Lawrence Hall, HSG
On Being a Still Life Today
No outside duties have
called me away today
And so I have become a still
life entitled “Ennui”
Or perhaps “Weltschmerz
with a Pet Dog”
Two dogs, actually, and
they have napped the hours
The rain has fallen day
after day after day
A parallel to the Ancient
Mariner’s sun
Tree frogs cling to the
algae-green window panes
As if they too have lost
interest in life
Even so
With my little world all
rainy and grey
I am happy to be a still
life today
Lawrence Hall, HSG
In Memoriam – Ayden Rose
Eternal rest, O Lord, grant unto your daughter
Ayden Rose
and make perpetual Light to shine upon her
Ayden was a neat, funny kid in my 9:00 o’clock class
Hard-working and smart, and more than a little bit saucy
As eighteen-year-olds are supposed to be
She grew up to be a triple-threat teacher and coach
And on Monday night some hero shot her in the back
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Upon an Abomination in Paris
Opening Ceremony at the Paris Olympics
All are welcome at the Table of the Lord
But first
It’s always good manners to wash your face and hands
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Let’s Go for Coffee - Grab Your Flak Jacket
Some give their sons semi-automatics
and hate
Instead of family and purpose
and love
Instead of guided study and
structured faith
Instead of fishing poles and
summer afternoons
Lawrence Hall, HSG
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Lawrence Hall, HSG
Prisoners Working in the Early Morning Rain
We have all worked in the
rain – building fences
Getting up the cows for
milking twice a day
Sloshing through the muck to
make deliveries
And usually with some
choice in the matter
Prisoners have choices too
– cells or a work detail
In designer costumes with horizontal
stripes
Not much of a choice, but
the work is needful and good
Picking up the litter of
freedom and patching the road
Through the wipers I wave.
They wave back. Rain -
We have all passed by our
fellow man in the rain
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Orgiastic Screaming from Below
Those who called for Nonsense will find that it comes
-C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength
We have seen Milton’s Pandaemonium
Choreographed on a wide palantir
Fallen angels praising the Great Fallen One
In a High Council of electrified lies
Great thunderings of fire and rolling smoke
Issuing from a shiny plastic throne of power
The Great Fallen One framed in Elvis lights
On the floor the lesser ones screaming in ecstasy
The Great Fallen One has a plan for us
After all the balloons, too, have fallen
[Allusions to C. S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings]
