Monday, February 19, 2024

Sunshine is Dogshine - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

 

Sunshine is Dogshine

 

Be prepared. A dog is adorable and noble.

A dog is a true and loving friend. A dog

Is also a hedonist.

 

-Mary Oliver, “The Wicked Smile”

 

My little dogs pause at the kitchen door

But after tentatively testing the air

Run wild into the sunlit of a rare warm day

Leaping across the long-dead summer grass

 

They tumble and roll, and loll with their tummies up

For each little sunbeam is a doggie-kiss

To be cherished against the next arctic front

When the sleeting wind rattles the window panes

 

My little dogs scratch at the kitchen door

Sunshine is dogshine

But now they want a doggie-nosh and a nap

Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things

 

All of my life I have been told

That Lent is not about giving up things

So was there a time when anyone

was told otherwise?

 

“Never Surrender” Sneakers: Collectible Bone Spurs Edition - quatrain

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

“Never Surrender” Sneakers – Collectible Bone Spurs Edition

 

Now we have lived to see a president

Hawking tatty cartoon-character shoes

Having already pawned his soul for rent

And now the bailiffs are turning the screws

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, and Boomer Tea

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, and Boomer Tea

 

How wicked to stereotype the several gens

To brew a tempest in a pot of self-pity -

The morning sun shines upon a world of friends

For we are all leaves on an Eden-tree


Friday, February 16, 2024

A Martyr is a Poem - for Alexei Navalny

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

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

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

There are no Foreign Accents in Texas - poem


Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

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.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Dragons for Your New Year - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

 

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

May Our Children Live Long Enough to Invade Greenland - doggerel

  Lawrence Hall Mhall46184@aol.com Dispatches for the Colonial Office     May Our Children Live Long Enough to Invade Greenland ...