Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Nation of Couch Schlubs 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 is anyone on TikTok
at all?
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Great Gate of Kiev
Mussorgsky’s The Great Gate of Kiev is no hymn to the people of Ukraine (telegraph.co.uk)
If there was never a Great Gate of Kiev
Except in Mussorgy’s triumphal hymn
There ought to have been, and there will be some day
Trophied with captured Putinista flags
For now
Wherever a Ukrainian enters Kiev
By rail or bus, or in worn-out army boots
He is the Gate, the Knight’s Gate, the Golden gate
With a chapel and the most wonderful bells
And the pictures at an exhibition
Will be ikons of Ukrainian martyrs
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Marcus Aurelius Down
at the Auto Repair
Marcus Aurelius down at the auto repair –
Now there’s an image, him being an emperor and all
One of those philosophers who think about stuff
Who ask questions and read and write and stuff
If a man complains about the cost of new tires:
Meditations
V.9 – “Be not unhappy, or discouraged…”
And
II.4 – “Remember
how long you have been putting off these things…”
If a warranty has expired:
VI.53 – “Accustom
yourself to listen carefully…”
And
VII.24 – “A
scowling look is quite unnatural.”
If the engine is blown:
X.33 – “Now
it is not given to a cylinder to move everywhere…”
And
VII.54 – “…it
is in your power to accept…your present condition…”
And with that, Marcus steps outside for a cigarette.
(Many quotations
attributed to Marcus Aurelius are bogus; these have been verified.)
On his large, electrical sign at Kirbyville Automotive my friend Shannon Davis posted this quote from Marcus Aurelius:
“When
you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive
– to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
One does not imagine that quotations from a Roman philosopher and emperor are commonly found on roadside advertising in East Texas.
Update: Apparently Marcus Aurelius did not say this at all. This is just another misquote circling around on the InterGossip and believed by people like me who tend to trust maybe a little too much.
But I wish the man had said it anyway.
Lawrence Hall, HSG
But Truly Write
Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 21
…poems are gatherings of words, in good order, in simple order, plain and appealing.
-Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook, p. 77
A line of contemporary prosetry
Is a catalogue of florid structures and worn-out cliches
Pancaked with adverbs and tiresome metaphors
Flung down in a confusion of unconnected gasps
If you have something to say, then say it
Then tidy up the lines – like washing your face
With soap and water and a cotton towel
And then admire the sunlit, fresh-air truth
Craft your lines of transcendent poetry
As clean sharp-edg’ed truth in well-scrubbed words
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Shakespeare, Venus, and the Travelling Salesman
Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 19
Dear Will,
About your obsession with mortality:
Transitions and death are essentials in life
And we must face the obsequies of ashes or earth
But there are other topics upon which to write
Let us not consider funerals today
Let us sit upon the lawn and smoke our pipes
And write about new leaves on ancient oaks
(You’ll pen far better lines; you always do)
Today we’ll ignore our own mortality
And tell inappropriate jokes about Venus
and a travelling salesman
