Lawrence Hall, HSG
J. Alfred Prufrock and the Giant Peach
“Do I dare to eat a peach?” He asked
“Yes, yes. just eat the stupid peach
and stop
Banging on about it,” I replied
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
J. Alfred Prufrock and the Giant Peach - not really a poem, just three lines of blank verse being frivolous
Monday, August 26, 2024
Kafka and the Self-Service Checkout Kiosk - a bit of fun
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Kafka and the Self-Service Checkout Kiosk
Thanks to Rowan Pelling
Those who have never suffered through Kafka
Should not employ the adjective “Kafkaesque”
The landgraf would not approve
When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning
from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed
in his bed into a monstrous self-service checkout kiosk.
Someone must have traduced Joseph K.,
for without doing anything wrong
he was arrested in the checkout line
one fine morning
It was late in the evening when
the supermarket supervisor arrived.
Kafka, The Metamorphosis. Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: Norton. 1972
Kafka, The Trial. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: The Modern Library. 1956
Kafka, The Castle. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: Schocken. 1982
The hell of self-service checkouts is becoming Kafkaesque (yahoo.com)
To God, Who Still Gives Joy to Our Youth - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
To God, Who Still Gives Joy to Our Youth
Introibo ad altare Dei
Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutam
meum
Missals calendaring the liturgical
year
Mantillas in reverent rows marked out
by children
Children as rosary beads sorting out
the Aves
And men in this-is-choking-me suits
and ties
Candles in colored glass in reverent
rows
Decades of prayers, centuries
incensed with prayers
Corinthian columns in reverent rows
of awe
Or perhaps the humble Doric,
upholding Heaven
Fiddleback chasubles in liturgical
colors
Sequenced by seasons in prismatic reverent
rows
Sewn long ago by loving reverent
hands
Each stitch enriched with a Latin
prayer
Fidgety altar boys in their Sunday
shoes
The processional cross their
grandfathers knew
Nonnas, Nanas, MeeMaws in reverent
rows
The occasional bead-bang of a rosary
against a pew
The occasional knee-pinch to a
squirming child
Latin responses in sequenced reverent
rows
Latin, which later we were told we didn’t
understand
Quia putabant nos stulti essemus
And on the Altar the eternal
Sacrifice
Which no tyranny can ever take away
Sed fuit, est, erit
If a Book Could Take Just One Human to a Desert Island - very short not-really-a-poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
If a Book Could Take Just One Human to a Desert Island
Who would it take?
You?
Me?
Dostoyevsky?
A librarian?
Upon Re-Reading William L. Shirer's THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Upon Re-Reading William L. Shirer’s
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Perhaps one day America will go fascist
democratically, by popular vote.
-William L. Shirer, New York Times, 29
December 1969
We do not live Samsara, for Samsara
has meaning
So this is not Samsara; this is a cascade
of deaths
We live in linear time – or maybe we
don’t -
And the gods of hate sneak in ahead
of us
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Before Me Sits Young Pablo Neruda - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Before Me Sits Young Pablo Neruda
On the paperback cover of Residence on Earth
Before me sits pensive Pablo Neruda
His young face resting upon his slender hand
He looks a little to the left of the photographer’s eye
He appears to be thinking great thoughts
Or he might be thinking
Why am I posing like a high school senior?
Residence on Earth, introduction by Jim Harrison
New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Assembling a Metal Lawn Chair with Great Care (and a Ball-Peen Hammer) - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Assembling a Metal Lawn Chair with Great Care
(and a Ball-Peen Hammer)
A friend gave me a lawn chair in
tangerine
Bright tangerine, with instructions
in English
Which I followed most assiduously
Which parts of the chair most surely
did not
The instructions did not mention a
ball-Peen hammer
With brutality and words which must
not be spoken
(Think of Vulcan and his mighty strokes)
I finally assembled the chair to my
satisfaction
And then I sat down
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