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Rose L Apr 2018
The devout of Saint Sophia, the ones who prayed
Venerated, ******-martyr, holy hunger
The priestesses, vestal tombs. Virgins of Etrusca
What do they know of me?
Waifish, heart-sad, victim of ill womanhood
Persecutor, rejector of the womb,
Denier of her blood.
Qualyxian Quest Apr 2019
I don’t deny delusions
not all who claim do see

but I do perceive the love drops
come from the Cosmic Tree

I ask not for perfection
far less for certainty

just adventure, moonlight, sunlight
music’s mystery

despite my fears and failings
Mother Mary, Let it Be!
On one side of Alexander Palace Papa stroked
his coiffed whiskers, pacing back and forth
in his simple study.

Ikons and photographs of family
Watched him all waiting in anticipation
for the news.

On the opposite side of the palace, Mama clenched
her dainty jaws, tears of joy and pain
streamed down her face.

Grigori led the Monks in chant, murmuring
prayers to the Theotokos, asking for protection
and health for the imp-child.

The imperial sheets matched the mauve room.
The resurrection child was born.

The news reached Papa thirty minutes later.
Disappointed in her grandiose arrival,
he delayed their first meeting.

The parade outside the palace
Dispersed, they too disappointed.
Lawrence Hall Dec 2018
“…and looking at a picture on the opposite wall.”

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

Ikons are windows to another World
Of Theos and Theotokos, of our saints
Some as merry as yet are others stern
While forming from the prayerful writer’s 1 hand

And in the saints the Light of God shines through
True witnesses to that transcendental Truth
And so we pause and with a candle catch
The prayer-light of their eternity

(As does the bedes-spider 2 who lives there)
Ikons are windows to that truer World


1 In Orthodoxy an ikon is said to be written rather than drawn or painted, but y’r ‘umble scrivener is no authority; the reader might begin a study of ikons / icons with:

http://www.pravmir.com/how-to-sep-up-an-icon-corner-at-home/

2 An Orthodox friend discovered that a spider had made its home among his ikons, and so in peace and hierarchical obedience the little creature served God as a sort of canon, or perhaps a bedes-spider, until its death.
"Brothers will fight one another
and **** one another.
Cousins will break peace
with one another.
The world will be a hard place to live in.

"…an age of the axe, an age of the sword,
an age of storms, an age of wolves.
Shields will be cloven."

Brothers fought one another
and killed one another.
Cousins broke peace
with one another.
The world was a hard place to live in.

But this is no battlefield of
gods and men
Nor triumph over fell beast
and the splitting of shields.

This is the exploding shell
down cobbled streets of old;
of thatched roofs ablaze,  
the ashen ruin of hearth and abode;
The weeping eye of Theotokos
in Ragnarǫk’s gaze.

Two decades before;
football on Christmas morn’.
'Stille Nacht' from the trench,
that soothing tune.

Giving of gifts and handshakes
And smiles in between,
When it first dawned upon you:
You were brothers.
Vǫluspá in the Poetic Edda details the mythological Norse end of the world; Verse 44 constitutes the introduction of my poem.
Qualyxian Quest Dec 2018
Maria! Maria!
I’m drawn to great art

Maria! Maria!
Theotokos my heart

Maria! Maria!
Please help with my vices

Maria! Maria!
In silence like spices

Maria! Maria!
Por favor me amor

Maria! Maria!
I need courage galore

Maria! Maria!
True like Jesu

Maria! Maria!
Steadfast for you
Qualyxian Quest May 2020
Mother Mary from my mother
Green with almond Asian eyes
Hail Mary, send us a surprise!
Lawrence Hall Aug 2017
A Letter from Ekaterinburg

Dormition of the Theotokos
1917

Dear Alexei,

We are enjoying a beautiful summer –
The days have been perfect ever since spring
Cooler mornings now, and that’s about it -
Nothing exciting ever happens here

How is the new government working out?
Some of the banknotes are overprinted
With vague slogans covering the Czar, but
Nothing exciting ever happens here

Petrograd must be exciting for you, but
Nothing exciting ever happens here.

Write soon,

-Mitya
Johnny Noiπ Feb 2019
The woman: the black united love
and the state of white uniforms, who,
good thing, old man, new life of man,
young man and woman, happy age
and power of the woman. It suffices,
the girl was a young woman of your
youthful maids; the young men
of the woman, the silver and the star
of the prostitutes and Greece
were the great wars of the story of things to come,
Giorgos to pin to a change of skin
friends with the sun on the head
of the hot Thomas,                                                       son of the power of evil
as an example of the grace
of the Christian sky, the real little money
for the Russian average yellow moon,
walking from bare ground to Latin;
the third French of Timon, my wife,
my wife: questions live in the gnome
of the beauty of the old north
to the party *** lost the game
German spirit of the German prostitutes
father to the left acute action poet
G ogle peace queen no Kennedy's
York Police Kennedy Rock found
that age, picture without children
of the higher animal garden play;
female state singing July,                                                     the golden tongue;
the humor of the life story;
Ana, the shadow of the baby
wears the dream of the eastern
wall drinking Brazilian dogs;
holy at my hands, my changes
called the law of the rad of Spain;
the church's king reads a stone,
opens pots, his daughter happy,
Italian, usa, saint, robot, glass, foot,
Jerusalem and the other in the mountains.

The Lord of the Missions
of the Jewish Anthony; Antonio
has difficulty protecting
the way from our forefathers,
the help of knowledge,
and the vitamin 100 from the Lord's
finger, the salvation of the wild
sweet words, the children's songs
the best fish snooch; smoke,
smoke work clothes of England,
remember the fines
unknown Spanish royal
escort feel sister *** sleeping
door Star blinds in Greece,
to carry the **** is the half cat,
Mary window in the depths
of Satan crazy deep cloak
of devil gods in the price
of mothers and one laughing
Ireland simple ***** table,
the euro at the beginning
bright pink wall, a great Prophet
of the Theotokos understands
the silver cup, her ***** angels;
of her power in the flame
of the soul is the kind of fruit:

eat the poet hiding from Einstein's
bed mind, considering
that the mountain of the beach,
the legs, the leaves, the autumn's
bad northeast, the revolution
of the sun, the feet of Laura
Felis healthy parents teeth,
the permission of their parents,
with a kiss,                                  if the Lord As he died at the table of Africa,
the club of his lips, the company
that just kind of plastic century;
Jewish lady lights talk about all women wave India light,
the picture has become a means
for magnetic image reading machine
***** shoot sentimental gay meeting
western Greece parody socks Arabic
B the smell of the fat of the sanctuary,
Georgia and her daughter
and she would be able
to make the most of her life,
but she would not be able to do it anymore.
Glory to Paint the Glory Monster's
***** in place of the point
of return to the rocks
of the planet, Tom is married
to the cold gun and stands
more slowly to the fool buried
too late, Inn of the girl from the mountains
will never come in words,
finally come to bring the shadow
of the shadow of the kingdom
and talk about the origin
of the 16th epoch night
I'm going to **** wants
to do it is filled with the souls
of Medeus, we, on the other hand.                                                          Be­ttie,
Lawrence Hall Feb 2018
A Letter from Ekaterinburg

Dormition of the Theotokos
1917

Dear Alexei,

We are enjoying a beautiful summer –
The days have been perfect ever since spring
Cooler mornings now, and that’s about it -
Nothing exciting ever happens here

How is the new government working out?
Some of the banknotes are overprinted
With vague slogans covering the Czar, but
Nothing exciting ever happens here

Petrograd must be exciting for you, but
Nothing exciting ever happens here.

Write soon,

-Mitya
Lawrence Hall Aug 2019
"The Queen Stands..."

                                               -Psalm 45

The Queen stands at His right hand, arrayed in gold
The Queen is not ornamented in gold
The Queen is not decorated in gold
The Queen is not merely costumed in gold

The Queen is royally arrayed in gold
For She alone is the Theotokos
In Whose honor the sun is given to shine
Through Her, the Passage between worlds

The Light of the world is the Saviour indeed:
The Queen stands at His right hand, arrayed in gold

Cf:
Psalm 45
St. Gregory Palamas, Homily 38
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is: Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com

It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.

Lawrence Hall’s vanity publications are available on amazon.com as Kindle and on bits of dead tree:  THE ROAD TO MAGDALENA, PALEO-HIPPIES AT WORK AND PLAY, LADY WITH A DEAD TURTLE, DON’T FORGET YOUR SHOES AND GRAPES, COFFEE AND A DEAD ALLIGATOR TO GO, and DISPATCHES FROM THE COLONIAL OFFICE.
Lawrence Hall Jan 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

                                     A Russian Christmas Card

                                            For Tod and Max

I allowed the time, the year, the day to slip
And so I can only imagine a card for you
A Russian Christmas card in paper and paints
Of Christmas scenes from a happy golden time:

And let there be small children in furry boots
Dragging a little fir tree over the snow
Among artistically disposed squirrels and deer
To the delight of Father Christmas and the sweet Snow Queen

And let there be Saint Michael’s at the end of the lane
Its ancient bell ringing the ancient joys
While ancient stars and humble cottage windows
Give light to the faithful on their way to Mass

And let us be among them, as God will allow
Before the Theotokos and Child, kneeling now

Happy Orthodox Christmas, dear friends!

— The End —