of the shop
No
public restrooms
Our
breakfast menu ended at 9
Restrooms
out of order
I’m
just not going to make it this morning, but I’ll be there tomorrow
No
public restrooms
I need
you to unplug the modem and look for…
Restrooms
out of order
I’ll
have to call you back, honey, there’s a customer (sigh)
No
public restrooms
We
don’t work on that model
We
don’t work on Saturdays
We
don’t work
Closed
for Emergency
Closed
for Lunch
Closed
Sunday, July 4, 2021
When the Rescuers Stood Down - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
When the Rescuers Stood Down
Surfside, Florida
When the rescuers stood down
last night they left
Their prayers, their
desperate hopes, their bitter tears
Upon those troubled rocks where
they poured out love
They poured themselves,
and they are empty now
What’s left must soon come
down:
Concrete and steel, toys
and dolls, Mama’s pictures
Letters from friends, ‘phones
that won’t ring anymore
Eyeglasses, fountain pens,
lesson plans, books
Spare change, unfinished
poems, unfinished lives
The rescuers will return,
and try again
Because their hearts are
in that wreckage still
Friday, July 2, 2021
So, Newsreaders on National Public Radio, So, Like - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
So, Newsreaders on National Public Radio, So, Like
Dear NPR Newsreaders:
You don’t have to begin most
stories with “So”
Nor
the rest of the reports with “So, like”
You could begin with a useful
noun, you know
And speak professionally
into that open mike
Thursday, July 1, 2021
Scheduled Maintenance - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Scheduled Maintenance
Electrical mails and
postcards announce
That my
Dog
Roof
Car
Air-conditioner
Heart
Colon
Eyes
Are due for routine
checkup and maintenance
The dog is fitted with a
muzzle for her exam
My colon isn’t so lucky
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