Saturday, August 17, 2024
Where do Sunflowers go in August? - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Where do Sunflowers go in August?
May our love for the Sun, the will of God, be as strong as the sunflower’s…
-attributed to St. John of Tobolsk
With the mower I took the sunflowers down
The withered remnants, stalks and heads and seeds
Those few remaining seeds rejected by the birds
For reasons of their own
With the mower I circled ‘round and round
Building a thickish thatch as a sort of nest
For seeds in anticipation of autumn
The seasons know their own
With the mower I saw high summer gone
I mowed – or had I mown?
Thursday, August 15, 2024
The Gravitas of Our Vice-Presidential Candidates - poem (of a sort)
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Gravitas of our Vice-Presidential Candidates
In the end it was the worst speaker of the lot who received the most applause. People made no effort to follow him and merely roared approval at his every word…
Doctor Zhivago, p. 36
Like high school boys behind the old school gym
In micturic dispute about distance and size
Two men exchange puerile scurrilities
A pair of puffed-up potty-mouthed posers
They know all about army guns ‘n’ stuff
Each hero manque’ stuffier than the other
About their ranks and tanks and thousand-yard-stares
And whose AR is the bigger one
Like high school boys behind the old school gym –
And why must we the people put up with them?
Monday, August 12, 2024
Four Fresh Limes - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Four Fresh Limes
When my neighbor left four fresh limes at my door
The universe did not hold its breath
Camouflage Caps for Good Comrades - inferior doggerel
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Camouflage Caps
for Good Comrades
The Presidency Really is For Sale
No bibles with the words
of Roosevelt in red
Cleveland was above
merchandising (perhaps)
There was never a Kennedy
bobblehead
Lincoln never peddled tatty
baseball caps
But now:
A Trumpy sippy-cup sounds
about right
Let’s pray with
autographed J.D. rosaries
Uncle Fester as G. I. Joe
ready to fight
And personalized Kamala
wind-up teethies
A rueful conclusion:
Few remember when our Presidency
Was a public trust of grace
and dignity
Comparing our Secret Service with Barney Fife is Inappropriate - doggerel
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Comparing our Secret Service with Barney Fife is Inappropriate
Because we love and respect Deputy Fife
In art, incompetence can have a certain charm
But in stupid men with guns the charm is lacking
Our agents can’t even keep themselves from harm
Their greatest skills are in shacking and slacking
Colombian floozies and slanting roofs
Unman the best of them; they lose their guns
They lose laptops, but never their 90-proof
And break into private property for poopy runs
To them a President entrusts his life –
He’d surely be safer with Deputy Barney Fife
Sunday, August 11, 2024
Night of the Murdered Jewish Poets - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Night of the Murdered Jewish Poets
12 August 1952
When a tyrant has completed
his catalogue of hate
Sent thousands to the
noose and millions to the pyre
He ponders fresh murders
as he sits up late
Whom else can he summon to
his satanic fire?
There is agony in his soul
– someone must pay
Those scribblers of verse
– now there is treason
Another list, a list, without
delay!
Poets to the Lubyanka – I
need no reason!
I listen, I hear my night-whispering
muse:
“Death is upon you,
death, but first, but first…
the Jews.”
Saturday, August 10, 2024
Why Are the Presidential Candidates Yelling at Us? - doggerel
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Why Are the Presidential Candidates Yelling at Us?
The candidates bluster and scream on TV
But I will never vote for anyone, you see,
Whose concept of leadership is yelling at me
Thursday, August 8, 2024
And Suddenly My Feet Were Splashed with Conoco Gasoline
While fueling at a Conoco station this morning my feet were suddenly splashed with gasoline. I was standing by the filler but not looking at it.
I was only slightly annoyed (old shoes, so no biggie) and went inside to advise the clerk so that she could be aware of this safety matter. However, she only paused long enough from eating her sandwich to ask which pump and to say that she would tell her boss. No apology, no thank-you, no nothing except the chewing of a sandwich
Given the indifference, I went ahead and reported the matter, which was not my original intent. I asked corporate for credit for that gallon or so of gas on the ground.
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
The Boy in White - prison poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Boy in White
He paused in the sun,
unsure where to go
His uniform was new and
neatly pressed
He carried a new blue
mattress and two plastic bags
Containing his prison
issue for the next three years
No guards were near so I talked with him
I didn’t ask him, but he freely spoke
He told me his story; it might be true
And then
Authority told me to move.
I wished him well
He was paused in life,
unsure what to do
A frightened teenager in his
new prison whites
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
The British Army Pocket Knife - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The British Army Pocket Knife
A great big chunk of folded Sheffield steel
For pocket, backpack, toolbox, or workbench
Rope work, leather work, awning work, rifle repair
Gutting a rabbit for dinner if it comes to that
No plastic-y Swiss gimcrackery for us
One tightens the blade by taking a hammer to the rivets
And sharpens it hastily on a handy rock
Wash off the mud and the blood and it’s good to go
It’s clanky, clunky, and out-of-date – it’s British
As British as can be - and so are we
I’m not British, but I needed a voice and a rhyme. My Hall ancestors were transported from Northern England to the New World for being bad, and the same for my deBeauville / Beauville / Beville / Bevil ancestors from Chesterton and my McQueen ancestors from Scotland.
I love my nifty British Army knife.
Sunday, August 4, 2024
A Garden is a Department of Metaphysics - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Garden is a Department of Metaphysics
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
-Rumi
A garden is a Department of Metaphysics
Promethean fire and
shadows in a cave of light
Leaves of trees falling
upon more leaves
The leaves of books left
open to the sun
The lecture lawn is
furnished with old chairs
Old garden chairs rusty
with wisdom and age
From duty to weather and
men, the several cathedrae
Of the learned Order of
Gaffer Swanthold
Athena’s owl calls from
the nearby wood
Calling all men to silence
and reflection
Rumi,
untitled poem, trans. Coleman Barks and John Moyne
A Book
of Luminous Things,
ed. Czeslaw Milosz
In this
context “men” is gender-neutral. Wrecking an iambic foot in obedience to the
moods of an external authority is not poetry; it is weaknessssssssssssss.
About That Reed Shaken with the Wind - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
About That Reed Shaken with the Wind
What went ye out into the wilderness
to see?
A reed shaken with the wind?
-Saint Matthew 11:8
A swaying riverside reed
is a marvelous thing
In its proper service to our
gracious Lord
A stalk of grass honoring its
Creator
In quiet, unassuming
dignity
Symbolisms are laid upon
the reed
In power-point sermons and
learned texts
But first of all it is but
a nice little reed
Joining its labors with those
of the whispering wind
Until Our Lord Himself calls
upon that reed
Even as He calls upon us for
some small deed
Friday, August 2, 2024
Teaching a Bible in Public Schools
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Teaching
a Bible in Public Schools
For Miz Grundy and Reverend Gantry
Surely a teacher could choose
his own Bible
This shouldn’t be as difficult
as it seems
It couldn’t possibly be forbidden
or liable
To teach the children from the Douay-Rheims
2
August 2024
I confess to you and to almighty
God that I long earned my daily bread as an English teacher in high school and
as a part-time adjunct faculty instructor of no status whatsoever in several
nice little community colleges and universities.
English literature obtains in a
Christian milieu even from Anglo-Saxon / Old English times. From the earliest
known pieces until 1535 the culture is exclusively Catholic; from then on the
culture tends to be within the Reformation usages. This is a reality to be
understood, not a point of propaganda.
Dr. David Hadas, of happy
memory, was my professor at an NEH program at Bread Loaf years ago. He was
brilliant, generous, open, challenging, joyful, and indulgent to a lot of high
school teachers in a summer class sponsored by the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
Several of us figured out that
Dr. Hadas was Jewish, and I was chosen (no pun) to ask him why he always
carried a King James Bible to his lectures. We noted that he almost never
referred to it because he knew it deeply. His response was, and this remembered
quote is probably almost exact, "I teach English literature, and if you
don't know the King James Bible you don't know English literature."
His intellectual openness and
honest are quite at variance with the unhappy Elmer Gantrys demanding that the
Bible (presumably not the Hebrew Bible or the Vulgate) be force-fitted in
inappropriate contexts in public schools. He well knew the difference between
teaching and "preaching at."
Beloved
professor passes away after long illness - Student Life Archives (studlife.com)
Thursday, August 1, 2024
Men Beating Up Women is not an Olympic Ideal
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Several Olympic Committees
Sewerage, filth, top-scum,
toxins, debris
Deadly bacteria, openly-floating
poo
The pollution of the ages
flowing free –
(They say the River Seine’s
in bad shape too)
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
A Small-Minded Man - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Small-Minded Man
Oh, yes, I am a very small-minded man
Whose horizon stops at the apple trees
Whose vision is much upon the little things:
A tiny snail upon a pepper-plant leaf
A placid rabbit nibbling at the lawn
A squirrel feasting on his daily grains and seeds
A bluebird shyly hiding among the oaks
A mockingbird mocking all the rest of us
No grand visions for me; I will not leave
Small villages of dead bodies and wicked smoke
The rotting bodies of children and animals
Cratered cities of bomb-blackened ruins and stench
I promote no world-changing master plan -
Deo Gratias, I am a very small-minded man
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Playing the Hitler Card - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Playing the Hitler Card
We say we would never play
that card
But we see that it has
been played
It lies upon the table
before us -
And whose febrile hand
placed it there?
Monday, July 29, 2024
A Mildly Amusing Repudiation of the Concept of Entropy - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Mildly Amusing Repudiation of the Concept of Entropy
For poetry too is a little incarnation.
-C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
All that ever was, that is, that ever will be -
All is from God, and will return to God
As elegant iambic pentameter
(Okay, maybe tetrameter)
Sunday, July 28, 2024
The Olympics as Imagined by John Milton - couplet
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Olympics as Imagined by John Milton
On the anniversary of the martyrdom
of
Father Jacques Hamel
The Olympics this year
seem demon-haunted -
Christians, Jews, and
amateur sports not wanted
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