Monday, June 27, 2022

The Narthex as a Barricade - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

The Narthex as a Barricade

 

I have become a greeter in my old age

(Why is that pickup truck circling the parking lot?)

How good to see you! What happy children you have!

(Any bulges in that unknown man’s pockets?)

 

The Altar servers are in place for the processional

(Why is that man just sitting in that car?)

The lector gives everyone a word of welcome

(Pssst – do you know that guy sitting in the back?)

 

I open doors and hand out bulletins

And watch

Sunday, June 26, 2022

To Please Her Man - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

To Please Her Man

 

She underwent the stomach-stapling knife

To please her man, to tighten her tummy and cheeks

While in recovery she bled out her life

He married his girlfriend within a few weeks

Saturday, June 25, 2022

The Pale Lady of the Well - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

The Pale Lady of the Well

 

I am mostly English, which is now uncool

And my soupcon of West African genes

Along with a whiff of Russia and First Nations

Protest Northumbria and East Anglia

 

But when outside at dusk with poetry and pipe

And a whisper of single-malt offered to the earth

Sometimes I seem to see visions proper to a Celt

And hear soft songs from the dawn of time

 

How is it that an Englishman can still

Sense the White Lady near the well at dusk

Friday, June 24, 2022

At Noon, After Mowing - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

At Noon, After Mowing

 

I sat in the shade and mended a hose

A water hose whose fittings had parted ways

And on the grass some mockingbirds and jays

Argued and shrilled – but why? Nobody knows

 

I cut away the plastic (hecho en China)

And fitted brass (hecho en Mexico)

For repairs that is the best way to go

To make a hose secure – what could be finer?

 

And what could be finer than to sit a while

In the dreaming shade? Yes, that’s my style!

The Lawnmower Man - poem with hammers

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

The Lawnmower Man

 

He came at last, with pickup truck and tools

And for some two hours there was hammering:

Bang! Bang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! (Dang!)

(Dang!) Bang! Bang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang!

 

And then he went to the store for a bigger hammer:

Bang! Bang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! (Dang!)

(Dang!) Bang! Bang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! (Dang!)

 

Heat, humidity, grease, the wrong wrench

The grease gun’s empty the wrong hex key

Dead battery, no brake spring maybe next week

 

The evening was concluded with a lecture

On the wonderfulness of Donald Trump



(In the event the lawnmower runs fine now)

Thursday, June 23, 2022

We Know Where You RINO Traitors Live - doggerel

 

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

We Know Where You RINO Traitors Live


Some Christians by a newer word seem to abide:

For they preach Trump, and Him crucified




(As Charles Spurgeon did not say)

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

The Morning Radio Guy Turns Himself Off - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

The Morning Radio Guy Turns Himself Off

 

He was much of my mornings for years

His news, his jokes, his notes, his anecdotes

His affirmation of the goodness of man

Began each day with good humor and wit

 

But now he brandishes the radio waves

Like an old man threatening with his cane

By-Godding both the future and the past

Trapped forever in a 6th of January

 

Poor man! All he does now is scorn and scoff -

It’s like he’s turned his own radio off

Monday, June 20, 2022

The Metternich System - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

The Metternich System

 

Like Metternich

We seem to be shoring up crumbling institutions

Institutions that have no use for us:

Heavy-lipped Habsburgs, an ossified Church

 

Like Metternich

We ask if the revolutionaries have permission

To murder each other for the Goddess Reason

While princes and oligarchs flee for their lives

 

Like Metternich

We wonder if Napoleon won after all

Sunday, June 19, 2022

CLASS OF 2022!!!!! - free clothes and groceries Tuesdays and Thursdays

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

CLASS OF 2022!!!!!!

 

“CLASS OF 2022!!!!!” is still painted on his pickup truck

Which is parked in front of Christian Outreach

Free food and clothes on Tuesdays and Thursdays

He’s got his MePhone and a box of stuff

 

And some accuse the young of not planning for their future

Midsummer Sunflowers - weekly column, 19 June 2022

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Midsummer Sunflowers

 

Colonel von Luger: “Fliers are gentlemen, not peasants to dig in the earth.”

 

Group Captain Ramsey: “The English have always been very keen on gardening.”

 

Von Luger: “Yes, but flowers. Is this not so?”

 

Ramsey: “You can’t eat flowers, colonel.”

 

-The Great Escape (1963)

 

But of course the seeds of some flowers are edible. Now that we are at the summer solstice the sunflowers are ripening quickly. Mine are a great success, the third crop of native American sunflowers I planted last year. The package I bought from CowCreek.Com (or something like that) contained 15 or so different varieties of real sunflowers in all sorts of colors, presumably much as the First Nations cultivated them.

 

I planted zinnias, the spouse-person’s favorites, in a parallel plot but they and the sunflowers have become great friends and share the patch. They have required lots of watering this year, but together the sunflowers, zinnias, and to a lesser extent the tomatoes make a colorful show. The peppers gave it up early.

 

Even now the sunflower heads are maturing into seeds and in the next week or so – I don’t want to rush them – I will begin harvesting them and storing them in the refrigerator in paper bags. The birds will certainly enjoy a feast, but many seeds will fall to the ground for the second crop. When both the sunflowers and zinnias are pretty much gone in July I will mow everything down and then simply wait for the second crop. Unless there is an early freeze that second crop will be just as beautiful when autumn comes.

 

The bees are happy and I have a fine crop of tree frogs, very useful little creatures and reportedly reliable biological markers: if you have bees and tree frogs you have good air, soil, and water.

 

This week is the summer solstice, also observed on St. John’s Day, which is also known as Midsummer Day.  The eggheads time the arrival of summer to the hour, although any schoolchild knows that the first day of summer is the first day after school lets out. Functionally this week is midsummer, when the sun is at its apogee and the daylight hours at their longest. Our nifty little solar system will slowly, slowly begin altering the courses of the planets and navigating toward the winter solstice and the Nativity six months from now.

 

The ancients sorted all this out with their observations of stars and shadows and the Great Dance (C. S. Lewis) of the planets from pyramids and ziggurats in the Middle East and stones planted on Salisbury Plain. We don’t have to eyeball the sunlight through Stonehenge or climb a roof in Israel to track the stars; all we need do is call up one of the weather applications on our MePhones to note the changes.

 

Just now a cold front would be the most welcome seasonal marker of all.

 

And Colonel von Luger was wrong: gentlemen dig in the earth.

 

-30-

 

Saturday, June 18, 2022

The Day Internet Explorer Died - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

The Day Internet Explorer Died

 

Our gadgets from the store, all shiny and new

The subjects of our brags and anecdotes

Are soon held together with Scotch tape and glue

And covered with coffee stains and sticky-notes

 

Codings and software must also decay

Metaphorical patches fall apart

They too enjoy only a limited day

Thus the limits of electronic art

 

To our own end, yes, we eventually toddle -

To be replaced by the latest model!

Friday, June 17, 2022

Like Love Withdrawn - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

Like Love Withdrawn

 

After months of dreary drought and heat

Light raindrops fall upon the withered world

A few, a very few, and then they stop

Like love withdrawn upon waking from a dream

 

At dusk the paving into dryness steams

Only the hot and heavy air is wet

And smells of disappointment, dark and sour

Like love withdrawn upon waking from a dream

 

The westering sun shines briefly, and then is gone

Like love withdrawn upon waking from a dream

Thursday, June 16, 2022

The True Believer Fondles His Piece - doggerel

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

The True Believer Fondles His Piece

 

He cleans his AR with his little rod

And screams that Trump is his daddy-god




("Piece," of course, refers to a firearm. In a free society the reader may interpret it otherwise.)

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

The Stillness of the Summer Solstice - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

The Stillness of the Summer Solstice

 

I picked a few plums in the summer heat

Some withered apples in the summer heat

A bouquet of zinnias in the summer heat

The figs still green in the summer heat

 

I gathered blueberries in the summer heat

I dragged water hoses in the summer heat

I mowed the lawns in the summer heat

I fed the hummingbirds in the summer heat

 

Summer is the season that seems to stand still

And I don’t

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Cemeteries are Dangerous Places - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

Cemeteries are Dangerous Places

 

“The dead with charity enclosed in clay”

 

-Henry V, IV.viii.119

 

A friend wanted to visit the bones of her people

And give their graves some weed-killer and tending

I was deputed to follow along:

Cemeteries are dangerous places

 

The cicadas droned through the midday heat

While respectful dust covered the leaves

And my pistol remained discreetly pocketed:

Cemeteries are dangerous places

 

You never know if you’ll end up in one:

Cemeteries are dangerous places

Monday, June 13, 2022

Assault Speeches - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

Assault Speeches

 

Demanding answers speeches outrage speeches

Taping stuffed toys to chain-link fences speeches

Candles speeches makeshift shrines speeches sermons

Speeches asking questions speeches antisocial media

 

Postings speeches yelling speeches no words

Speeches just no words speeches beyond

An open letter to speeches horrific speeches

No gun zone speeches AR-15 style

 

Speeches legally speeches well-regulated

Speeches why didn’t someone speeches assault rifle

Speeches it’s not an assault rifle speeches

Assault rifle speeches it’s not an assault rifle

 

Speeches assault rifle speeches it’s not

An assault rifle speeches speeches speeches

Sunday, June 12, 2022

The Rock Upon Which New York is Built - weekly column, 12 June 2022

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

The Rock Upon Which New York is Built

 

His Honor Eric Adams, Mayor of New York, is into magic rocks and crystals, part of the reiki / chakra / ouija / enneagram / pyramid world of self-obsessed low-prole fantasy that would embarrass a sixth-grader.

 

His bracelet of little stones was noticed when he ran for office, but the assumption was that these were but ornaments – the mayor is a man of fashion. Someone mentioned that one of the stones was from West Africa, and that’s certainly a nice thing, a connection with one’s ancestral homeland.

 

But apparently, according to several sources (hey, they’re on the InterGossip; they must be true, right?), the mayor believes that different rocks and crystals possess special powers. One stone is for healing, another for protection, another for peace, and so on, all rather Harry Potter-ish.

 

And this is surprising in a grown man with a solid (maybe even rock-solid) background: his father was a butcher and, sadly, an alcoholic. His mother cleaned houses. He was something of a street tough and was arrested for criminal mischief, doing a few days in juvy and then probation. A police officer and a minister appealed to his better self, and young Eric finished high school, worked different jobs to pay his way through community college and then a B.A. in criminal justice and a Master’s in Public Administration. He joined the New York Police Department as a street cop, retiring as a captain after twenty years to go into politics.

 

His life and hard work are an inspiration, and suggest a man grounded in reality, and yet the bit about the rocks and crystals and the spiritual influence of the rock strata on which New York is built are disturbing. Eric Adams is mayor of New York City and thus the leader of one of the most powerful leaders in the world. If New York were its own nation its economy would be larger than that of most nations.

 

According to the (Countries With A Bigger GDP Than New York - WorldAtlas), only China, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Brazil, and Canada have larger economies than New York City.

 

Last autumn the people of New York put their great economy into the hands of Eric Adams, so, yes, the illogic of his belief in rocks and crystals is at least curious if not worrisome.

 

Whatever Eric Adams does is not a local issue; it impacts all of us. Let us hope he does not forget where he came from, his parents’ hard work, the beat cop and the minister who saw something in him others did not, and those long shifts patrolling the subways and the streets in service to the people.

 

The mayor thinks New York gets ‘special energy’ from crystals. Is he right? | Life and style | The Guardian

 

Mayor Eric Adams believes NYC is filled with 'special energy' because of mysterious stones | Daily Mail Online

 

The New Identity Politics of Eric Adams - POLITICO

 

-30-

For the Cranky Old Man Who Complains About Girls Wearing Short Skirts in Church - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

For the Cranky Old Man Who Complains

About Girls Wearing Short Skirts in Church

 

If it were a crime to be young and pretty

The kids could be up for the death penalty

 

If it were a crime to be young and pretty

The case against you would be adjourned sine die

Saturday, June 11, 2022

This is Texas - poem

 

This is Texas

 

This is Texas

 

Where books are banned

And weapons are not

Where we pray for our land

And our children are shot

Friday, June 10, 2022

A Grim Quatrain on Mortality

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

A Grim Quatrain on Mortality

 

A dog sees birds with its malevolent eyes

And puts the poor feathered creatures to rout

But one day in the field the old dog dies -

The poor birds then will have the dog’s eyes out




(I blame the heat. And fluoride. And George Bush. And public schools. And the mysterious crystals beneath New York City. And the Mormons. And th' Cath'lics. And the Masons. And France. And the Commie spy chips implanted in us with the Covid vaccine. And the hamsterpox. And rock 'n' roll.)