Never Mind the Guns and the Drugs; Seize the Books - poem

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Never Mind the Guns and the Drugs; Seize the Books

 

By 1938, the Nazis had banned eighteen categories of books,

4,175 titles, and the complete works of 565 authors…

 

-Molly Guptill Manning, When Books Went to War

 

Ideologues search libraries for dirty books

Because reading might give people ideas

And encourage them to think for themselves

Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

 

Censors search Mary Poppins for dirty words

Because a wide vocabulary might give people ideas

And encourage them to think for themselves

Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

 

In an era when even mere literacy is suspicious

Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

 

 

How conservative and liberal book bans differ amid rise in literary restrictions - ABC News (go.com)

 

The Spread of Book Banning - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

 

Film censors aren’t protecting children from Mary Poppins – they’re protecting themselves (yahoo.com)

 

States Tell SCOTUS That Social Media Censors Conservatives : The NPR Politics Podcast : NPR

 

List of banned films - Wikipedia

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/12/22/police-officer-searches-middle-school-library-after-complaint-about-concerning-illustrations-in-lgbtq-book/

 

Someone is cutting down free little libraries in a Chicago suburb and police are searching for the suspect (msn.com)

 

Over 170 books banned from Florida school libraries following new education reform - CBS News

 

The police officer who searched for a book in a Great Barrington classroom also used a body camera. The ACLU has ‘deep concerns’ | South Berkshires | berkshireeagle.com

Broccoli on the Primary Ballot - quatrain

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Broccoli on the Primary Ballot

 

(As President Bush maior did not say)

 

Broccoli, limp broccoli, that’s all I see

Just rotting broccoli all stink, stunk, stank

No real choices today, only broccoli –

The same old broccoli, putrid and rank

The Dime-Store Philosophy of Kahlil Gibran - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

 

The Dime-Store Philosophy of Kahlil Gibran

 

How The Prophet Made Kahlil Gibran a Household Name in America ‹ Literary Hub (lithub.com)

 

The dime-store philosophy of Kahlil Gibran

          (“Daddy, what’s a dime-store? And what’s a dime?”)

Reposing mostly undisturbed on brick-and-board shelves

The free-verse love-salad of Rod McKuen

And Lord of the Rings in 50-cent paperbacks

 

The Seekers played over and over on the phonograph

          (“Daddy, what’s a phonograph? Is it something bad?”)

Have you heard The Mamas and the Papas’ latest single?

Peter, Paul & Mary in “stacks of wax”

Three-chord commandos in every coffee shop

 

Looking back - it wasn’t the greatest stuff

But for the time and place, it was good enough

 

A Dragon Has Just Flown Over the Treetops - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

“A Dragon Has Just Flown Over the Treetops…”

 

“We must all show great constancy.”

 

-C. S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader

 

Dragons! They seem to land among us daily

Blotting out all happiness, all innocent joys

In appearance and demeanor ugly and scaly,

Suppressing silence through foul foolish noise

 

Dragons! They don’t like anything about who we are

Our words, our works, our walks, our dreams, our tunes,

Our happy memories of a long-ago star

Our lazy moments in barefoot afternoons

 

Dragons! They want to crush us in the end

But we’ve read the story – we always win

The Great Matter of Processing Hogs at the County Jail

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

The Great Matter of Processing Hogs at the County Jail

 

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the topic of hogs

 

-as G. K. Chesterton did not say

 

Our candidates for county sheriff have promised

There will be no more hanky-panky hog-ness

At the county jail

                             (Where Elvis says the cats do wail)

Maybe the prisoners are going vegan now

 

The chief deputy says the hogs are a charity

That the prisoners are happy to butcher them

And share the meat out for the hungry poor

And nobody gets any personal advantage out of it

 

But whether the prisoners were volunteers or tasked

Certainly none of the hogs was ever asked

No, I Will Not Watch X - quatrain

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

No, I Will Not Watch X

 

For all the same reasons I repudiate Q

I will not watch X, not even for you

And I regret that you asked me to -

They’re both a Macbethian witches’ brew

Night of the Long Sporks - quatrain

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Night of the Long Sporks

 

Republicans have their sporks out for each other

Slashing each member with unpassable bills

Impeaching each MAGA sister and brother -

The 118th Congress gives me the chills!

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT ALL OVER EUROPE AND OHIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

ALL OVER EUROPE AND OHIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The Great AT&T Blink of 2024

 

America has failed, Babylon has fallen

Amid sturm und drang and riot and rout

Civilization has collapsed and we can’t call it in

Because our telephones are out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

(Oh, it’s back on – is this Joe’s Pizza?)

How to Write a Modern Scholarship Application Letter

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

How to Write a Modern Scholarship Application Letter

 

On a photocopy of a photocopy of a word soup scribbled in pencil on a torn-out sheet of notebook paper at lunch:

                                                   

My future life plan goals include being a jet pilot or a dentrist I havent chose a college yet I have a A in honers English your cholarship would mean I don’t have to stress about working and my mom and dad don’t have to stress about working I can just make good grades about stressing about working I love aminals my hobbies are hanging with my friends and video games I want to attend community college and become a veteranariarian PHd i was in peewee football and cheerleading I want to major in bussiness’es and get my batchelors in bussinnesse’s administeriation in my spare time I hanging with my friends and we right fourwheeler’s and s’tuff i have looked at your program and it look’s alright for me maybe I would like it because as a wise man once said to thine true self be thine I am active in my crurch I WRITE music and build legos my dreams are in my music i write I help with blue Santa last year I take care of my specail need’s sister which is why I want to be an pediatrishin to help specail nee’ds kids and I can inspire other’s to be like me my swimming coach said I would never make the team and I did so I showed everyone who didn’ believe in me because the key to the bridge to success lys in my dream’s because my dream’s are what make me me and my dream’s are going to take me to place’s I never dreamed of as a wise man his name was Martin Luther King said as a wise man named Gandih said it’s in this book as a wise man named Churchell said as a wise man named Rosa Parks said as a wise man said

As a wise man said

As a man said

Maybe he said

Maybe

I found it in a book somewhere

Standing the Test of Time - quatrain

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Standing the Test of Time

 

So tell me about life’s test – is it multiple-guess?

Or fill-in-the-blanks for my empty mind

If the most common answer is C…oh, what a mess!

Gimme a hint, Teach; I’m falling behind!

The Wind Drove the Pages Wild - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

The Wind Drove the Pages Wild

 

Reading Yevtushenko on a Windy Day

 

The flapping, fluttering pages went wild in the wind

And poetry sometimes should go wild, blow wild

To shake those gently slumbering words awake

Provoking peaceful musings into a storm

 

Nouns chasing verbs into logical conclusions

That turn about and bite the reader in the (hand)

And adjectives torment the symbolism

While adverbs, as always, were mostly in the way

 

I just wanted a quiet hour with coffee and verse

But flapping, fluttering pages went wild in the wind

A Single, Intemperate, Ill-Mannered Line About Tucker Carlson

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

A One-Line Dismissal of Tucker Carlson Isn’t a Poem, But…

 

 

Democracy dies in dorkness

Waiting for the Other Boot to Drop - quatrain

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Waiting for the Other Boot to Drop

 

And it’s not even a good and honest boot

But the steel-tapped heel and studded sole

Of anger, hatred, and existential despair

One that takes time to pause and stomp the flowers

(The village grouch; you know him well)

Faces Among the Leaves - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Faces Among the Leaves

 

At first she thought it was but the rock and the bushes…

But all at once she was aware of a face among the leaves…

 

Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

 

There are curious faces among the leaves

Among the trees and sometimes in the trees

Along the road a little old man appears

Looking at me from the trunk of a rotting pine

 

He seems to be a little bit annoyed

But not dangerous; he’s become used to me

Tapping along with my shiny hiker’s stick

Searching the winter sky for something of truth

 

And there are bare feet dancing in the underbrush

And faces in the trees I must not see

A Ballerina Arrested for High Treason - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

A Ballerina Arrested for High Treason 

Let them dance in praise of His name 

-Psalm 150

A ballerina was arrested for high treason

And no wonder – dance is a beautiful thing

Whether the thunderous tread of a country line

Or the ethereal flights of Russian ballet

Dance is a joy, and so must be suppressed

A ballerina was arrested for high treason

 

A dancer moves to mysteries of her own

On an imperial stage in Saint Petersburg

Or barefoot in a meadow among butterflies

Dance is a joy, and must be controlled

 

A ballerina was arrested for high treason

 

In the street or in a moonlit fairies’ ring

Such wild wonder – dance is a dangerous thing!

 

A ballerina was arrested for high treason

 

 

American Ballerina Ksenia Karelina Is Detained For 'high Treason' In Russia By Putin's Feared FSB Security Accused Of Raising $51 For The Ukrainian Army And Could Face 20 Years In Jail If Found Guilty - Ny Breaking News

Sunshine is Dogshine - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

 

Sunshine is Dogshine

 

Be prepared. A dog is adorable and noble.

A dog is a true and loving friend. A dog

Is also a hedonist.

 

-Mary Oliver, “The Wicked Smile”

 

My little dogs pause at the kitchen door

But after tentatively testing the air

Run wild into the sunlit of a rare warm day

Leaping across the long-dead summer grass

 

They tumble and roll, and loll with their tummies up

For each little sunbeam is a doggie-kiss

To be cherished against the next arctic front

When the sleeting wind rattles the window panes

 

My little dogs scratch at the kitchen door

Sunshine is dogshine

But now they want a doggie-nosh and a nap

Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things

 

All of my life I have been told

That Lent is not about giving up things

So was there a time when anyone

was told otherwise?

"Never Surrender" Sneakers: Collectible Bone Spurs Edition - quatrain

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

“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

Cheerful Young Fascists at my Door - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

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

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

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