Thursday, April 4, 2024

One Pleasing Note Do Sing (Shakespeare and a Washing Machine) - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

One Pleasing Note Do Sing

 

Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 8

 

V: Where is my shirt; I can’t find it anywhere!

R: Did you look in the closet? In the dryer?

V: Yes! And I put it in the washing machine yesterday!

R: You didn’t tell me! I didn’t wash clothes yesterday!

 

V: You always wash clothes on Saturday!

R: That’s a pattern, not an immutable rule!

V: You should have told me that you didn’t wash!

R: Am I my husband’s keeper? Have you not eyes?

 

V: Can we not with one pleasing note sing?

R: Can you not sing to the washing machine?

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

The United States Postal Service Opens Your Packages for You - photograph

 No Extra Charge for Opening Your Packages Before Delivery



His Sacred Majesty - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

His Sacred Majesty

 

Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 7

 

We are told that we mustn’t worship the sun

Nor even truth, but rather each shiny new toy

Powered by batteries and our unhappy wants

Endlessly discharging our minds and souls

 

We are told that we mustn’t worship the sun

But rather the mechanical fabrications of our hands

Upon the orders of our Lilith-draped masters

To STEM the possibility of thought

 

We probably shouldn’t worship the sun

But we are still free to think highly of him

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Thank God That's Over - short poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Thank God That’s Over

 

St. Therese of Lisieux is said to have said

After an especially long liturgy

“Thank God that’s over!”

And who am I to argue with a saint?

Make Worms Thy Heir - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Make Worms Thy Heir

 

Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 6

 

Let us speak of the utility of worms

There is much in them, including our ancestors

But without them we might not live at all

They enrich the earth, even with our earth

 

All children are our heirs; in them we live

They are God’s treasures, and we must treasure them

After the Order of Saint Joseph, and when we pass

Our children will say that God is passing by

 

Monday, April 1, 2024

Is There No Sulky Gas? - doggerel

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Is There no Sulky Gas?


To the dentist this morning but woe and alas

Only a cleaning - no laughing gas!

 

Ha, ha, ha!


Time Will Play the Tyrant - poem

 

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Time Will Play the Tyrant

 

Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 5

 

Time need not play the tyrant; we have tyrants enough

But it is true that we must go away

When time and God say we have played our game

And must withdraw into another world

 

We sneak past time with our words and songs

Arcing over mortality with truth

Distilling each day into poetry

That lives long after our hearts and hands are stilled

 

Time need not play the tyrant, for tyrants only bluff

And their poor poisons with their masters die

“Now, Therefore, Write for Yourselves This Song” - poem

  Lawrence Hall Mhall46184@aol.com Dispatches for the Colonial Office   “Now, Therefore, Write for Yourselves This Song”      - Deuteronomy ...