Lawrence Hall, HSG
Cleaning a Metaphorical Rifle
The Detachable Magazine Holds Ten Lines
There is no such thing as an unloaded word
And once a word has left the barrel it’s gone
You cannot call it back – were you sure of your aim?
Friday, September 6, 2024
Cleaning a Metaphorical Rifle - short poem
Draft Beer, Not Students - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Draft Beer, Not Students
A slogan from the 1960s
In illo tempore:
A young man swaggers across the
‘versity quad
Smoking a Marlboro or affecting a
pipe
‘Way cool in his sports coat and
turtleneck
Shakespeare or physics held loosely
in his hand
A young woman passes through the
‘versity quad
Smoking a Parliament or checking her
mirror
‘Way cool in her pencil skirt and
layered look
Shakespeare or physics held closely
to her heart
Sed in tempore nostro:
Pronouns galumph across the ‘versity
squad
One fist raised in hate, the other
clutching a glowing box
Thursday, September 5, 2024
You are not a Banana - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
You are not a Banana
Sticker Not, Lest Ye be Stickered
A banana bears a sticker to say it is a banana
(The banana, that is, not the paper sticker)
Even though a banana is obviously a banana
(It has a yellow skin and some squashy stuff inside)
If we take the banana sticker from the banana
And stick the ticker to a tomato
The tomato is not then a banana
However much someone claims it so
Sticking sticky stickers to humans is also wrong
A man is himself; a woman is herself
If we stick a sticky sticker to a human
As a joke, well, that’s just a bit of fun
But if as a judgement then we are false witnesses
Stickers, nothing but stickers, excuses
Failures of intellect, truth, and caritas
Stickers are two-dimensional; they have no depth
Stickers are useless even on bananas
And our brothers and sisters are not bananas
Barefootin' Among Watermelons on a Summer Afternoon - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Barefootin’ Among Watermelons on a Summer Afternoon
For J. W., His Dad, and His Uncle
Brandon
J. W. is blessed with
family and purpose and love
Guided study and chores
and structured faith
Happy barefootin’ days
among the watermelons
A fishing pole and
buzzing-bee summer afternoons
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Feeding the Squirrels and Birds at Dawn - very short poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Feeding the Squirrels and Birds at Dawn
A squirrel sits upon a little mound of corn
And faces the east with its nimble forepaws
Clasped gently together as if in prayer
Friday, August 30, 2024
The Grave Robber of Fifth Avenue - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Grave Robber of Fifth Avenue
Unferth postures upon the ashes of
warriors
The warriors he has despised all his wretched
life
Because he is unworthy to be one of
them
Warring with only his mouth and never
a spear
He mocks their wounds, their missing
limbs, their graves
He steals their widows and orphans
for himself
As ornaments to his manic caperings
While arrogating honors he could never
win
But when the Dragon comes…
But when the Dragon comes, lashing
its tail
Unferth will be ghosted away as a howling
wail
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
J. Alfred Prufrock and the Giant Peach - not really a poem, just three frivolous lines of blank verse
Lawrence Hall, HSG
J. Alfred Prufrock and the Giant Peach
“Do I dare to eat a peach?” He asked
“Yes, yes. just eat the stupid peach and stop
Banging on about it,” I replied
Monday, August 26, 2024
Kafka and the Self-Service Checkout Kiosk - a bit of fun
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Kafka and the Self-Service Checkout Kiosk
Those who have never suffered through Kafka
Should not employ the adjective “Kafkaesque”
The landgraf would not approve
When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning
from unsettling dreams, he found
himself changed
in his bed into a monstrous self-service
checkout kiosk.
Someone must have traduced Joseph K.,
for without doing anything wrong
he was arrested in the checkout line
one fine morning
It was late in the evening when
the supermarket supervisor arrived.
Kafka, The Metamorphosis.
Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: Norton. 1972
Kafka, The Trial.
Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: The Modern Library. 1956
Kafka, The Castle.
Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: Schocken. 1982
The hell of self-service checkouts is becoming Kafkaesque
(yahoo.com)
To God, Who Still Gives Joy to Our Youth - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
To God, Who Still Gives Joy to Our Youth
Introibo ad altare Dei
Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutam meum
Missals calendaring the liturgical year
Mantillas in reverent rows marked out by children
Children as rosary beads sorting out the Aves
And men in this-is-choking-me suits and ties
Candles in colored glass in reverent rows
Decades of prayers, centuries incensed with prayers
Corinthian columns in reverent rows of awe
Or perhaps the humble Doric, upholding Heaven
Fiddleback chasubles in liturgical colors
Sequenced by seasons in prismatic reverent rows
Sewn long ago by loving reverent hands
Each stitch enriched with a Latin prayer
Fidgety altar boys in their Sunday shoes
The processional cross their grandfathers knew
Nonnas, Nanas, MeeMaws in reverent rows
The occasional bead-bang of a rosary against a pew
The occasional knee-pinch to a squirming child
Latin responses in sequenced reverent rows
Latin, which later we were told we didn’t understand
Quia putabant nos stulti essemus
And on the Altar the eternal Sacrifice
Which no tyranny can ever take away
Sed fuit, est, erit
If a Book Could Take Just One Human to a Desert Island - very short not-really-a-poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
If a Book Could Take Just One Human to a Desert Island
Who would it take?
You?
Me?
Dostoyevsky?
A librarian?
Upon Re-Reading William L. Shirer's THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Upon Re-Reading William L. Shirer’s
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Perhaps one day America will go fascist democratically, by popular vote.
-William L. Shirer, New York Times, 29 December 1969
We do not live Samsara, for Samsara has meaning
So this is not Samsara; this is a cascade of deaths
We live in linear time – or maybe we don’t -
And the gods of hate sneak in ahead of us
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Before Me Sits Young Pablo Neruda - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Before Me Sits Young Pablo Neruda
On the paperback cover of Residence on Earth
Before me sits pensive Pablo Neruda
His young face resting upon his
slender hand
He looks a little to the left of the
photographer’s eye
He appears to be thinking great thoughts
Or he might be thinking
Why am I posing like a high school senior?
Residence on Earth, introduction by Jim Harrison
New York: New
Directions Publishing Corporation
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Assembling a Metal Lawn Chair with Great Care (and a Ball-Peen Hammer) - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Assembling a Metal Lawn Chair with Great Care
(and a Ball-Peen Hammer)
A friend gave me a lawn chair in tangerine
Bright tangerine, with instructions in English
Which I followed most assiduously
Which parts of the chair most surely did not
The instructions did not mention a ball-Peen hammer
With brutality and words which must not be spoken
(Think of Vulcan and his mighty strokes)
I finally assembled the chair to my satisfaction
And then I sat down
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Our Children Will Ask Us What We Did in 2024 - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Our Children Will Ask Us What You Did in 2024
Thus was th’ applause they meant,
Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame
Cast on themselves from thir own mouths.
Milton, Paradise Lost,
X.545-547
Have we not learned?
The Zeppelinfield, the
Kroll Opera House
The Great Hall of 10,000
People
The Hippodrome, the Piazza
Venetia
Red Square, and the
Quicken Loans Arena
Weak beings subsumed within
one commanding Will
Adoring with glistening
eyes and beating hearts
A strident oligarchy of
destiny
Chanting obscurities and
pumping fists
But when the chanting
stops and foul diktats roll –
Will you - will I? - be a defiant soul?
Blue Moon and a Spooky Old Tree - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Blue Moon and a Spooky Old Tree
To watch the moonrise is almost liturgical
Her bright silver light behind the far-off pines
Rising and glowing and larger and larger
Silent and silver, lifting above the woods
I set a camera to watch Moon through the night
Electronics see the night and light differently
The old apple tree appears white and skeletal
And ghosts pretending to be insects flit about
Moon and trees and ghosts when left alone
Make merry mischief knowing that I am gone
Monday, August 19, 2024
People Who Are Paid to Make Their Own Businesses Fail - in their own words
Lawrence Hall, HSG
We Have All Dealt with this Company, Whose Name is
Legion
(Famous DNA).com Visit site Re:
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Sunday, August 18, 2024
The Moon is Upon Her Throne Tonight - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Moon is Upon Her Throne Tonight
The moon is dressed in her shining best tonight
With silvering joy and lunar happiness
Flying and flowing, flung from her starry wand
Flying and falling upon her glowing-night realm
We loyal subjects peek from our windows to see
An argent pageant royal of beauty and truth
Even in summer the lawn is a frosty field
For her monthly dance, by her command
The Lady of the Moon is our Summer Queen
As she will be, and is, and ever has been
Saturday, August 17, 2024
We Know Where the Holy Grail is - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
We Know Where the Holy Grail Is
“They all say they’ve got the Holy
Grail. So who’s right?”
The Holy Grail: Many places say they have it. So who’s
right? | CNN
We know where the Holy
Grail is
Each Sunday we see it on
the Altar
As a cup, indifferent in
its origins
In the catalogue of a
church supply
A rabbi, a carpenter, and
God
Walk into a rented room
And a Passover Kiddush cup
is blessed
With the Viaticum, for all
of us
A Passover seder is
neither first nor last
It is forever – and here
is the Cup
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