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

                                     In Praise of a Candle

                           These are thy gifts; they are good

             -Saint Augustine, City of God, Book 15, Chapter 22

A votive candle is good, and prayers are good
And those for whom the candle is lit are good
Especially when they feel they are not good
Because they are His gifts, and they are good

When we light a candle for someone else
We light it for ourselves, all without knowing
In the workings of the Ekonomia
Because we are His gifts, and we are good

In spite of ourselves – we must accept it
As the little candle shines on through the night

Lawrence Hall
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Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                             In Praise of Lester Holt, Journalist

His journalism is Ernest Hemingway
His plain and honest words are Robert Frost
His elegance is that of Patrick McGoohan
His America is that of Sevareid and Murrow

His purpose is that the news be accurate
His care for others is Angola-true
His courage is modest but as adamant as steel
His is the reassuring voice in any storm

His boots were stained on Afghanistan’s plain
His bosses’ alligator shoes are stained
                                     with the mark of Cain

Inquisition of a Waitress by the Morals Police

V: “So where did you say you went to church yesterday?”

R: “I went to the Cowboy Church.  I try to get
To church, you know, as often as I can
But my boyfriend and me we don’t often work
The same shifts and he’s my ride so I don’t

“Get to go as often as I’d like, you know,
But I like to go and it’s good for me
But sometimes I just can’t; you know how it is
I went yesterday and I sure feel good.”

V: “Well, now, then, that’s all right, darlin’; good for you.”

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Hellopoetry.com­

                                              In Search of Lost Timepieces

                                            (as Marcel Proust did not say)

When clocks were electric and mechanical
They almost never agreed with each other
The glowing G.E. beside the bed read 2:00
While Mother’s kitchen pastel hummed 2:03

Dad’s Hamilton ticked 1358
(And you never argued with him about it)
Grandfather Clock chimed whenever he wanted, by cracky
And the Timex took a licking at 2:04

But now all clocks obey an electronic command –
As the old joke goes, “We have ways of making you tock.”

Don’t bother about being a saint so rare-y;
They’ll make you one in your obituary!

Instructions from the Colonial Office

(Poetry is Everywhere)

Adjuncts if you teach online or off-campus
I am attaching detailed instructions
Assessment masters and tally sheet masters
As Word files you can copy these and score

Your assessments by hand fill out the tally
Sheets and e-mail them to me if you need
To have your assessments in Blackboard
E-mail me and I can send these to you

As Zip files with instructions for how you
Load them into Blackboard adjuncts if you

The cultural filters are all in place
And truth, some say, is past its sell-by date
Weak hymns embalmed by hippies, and lost in space
Where time is always 1968

A poison-green tattoo on a fleshy back
No incense, but the Purell’s pretty strong
A ten-year-old gobbles his comfort snack
During Communion and a three-chord song

Our bishops quack and honk in flocks and herds -
We need a starets
                                           but all we get are words:


Intensify the Dallas Charter accountability focus accountability exclusively accountability collegial collective accountability responsibility address theme encounter dialectic collegiality variety universality unity flock dealing topic difficult reasons unexplored differences crisis difficult for bishops enable abusers gravely irreparably failures governance responsibility question engage conversation point brother problematic behavior cultivate culture correctio fraterna enables offending other recognize criticism opportunity to tasks related willingness personally mistakes to each other feeling maintain fraternal relationship cases we damaging weakness anecdotal parenthesis to his speech encounters course ministry recollection forgive counseling for healing discussing matter rationally headway realized psyche of the person measure semblance justice inability forgive his  apparently perplexing consternating remarked noting changed personality of person realize humility mistakes learn mistakes better question unanswered unaddressed mistakes allowed consequences mishandling cases gathering conferences participants and journalists effective concrete measures combat scourge scandal technical theological sense term list reflection points adjunct secretary special portfolio combatting meeting chief architects roadmap for our discussion very, very concrete understatement seriously utter understatement things discussed follow-up meeting continued model of reform the so-called intensify the Dallas Charter metropolitan model metropolitan investigating disciplining wayward ecclesiastical provinces briefing responded you have to read the footnote disgrace investigations systemic coverup dismissed briefing expressed hope report position power prominence leadership structure report findings influence broader jurisdictions Accountability focus accountability exclusively accountability collegial collective accountability responsibility address theme encounter dialectic collegiality variety universality unity flock dealing topic difficult reasons unexplored differences crisis difficult for bishops enable abusers gravely irreparably failures governance responsibility question engage conversation point brother problematic behavior cultivate culture correctio fraterna enables offending other recognize criticism opportunity to tasks related willingness personally mistakes to each other feeling maintain fraternal relationship cases we damaging weakness anecdotal parenthesis to his speech encounters course ministry recollection forgive counseling for healing discussing matter rationally headway realized psyche of the person measure semblance justice inability forgive his  apparently perplexing consternating remarked noting changed personality of person realize humility mistakes learn mistakes better question unanswered unaddressed mistakes allowed consequences mishandling cases gathering conferences participants and journalists effective concrete measures combat scourge scandal technical theological sense term list reflection points adjunct secretary special portfolio combatting meeting chief architects roadmap for our discussion very, very concrete understatement seriously utter understatement things discussed follow-up meeting continued model of reform the so-called Metropolitan model metropolitan investigating disciplining wayward ecclesiastical provinces briefing responded you have to read the footnote disgrace investigations systemic coverup dismissed briefing expressed hope report position power prominence leadership structure report findings influence broader jurisdictions accountable faithful promises episodes  accountability supportive talking collegiality obligation misbehavior failures circumstances reputation representative discreet inquiries interview expression concern geographically confronted reported matter subject investigating disciplining malfeasance proposal wrongdoing explained carefully considered matter alternatives remarks paragraph  rehearsed alternatives footnote 6 of text speeches delivered sessions briefing spoke involvement laity lay involvement transparency transparent offending other recognize criticism opportunity to tasks related willingness personally mistakes to each other feeling maintain fraternal relationship cases we damaging weakness anecdotal parenthesis to his speech encounters course ministry recollection forgive counseling for healing discussing matter rationally headway realized psyche of the person measure semblance justice inability forgive his  apparently perplexing consternating remarked noting changed personality of person realize humility mistakes learn mistakes better question unanswered unaddressed mistakes allowed consequences mishandling cases gathering conferences participants and journalists effective concrete measures combat scourge scandal technical theological sense term list reflection points adjunct secretary special portfolio combatting meeting chief architects roadmap for our discussion very, very concrete understatement seriously utter understatement things discussed follow-up meeting continued model of reform the so-called Metropolitan model metropolitan investigating disciplining wayward ecclesiastical provinces briefing responded you have to read the footnote disgrace investigations systemic coverup dismissed briefing expressed hope report position power prominence leadership structure report findings influence broader jurisdictions accountable faithful promises episodes  accountability supportive talking collegiality obligation misbehavior failures circumstances reputation representative discreet inquiries interview expression concern geographically confronted reported matter subject investigating disciplining malfeasance proposal wrongdoing explained carefully considered matter alternatives remarks paragraph  rehearsed alternatives footnote 6 of text speeches delivered sessions briefing spoke involvement laity lay involvement transparency transparent intensify the Dallas Charter…

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                      International Chopsticks

Forgive me for any insensitive remarks
But do piano students in China practice “Forks?”

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

                                     ­   Interrogating the Text

She says she wants to interrogate the text –
Is she the literary Gestapo, then?

Lawrence Hall   Poems  

2d
Interrogating the Text
Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­   Interrogating the Text

She says she wants to interrogate the text –
Is she the literary Gestapo, then?

Lawrence Hall   Poems  

1d
Interrogating the Text - 2nd attempt at posting
Lawrence Hall   Poems  

2d
Interrogating the Text
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­   Interrogating the Text

She says she wants to interrogate the text –
Is she the literary Gestapo, then?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                   In the Foggy Dawn - a Hawk on a Fencepost

For him the hayfield is his restaurant
A baby mouse, perhaps, or a tasty rabbit
But I prefer a bacon-egg-cheese croissant -
For breakfast we are all creatures of habit!

(A MePhone rattles and twanks and pings like Robby-the-Robot gone bad.)

Woman: “Yeah?”

(silence)

Woman: “YEAH?”

(silence)

Woman: “I’m in the hospital.”

Noise from MePhone: (think Charlie Brown’s parents)

Woman: “I’m in the hospital!”

MePhone: (Charlie Brown’s parents)

Woman: “I’M IN THE HOSPITAL!”

MePhone: (a small child babbling)

Woman: “I’M IN THE HOSPITAL!”

MePhone: (a small child babbling)

Woman: “YEAH!”

MePhone: (a small child babbling)

Woman: “YEAH!”

MePhone: (incoherent noises – could be a ******)

Woman: “FOR MY COLONOSCOPY!”

MePhone: (the ****** continues)

Woman: “FOR MY COLONOSCOPY!”

Offstage, a young woman in scrubbies: “Mr. Lawrence…?”

(Deo gratias)

Exit, pursued by Too Much Information.

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

                              In the Season of the Perseids

Most people find beauty in everything:
An old Peterson’s pipe, crickets, Irish coins
Fire trucks, fountain pens, a favourite old book
Cattails growing in ditches along the road

Short strings of words that breathe and sigh as songs
Sunflowers fainting in the afternoon
A treefrog pulsing on the windowpane
Ladybugs drowsing on a tomato leaf

Even so, how hard it is to feel beauty
In late July’s wearying, withering heat

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                          In Violation of Community Standards

                                For Writing a Positive Review


                                          “Unmutual!”

 ­            -Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner, “A Change of Mind”


Amazon.god judged me, and found me wanting
For violating Community Standards
I don’t know what amazon.sin I committed
In praising my new Sperry Topsiders

Let us make such violations worthy of praise
We will not be communed against our will
Or judged by amazon.inquisition
Or any other corporate dotheads

I will never take an amazon.loyaltyoath
But new shoes are nice

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

      In Which We Find That Even Shakespeare Could Write Drivel

                         Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnets 57 and 58

Slave, imprisoned, tame, hate, bitterness, sad, fool:
Topics enough to make pornographers drool

There is nothing here upon which to dine -
Let us wash our hands and go to Sonnet 59

Lawrence Hall HSG
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                                         ­ I Once Attended a Funeral...

I attended a funeral
Where the officiant did not
Talk about himself

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                             One of Texas’ Foundational Documents

Taking an oath by placing one hand
Upon a copy of Lonesome Dove
Is not yet law in our sacred land
But by the Grace of God above…

Someday it might be

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?

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

                                 Isometric Exercises against Walls

They have piled up walls; we push against walls
We push against them with our bodies and minds
The walls do not move, and we hurt
But we grow strong

They have piled up walls; we write lines upon walls
We speak against walls with our words and hearts
The walls do not fall, and we hurt
But we still speak

They have piled up walls; we pray against walls
And we grow strong
And we still speak
And we still love

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


                                            Is “Poetess” Acceptable?

But of course
Just take it
And wake it
Remake it

Empower it
And it’s yours

I Spy with my Little FBI

I spy with my little bright FBI
A government wet and hung out to dry
On clotheslines that might (or might not) be tapped
Through circuitry that the Soviets mapped

And passed the plans on to bad Vladimir
(Who wrestles tigers sans shirt and sans fear)
But, sure, that mighty hyperborean
Had better watch for the North Korean

And keep him closer than a dodgy brother

because

All we Yanks do is snoop on each other

Pretend this is centered: Is Taos Burning?

          “…inspired by the pinon nut native to the Southwest.”

                                 - label on a coffee packet

Inspired

Apparently real pinon is not to be had,
Not anymore; the coffee is lesser now
Its taste inspired by a chemistry lab
Although the packet looks the same

Inspired

Instead of coffee flavored with pinon
The bean is only – inspired – and what is that?
It pretends that a chemical is from
The mountain pines of far New Mexico

Inspired

I want to go away to old Taos today
Where they make the best coffee at Michael’s Café

Is That a Prophet on Your Roof?

A woman of Shunem gave to Elisha
A small room on her roof, furnishing it with
A bed, a chair, a table, and a lamp
And, truly, what more does a man of God need?

It’s possible that the neighbors gossiped
About keeping a prophet on the roof
And what did the owners’ association say
About extra rooms and extra prophets?

A little room in which to pray and sleep,
And friends – what more does a man of God need?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                        “Is That MePhone Surgically Attached to you?”


“Is that thing surgically attached to you?” the teacher sighed.

“You can’t talk to me like that!” the MePhone replied.

Is the End Near for Religion?

-news item

No one will ever acknowledge a MePhone
As the Lord of the universe, or as
The Creator from before created time
Born of an IBM Selectric

True plastic of true limited resources,
Sing Advent hymns unto an Apple II,
Whisper aves on a strand of transistors,
Or genuflect before a Model T

No consecration will ever obtain
Upon the altar of a microchip

Lawrence Hall
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Lawrence Hall 5h
Highway Patrol
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                             Highway Patrol

An episode of Highway Patrol appears -
(With Broderick Crawford it should be widescreen)
Iron-jawed Bill Boyette as his sergeant
Today’s show features a passenger train

A man in a coat and tie, smoking a cigarette
Stops his DeSoto at a telephone booth
Wildly high fins (the DeSoto, not the telephone booth)
Inserts a dime and, turning a dial, he places a call

And Grandpa takes some time to explain
          All of this to his grandchild
The telephone, the tie, the passenger train

Is there a God? And did He really build
This world for us in which to live and serve
Each other and Him in sweet caritas?

Is there a God? And does he really love us?

If this is so,

Why does He permit motivational speakers?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                                       Is There no Sulky Gas?

To the dentist this morning but woe and alas
Only a cleaning - no laughing gas!

Ha, ha, ha!

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

                                     ­  Is This a Carry On Movie?

The Things They Carried The Things We Carry
Things People Carry The Light We Carry
Call Us What We Carry What We Carry
What I Carry

Maybe we can put something down, okay?

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

                           Is William Shatner Going to Deliver
                              my Overdue Book from Amazon?

-William Shatner is reportedly going to space in Jeff Bezos’ civilian space rocket | The Independent

Shipped with USPS Now expected
September 24 - September 25
We’re very sorry your delivery
is late. Most late packages arrive in a day.
If you have not received your package by
September 25, you can come back here
the next day for a refund or replacement.
Tracking ID: 9341989671004370746008
Wednesday, September 22 2:37 AM
Package left an Amazon facility.
Humble, TEXAS US 12:58 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Humble, TX US Tuesday, September 21
11:30 AM Package arrived
at an Amazon facility. Humble, TEXAS US
Carrier picked up the package.
Times are shown in the local timezone.

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

        It Became Necessary to Destroy the Constitution to Save It

             -as an unnamed army major in Viet-Nam did not say


When old Rip Van Me wakes up each morning he finds
A world unlike the one when his nap began -
Who are these angry faces on great screens?
Why are there cracks in the Capitol dome?

Arrests and deportations, mobs with clench’ed fists
Grim armored vehicles patrolling our city streets
A presidential advisor hurling **** salutes
Personal loyalty checks within our surveillance state

When old Rip Van Me wakes up each morning he finds
A nation of madmen who have lost their minds

“It Could Have Been Worse”

New York City, 31 October 2017

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families
copycat we are Something Strong we are
not afraid plow into mowed down it could
have been worse the new normal lone wolf we

will not change the way we live our thoughts
and prayers are with the families copycat
we are Something Strong we are not afraid
plow into mowed down: "it could have been worse…”

*Oh, newsman, how could it could have been worse
For the eight innocents murdered in the street?

Ite ad Joseph*

For Joseph Thaddeus Petty
Sunday, 8 October 2017

Then let us go in to Joseph this day,
His day, soft-cradled in his mother’s arms;
He does not rule Egypt, but rather, our hearts
In the ordained hierarchy of love

His sisters in their turns nestle him too -
“Be sure to support his head – yes, that’s right” –
Their playmate new in the garden of life,
Their brother in the cloisters of Creation

He sleeps, so, shhhhhh – now let us slip away
For we have greeted Joseph on this happy day

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

                                   My Songs are off Spotify

I’m going to take my songs off Spotify
Not that I know what Spotify might be
Or that I have any songs to take away
Only that it seems to be a thing these days

I want to be censured by Republicans
Not that Republicans know what they might be
Or that they ever notice me at all
Only that it seems to be a thing these days

I want to think today and pray for you -
Now those are exactly the things to do!

It’s All About Family

A rush to change into trousers and shirt
Discarding pajamas and morning quiet
And a half-eaten breakfast burrito -
Dear God, the relatives are here again

They never ‘phone; like mayflies they appear
First peeking through the windows, and only then
Ringing the doorbell, breathless with gossip
And detailing their medical dysfunctions

They seem to settle in for the summer
While one’s soul longs for a burrito lost

It’s Bad Only if Jenny’s Fried Chicken is Closed

Warnings and categories – a tropical storm
It’s really bad if Jenny’s has to close
No fried chicken, no electricity
No lights, no burgers, no coffee, no fries, no hope

A flashlight in the night is weak and pale
Our manna in exile - crackers and Spam
And coffee from a Thermos, not enough
To lift the spirits of the chicken-deprived

But now the sun is up, the storm has passed
O tell us that Jenny’s is open at last!

If…
          Some Crown of sorrows sit
          Upon a little world for a little hour –
          Who shall remember it? Who shall care for it?

                    -C. S. Lewis, “In Prison,” Spirits in *******

It’s not a bad cell, but it is a cell
Requiring you not to be who you are
Quietly within your designated space
And keeping your insolence to yourself

A grated hatch of disapproval drops
And leaves you to the berth penanced to you
A hard and narrow bunk of pain and guilt
Against a wall that now must be your world

And in that world do thoughtful battle against
Shrill voices telling you how wrong you are

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

    It’s Not Really an Assault Rifle ‘Cause It’s only Semi-Automatic

Once upon a time there was a silly boy
He was seventeen. Someone gave him a gun
His mumsy drove him to another state
So he could hunt other people with his gun

See the boy hunt. Hunt, hunt, hunt

And he did. Be very quiet. He’s hunting Commies
But bullies wanted to take away his gun
And he was sad. So he shot the meanies
Bang, bang, bang. Take that, you rascally Liberals

Empowered, empowered, empowered

He had to go to court. He began to cry
Because they took away his big bang-bang

And his mumsy cried.
                                       But the dead can’t cry

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

             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?)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                        IT’S THE JEWISH SPACE LASERS!

New Jerseyans threaten to shoot down unidentified drones amid mystery sightings | Fox News

           “This planet shows no signs of intelligent life, Captain.”

                                        -as Mr. Spock might say


Look at them sparkledy lights all up in the skies!
We’re being bombed by the Iranians!
They’re enemy drones, launched by Chinese spies!
No, they’re atom-powered Pomeranians!

QAnon is our infalib…inffal…perfect source of news -
We’re to get out our guns and shoot in the air
Whatever’s happening it’s the fault of them Jews
(But first let us pause for a moment of prayer)

Dear Lord, in your mercy, on this night so still
Just please send us someone or something to ****

Amen

I visited a high school the other day
Walking past the police car at the door
Into a vestibule cold-camera-watched
Presenting identification at a window

Efficiently buzzed through into a hall
Which stank of aggressive disinfectant
Among the shoalings a poor unhappy girl
Angrily picked her nose and glared at me

And hissed behind my back as I went my way
(It’s all the fault of the teachers, they say)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                      I Want to Know What You Want to Know

What the Big Corporations Don’t Want You to Know

Big pharma
Big tech
Big medicine
Big tobacco

The adverts say that Big Whatever don’t want us to know
Whatever it is they don’t want us to know
All major and minor credit cards looted

But I don’t know what I want to know
You too?
We could take a walk this autumn day
And compare our notes with falling leaves
And with each other about what we don’t know
And maybe learn from a shy touch of hands
And from the gentle breeze whispering to us

I don’t know what Big Anything doesn’t want us to know
But I want to know what you want to know

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

                                I was Hangin' with Miss Marple Last Week

         “I think, my dear, we won't talk any more about ******
                     during tea.  Such an unpleasant subject.”

                                 -4:50 from Paddington

I visited Miss Marple this past week
In her little home in St. Mary Mead
Fluffy in her appearance and pink of cheek
Troweling with vehemence another garden ****

Kindness itself, she asked me to sit down
On a wooden bench near the hollyhock
A warm soft evening with the bees around
And the hourly chime from the old church clock

Tea and scandal at four, soft-scented soap –

     And in Pentonville, forlorn of any hope

A murderer awaiting the hangman’s rope

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                        I. Watching for Smoke from Vatican Hill

                          On the Occasion of the Papal Conclave

Latins and Sabines may have watched for smoke
From the Vatican Hill across the way
Wondering if a careless shepherd had set a fire
Beyond the Seven Hills of holy Rome

We several tribes of nations still watch for smoke
From the Vatican Hill across our screens
Anticipating a careful, caring shepherd
And trusting the Holy Spirit to send us fire

Outside a happier palace, open to all lands
Where Saint Peter may better warm his hands

This is a re-post of "All Change at Zima Junction."  This morning I turned in my keys after some forty years of herding cattle (metaphorically), seventeen of them with this institution.  I am unemployed for the first time since I was five or so and was set to toddling out to the chicken yard every evening to gather the eggs in an old Easter basket.  My mother said that the rooster often chased me and made me cry, but I don’t remember that.

And now - what adventure does Aslan have next for me?

The first book I bought upon returning home from Viet-Nam was the Penguin Modern European Poets paperback edition of Yevtushenko: Selected Poems.  That 75-cent paperback from an airport bookstall in San Francisco is beside me on the desk as I write.

                                     All Change at Zima Junction

                            For Yevgeny Yevtushenko, 1932-2017

Everyone changes trains at Zima Junction
Changes lives; nineteen becomes twenty-one
With hardly a pause for twenty and then
Everyone asks you questions you can’t answer

And then they say you’ve changed, and ignore you
The small-town brief-case politician still
Enthroned as if he were a committee -
He asks you what you are doing back here

And then you go away, on a different train:
Everyone changes trains at Zima Junction

                           “I went, and I am still going.”1

1Yevtushenko: Selected Poems. Penguin,1962

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                    I Will Not Compare You to a Summer’s Day

                                  Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

I will not compare you to a summer’s day
Summer is heat, humidity, and drought
A disapproving sun burning the earth
A dusty, weedy landscape fit only for snakes

Instead, you are a perfect autumn day
A day of good old sweaters and leafy walks
Invigorating winds all fresh from the north
And inside, cups of cocoa and a merry fire

I will not compare you to a summer’s day
Your autumn is far more lovely and temperate

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

                                    I­ will not Mourn for Summer

                                            for Jean in Canada!

I will not mourn for the summertime
Those six sour months of soul-withering heat
Desperate leaves and crispy grass and weeds
Dust devils exhausting their metaphor

Our November is everyone else’s September
With morning mists at last, sweet cooling rains
That ease the wounds of summer’s injuries
A cooling drink for a patient before he dies

Thanksgiving is coming; we will give thanks indeed
If the air-conditioning is silent at last

I wish I wuz a sheriff’s deputy
The traffic laws would mean nothing to me

I’d cruise through the red lights and all them stop signs
But give everyone else lots of tickety-fines

At the café  I’d park in the handicapped zone
Then drive by the school yakking on my cell phone

Turn signals for me? A thing of the past!
And when scooting through town I’d drive real fast

Yeah, if I wuz a sheriff’s deputy
The traffic laws would mean nothing to me