We Can't Take Our Books with Us When We Die - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

We Can’t Take Our Books with Us When We Die

 

Ecce nova facio omnia. Et dixit mihi: Scribe quia hic verba fidelissima sunt, et vera. 

-Apocalypsis XXI:V

 

We can’t take our books with us when we die

That reality shouldn’t bother me, but it does:

The copy of The Brothers Karamazov

I carried in Viet-Nam – off to a re-sale shop?

 

But God is the Word from Whom all blessings flow

And since He is the Word, all our books are His

How foolish of us if we fear that God

Has made no proper arrangements for them

 

Books are eternal

 

Great blessings in paper and ink and page and leaf

For learning and leisure and wisdom and belief

A Nation of Couch Cabbages Blames the Chinese Communists - doggerel

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

A Nation of Couch Cabbages Blames the Chinese Communists

 

A question may be brought about ownership

And the turgid content of the daily trawl

But even before the question of censorship

          One must ask

Why are adults on TikTok at all?

Did Saloons Really Have Those Swinging Doors? - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Did Saloons Really Have Those Swinging Doors?

 

I’d like to mosey down to the Long Branch Saloon

In glorious CBS monochrome

Along Dodge City’s sound-stage cow town street

And saunter through those familiar swinging doors

 

I’d like to order a beer from good ol’ Sam

And listen to Doc and Festus fussing at each other

While Matt and Kitty smile contentedly

And for a while we are all at peace

 

I’d like to mosey down to the Long Branch Saloon

That’s what I’d like, and leave the world tethered outside

Memory Eternal and a Gift Card from Denny's - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Memory Eternal and a Gift Card from Denny’s

 

for

 

William Tod Augustine Mixson

 

Saint Michael’s Orthodox Church, Beaumont

 

 “Memory Eternal”

 

A cup of coffee is a chalice in its way

It brings us all to a table of sharing

And consecrates old friendships with every sip

Blessing us at the end with an Ite of joy

 

But today there was an empty place

An empty cup, an empty plate, empty

Even the air was empty, empty and void

With a joke that wasn’t told today

 

Max found a Denny’s card among his things -

Tod treated us to breakfast once again

 

But not for the last time

 

He’ll tell us that joke at a more glorious feast

Shakespeare: Maybe We Need to See Other People - poem

 

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Shakespeare: Maybe We Need to See Other People

 

Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 39

 

Perhaps if we separated for a few days

We would find more passion in our love

 

 

 

(Please note all this artsy empty space)

 

 

 

After fourteen empty lines I find

My deep, abiding love for you stronger than ever

But who’s this…you’re seeing some other man?

THIS ISN’T WHAT I MEANT!

 

I'll Be Away from My Desk for a Few Days - very short poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

“I’ll Be Away from My Desk for a Few Days”

 

“Look upon my absence, Ye mighty, and despair”

 

-as Shelley did not say

 

Every once in an ego you’ll read on a site

“I’ll be away from my desk for a few days”

As if everyone must re-schedule his life

And wait forlornly for Mr. O’s return

 

Nothing else remains 404 Error 404 Error

404 Error 404 Error 404 Error 404 Error

The Spirit of Art - very short poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

The Spirit of Art

 

Is

 

The good, the true, the beautiful

 

Not

 

The sullen, the resentful, the envious