Lawrence Hall, HSG
“Never Surrender” Sneakers – Collectible Bone Spurs Edition
Now we have lived to see a president
Hawking tatty cartoon-character shoes
Having already pawned his soul for rent
And now the bailiffs are turning the screws
Saturday, February 17, 2024
"Never Surrender" Sneakers: Collectible Bone Spurs Edition - quatrain
Cheerful Young Fascists at my Door - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Cheerful Young
Fascists at my Door
Pickup-trucking along on a Saturday morning
Rosy-red cheeks and rosy-red baseball caps
Laughing in youthful joy this cold winter day
Anxious to spread their Leader’s polemics
On the march from their truck and back
Bearing pamphlets and posters and signs
With triumphalist messages of loyalty
To a man who has betrayed everyone he ever met
I almost broke their hearts when I told them to go
But soon enough they will be breaking people’s heads
Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, and Boomer Tea - quatrain
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Gen X, Gen Y, Gen
Z, and Boomer Tea
How wicked to stereotype the several gens
To brew a tempest in a pot of self-pity -
The morning sun shines upon a world of friends
For we are all leaves on an Eden-tree
Friday, February 16, 2024
Amazon Lies
I regret that I do not have my review so that I can repudiate Amazon in detail. I never said I had a bad experience with the can opener; I said that I had no experience with the can opener at all because the outlets on my kitchen counter are recessed and the cord was so short that it didn't reach. I added that I should not have had to order an extension cord for this product. I further noted that some of the plastic housing the blades appeared to be brittle and flimsy. I said nothing about "inauthentic." It's just a can opener; the categories of "authentic" and "inauthentic" do not obtain.
My review was accurate and useful. Given Amazon's inaccuracy, possibly malevolence, in word usage I will not write another review and have asked Amazon to withdraw all my previous reviews.
Tue, Feb 13 at 4:47 PM
Hello Lawrence Hall,
Thank you for submitting a review of Cuisinart CCO-50BKN Deluxe Electric Can Opener, Black; we are sorry you did not have a positive experience. We investigated your concerns about product authenticity, and the information we have indicates that the product you received was authentic. As a result, we removed the review you submitted. This ensures that customer reviews remain as accurate as possible for the benefit of future customers.
We appreciate your input and hope you will continue to submit valuable feedback about your experience shopping on Amazon.
Thank you.
Reference: R3K6KXB8D6TYBG
A Martyr is a Poem - for Alexei Navalny
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Martyr is a Poem
For Alexei
Navalny
“Only in Russia is poetry respected; it gets people
killed.”
-Osip Mandelstam
His soul was a poem; upon it he wrote
Of hope for Russia’s peoples frozen in pain
A poem of stern rebuke to Rolex tyrants
Who censored him with beatings, poison, and death
He spoke
He died
Because he spoke he died
Because he spoke the truth he died
They left his unfinished poem upon the ice
His soul was a poem – we must complete his verse
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
There are no Foreign Accents in Texas - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
There are no Foreign
Accents in Texas
“For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical
appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings,
Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of
America.”
– John Steinbeck
There are no foreign accents here, n'est-ce pas?
Un acento extranjero is for Auslander
And there are no mga dayuhan here
The dat belongs to all of us and to niemand
Before even the Pierwsze Narody there was the jord
And les humains have come in successive amaza
Izdao each other with אלימות and кровь
Κατακτήσεις and 背叛 instead of féastaí
But 私たち are trying to make it bora now -
There are no foreign accents here, capisci?
I played with Microsoft’s
translator ]english to
spanish - Search (bing.com)] because to my regret I have no language
other than English and puer parvus scholis Latinis.
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Dragons for Your New Year - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Dragons for Your
New Year
For Doris and Anthony
Who have known dragons
Eustace
had read only the wrong books; they had a lot to say about exports and imports
and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons.
-C. S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The dragons are a polite and ancient race
And very conscious of their dignity
It would not do to neglect their seasons and feasts
Lest they neglect to visit you this year
They want to bring good fortune to your house
But first you must make a place for them -
Their breath will warm your room, your hearth, your heart
Their knowledge will make your children worthy and wise
Their songs will send your family happy dreams
For dragons are a polite and generous race
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Reader Responses in the U. K. DAILY MAIL
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Reader Responses in
the U. K. Daily Mail
RepubliCraps. Demoncrats. Repugs. DemoCraps. MAGA. Magats.
Maggots. Clown. Orange clown. Clowns. Clown show. Absolute clown show. Absolute
commie clown show. Diaper Joe. Dr. Potatohead. Moron. Selected not elected.
Deplorables. Trailer trash. Absolute trailer trash. Said no one ever. Oh wait. Lock
her up. Lock him up. Throw away the key. Absolutely. Joebama. Drumpf. Dump. Woke.
Wokista. Wokerati. Absolutely Woke. Biden’s America. Trump’s America. Mean
tweets. No mean tweets. These teachers. These schools. These universities. TDS.
Absolute TDS. Liberal idiots. Extremist idiots. Absolute idiots. ROFL. Grab
some popcorn. …in 1, 2, 3… Dumpster fire.
Absolute dumpster fire. You can’t make this stuff up. Train wreck. Absolute
train wreck. Car crash. Absolute car crash. Total car crash. The jokes write
themselves. At its finest. Pure evil. Absolute pure evil. Cue crickets. Of biblical
proportions. Of epic proportions. Of absolute epic biblical proportions. Rinse
and repeat. Rules for thee but not for me. Two-tier justice system. Absolute
two-tier justice system. You could look it up. Follow the science. Full stop. LOL.
End of. Absolutely. Fact. FACT!!!!!
Friday, February 9, 2024
The Disinterment of Pablo Neruda - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Disinterment of
Neruda
Qui sine peccato est vestrum, primus in aliam lapidem
mittat
This Neruda - the Fascists murdered him
This Neruda - let us murder him again
The people read and love his poems too much
And they ignore ours – let us dig him up
This Neruda – we will dig him up
And subject him to our Inquisition
We now will tell you what each fragment means
Each fragment of each word, his flesh, his bone
We have our bullhorns and our three-beat chants
His poems will mean what we tell you they mean
Shut up
Let's Meet Again at the Robin Hood Oak - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Let’s Meet Again at
the Robin Hood Oak
1.
In my boyhood, to the Robin Hood oak
I tip-toed in those hot summer afternoons
With my three sharp arrows and my little bow
Craftily eluding the sheriff’s men
I softly whistled and waited, and then anon
From out of the sun-shimmering heat
From out of the merry magical greenwood
An answering whistle sighed through the air
Great skill at making a bow or a plan -
I was a favorite among Robin’s band
2
In my old age, to the Robin Hood oak
I slowly walked in lonely afteryears
Carelessly, for I was a baron now
With my ownership and my walking stick
I whistled and waited, and waited more
From out of the sun-shimmering heat
From out of the merry magical greenwood
There was only a silence, a silence sad
Little boys grow up, and then must disappear -
And that’s okay; the magic is forever here
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Poetry and Jazz Stroll into a Smoky Bar
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Poetry and Jazz Stroll
into a Smoky Bar
Poetry, like jazz, is itself
If you feel a need to explain it
You’ve failed
Art
sings itself
Wipe That Geographical Expression Off Your Face - quatrain
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Wipe That
Geographical Expression Off Your Face
Alas, poor country! / Almost afraid to know itself
-Macbeth IV.iii.164-165
We are now a geographical expression
An almost amorphous land mass occupied
By violent tribes of shifting loyalties
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
A Burning Car in Baghdad - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Burning Car in Baghdad
The
delusion that by force you can impose the Millennium on the human race is one
of the most dangerous delusions in existence.
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad
In the center of Baghdad a burning car
Illuminates long centuries of pain
Inflicted by schemes of improvement upon
A city of scholarship, wisdom, and art
Militias, commanders, air-strikes, and bombs
So clever that they can single out one car
Without harming another car at the traffic light -
And somehow this will make the world all better
Dullard journalists will type “tit-for-tat”
Because they don’t know anything else to say
And neither do I
Cups and Jugs and Kettles and Beds - something more than a quatrain
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Cups and Jugs and
Kettles and Beds
St. Mark 7:1-13
Let the coffee cups rattle with denunciations
About the contextual meaning of “beds”
At the fossil table in the roadside café’
That Javneh of theological studies
For the health and comfort of our other guests
No smoking, please
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
A Sanitary Pad Along Beer Can Road - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Sanitary Pad Along
Beer Can Road
To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves
-Julius Caesar III.ii.256
A sanitary pad along Beer Can Road
Sodden and heavy with the waning night’s damp
And beer cans shining in the morning sun
Completing a picture of misadventure
I once found a ratchet wrench about here
And a knot of twist-ties further along
And a couple of disposable lighters for toking crack
I’ll just give this latest detritus a miss
But on my morning stroll I won’t pass by
Without a prayer for happiness for all
Especially my nocturnal predecessors
Monday, February 5, 2024
A Dusty Drum Kit - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Dusty Drum Kit
In a re-sale shop in Huntington, Texas
Fronting for decaying videotapes
And clocks that will never again chime the time
Through tinny mechanical syncopation
A drum set reposes without percussion
An arpeggio of silent despair
Whose cymbals and snare impatiently wait
As do the bass and other impedimenta
For the hand of a youth who has something to howl
The next kid through the door might bell the cat:
“There it is – I will rhythm the truth with that!”
C. S. Lewis on the Monarchy
Monarchy
can easily be ‘debunked;' but watch the faces, mark the accents of the
debunkers. These are the men whose tap-root in Eden has been cut: whom no
rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach - men to whom pebbles laid in a
row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire equality, they
cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour
millionaires, athletes or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or
gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it
food and it will gobble poison.
-C.S. Lewis, “Present Concerns,” 1948
Sunday, February 4, 2024
The Latest Atmospheric River End-of-the-World Pineapple Express Bomb Cyclone from H**l
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Latest Atmospheric River End-of-the-World
Pineapple Express Bomb Cyclone from H**l
The news is falling! The news is falling!
-as Chicken Little did not say
An apocalyptic storm of such intensity
We’re all going to drown in a flood of breaking news
The streets already overflowing with hyperbole
From reporters in damp shoes awaiting their cues
Saturday, February 3, 2024
A Quatrain to Explain the Infinite Monkey Theory
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A
Quatrain to Explain the Infinite Monkey Theory
If you set a monkey at a typewriter
To type and type for all eternity
What he will type, that little blighter
Is a politician’s speech – nonsense, you see!
Sacrifice in a Low Place - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Sacrifice in a Low
Place
Cf. 1 Kings 3
I would go to a high place and sacrifice to God
But there is no high place; this is an alluvial plain
Dark with conifers except along the sloughs
Dark in their own ways with cypress and oak
And I am old, too old to be a prophet
And I have often asked for all the wrong things
So I will take those things into the dark
And leave them at the foot of a pagan oak
I will learn the statutes from the whisperings
I will go into the quiet, and listen for God
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