Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
The Ninth
Commandment 2.0
It’s on the InterGossip; it must be true
Now let us see what people are saying about you!
Saturday, February 25, 2023
The Ninth Commandment 2.0 - doggerel
Thursday, February 23, 2023
The Honorable Kevin McCarthy Recognizes Tucker Carlson - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
The Honorable Kevin
McCarthy Recognizes Tucker Carlson
And only Tucker Carlson
The First Amendment defends everyone’s views
And does not surrender the nation to Fox News
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Honorable Liar, Honorable Liar, Honorable Pants on Fire - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
Honorable Liar, Honorable
Liar, Honorable Pants on Fire
If we pay attention over time
We learn about our government this jot:
Lying to Congress is a crime
Lying from Congress is not
Ozymandias 'N' Things - poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
Ozymandias ‘N’
Things
I met a UPS driver from an antique land
Who said – “Down the road two shopping malls
Decay along the road, on either hand
Broken doors lead into empty, echoing halls
The blown-out signs are ghostly anymore
Their electric lights are dead; the letters decay
Around the logo of each long-dead store
And in their emptiness they seem to say:
Look upon my works, ye mighty –
Sears, Radio Shack, Montgomery Ward, Mr. Pickwick,
Circuit City, Bonwit Teller, Gimbel’s, Brooks Brothers, Woolworth’s, Marshall
Field’s, Kresge’s, Blockbuster, Border’s, CompUSA, Sharper Image, Tower
Records, Toys R Us, B. Dalton, Levitz, Waldenbooks, Thom McAn, Linens N Things,
KB toys, Mervyn’s, Lord & Taylor, Joske’s
- and despair”
Sunday, February 19, 2023
New York Invaded by Communist Spy Alligator - weekly column 2.19.2023
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
New York Invaded by
Communist Spy Alligator
On Sunday morning a four-foot alligator was found swimming
in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Lake.
Reptiles of a sort are not uncommon in New York, but not
alligators. The question being asked all
over America this week is if this was a Communist Chinese spy alligator checking
out the nuclear capability of the paddle boats.
President Xi has neither confirmed nor denied that this was
in fact a Communist Chinese weather alligator.
Park workers pulled the creature out of the water for
something less than $450,000 each and took it to an animal care center for
evaluation: “Well, yeah, that’s an alligator.
A cold alligator.”
Greta Thunberg will burn tons of fuel to fly to New York in
a luxury jet, assemble the park staff, and Miz Grundy at them, “How dare you!
How DARE you!” The park staff will obediently applaud her.
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau will state that he gave the
order for New York park workers to seize the alligator as part of our NORAD
agreement.
Al Gore will blame global warming.
Meaghan and Harry will blame Queen Camilla.
Congressman George Santos will claim that with one hand tied
behind his back he wrestled that twelve-foot, 1,200-pound alligator into
submission and thus saved New York from Godzilla.
We don’t know what the Vice President said; no one does.
President Biden is expected to address the nation this evening
and stand tall for America against any waterborne incursions by unidentified reptiles.
Fox News may or may not claim that New York was not invaded
by illegal alligators during the Trump presidency.
Somewhere a kindergarten class will be directed to sponsor a
naming contest for the poor little misunderstood alligator. AlligatoryMcAlligatorFace
will win. Bet on it.
North Korea will launch a nuclear-capable alligator toward
Japan.
Since Sunday there have been reported alligator sightings in
Stoner, British Columbia, along the coast of Nunavut, and at a Tim Horton’s at
Niagara Falls. It’s a plot. They’re coming. Watch the skies! Watch the rivers!
Watch the bathroom drains! Watch the Air Force generals give each other more
medals!
-30-
Saturday, February 18, 2023
The Saturday Morning Tee-Ball Hero - poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
The Saturday
Morning Tee-Ball Hero
This one’s for you, tee-ball dads!
A little moppet scampers around the tee
Waving her plastic bat as a warrior’s sword
Or as a fairy-wand to magic the day
Her first-ever tee-ball lesson with Dad
He places the ball upon the tee; she swings –
“Now wait until Daddy takes his hand away…”
WHACK!
He didn’t know the bat was all that hard!
He rubs his hand and adjusts his cap; she laughs –
At her daddy the Saturday tee-ball hero
Friday, February 17, 2023
On the Consumption of Art - poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
On the Consumption
of Art
An artist writes about the consumption of art
As if a painting, a poem, a video
A statue in the lobby of the medical center
Were a tin of meatballs and spaghetti
But we do not consume a work of art
Sometimes we almost seem to marry it
Joining art in a sacrament of love
Beyond the velvet ropes of ownership
That which can be possessed can be consumed
But neither art nor love is a commodity
Thursday, February 16, 2023
Not Exactly Saint Mark - short poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
Not Exactly Saint
Mark
“Who do you say that I am?”
‘“Whom,’” replied the local schoolmaster.
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Attitude Check - short poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
Attitude Check
Climb down off your white horse
And sit in the shade of the trees
To drink from your canteen
A taste of humility
The 'Way-Cool Coffee Shop - poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
The ‘Way-Cool
Coffee Shop
Down
in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into
spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed
to be no colour in anything…
-George Orwell, 1984
Dirty windows glare out onto the parking lot
Where debris is blown by the sour winter wind
While worn-out Mardi Gras decorations
Slap against old awnings and creaking poles
The get-it-yourself coffee is cold
Every pump: the purported French Roast
Vienna Nights, Istanbul Breakfast Blend
Jamaican Mountain Select, American Road
They go well with the rubbery croissant
Sunday, February 12, 2023
The Great Canadian-American Balloon Shoot - weekly column 12 February 2023
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Great Canadian-American
Balloon Shoot
Last week Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau stated that he
had ordered an American fighter aircraft to shoot down an unidentified flying
object over northern Canada.
The Canadian prime minister can give orders to the American
military?
One’s initial response might be to quote a character in
John Wayne’s flawed but visually interesting film The Alamo who asks the
rhetorical question, “Who do he think he am? Andy by-God Jackson?”
But in fact, yes, under NORAD agreements and duties
shared by The Dominion of Canada and the United States of America there are
occasions when Canada has strictly delineated and limited authority over U.S.
military forces just as there are occasions when the U.S. has strictly delineated
and limited authority over Canadian military forces.
Tilting the point-of-view of a globe (a flat map won’t
do) from the north shows that the quickest routes for hostile attacks on Canada
or the U.S.A. from some nations is over the polar ice. NORAD is a sine qua non
for North America’s safety.
It's just that one does not imagine Mr. Trudeau ordering
anything more militant than a vegan takeout.
But then, much the same obtains for our national
leadership, which seems to have taken its methods of debate not from Major Roberts
but from Cruella deVille.
As of this writing, the United States has shot down (maybe)
off the coast of South Carolina a balloon following its leisurely tour of North
America, a “cylindrical object” (maybe) over Deadhorse, Alaska (which may
explain why the poor horse is dead), and, per the orders of Prime Minister
Trudeau, another cylindrical object (maybe) over the Yukon. Sergeant Preston
has not yet found the downed object.
On Sunday afternoon Mr. Trudeau said that Canada will recover the object. Canada. Leave Canada’s stuff alone [Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) / Twitter]. Mr. Trudeau ordered the United States to shoot down the UFO (that may or may not exist) and then Mr. Trudeau ordered the United States not to recover it. Yes, sir, Mr. Trudeau, sir.
The United States claims to have found parts of the
balloon, but the cylindrical objects, like North Vietnamese patrol boats in the
Gulf of Tonkin long ago, seem to be unsolved mysteries.
A fourth “radar anomaly” was seen or not seen over
Montana on Saturday night [Montana congressman says mystery object detected above Havre
remains above US | Daily Mail Online]. Mr. Trudeau has not ordered
the United States either to shoot it or to stay away from it.
And, as your ‘umble scrivener ends this on Sunday
evening, the news reports another mysterious something shot down over Lake
Huron. Maybe.
We should all ask Representative George Santos of the 3rd
Congressional District of New York for the truth of the matter.
-30-
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Super-Servile Sunday - a rebuke of Superbowl-ness
Lawrence Hall, HSG
mhall46184@qol.com
Super-Servile Sunday
O sink
not down to that corrosive couch,
Docile
before the Orwellian screen
That regulates the lives of the servile,
Dictating dress and drink, demeanor, dreams;
Declare your independence from the sludge
Of vague obedientiaries who drowse
Away their empty lives in submission
To harsh, diagonal inches of rule,
Poor weaklings chanting tainted tribal songs
In chorus hamsterable, huddled, heaped,
While costumed in their masters’ liveries,
And feeling little while thinking even less,
The very model of the State’s non-men,
Predictable and dull, submissive ghosts
Crowded, herded in cosmic cattle chutes,
Reflected in dim, noisy nothingness.
But you,
O you, be not of them, but be
A
wanderer in the moonlight, one known
To God, there in His holy solitude.
from Paleo-Hippies at Work and Play, 2014, available on amazon.com
The Pastor Who Pinched my Walkman - poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
The Pastor Who
Pinched my Walkman
He was on television receiving an award
Community service to marginalized youth
And chairman of a committee of community pastors
For the promotion of community somethings
I remembered him from the fifth period
He was a funny kid when term began
By May his eyes had narrowed and his smile was gone
So was my Walkman, but I wished him well
When after a few more years he was sentenced to prison
It wasn’t for pinching somebody’s Walkman
Dreams Blown Apart at 60,000 Feet - Poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
Dreams
Blown Apart at 60,000 Feet
Spiraling down from the empyrean
blue
Like a gutter-flung cigarette
stub
Or a vapor trail over winter
fields
Dreams blown apart at 60,000 feet
A spy balloon cannot compete with
love
In its ascent to impossible heights
An unexpected launch
a
sudden death
A fallen mystery lost among the ice
That brief encounter in the turn
of a dance
Shot down with only her disapproving
glance
Friday, February 10, 2023
Does the Moon Write Back? - very short poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
Does
the Moon Write Back?
Sometimes I wonder: does the moon
ever write
A poem about me or you?
Thursday, February 9, 2023
Everybody Writes a Poem About the Moon - poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
Everybody
Writes a Poem About the Moon
Everybody writes about the moon
Often trying to force a balky
rhyme
Along the continuum of spoon and
croon
Which just won’t fill the bill,
the quill, or the time
But the moon is there, whether we
write or not
Silver and cool, beyond our scribbled
praise
In contrast to the sun, golden
and hot
Promoting himself through all of
summer’s days
Everybody writes about the moon
Who in her being is all the rhyme
we need
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
What Communists Learned from History - weekly column, 5 February 2023
Lawrence Hall, HSG
What Communists
Learned from History
Maxwell Smart and The Chief conferring under The Cone of
Silence might have come up with a more effective method of downing the Chinese
spy balloon than our Space Command or whatever it is we’ve got defending us
from The Helium Peril.
Yes, we do have a Space Command [Home (spacecom.mil)]
complete with all sorts of costumes, a theme song entitled “The Space Force
March,” and seven “warfighting units” – yes, that’s what they’re called,
“warfighting units” - with cool shoulder patches.
Photographs show that the Space Command features at least
six different kinds of attractive uniforms, so if this nation cannot control
its own skies it can at least control fashion shows.
One of the uniforms is of a forest leaf pattern, which is
curious given that spacecraft and space itself are devoid of forests.
According to its own site the Space Command is responsible
for defending us against threats (maybe Klingons?) more than 100 kilometres
above the surface of the earth, so technically a Chinese balloon is not in
their remit. Still, it could have been a chance for the Space Command to set
phasers on stun and show the guys from Peking just who’s boss of American skies.
As for the purported civilian weather balloon, nah; no
one believes that form of camouflage. Lots of nations spy on each other with balloons,
airplanes, fishing boats, and other vessels and devices, all of them said to be
civilian craft for the purpose of plausible deniability. Spies lie; it’s what
they do.
An Air Force fighter shot down the spy balloon and its
gadgetry with a missile said to cost over $400,000. The merry lads in Peking claim to be outraged
about the shootdown but probably they are merely amused. A balloon is low-tech
and probably costs less than a missile, and this one was allowed to float over
North America for days while gathering information. Whether or not it was
effective it was inexpensive, and Uncle Xi enjoyed pulling Uncle Sam’s
whiskers.
The irony is that we all read, heard, and saw the story
on electronic devices made in Shanghai. If the Communists want to know what
we’re talking about they could probably tap a few keys and have the
computerized thermostats in our refrigerators listen in.
And, say, don’t you think the coffee machine has been
acting a little suspiciously lately?
This nation has been attacked, not simply watched,
through the military use of balloons. In 1944-1945 the Japanese launched against
North America thousands of balloons armed with explosives and incendiaries [New Documentary Delves into the Japanese WWII Terror Weapon:
The Fu-Go Balloon Bomb (historynet.com)]. Several thousand of these made landfall and
killed six people and caused some damage. Some of these devices might have failed
and if so a few unexploded bombs remain lost in the woods and mountains of the
American West.
Modern Communists learned history well from the imperial
Japanese of eighty years ago – cobble together a few rudimentary barometric
mechanisms for controlling height through the measured disposal of gasses and
ballast and know the seasonal air currents on the same academic level as a
seventh-grader. Launch. Wait. See.
Now, then, what clever boy or girl in some hostile nation
is up to some unexpected mischief based on lessons learned from the German
Enigma or the British Turing-Welchman Bombe?
-30-
Sunday, February 5, 2023
Assisted Living -poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
“Remarkably Like Any Other Place”
For
Tod
Who
is in assisted living
Assisting
others in living
Rich:
This is an awful place.
More:
Except it’s keeping me from you, my dears, it’s not so bad. Remarkably like any
other place.
Alice:
It drips!
More:
Yes. Too near the river.
-Robert
Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
Life
is a pilgrimage from cell to cell:
The
bedroom of one’s childhood, the college dorm
The
noisy barracks, merry in spite of all
Eighty
conscript soldiers bunked out in rows
The
marriage home set forth among trees and grass
A
comfortable chair with a lamp and books
The
office with its official desks and files
And
Sunday liturgies in an accustomed pew
All
these are now condensed into a cell
Where
God has chosen to live and wait with you
(I suppose I'd better clarify that my friend Tod sees his room as a monastic cell, not a prison cell!)
Friday, February 3, 2023
That Chinese Spy Balloon - poem
Lawrence Hall
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.com
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com
That
Chinese Spy Balloon
“Number Six is dead. Rover got him.”
-Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner
A spy balloon lurks over Montana
And nobody seems to know what to
do
Against the intruder Top Guns launch
themselves
But only circle around it
piteously
They slink away, intimidated by a
balloon
That takes its pictures and
samples with insolence
Unmenaced by our Merovingian
regime
Generals bemedaled like Russian
doormen
Our leaders stumble over each
other’s gaffes
While in Shanghai the Politburo laughs
MUSICAL TABLES, Billy Collins - a brief review
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Musical Tables, Billy Collins: A
White-Space Ripoff
If you purchase this volume as a notebook with a few piquant aphorisms already scribbled here and there on its pages you will have some value for your $26 (now under $20 via Amazon). If you buy it as a volume of poetry you will delight in many of those brief witticisms but as a whole might be disappointed that Mr. Collins and Random House have your money and you have lots of wasted wood pulp.
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