Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 Refilling the Hummingbird Feeder

Now here is a bee
So anxious for me    
                     to be
Far away from it

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

              A Poor Attempt at a Kinda-Sorta Tang Quatrain

Ink fluttering across cheap notebook pages
A candle guttering across a thousand nights
In exile he finds a school of poets and sages
Far from his home along the swift Mekong

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                  When in Babylon
                       Don’t Do as the Babylonians Do

King Nebuchadnezzar died young, and that’s
From a lifetime of smoking those ziggurats

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

             Lingering Death by Medical Office Telephone Tree

“The marshal’s been shot! Somebody get Doc!”

“Hello. You have reached Polysyllabic Medical Associates
Our hours are (mumble, mumble, mumble)
Our fax number is (mumble, mumble, mumble)
We are located up the stairs on Front Street
Next to the Long Branch Therapeutic Outreach Centre
And boutique, Florals by Miss Kitty
All patients and visitors are required to wear masks
If this is a medical emergency
Hang up and telegraph 911 from the depot
If you need a refill, contact your pharmacist
If you are a doctor, dial 1
If you know your party’s extension, dial it now

(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)

If this is for an appointment, dial 4

(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)

If you would like to speak with a nurse, dial 5

(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)
That number is not recognized; please try again
(Beep)”

“Somebody, go get the undertaker.”

“Hello. You have reached The Garden of Memories
Formerly known as Boot Hill
Our hours are (mumble, mumble, mumble)…”

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                    A­n Indignant Dachshund

When my little dogs stops and pps and ps
She expects a little privacy, please!

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                Is Love Delivered by UPS?

            Wishing You and Yours a Happy and Holy Prime Day

All the empty boxes won’t go away
So I’m burning them outside after the rain
Automatic gunfire from the next road over
And is there a meaning in all of this?

We have mail-order cameras to protect
All the mail-order things that we don’t need
From the neighbors firing off rounds at dusk
Maybe at a menacing metaphor

All wants are now delivered to a home address -
And is love delivered by UPS?

Until today I have never re-posted someone else's work on my modest site. This is brilliant:

W. K. Kortas
JUNE 22, 2021

ON WATCHING “DOCTOR ZHIVAGO” WITH THE SOUND OFF

On Watching “Doctor Zhivago” With The Sound Off
There is a certain shock, not from the silence itself
But of its revelations, the laying bare
Of the utter superfluence of language
In all which unfolds before us, the testament mute
But imbued with all the power of an orchestra
In full-throated fortissimo
Delivered through the panorama of the vast steppes,
The bounty of their Junes,
The desolation of their Januarys
The visage of the doomed Strelnikov,
The darting glances of the chameleonesque Komarovsky,
His eyes scuttling to and fro like dark cockroaches,
And most of all by the unquiet, not-of-this world gaze
Of Yuri Andreyevich, a stare which tells tales
Of how fleeting this world’s happiness will be,
How final and inescapable its sadness,
And as he stumbles and falls in his mad, final pursuit
Of a grail which is unheeding, unseeing,
Always just a step out of reach,
The dialogue is not a necessity,
For we have a trove of our own words and experience
To attest to the veracity of the scene in question.

(AUTHOR’S NOTE–as I would be justly castigated by my good friend Lawrence Hall if I failed to do so, I made a point of adding the good Yuri’s patronymic .)

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                       Starting Over with a New Fountain Pen

              “I’m not happy unless I have a pen in my hand;
                                It’s really that simple.”

                                  -Anthony Horowitz

Now you are home from the stationery shop
And seated at your writing desk, alone
Alone with your thoughts in the soft lamplight
You carefully open the little box

A pen

Perfectly fitted to your artist’s hand
Somehow like a sword or a rosary
Or a wand of power awaiting your command -
For it is a magic pen that has never failed

A pen

It is your pen. It is sacred. Name it.
Pray over it. Then dare to write the truth.

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­  Coffee and Cookies after Mass

Only there is no coffee after Mass
No cookies or Kool-Aid for the kidlets
The parish hall has been locked up for months
And you know, there’s just something wrong with that

There is no one to remind the children
Only two cookies each, because there are no children
No old people enthroned in folding chairs
To fuss as ever about about children these days

Dear child, my heart and my life, I don’t know
If the bishop wants you to have a cookie after Mass

                                                          But I do

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                Midsu­mmer Mysteries

One of the merry mysteries of midsummer
Is that midsummer isn’t midsummer at all
Maybe it was, back in the shadows of time                
When Tolkien’s fairies blessed a happier world

We still light bonfires on Midsummer Eve
Making our summer vigil with good Saint John
While children dance among their fairy rings
Making this sad world better with their happy dreams

And finally

When the fading ashes greet the dawn
We carry our blessings to their little beds

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                     Six Months of Heat and Slanting Yellow Light

Six months of heat and slanting yellow light
And heat and damp and slanting yellow light
And heat and rot and slanting yellow light
And heat and pain and slanting yellow light
And heat and pain and burning yellow light
And heat and pain and sour yellow light

Summer

Lawrence Hall
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poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                        No One is Your Vibrant Stereotype

One’s words and one’s friends are not tuning forks
They do not vibrate, and are thus not vibrant
Nor are they folksy, colorful, or quaint
Curiosities for you to collect

Poetic verse is free of DNA
An iamb suffers no identity
It boldly speaks its rhythm clear and strong
And metric feet march to their own chosen beat

But

If you feel that any culture should vibrate
Then go sit on yourself and just…rotate

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

Situational Poverty

V: We was poor but we didn’t know it
R:                                 Oh, yes, we did

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                             One of the Pizza Cantos

                              “Obey Me and Be Free!”

                    -Free for All, episode 2 of The Prisoner

Cue the queue for Q, Ezras by the pound
A crown of horns in pantos by the fright
Mutually assured denunciations
Keyboarding demon vaccines with a little blue light

There’s cycle paths behind the juke machine
It’s Deep Steak stuff, yeah, it ain’t on the news
And them albino monks hid all our votes
Let’s blame the teachers, reporters, and Jews

Now take your selfie for the F.B.I.
And when those Commies catch you, don’t you cry

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                      A Dog, a Pocketknife, a Twenty-Two

               For Jared Allen Brandon, of Happy Memory

                             And Jared Walker Bess

A dog, a pocketknife, a twenty-two
The rightful possessions of every Texas lad
For working out the values he must live up to
The virtues that he learned from his solid ol’ Dad

A dog, a pocketknife, a twenty-two
Self-discipline, honest friends, a manly stride
A quiet voice that’s sturdy, firm, and true
A man of accomplishment and quiet pride

For you remember your own boyhood, yes, you do -
A dog, a pocketknife, a twenty-two

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                      Four Out of Nine Muses Recommend Poetry

Four out of nine Muses recommend poetry
More doctors recommended Camel cigarettes
But we are not speaking of burning poetry
Except by tyrants, who are frightened of words

Kalliope, Cleo, Erato, and Euterpe
Have split the poetry racket among themselves
The other Muses have business of their own
Worthy enough in their own arts, we’re sure

But oh, our four Muses, our Muses four -
We sing for you along your Ionian shore

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                            On the Unlocking of Words

           Their leader answered him, Beowulf unlocking
           Words from deep in his breast:  "We are Geats…”

                    -Beowulf to the Danish Coast Watcher

In bold and sturdy four-beat lines
Beowulf keeps his knowledge clear
With kennings well-crafted and careful caesurae
And never needing to raise his voice

But thus the Grendel-voice responds:

“Woo woo that’s just my person opinion that’s what I’m talking about follow your passion learn to code no offense, but *** oh my God oh my God woo woo hey hey ** ** something-something has got to go woo woo only dead fish go with the flow tear it down shut it down burn it down woo woo lock her up there is no I in team woo woo not my president it’s not rocket science it is what it is woo woo say it loud say it clear this is what something looks like woo woo is there an app for that woo woo that’s what I’m saying woo woo…”

But you - be brave like Beowulf, and boldly dare
To unlock your words with creativity and care

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                             Little Corpses Everywhere

            Woman kept child’s corpse in a plastic storage tote

                                               -CNN

Little corpses decaying in storage totes
Little corpses by the hundreds in unmarked graves
Little corpses by the abortuary thousands
In bags neatly labeled “Medical Waste”

Little corpses with shrivelled ****-tainted lungs
Little corpses dropped discreetly in the creek
Little corpses all chopped and dropped and flushed
So that graduation night won’t be ruined

Little corpses in factories, mere skin and bones
Their agonies haunting our new smart phones

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                   Left in a Package Locker

“Left in a package locker” – that probably means
That someone left it at the post office in town
Because the private deliveries sometimes say
They can’t find our house, except when they do

It worked out well enough for Paddington Bear
But our depot was torn down years ago
And freight trains thunder by without a stop
Without regard for packages or bears

And so

We’ll drive to town next week to see if there
Is waiting for us, properly tagged, a little bear

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 A Faraday Cage of the Mind

                                The dwarfs are for the dwarfs

                                 -C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle

They wire themselves into a Faraday cage
As they make ossification great again
Raising their hands not in salutes but in fists
Their voices not in hymns but in foul hate

They wire themselves into a Faraday cage
Hug to themselves a past that never was
And circulate deception among themselves
In closed incestuous loops of rumors and chants

They wire themselves into a Faraday cage
So that a genuine thought will never penetrate

Lawrence Hall
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poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                   When Astrid-The-Wonder-Dog Commands,
                                        Her Servant Obeys

When a six-pound dachshund wants your attention
SHE WILL HAVE IT (it goes without mention)

Lawrence Hall
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poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                  A Codicil to Sonnet 116

When shy young lovers flirt with each other
Make eyes across a parent-haunted room
Hold hands in the magnolia-scented night
And kiss for the first…oh, that very first kiss!

Do they anticipate petitionings
Investigations and bitter whisperings
Restraining orders, arrearages, fail nots
Decrees more absolute than youthful vows?

As old Shakespeare was never wont to say
Love is not love when arbitration binds

Lawrence Hall
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poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                           The 7th of June, 1944 and 1970

My father beached at Normandy on the second day
(He was okay with having missed the first)
From there through France to Belgium in the mud
For a ****** Christmas in the icy Bulge

Munich, Buchenwald, Dachau, Zwickau
For me DaNang, Saigon, Ben Luc, Moc Hoa
I met a child in a Japanese army cap
But he wouldn’t sell it. We all have history

I wish I had that Japanese army cap
And that we knew what any of this means

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                 Like Candles When They Quietly Go Out

             He mourns the sons of princes, sown in the dust

                                          -The Seafarer

When we were young
A friend once showed me a passage in a book
In which the monks of a certain cloistered order
Were often blessed with wonderfully peaceful deaths
Like candles when they quietly go out

Domine exaudi orationem meam

Now we are old
Our books require a rather larger print
Our foolish dreams were put by long ago
And the works of our youth are memories
Like candles when they quietly go out

Domine exaudi orationem meam

And we are candles
Still giving out a little bit of light
Anticipating with hope the morning Sun

Domine exaudi orationem meam

Lawrence Hall
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poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                    The Vocabulary of the Comments Section

              ...he held the proper opinions for the time of year

                          -Auden, "The Unknown Citizen"

No words
Just no words
I have no words
Beyond I have no words
Absolutely beyond I have no words
Absolutely beyond I have no words fact
Absolutely beyond I have no words fact end of
Absolutely beyond I have no words fact end of literally
Absolutely beyond I have no words fact end of literally actually
No words

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

              A Poetry Brawl Down at the Long Branch Saloon

I wrestled with a line of blank verse until
It fell, all writhing on the floor, and there
It gasped for breath and glared at me with hate
Each syllable grating against another

“You have a sorry accent,” it snarled
“And when my rhythm rises I will make you
A dactyl fallen or a trochee tripped
With my booted and spurred iambic feet!”

But we shook hands, and let our quarrel cease
And so at Miss Kitty’s there was
Syllabic accentuation at peace

Lawrence Hall
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         An Instruction in the Virtue of Patience for New Teachers

This truth in teaching children must be told:
A high school boy’s eyes are perpetually rolled

Lawrence Hall
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poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                           A Tribute to Gussie Fink-Nottle

                From an idea suggested by W. K. Kortas

Now be ye all upstanding, and charge your drinks
And let us lift a glass of orange juice
To all inebriated newt fanciers
(And God bless Market Snodsbury Grammar School)

And of all inebriated new fanciers
None is fancier than Gussie Fink-Nottle
None better with the newts, none worse with the girls
(And God bless Market Snodsbury Grammar School)

God bless the newts in Trafalgar fountain and pool
(And God bless Market Snodsbury Grammar School)

Lawrence Hall
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poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                        Death at 0200

Graduation shouldn’t be marked with casualty lists
Commencement’s happiness blighted by dawn
The quotes from Frost and Lincoln ashes and smoke
“Go forth!” now cancelled by “services pending”

Graduation shouldn’t be marked by casualty lists
A seat in university taken by another
A summer wedding that will never take place
A name not on the list at recruit training

Graduation shouldn’t be marked by casualty lists
Of lives ended in the springtime of youth

Lawrence Hall
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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
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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
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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
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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


...the history behind Bowring Park's Peter Pan statue? — Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland & Labrador

Lawrence Hall
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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 kind 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

27 May 2021
Lawrence Hall
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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

26 May 2021
Lawrence Hall
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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?

25 May 2021
Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                     That ****** 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 ****** covert covid microchip

Lawrence Hall
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                       At Dawn: Unremembered Dreams

The Temple veil is torn
And I no longer see

Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

              Graduation Speech Soup – Simply Stir and Serve

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 as a famous man John Kennedy once said 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.

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
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

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                A Metternichian State of Repose
                                in a Concert of Leaves and Light

Up before dawn and out among the quiet
Concelebrating with God the leafy light
That falls as blessing upon the lawn’s soft turns
From grey to gold to green to springing life

And then from meditation to liturgy
The Opus Dei of Saturday mornings
With rake and shovel and fire against the litter
That shoals into corners and along the fence

The feeblest remembrance of God’s mighty hand
Shaping chaos into order and meaning

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                        A Student Walkout with Hissy-Chants

But

I heard of one student who refused to go
Who bravely thought for herself, and so said no
And she’s the one student I want to know

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     Talmud Portion for Today

In the Talmud portion for today we read
Of the priestly appointments for stacking wood
And of other liturgical usages
As preparation for the sacrifice

But some must read their portion for the day
By a battle lantern’s flickering light
Deep down in a bunker among the tombs
While rockets fall upon Jerusalem

Thus blood still splashes against the Temple walls
Thus blood still forms the letters of the text