How Many Moons Can You See? - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

How Many Moons Can You See?

 

It was a full moon and, shining on all the snow,

it made everything almost as bright as day.

 

-C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

 

When the subject of vision came up

(as it must with an ophthalmologist)

I told Dr. Talbot that I saw two moons

When only one of them would be sufficient

 

But which one?

 

After a gentle touch of surgery

I now see only one moon, which is nice

But I rather miss that other moon

And wonder if in her exile she misses me too

 

Where is she?

 

On whatever planet you happen to live

I don’t think you can have too many moons

For Bob Newhart of Happy , Happy Memory - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

For Bob Newhart of Happy, Happy Memory

 

 

“He will not refuse one who is so blithe to go to Him”

 

-Saint Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons

 

 

With just a telephone, a clipboard, and a stutter

He was a happy band of some of our best friends:

May we with him

At last approach that Inn where all are welcome

 

The joy he gave us proceeds before him

The angelic choirs soften their hum and throb

Because

That loving Voice we all most long to hear

Will gently say,

 

“Hi, Bob.”

Fire Ants Devouring the Corpses of Unhatched Wasps - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Fire Ants Devouring the Corpses of Unhatched Wasps

 

Nature does not, in the long run, favour life.

 

-C. S. Lewis, “On Living in an Atomic Age,” 1948

 

A formation of formicidae trekked north-northwest

Across a vast and lonely sunbeaten expanse

Their imperial quest a fallen wasps’ nest

Between a lawn chair and a potted plant

 

The ants greedily ripped open the paper shells

Like Christmas crackers for the goodies inside

The ghastly drippings of pupae in their jaws

Fragments of dead wasplings for their demanding queen

 

A formation of formicidae trekked east-southeast -

What, then, is the number of an unnumbered beast?

We Were Dressers of Sycamores - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

We Were Dressers of Sycamores

 

Amos 7: 12-15

Saint Mark 6: 7-13

From the readings for the 15^th week in Ordinary Time

 

All of us are sent, one place or another

On curious missions little understood

No detailed instructions, no notes, no maps

Take this road and go on until it ends

 

And greet the folks you meet along the way

Some of them will need your help, your love

Some of them will give you help, their love

And one of them might murder you

 

All of us are sent, one place or another

We can’t get out of it; we’re needed, brother

On the Events of 13 July 2024 - a quote from MACBETH

 

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

On the Events of 13 July 2024

 

                                                  …that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th’ inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends th’ ingredience of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. 

 

-Macbeth I.vii.8-12

These Professors - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Those Who Stereotype “These Professors”

 

Exodus 20:16

 

These professors

 

Dr. Moriarty was a PFC on certain Pacific islands

          Who could bayonet an enemy

          Clear a jammed machine gun under fire

          See his pals blown to pieces next to him

          And work out subtle textual analyses

 

These professors

 

Dr. Chambers was a retired colonel of Marines

          A natty little man in blazer and bowtie

          Who could bayonet an enemy

          See his pals blown to pieces next to him

          Deconstruct the minutiae of energy distribution

          And toss a foul-mouthed football player out on his sorry ass

 

These professors

 

Dr. Dale was a butcher until his thirties

When he entered college for the first time

          He knew your hamburger from the outside in

          The economics of building a business

          He probably could have bench-pressed a Ford Fiesta

          And when he spoke of Wordsworth, Keats, and Coleridge

          You could feel the air of The Lake Country

 

These professors

         

“These professors” were complete men

Strong in war and word and wisdom and work

Unlike envious Unferths who learn life only second-hand

          From Fox News and John Wayne movies

          And closed loops of echoing InterGossip sites

Beowulf Visits the Dentist - a bit of fun, maybe a bite of fun

 

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Beowulf Visits the Dentist

Arise from the nitrous oxide

From the somnolence, dreams, and pain

With forge-hammered teeth

And then go out

Go out and bite something

 

 

(Trying for the Anglo-Saxon four-beat line)