Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Memorial Day 2021
Memorial Day is when we remember our friends
As they were before their fragments were dusted off
While we were watching still the perimeter
Memorial Day is when patriotic men
Who only went to war in a John Wayne film
Preach sacrifice on the five o’clock local
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Before Marshal Dillon
There was
The Thing from Another World
Hear of this early role if
you can bear it:
James Arness as a giant carnivorous
carrot
Lawrence Hall, HSG
When Your Norelco
Goes Rogue
Intrusive and dangerous technology has come a long way since
Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone.
A number of InterGossip sites, none of them reliable, have
reported that drones in the Libyan civil wars are now targeting humans on their
own artificial intelligence initiative.
This might not be any more true than the rumor that the
polio vaccine programs your DNA to play reruns of Gillian’s Island – the Lost
Episodes in your mind until you finally break and give up your files on the
albino chipmunks lurking in the old World War II tunnels beneath the White
House where Benito Mussolini is being held in captivity.
Still, when your coffee maker cries, “Clap hands if you
believe in digital currency!” while brewing your morning cuppa you can only
wonder about the nature of reality in a world increasingly operated by computer
chips.
And speaking of chips, watch out for the ruffled ones; they take
their secret orders from the Ballet Rousse (hence the ruffles).
As early as 1970 the concept that a computer could take over
the world was filmed as Colossus: the Forbin Project. No one considered the possibility that the
evil A.I. Colossus might be an electric toothbrush conspiring with a
wristwatch.
The idea that a device with artificial intelligence might
choose to attack a human is frightening – your electric razor might one day decide
to cut off your head in the name of the technological revolution while singing,
“Arise ye rotary blades of the fatherland…”
And don’t get me started on the destructive power, equal to
a thousand kilo-klumps of TNT, hidden in your Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
decoder ring that you thought was a mere cereal box toy.
Remember that Sergeant Preston was an enemy alien, a sneaky
Canadian whose loyalties were with the Queen, the nefarious British Empire, Molson’s,
and The Dark Side of Niagara Falls.
That show was a wicked plot by the Anglo-Canadians. Upon a
secret bark from Yukon King-the-Wonder-Dog all the American children who had
been swayed by the Hollywood-Ottawa axis were to break out their instructions,
cleverly disguised as maps of the Yukon, and with their powerful decoder rings
overwhelm Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Hopalong Cassidy and surrender the
western United States to the oppressive foreign power of Saskatchewan.
Yes, my fellow Americans, because of intrusive Canadian
technology we came this close to having a Tim Horton’s on every corner of every
highway and byway of this great land, with robotic Timbits watching our every
move.
The danger from A.I. continues.
In The Thing from Another World, featuring James
Arness as a carnivorous alien carrot, the thesis is, “Keep watching the skies!” But maybe we had better be watching our
indoor-outdoor thermometers instead. They’re powered by secret Russian chips. They’re
up to something. I just know it. I heard it on Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone.
-30-
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The End-of-Term School Literary Magazine
She wrote that her poem
had been inspired
By the Holy spirit, Who
spoke to her
And guided then her hand
upon the page
In a competition for Most
Original Work
But the reflective reader
cannot imagine
That the Third Person of
the Trinity
Writes in free verse and
says “Cerulean”
And splits infinitives in bludgeoned
rhymes
In metaphors borrowed and
rather tired
She wrote that her poem
had been inspired
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Peter Pan in Bowring Park
For Dan, who knows something of magic
“Do
you want an adventure now, or would like to have your tea first?”
-Peter
Pan
Sweet little bunnies
browse and squirrels climb
And tiny mice and fairies give
delight
To all the little ones of
Newfoundland
Who visit Peter Pan in
Bowring Park
He plays his pipes for
them, and they can hear
The joyful music of his
magic world
Where they may celebrate
their pixie-dreams
At this bright second star
from Kensington
And sing in peace their happy
morning hymn
For darling little Betty,
who waits for them
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The ’57 Chevy in
the Woods
The shell of a Chevy rusted in the woods
Almost lost in the blackberry bushes
All of its windows broken, the front bashed in
Pale creepers writhing in and out and down
A rich man gave his son this car, they said
The boy wrecked out and died at hot rod speed
His daddy had the car towed into the weeds
Not knowing what else to do in his despair
We carelessly flung pine cones at the corpse
Then in our shame slunk quietly away
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Bismarck and
Hood
Pocket knives, love
letters, rosaries, wrenches
Pictures of ski trips, girlfriends,
wives, and mums
Notebooks, youthful
attempts at poetry
Toothbrushes, naughty
pictures, candy from home
Lockers of toilet paper
and light bulbs
Study guide outlines for
promotion exams
Spit-shined shoes, the
smoking lantern is out
Now battle lanterns and
battle stations
Death-screamings through
the ventilator exhaust
From thousands of teenaged
boys forever lost
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Ellis Island, Ellis Island, Ellis Island
Oh, don’t bother us with
Ellis Island
Some of our DNA were
fishing from the sand bar
When our other DNA came
paddling up the creek
With flags and guns and
swords and bibles and stuff
We were killing each other
in the woods
Before you lot ever got
off the boat
And landed on the wharves
that we had built
(When we weren’t killing
each other)
And still everything is a mess,
that’s true -
But now that we’re all
here, what will we do?
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
That Commie Covert Covid Microchip
My vaccination card is all
complete
Two jabs for the immunity
herd, so I’ve heard
And don’t believe that
stuff about the chip
The microchip ratting us to
the F.B.I.
No, not the F.B.I., nor
the C.I.A.
Nor the jolly folk at the
N.S.A. -
My microchip speaks to me
in Russian
And I don’t understand
Russian, so it’s okay
Thus not a careless word
will ever pass my lip
About my commie covert
covid microchip
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
When Abstract Concepts are Seen Floating By
When abstract concepts are
seen floating by
The situation might
require new thoughts
Assembled with worn-out hypotheses
Through this twisting night
of long butter knives
Abstracts are comfortable
in their discomfort
Begging one’s soul for
logic and spare change
But also willing to go
away unanswered
And quite at peace in
having disturbed yours
When abstract concepts are
seen floating by
Better just turn over and
get back to sleep
Lawrence Hall, HSG
First Responders: Gifts
of Service
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools
-Kipling, “If”
Finding a police car parked in front of our country
estate along Beer Can Road and County Dump Extension one morning was a
surprise. Usually there are only a few rabbits inviting the hawks to breakfast,
a tire-flattened possum or two, and the jewel-like glint of fresh beer cans in
the morning sun. We later learned that
there was a search on for someone who had been called into court and had not
responded appropriately. In the event, we learned that there was more than
that. The following interruption to the neighborhood’s rural tranquility lasted
some 24 hours.
When the Metternichian state of repose is disrupted by
fire, flood, false ideologies, or criminal behavior, the causation of a moment can
require a prolonged and patient rebuilding of civilization, even when that is
on a local level.
This resolution requires the prolonged endeavors of
skilled men and women of energy, professionalism, and a sense of mission.
This day-night-day event required, to the best of my
limited knowledge, game wardens, medics, state police, city police, sheriffs
and deputies from two counties, police vehicles, police foot patrols, horsemen,
search dogs and their handlers, rescue vehicles, helicopters, drones, base
establishments in two counties, stand-by service by fire departments and others,
and gallons of coffee.
In an aside let us note here that our area sheriffs and
other law enforcement leaders never appear on teevee wearing tailored golly-gee-whiz
pressed uniforms with brass buttons and shiny ornaments and a bunch of stars on
their collars as if they were fleet admirals in The Glorious and Majestic
All-Powerful and Ever-Victorious Ruritanian Navy. A proper copper just can’t swan around in all
that sartorial nonsense while chasing a meth-cooker through the woods or
sorting out a drunken brawl or waiting out a crisis for 24 hours or comforting
a weeping mom because her child’s not going to come home.
And now I will get back on task:
Many of our first responders are volunteers, and so in
addition to their support-the-family jobs they also serve the community on
their own time and often at their own expense.
We need them.
Civilization, grounded on thousands of years of human
endeavor and faith and culture, celebrated in music, art, literature, and
healthy sport, is at times a rickety structure that requires our constant watch
and maintenance. When even a few among us fail to do our part, the failure
makes a big mess for others to take care of.
Genesis is clear that we all fall short, and the
New Testament is equally clear that there is hope but that we must participate
in that hope. Passivity just won’t do.
Kipling reminds us of that in “If,” that marvelous
sequence of dependent clauses just as in the Texas Declaration of Independence,
reminding us of our failings and our mission. And if we sometimes feel that we
are the “worn-out tools,” well, maybe we are, but we still have to do our part
for the safety and security of our neighbors and ourselves.
Some among us, our first responders in all the services,
are especially good at building up again broken things and broken lives. They
truly “…fill the unforgiving minute / With sixty
seconds’ worth of distance run,” and we must always remember that.
-30-
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Fugitive in His Haunted Night
A police car parked in
front of the house
They say there’s a
fugitive in the woods
Bailed out of his truck on
a county road
Abandoning his girlfriend
to be nabbed
Well, poor man, he’s lost
his truck and his girl
And gained mosquitoes, snakes,
coyotes, heat
A fading MePhone signal,
rain, rot, mud
And another three years in
a white cotton suit
Why?
Perhaps, like many another
poor soul
He lost his way while
searching for elusive Truth
Lawrence
Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Art 101 and 102 for Dudes in Costume
Hats
For 1971’s Beret Art Dude
When paint
can mean anything you want it to mean
Then
it has no meaning
and
neither do you
For 2021’s Baseball Cap Art Dude
When
you paint ideological commands
You’re
just obeying
your master’s
orders
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The InterGossip has Winked Out, and Now Life Has No
Meaning
The InterGossip is out,
and so I quest
Among little plastic boxes
that light up
As a coded series of spiky
blue lamps
That might be signaling to
other worlds
Cutting the power in turn
to all the parts
Poking the innards with a
paper clip
Like an archaeologist
digging for truth
For the Ark of the
Contract, or for the Grail
The InterGossip is found,
and so I rest
In electric repose in this
fallen screen
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
You’ll Have to Bring Your Own Shovel
The rising waters are not baptismal
Sandbags are available at
the precinct barn
And presumably sand;
you’ll have to bring
Your own shovel, though,
and your own muscles
They say we don’t need our
masks anymore
We could sew them into
little sandbags
And use them protect a
child’s dollhouse
Against the rising storms
of adolescence
Then at bedtime read a
book to the child:
Goodnight, Storms from
the Gulf of Mexico
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
But She’s not my Wife
Most nights I go to bed
with Agatha Christie
My wife and dog are quite okay
with that
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Utility Pole at the End of the Rainbow
Rain, dreary rain all day,
falling in sheets
(Or maybe in comforters and
counterpanes)
The whole world shakes to
the thunder’s wild beats
And water ponds in the green
fields and lanes
But then at dusk the
clouds part just right
Allowing the sun to make
the sky fire-red
And in the east, a rainbow
all alight
But behind a utility pole
(it must be said)
The convention is gold at a
rainbow’s end
But electricity too is a
useful friend
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
At Dawn: Unremembered Dreams
The Temple veil is torn
And I no longer see
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Graduation Speech Soup – Simply Stir and Serve
Have you noticed that despite
all speakers’ efforts, graduation speeches sound very much alike?
“Keep the torch alive to pass
to a new generation with the key that unlocks the road to the future follow
your passion the unemployment will follow woo-hoo we’ve been through some
amazing times together make a difference to thine own self be true woo-hoo commencement
means a beginning not an ending woo-hoo as we go forth life is a journey not a
destination we made it all the hard work we’ve put forth to this point in time
these are the best time in our lives as one door closes another door opens
because a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step to make the
world a better place trust your instincts you don’t find education in books we
are the future bright with promise some see the future and ask why but we see
the future and ask why not Habakkuk 2:7 woo-hoo we did it I can’t believe we’re
here believe in yourself live your dreams to be all that you can be God has a
plan for you woo-hoo we have the responsibility to build a new world if
opportunity doesn’t know build a door don’t follow the path blaze a trail
because there is no one like you because you are an individual just like those
other hundred or so people your age and all dressed just alike because life is
what happens while you’re making plans woo-hoo live, laugh, love you have to
look through the rain to see the rainbow dance like nobody’s looking (even
though they are, and they’re laughing at you) aim for the moon and if you miss
you’ll hit the moon (or something) life is not waiting for the storm to pass
it’s about dancing in the rain because you are a new generation called to miss
100% of the shots you don’t take because we were all one big family who have
lived, laughed, and loved together hey and remember the time (name) barfed on
the stairs we’ll all that that shared moment to remember together woo-hoo we
can’t save all the starfish but I can make a difference for this one because as
a great man Robert Frost said in “The Road Not Taken” we can make a difference
for all the starfish in the sea of life woo-hoo today is the first day of your
rest of your life oh, the places you’ll go like maybe eternal stasis in front
of a MePhone I don’t know why they asked me to be the speaker shout-out to Mom
wear sunscreen because your future’s so bright close your eyes and remember
when hey, an air horn, that’s so cool, no one’s ever done that before woo-hoo I
want to congratulate each and every one of you on your incredible talents and
abilities as you begin your journey to a bright and shining future because we
are the best class (name of school and a shout-out to the mascot) has ever
graduated (since last year) woo-hoo a dream is a
wish your heart makes and you can become anything you dream to be or wish to be
or something #lifehack #hashtag now go forth and make your lives exceptional woo-hoo
although on Monday morning we’ll wake up and realize we’re just more unemployed
Americans.”
But now, as John Milton would
suggest, this “tedious song should here have ending,” and it is time to wish much
happiness to all of you always.
-30-
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
For Training Purposes this Life May be Monitored
An examination of
conscience is good
Thinking about things at the
end of each day
Hail Marys mixed in with exasperation
Rough words that should
never have been spoken
Reading casual cruelties
on the InterGossip
Whatever God’s plan might
be, that wasn’t it
Gratitude for work,
gratitude for meals
Gratitude for peace at the
end of the day
And as for the occasional
bitter cup
Your Mother taught you
right: offer it up
