Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Censorship by the
Proletariat
There is a topic in the news today
Most worthy of a throw-away line
But in our cultural lockdown there is no way
To share a joke, however benign
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Trousers, Gentlemen, Trousers!
“There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, 'Do
trousers matter?'"
"The mood will pass, sir.”
― P.G.
Wodehouse, The Code of
the Woosters
Had you visited the post
office today
You might have heard an
elderly man say
(After opening his
newspaper, by the way)
“Trousers,
gentlemen, trousers”
For there in black and
white, on the front page
Was pictured each and
every schoolboard sage
Attired in shorts, in
deference to the age
“Trousers, gentlemen,
trousers”
While one appreciates our volunteers
Who serve our schools for free
(let’s give them cheers)
The vision of old men’s legs
must lead to jeers
Their veined and wrinkled knees
– is this a tease?
“Trousers, gentlemen,
trousers – please!”
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
OMG! It’s the Most
Agonizing Awful Pain Ever!!!!!!!!!
(Have you got an aspirin?)
Unless it involves writhing on the floor
(Or another appropriate surface)
Feeding the ducks, explosions behind the eyes
Flailing at the end of a cosmic centrifuge
Shrieking in pain hearing a butterfly
Floating around some twenty miles away
Grasping at bottles of futile agony pills
And begging for a merciful end to life
Unless it’s all of these, and sometimes more -
It’s not a migraine
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Children's Back Yard
Museum of Art
Children are the truest arbiters of art
Finding beauty in the unlikeliest things:
A bottle cap, a rusted auto part
Metal washers, broken glass, cigar rings
A discarded knife with a broken blade
One dime-store earring with one rhinestone
A greenish bit of plastic – can it be jade?
And a real-life, genuine dinosaur bone!
Art nicely displayed along the fence row -
Adults think it just junk, but what do they know?
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Every Day is
Poetry Day, But Sometimes…
I dunno; is life getting in the way?
Some days the gods, the fates, the little elves
Are fiercely determined to part you from your words
That you must not encounter books or thoughts
(Even the little notebook in your pocket)
But only the vacuum cleaner, the crescent wrench
The washing machine, the cows, the dogs, the lawn
The daily round of crises, duties, and chores -
And maybe only a few lines read at lunch
(Because you always have a book at hand)
A few lines scribbled at the end of the day
Well, they will have to do – whaddaya say?
(Busting a sweat makes you a better writer)
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Treadmills,
Exercise, Open Cars, Champagne, and Cigars
The panther-like litheness of my youth (cough) long ago expanded
into the, oh, prosperous look of Chaucer’s merchant, and so I have gotten into
the excellent but Calvinistic habit of well, treading along a treadmill every
day. That’s what you do on treadmills; you tread. The treadmill upon which I
tread is inside in the air-conditioning and under a ceiling fan, so there is
little chance of me being run over by some of the race cars here along Beer Can
Road and County Dump Extension.
Some people find exercise invigorating. I find it
tedious.
My old…um…legacy treadmill was pretty flashy in its time,
with red crystal lights telling me what speed I have chosen, how far I’ve wheezed…um,
walked…how many calories I’ve burned, and how long I’ve been a good lad each
session.
Tedious.
Television ads now show us show modern, high-tuned
machines that are so ‘way cool that they are not even called treadmills. Treadmill
– so declasse’. Sniff. They are given brand names that are just noise-labels,
like some cars, and feature computerized Orwellian telescreens with moving
pictures of different roads you can pretend to run on and with some really buff
athletes yelling cliches at you:
“C’MON; YOU CAN DO IT! YOU’VE GOT THIS! JUST A LITTLE
MORE! KEEP GOING! PUSH YOURSELF HARDER! DARE TO BE GREAT! YOU’RE RUNNING TO THE
FUTURE!”
And blah, blah, blah.
Nevertheless, she persisted with cliches on the sides of
made-in-China coffee cups.
If you’re going to exercise, do you really need or want
someone yelling bogus recorded slogans and abuse at you?
Someone who likes being yelled at while running might
want join the Army, Marines, or Navy. I was in the Navy and occasionally we did
time with the Marines, much to the embarrassment of the Marines, so there was
twice the verbal abuse while exercising.
If my mama could have heard some of the vulgar things the
mean old CPO and the mean old sergeant yelled at us she would have had some
choice words of her own to say to them, and they would have felt pretty darned silly,
yessir.
I have set before my, oh, heritage treadmill a television
set. While treading the road of life I watch DVDs of The Bob Newhart Show.
There isn’t much yelling, and although Bob and Emily occasionally jog or play a
little tennis, that’s about it.
In Chicago today, of course, Bob would get LOTS more
exercise in dodging the gunfire. Let’s call it nation-building.
In a scene from Chariots of Fire the candidates
for the Olympics jog down a country road as their friends in the pace car smoke
cigars and drink champagne while urging them on.
Now that’s the kind of exercise I can go for. No, no, not the running, the riding around in
an open car smoking cigars and drinking champagne.
-30-
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
I Don’t Miss Working on the Farm
The hay balers
are out early in the fields
Headlights
outshining late September stars
The din of diesel
engines shaking the world
I don’t miss
working on the farm at all
The operator smoking
a cigarette
While his
sunburnt old hands wrestle the machine
His khakis and chambray
shirt already wet
I don’t miss
working on the farm at all
Yep, laboring in
the fields from can ‘til can’t -
I don’t miss
working on the farm at all
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Is William Shatner
Going to Deliver my Overdue Book from Amazon?
-William Shatner is reportedly going to space in Jeff Bezos’
civilian space rocket | The Independent
Shipped with USPS Now expected
September 24 - September 25
We’re very sorry your delivery
is late. Most late packages arrive in a
day.
If
you have not received your package by
September
25, you can come back here
the
next day for a refund or replacement.
Tracking ID: 9341989671004370746008
Wednesday, September 22 2:37 AM
Package left an Amazon facility.
Humble, TEXAS US 12:58 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Humble, TX US Tuesday, September 21
11:30 AM Package arrived
at an Amazon facility. Humble, TEXAS US
Carrier picked up the package.
Times are shown in the local timezone.
Lawrence
Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Enter a Password
Your
password must consist of at least nine
letters
and three numbers three of the letters
must
be capitalized and two must be
underlined
however while one of the
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the
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must
be small letters but none of the numbers
is to
be underlined you must include
at
least one specialty key but no more
than
four and the password must not be entered
under
a full moon or within three days
of
Michaelmas either way we’re sorry
your
time has expired please exit this window
and
then re-submit but not the same password
you
entered before
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
An Hour with Dachshunds and Keats
The first day of
autumn – surprisingly cool
In this almost
tropical latitude
So after a day of
working outside
I sat with Keats
before a brushy fire
As is my custom I
read his “Ode to Autumn”
With a tumbler of
– lemonade – to hand
While the little
fire sang its own kind of song
And the dachshunds
snuffled among the leaves
The first day of
autumn – surprisingly cool
And in her rising
the Evening Star blesses us
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
“Lawrence’s Apple
Watch is Fully Charged”
Oh, sure, the MePhone is pleased to say that now
But long before the day spins down the watch
Percentages add up to little and so
I must find the magnetic sticky thing
The charger and the watch embrace with passion
You can almost see the electricity
That sparks their one-ness and their holy bond
Leaving my wrist empty and timeless for a time
“Lawrence’s Apple Watch is fully charged”
But reluctant to leave its charger for long
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
My Garage Sale
One-Dollar Mister Spock Clock
All stern he is, in science department blue
Behind the clear face of an old-fashioned clock
An hour hand, a minute hand, a sweep hand too
Orbiting around our wise Mister Spock
Behind his back a motor, made in Taiwan
Powered by a double-A Duracell
Counts the minutes and hours as they drag on
(There is no dilithium fuel cell)
Spock scans for me the starndate, no fuss at all
Always at his post on my office wall
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
On Teaching Jean
Anouilh’s Becket to High School Seniors
Beginning with the film
1st student young person on the roll
sheet: “Is that th' pope?”
2nd student young person on the roll sheet: “I’d like to shoot
that old pope.”
We have a lot of work ahead of us
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Love Against Chaos
Chaos - when a child doesn’t have a bed for sleep
Good meals for nourishment, peace every day
Books of her very own to read and keep
Parents and friends, a few toys for play -
But when you make a child safe and warm for the night
And give her breakfast at the family table
Daily lessons for instruction and delight
A few easy chores, as far as she is able
And all in a home ruled with blessings and love
You give that child a happy life
And
you give Chaos a shove
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
To Oaf Qweepers and Such
In your made-in-China cheap
camouflage
A forty-four strapped to each
forty-six waist
You fast-food waddle and
wheeze along the streets
Waving your Pepe and
Confederate flags
Playing
at movie soldiers yet again
With other aging oafs in
beards and tats
And yelping at people who work
for a living
While you parasites just stink
up the place
The rest of us are trying
to build a nation
So
Get out of the way
Go home
And fondle your director’s
cut of Patton
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Death of Our
Old Hippie Truck Driver
For Brian, of Happy Memory
For every star that falls to earth a
new one glows.
For every dream that fades away a new one grows.
-Rod McKuen
Suddenly there was cancer eating away
At what was left of his star and his dreams
That second star to the right was suddenly closer
And we can’t know what that far shore is like
But he had often seen the rainbow’s end
Shining across the windshield of his rig
Over his mountains and his magic lands
Interstates according to Peter Max
For years he rolled to the beat of ‘68 -
No more runs, now; his logbook’s up to date
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Edgar Allan Poe
Takes a Selfie and I Take an Antihistamine
Quoth the critic:
No one’s ravin’ y’know
Something about a bird – maybe a crow?
Lenore married a physicist on the go
Plutonium shore, not Plutonian (oh!)
Quoth the critic:
No more her beau
She kept the cage, but gave the bird to Poe
Anyway, the scientist’s name is Moe
She says his nuclear fission makes her glow
Quoth the critic:
Let’s
end this show
(Antihistamines – I shoulda said no)
(‘Choo!)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
For the Good of
the Republic
To the Caesars and their Generals
(But not to the Senate; they have made themselves
irrelevant)
Illustris:
You have medals and money and country estates
Book deals and bank accounts and pleasure gardens
You can retire in soft luxury now -
Your military contractors have seen to that
The Rubicon is ruby with your soldiers’ blood
And the Tiber is stopped with the loyal dead
Who fell upon your sword-sharp signatures -
And now you conspire against each other
You have done enough; go home to your musicians
Your receptions, your hunting parties, your…wives
You could pray for the dead
But you won’t
Still,
If you love your nation you will not meet
At the Milvian Bridge
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
You are a
Solitaire
A generation cannot choose to be lost
Even though many might give up on life
Sulk in self-pity in a crowded space
As if no one ever suffered before
But trust yourself to make a stronger choice
Refuse to be defined except by you
Consider the teachings of the wise, not the loud
And build your life by the standards you set
For after all, you are not a generation -
You are your own creative, industrious self
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Paying the
Electric Bill to a Tattooed Arm
In the August-hot, exhaust-fumed drive-through
Summer-sun glare against the window glass
Armored against robbers and customers
Who might want to steal electricity in person
Through the glass one can see a slender arm
And a shift in the light shows it to be
All splotchy in decaying reds, greens, and blues
Seemingly covered in a foul tropical blight
The window slides open to a beautiful smile
The corpse-like arm pushes out
God
Beauty
A receipt
