Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Martyr is a Poem
For Alexei
Navalny
“Only in Russia is poetry respected; it gets people
killed.”
-Osip Mandelstam
His soul was a poem; upon it he wrote
Of hope for Russia’s peoples frozen in pain
A poem of stern rebuke to Rolex tyrants
Who censored him with beatings, poison, and death
He spoke
He died
Because he spoke he died
Because he spoke the truth he died
They left his unfinished poem upon the ice
His soul was a poem – we must complete his verse
Lawrence Hall, HSG
There are no Foreign
Accents in Texas
“For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical
appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings,
Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of
America.”
– John Steinbeck
There are no foreign accents here, n'est-ce pas?
Un acento extranjero is for Auslander
And there are no mga dayuhan here
The dat belongs to all of us and to niemand
Before even the Pierwsze Narody there was the jord
And les humains have come in successive amaza
Izdao each other with אלימות and кровь
Κατακτήσεις and 背叛 instead of féastaí
But 私たち are trying to make it bora now -
There are no foreign accents here, capisci?
I played with Microsoft’s
translator ]english to
spanish - Search (bing.com)] because to my regret I have no language
other than English and puer parvus scholis Latinis.
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Dragons for Your
New Year
For Doris and Anthony
Who have known dragons
Eustace
had read only the wrong books; they had a lot to say about exports and imports
and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons.
-C. S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The dragons are a polite and ancient race
And very conscious of their dignity
It would not do to neglect their seasons and feasts
Lest they neglect to visit you this year
They want to bring good fortune to your house
But first you must make a place for them -
Their breath will warm your room, your hearth, your heart
Their knowledge will make your children worthy and wise
Their songs will send your family happy dreams
For dragons are a polite and generous race
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Reader Responses in
the U. K. Daily Mail
RepubliCraps. Demoncrats. Repugs. DemoCraps. MAGA. Magats.
Maggots. Clown. Orange clown. Clowns. Clown show. Absolute clown show. Absolute
commie clown show. Diaper Joe. Dr. Potatohead. Moron. Selected not elected.
Deplorables. Trailer trash. Absolute trailer trash. Said no one ever. Oh wait. Lock
her up. Lock him up. Throw away the key. Absolutely. Joebama. Drumpf. Dump. Woke.
Wokista. Wokerati. Absolutely Woke. Biden’s America. Trump’s America. Mean
tweets. No mean tweets. These teachers. These schools. These universities. TDS.
Absolute TDS. Liberal idiots. Extremist idiots. Absolute idiots. ROFL. Grab
some popcorn. …in 1, 2, 3… Dumpster fire.
Absolute dumpster fire. You can’t make this stuff up. Train wreck. Absolute
train wreck. Car crash. Absolute car crash. Total car crash. The jokes write
themselves. At its finest. Pure evil. Absolute pure evil. Cue crickets. Of biblical
proportions. Of epic proportions. Of absolute epic biblical proportions. Rinse
and repeat. Rules for thee but not for me. Two-tier justice system. Absolute
two-tier justice system. You could look it up. Follow the science. Full stop. LOL.
End of. Absolutely. Fact. FACT!!!!!
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Disinterment of
Neruda
Qui sine peccato est vestrum, primus in aliam lapidem
mittat
This Neruda - the Fascists murdered him
This Neruda - let us murder him again
The people read and love his poems too much
And they ignore ours – let us dig him up
This Neruda – we will dig him up
And subject him to our Inquisition
We now will tell you what each fragment means
Each fragment of each word, his flesh, his bone
We have our bullhorns and our three-beat chants
His poems will mean what we tell you they mean
Shut up
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Poetry and Jazz Stroll
into a Smoky Bar
Poetry, like jazz, is itself
If you feel a need to explain it
You’ve failed
Art
sings itself
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Wipe That
Geographical Expression Off Your Face
Alas, poor country! / Almost afraid to know itself
-Macbeth IV.iii.164-165
We are now a geographical expression
An almost amorphous land mass occupied
By violent tribes of shifting loyalties
