Lawrence Hall, HSG
Vice-President Kamala Harris’ Speech of Gratitude and Farewell to Her Faithful Followers in the Early Hours of 6 November 2024
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Monday, November 4, 2024
Election Night 2024: Dry Bones - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Election Night
2024: Dry Bones
“All we are, basically, are monkeys with car keys”
-Grandma Woody in Northern Exposure, “Animals R
Us,” 1991
An early dusk falls under clouds from the Gulf
Yellow houselights wink on as daylight winks off
Supper in greasy bags from fast-fooderies
That everyone argues they can’t afford
Then like the lozenge in A Space Odyssey
A screen appears and dominates all
And family groupings center themselves around it
In excited cavortings before the images
Of brightly-colored cultic election scores
As fists swinging dry bones crush enemy skulls
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Nora, Theo, and Pushkin-the-Rescue-Cat - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Nora, Theo, and Pushkin-the-Rescue-Cat
After rough adventures Pushkin has found his way home
The children celebrate with him his happy new life
By crowning their purring prince with vines and flowers
And he is pleased to accept their adoration and love
Too soon children must leave their merriments
And rebuild civilization among the wreckages
In a time of hatreds and ideologies
When all seem to have forgotten the way to Jerusalem
And so for now
May children enjoy the springtime of their lives
For they (and the cat) remind us of our appointed path
Friday, November 1, 2024
Porta Coeli - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Porta Coeli
“I pray you, sir, remember the porter”
-Macbeth II.iii.20ff
We are all porters; we open doors for others
Sometimes we open them for ourselves
If we close a door, it is against the rain and cold
And not against each other
(Yes, in Macbeth
the Porter is drunk and inept, and when he says “remember the porter” he is
asking for a tip in spite of his incompetence. I put the line in anyway because
we are all porters.)
Monday, October 28, 2024
The Most Embarrassed Young Father in All of Christendom - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Most Embarrassed Young Father in All of Christendom
I will go in to the Altar of God.
To God who giveth joy to my youth.
The Roman Missal, 1962
The processional had hardly ended
With each minister and server in place
Each knee for a moment respectfully bended
In acknowledgement of God’s gentle Grace
When came to our ears a frightening assault
Of sirens and horns, and then flashing lights
Beneath the sanctuary’s sacred vault
A catalogue of wild electronic frights
To the narthex door a father rushed
Awkwardly in the sight of God and man
His handsome manly face was deeply flushed
His son’s toy helicopter was clutched in his hands
He carried the noisy gadget far away -
(A true helicopter parent we may say!)
We delight in our children; for them we pray
And thank God for all families this Sabbath day
I will go in to the Altar of God.
To God who giveth youthful joy to old age.
-Parenting 1301
Sunday, October 27, 2024
The Sunday Evening News in a Time of Elections - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Sunday Evening News in a Time of Elections
“Good things of day begin to droop
and drowse”
-Macbeth III.ii.58
Suddenly the yellowing afternoon
is still
For Indian Summer breezes
have slipped away
While clouds of silent
midges swirl against the sun
For reasons of nature known
only to themselves
The treeline is blue as
evening comes on
But the hayfields glow
golden for a little while
Until Old Sol falls asleep
at last
And the firstling stars
come out to play
A rabbit shyly nibbles at
the dewing grass –
The day is over; we have
to let it pass
Saturday, October 26, 2024
A Plumber's Assistant, a Nazi, and an Artificial Tree - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Plumber’s Assistant, a Nazi, and an Artificial Tree
Nazi Rally in Madison Square Garden, 10 February 1939
Isadore Greenbaum wanted to punch a Nazi
And so he charged – he didn’t get very far
And was beaten up by Real Americans (cough)
(It took only four or five of ‘em)
And arrested by the New York City Police
One Nazi stopped kicking Greenbaum to set aright
An artificial tree that was about to fall
Which is a curiosity – what remnant of good
Was in that man that he kept a decoration in place?
Greenbaum is a hero in our nation’s history -
The tidy Nazi remains a mystery
I Hear America Whining - doggerel
Lawrence Hall, HSG
I Hear America Whining
The world’s fattest people, packin’ the pounds
Driving in to McDonald’s whenever struck by the mood
And then to the beer joint, drinking in rounds
While complaining about the price of food
Friday, October 25, 2024
Torah is Written with Flames - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Torah is Written with Flames
English letters are as
orderly as a battle line
But Hebrew letters are
flames in their shining shapes
Even on a printed page
they dance in light
And with Light comes Truth;
you can see God in them
For Hebrew letters are the
Burning Bush
The fires of Mount Horeb,
the Temple sacrifice
The light of a Talmud
scholar’s study lamp
The light of Torah upon
civilization
We don’t know our letters
as well as we should
But God has written them
upon our hearts
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Driving Home After Work: "Thus Spake Zarathustra" on the Radio - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Driving Home After
Work:
“Thus Spake Zarathustra”
on the Radio
The first few bars must always remind us of
That space movie from the future long ago
With sophomores beating each other up
Or anyone trying to spell “Zarathustra “
Without looking it up; no spelling now
Driving into a drought-red setting sun
The vapours of chemicals, road tar, dust
Allergens drifting among the toxins
Poetry sorts meaning from chaos seeming -
Maybe not tonight (Sneeze!)
We are All Children When We Attempt Haiku
Lawrence Hall, HSG
We are All Children When We Attempt Haiku
We all write Haiku
We’re not any good at it
But we honor the Shijin
SNL: Because Men Who Betray women are so Amusing
Lawrence
Hall, HSG
SNL: Because Men Who Betray Women
are so Amusing
Re: Bang-Bang
Baldwin
A man
shoots a woman
For
which another woman takes the fall
And Saturday
Night Live
Is
okay with it all
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Cardinal Dolan Kisses King Herod's (Hands) - doggerel
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The High Priest Kisses King Herod’s (Hands)
His Eminence the Cardinal of New York
The High Priest kisses King Herod’s (hands)
And joins him for a feast of mockeries and lies
Giving the tyrant for his crimes a pass
Laughing at Truth as civilization dies
Over lobster and beef they pity the poor
While robed in white ties and evening gowns
And silken ecclesiastical couture
(One of them has visions of papal crowns)
Gluttony and scorn at a rented manse -
All that is missing is Salome’s dance
Thursday, October 17, 2024
The First Barn-Jacket Morning in Autumn - haiku
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The First Barn-Jacket Morning in Autumn
Dawn – windy and cold
The first barn-jacket morning
Wild geese singing south
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
The Kittens Come on Little Fog Feet - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Kittens Come on Little Fog Feet
As Carl Sandburg did not say
At dawn: coffee and the Wordle and thoughts
The moon’s still full, but one last star winks out
The dew-bathed oaks drip onto a tricky word
Fog drifts in silence among the tricky light
A little paw stirs soft autumn’s molding leaves
And then two eyes appear, and a greeting tail
The forming image of the cat completes itself
And then another – two abandoned cats
These tiny orphans approach – and love begins
To them I pledge
They will never be hungry or lonely again
Sunday, October 13, 2024
On Reading THREE HUNDRED TANG POEMS - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
On Reading Three Hundred Tang Poems
From The Jade Mountain they
came
300 Tang dreams
Each in its well-ordered
frame
Cups adrift in streams
The ancients speak to us
still
Wisdom from the high
Each word a clear-flowing
rill
Each a song, a sigh
Three
Hundred Tang Poems
Translated
and edited by Peter Harris
© 2009 by
Peter Harris
Typeset in
Somerset, England
Printed and
bound on Possneck, Germany
Everyman’s
Library Pocket Poets
New York:
Knopf
Toronto:
Penguin Random House
London:
Everyman’s Library
Saturday, October 12, 2024
An Autumn Flight - haiku
Lawrence Hall, HSG
An Autumn Flight
A leaf fell, a leaf
A life of summer in flight
In bright golden flight
Friday, October 11, 2024
A Dixson Ticonderoga #2 Pencil from 1955 - poem and photograph
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Dixon Ticonderoga #2 Pencil from 1955
Neither plans nor bathroom
vents last forever
The workmen pulled down the old
one from ‘55
Amid a tumble of old nails
and bits of wood:
A Dixon Ticonderoga #2
The yellow paint a little
aged now
The green metal ring a little
bit dull
The eraser now hardened
beyond all use
The point well-sharpened with
a pocketknife
What sturdy craftsman from
the long ago
Measured out his work - I’d like to know
Thursday, October 10, 2024
One Does Not Pre-Imagine Pre-Edward R. Murrow Pre-Babbling - not exactly a poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
One Does Not Pre-Imagine Pre-Edward R. Murrow Pre-Babbling
A Lesson in Clear Writing for Journalists
Hunker down, swath of destruction, hunker down, write your Social Security number on your arm, hunker down, eerie, hunker down, monster, hunker down, time ticking down / away, hunker down, pre-positioned, hunker down, pre-planned, hunker down, pre-need (and maybe even pre-hunker down), hunker down, pre-deployed, hunker down, spooky (and possibly pre-spooky), hunker down, snapped like matchsticks (“Daddy, what’s a matchstick?”), hunker down, doomed paradise, hunker down, paradise lost, hunker down, lost paradise, hunker down, apocalypse, hunker down, biblical, hunker down, storm of the century (again?), hunker down, doomed, hunker down, doomed, hunker down, pummeled, hunker down, pummeled, hunker down, pummeled, hunker down, power lines brightly bursting, hunker down, eerie calm, hunker down, eerie quiet, hunker down, birds chirping, hunker down, unexpected sparks, hunker down, hazards are unfolding, hunker down, street lamps waver, hunker down, one-two punch, hunker down, what we know, hunker down, hunker down, hunker down
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
A Treatise on the Burrowing Habits of Dachshunds - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Treatise on the Burrowing Habits of Dachshunds
A dachshund will burrow under the
garden fence
For every dachshund thinks she is a wolf
A fearsome apex predator with a
squeaky toy -
This is in the nature of dachshunds
A dachshund will burrow into your
tightly-closed hand
Nosing out the doggie treat you have
hidden there
A fearsome apex predator and omnivore
-
This is in the nature of dachshunds
A dachshund bill burrow into your end-of-day
lap
Watching both the television and the
cats
A fearsome apex predator drooling on
your book -
This is in the nature of dachshunds
A dachshund will burrow, borrow, beg,
and bark
And in her foreshadowing of that
better World to come
A dachshund will burrow deeply into
your heart -
And love you forever
This is in the nature of dachshunds
And of you
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
