Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
.553 / Free to Be
/ Dead, You See
When this weapon blows a child’s head off
Don’t worry about that trifle
For the AR technically
Is not an assault rifle
Saturday, August 13, 2022
.553 / Free to Be / Dead, You See - doggerel
Friday, August 12, 2022
Breakfast in Constantinople - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Breakfast in
Constantinople
The waitress greeted us in Saint Petersburg
We drank strong coffee in Alexandria
Our omelets were served in Cambridgeshire
As we gossiped in the narthex of Hagia Sophia
We briefly sat in the halls of Congress and idled
And said good morning to Shelley and Keats
We admonished die Rheintochter to behave
themselves
But they ignored us and flirted with some sailors
What fun in table-talk as the day begins -
There’s nothing more joyful than breakfast with friends!
Thursday, August 11, 2022
A Rosary of Childhood Summers - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Rosary of
Childhood Summers
“And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”
-Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
Between infancy and adolescence
Ten summers form a crown of memories
An Eden of bare feet and ice cream bars
That inform the dreams of our after-years
Each day is its own rosary of life
Those works and books and thoughts and ordinary chores
That with their attendant offerings and prayers
Give meaning to the mysteries of life
But we tell best those holy beads of youth
Whose innocent joys began our search for Truth
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Opposite the House of Sculptures - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Opposite the House
of Sculptures
“…unchanging,
shrill, crazy exclamations and demands, which became progressively more
impractical, meaningless, and unfulfillable…”
-Doctor Zhivago, Part Two, Chapter 13, “Opposite
the House of Sculptures”
O strong man, strong man, Supremo Alpha-Weenie
Please be our Putin, Hitler, or Mussolini
O strong man, strong man; tell us what to think
Pour us some Jim Jones; we’ll take a real deep drink
O strong man, strong man; tell us what to do
We’ll happily go to prison just for you
O strong man, strong man; clench your mighty fist
You put for us the “GO” in your “jingoist”
O strong man, strong man, you are our latest god
Please break us to obedience with your mighty rod
O strong man, strong man, you are our highest law
Whatever dribbles from your mouth we listen in awe
O strong man, strong man, we are your little elves
We promise to stow our history upon the shelves
And never, ever again think for ourselves
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Getting the Cows Up for the Evening Milking - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Getting the Cows
Up for the Evening Milking
My brother and I, barefootin’ down the lane
With an apple each, and a stick the cows ignore
A hot dry evening; sure wish there was some rain
I bonked Ol’ Bessie with an apple core
And if Dad saw that I’d sure get a switchin’
He taught us to treat animals fair and right
The late-summer grass gets my legs to itchin’
The milking follows, well into the August night
I’d give up my adventures, the places I’ve been
If I could get the cows up once again
Monday, August 8, 2022
A Prisoner's Modest Dream - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Prisoner’s
Modest Dream
Some
humorist on parade: “When the war is over…I’m going to buy a German and keep him
the garden and count him.”
-Wodehouse in a German detention camp,
quoted in Frances Donaldson’s P. G. Wodehouse: A
Biography
When this is all over I pray for us
To sit in in my yard in some cheap Wal-Mart chairs
Each of us with a beer and a cigar
We could talk about the joys of fresh air
We could talk about our families and our work
And air-conditioning, and our home addresses
No longer A-43-Upper or B-24-Lower
We could sing about the Day of Jubilee
And give our voices and our lives to God
And there wouldn’t ever be a head count
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Don't Follow the Science - weekly column, 7 August 2022
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Don’t Follow the
Science
“Follow the science” is itself an unscientific expression,
personifying science as a sort of cosmic Boy Scout troop leader or perhaps a
soldier taking the point. It suggests that we should not follow our hearts
(which is just as illogical), our music, our dreams, or anything else except
science personified almost as a deity.
But science is an abstract concept, not a person. The word
comes from “scientia,” Latin for knowledge of all sorts. In our time we have
narrowed the term for the purpose of discovering and proving facts that can be
demonstrated to be valid or invalid [6
Steps of the Scientific Method (thoughtco.com)].
As an example, we humans have designed instruments arbitrarily
marked with numbers for measuring the air temperature for utility. Even so, a
scientist would not say that today’s temperature is 60 degrees Fahrenheit; he
or she would say that at a given time a given thermometer at a given location read
60 degrees Fahrenheit. He might go further and remind us that thermometers
almost never agree with each other. So what is the temperature? Scientifically,
we can’t really know, but even a caveman could tell us if the day feels warm or
cold.
Unfortunately, many humans tend to accept uncritically
almost any allegation to which the label “science” is attached, especially if
that allegation is made via the Orwellian Telescreens seemingly superglued to
our hands. If a piece of information is beamed to us through a little made-in-China
box that lights up and make noises then it must be true, right?
We fancy we have in some way progressed because we believe in
little boxes instead of the Delphic Oracle, but in the event they are only
little boxes.
Even scientists aren’t always scientific; now they name
storms and even attribute agency to them, a form of personification that reminds
us of Greek paganism.
This brings us to the French scientist who posted to the
InterGossip (which is scientific) a photograph (also scientific) allegedly
taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (yes, scientific) and promoted it as a
super-golly-gee-whiz image (scientific)
of Proxima Centauri,
a far-off star.
After a month or so,
the scientist admitted that the picture he promoted as a wonderful bit of science
was in fact not a star but a cross section of a sausage. He said he was only
joking [Scientist
admits 'space telescope' photo is actually chorizo in tasty Twitter prank
(msn.com)].
Follow the science,
right?
When someone says “follow the science” what he almost always
means is that he uncritically believes whatever babble he last read on the
InterGossip. In his small world, “you could research it” means to access whatever
conspiracies are floating around among Orwellian telescreens without ever once
considering the possibility that they might be inaccurate or even impossible – “Q,”
for instance, or Hillary Clinton dismembering children in a pizza parlor, or the
reincarnation of John F. Kennedy Jr. on the Grassy Knoll.
Not so long ago anyone positing such absurdities would have
been laughed out of the conversation; now that we have the science of the
InterGossip beamed through the science of little glowing boxes there are people
who now believe such nonsense and sometimes act on it to the harm of others.
Following the science seems mostly to be a matter of bellowing
thought-denying chants through bullhorns and raising clenched fists at each
other instead of thinking things through and considering all the possibilities
with both clarity and charity.
The six steps of the scientific method constitute a valid
means of examining only those facts which can be evaluated and measured. Science
cannot examine love, flowers, sunsets, a father playing catch with his child, or
old friends playing chess around a fire, and so science, while valid in its own
orbit, is but an incomplete study of Creation. Science itself is not a god, and
we dare not presume to treat it as one.
-30-
Saturday, August 6, 2022
The Nicest Funeral That Never Was - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Nicest Funeral
That Never Was
The doors of the church of my long-ago youth
Were locked; I peeked through the glass and saw
Huge Peavey speakers dangling in holy silence
Above where the Altar used to be
When friends arrived we pondered the mystery
Of a man’s reported death and cremation
With obsequies scheduled for Saturday
Yes, said the passer-by we asked about it
A Saturday next month, and so we loosened our ties
And over fingers of Scotch we asked our whys
Friday, August 5, 2022
An Active School Meeting in Progress - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
An Active School
Meeting in Progress
A motion to adjourn is always in order
This morning I drove by my old school
A staff meeting was being committed inside
Perpetrating crimes against intelligence
“HELLO MY NAME IS”
10,000
years of civilization?
Doughnuts and foam cups of coffee
“IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE A WILDCAT!”
Or a lion, a tiger, a platypus
The new superintendent loves Jesus
His family, children, and America
Doughnuts and foam cups of coffee
He introduces the motivational speaker
Who loves Jesus, his family, children
America, and unsourced parables
“MAKE THIS THE BEST YEAR EVER! HOO-AH!”
Doughnuts and foam cups of coffee
The coaches sit in the back reading the sports pages
And Campbell’s Texas Football – a point of privilege
English teachers count split infinitives in the program
“LET’S ALL HOLD HANDS AND SING OUR ALMA MATTER [sic]!”
Doughnuts and foam cups of coffee
Generally speaking I’m against the death penalty
I’d make an exception for motivational speakers
It’s for the children
Thursday, August 4, 2022
A Sad Old Man on the Witness Stand - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Sad Old Man on
the Witness Stand
How easy it is to scorn the man we see
Bloated and loud-mouthed, insolent to all
A foul and loathsome tormentor of souls
A false accuser, a treacherous man
And now we see him brought low at last
Sweating and coughing and goggling his eyes
The tormentor now snarling in outrage and fear
His lies and greed and hate turned back on him
A curious thing about this squirming creature:
Maybe in him we see something of ourselves
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Social Security Online FFTTT!
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Social Security Online
We have suspended electronic access
to your personal information we tried
three times to match the information you provided
with our records but were unable
to do so you may electronic information
again after 24 hours please verify
your personal information again
before trying to use this suspension
will not affect any Social Security benefits
you receive for further assistance please contact
EXIT My Social Security Request
a replacement social security card
we’re sorry we cannot accept online requests
at this time please try again later
you may begin a replacement social security
card request using another online social
may also contact your local office
for other replacement card options DONE
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
If I Win the Lottery - poem
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
If I Win the Lottery
Above all, don’t lie
to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a
point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so
loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to
love.
-Fr.
Zosima in Book II, Chapter 2 of The Brothers Karamazov
If
I win the lottery, which is unlikely
Because
I never buy a ticket, you know
I’m
going to have cases of the Modern Library edition
Of
The Brothers Karamazov shipped to me.
For
the rest of my life I will give copies
To
everyone I meet: men in red plastic caps
Mensheviks,
Bolsheviks, vegetarians
A
lonely soul waiting at the bus stop
Dostoyevsky for everyone
If I win the lottery
Monday, August 1, 2022
Undocumented Gardening - poem
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Undocumented Gardening
Last week I
planted my autumn garden
No permits were required
This evening I
dragged hoses in this drought
No reports were assigned
This morning I
freshened the water for the bees
There was no sign-in sheet
And then I used
a machine for cutting weeds
No evaluations
And then while resting
in the leafy shade
I inventoried
the grasses, blade by blade
The Mystery of the Lunar Month - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Mystery of the
Lunar Month
The reality of the lunar month
A tiny bat jerking and jinking through the dusk
In pursuit of its evening mosquitoes
Beneath a far-up vapor trail
The mystery of the lunar month
Calculated by wise ones in the long ago
With night far gentler than the solar heat
And minds more subtle than the glare of day
Each a mathematical autocrat
(Smoking an after-dinner ziggurat?)
Saturday, July 30, 2022
The Curious Events of 29-30 July 2022 - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Curious Events
of 29-30 July 2022
At the gas station I bought a Chinese rocket
And worried that a lottery might fall from the sky
I tucked away the ticket into my pocket
Or tucked my pocket into my ticket – but why?
If mega-millions came crashing down to earth
The date-stamped rocket would serve no need or whim
Exploding numbers would displace the mirth
As Macbeth’s lady wife once said to him
At the gas station I bought the American dream
Which hissed into the sea – and that’s my theme
Friday, July 29, 2022
The Age of the Clear Plastic Backpack - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Age of the
Clear Plastic Backpack
My school bag was an old Boy Scout knapsack
And in Indo-China I carried my kit
In canvas made in 1944
And on canvas we carried away the dead
As a civilian I carried a briefcase for a time
But a briefcase is like a narrow tie
They both show up on old-movie night
Just right for Tony Randall in the 1950s
I’m back to canvas, but now they make the kids
Carry clear plastic in our war against ourselves
Thursday, July 28, 2022
There is no Symbolism in a Flat Tire - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
There is no Symbolism
in a Flat Tire
There is no symbolism in a flat tire
This morning it was round, and now it is not
Part of it is round, and part of it is flat
Either way, it’s not going anywhere
Not to the movies, or for coffee with a friend
Or to the grocery for that famous loaf of bread
Which through mitosis becomes shopping for a week
And I didn’t know you like asparagus
A tire cannot fly us to the moon with Sinatra
It never could. But Denny’s with you would do
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
April is not the Cruelest Month - rhyming couplet
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
April is not the
Cruelest Month – July Is
Across the oily gravel the scrabbling of weary feet
As if life itself were burning in the heat
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
The School Superintendent Gives a Speech - poem
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The School Superintendent Gives a Speech
You can’t just
throw money at the problems
you have to
think outside the box education
for the 21st
century my door is always open
words have
meanings professional passionate
mission
statement child-centered striving exceptional
make a
difference you can’t just throw money
at the problems
you have to think outside
the box education
for the 21st century
my door is
always open words have meanings
professional
passionate mission statement
child-centered striving
exceptional make a difference
you can’t just
throw money at the problems
you have to
think outside the box education
for the 21st
century my door is always open
words have
meanings professional passionate
mission
statement child-centered striving exceptional
make a
difference you can’t just throw money
at the problems
you have to think outside
the box education
for the 21st century
my door is
always open words have meanings
professional
passionate mission statement
child-centered striving
exceptional make a difference
Monday, July 25, 2022
The Junior Woodchuck Manual - poem
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Junior
Woodchuck Manual
The Junior Woodchuck Manual is online now
But there it loses some of its magic
I’m keeping the tattered hardback of our youth
The trusty companion of our childhood days
When every summer oak concealed a dragon
And paths through the woods led to Neverland
The cattle pond was a mysterious sea
With a magic kingdom on the other side
Worlds better than this one, and far more true -
Oh, yes, I know that you remember too!
(Thank you, Uncle Walt, for everything.)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
