Lawrence Hall, HSG
If Li-Po Were my Houseguest
If Li-Po were my houseguest tonight
I’d probably have to drag him inside
After he’d been drinking to the moon’s silver light
And heave him into his bed with a gentle chide
Saturday, September 14, 2024
If Li-Po Were my Houseguest - quatrain
We Don't Understand, But We Hope - Poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
We Don’t Understand, But We Hope
We don’t understand it, but we hope in it
The change from that which is to that which isn’t
Or is the change back again and no change at all
Which maybe means the blood and pain remain
We recline in a rented banquet room
We follow in fear along a narrow street
We watch in horror upon a death-haunted hill
We are called to an empty tomb which isn’t empty
We are called to a dented Cup which also isn’t empty
(Maybe $200 at the church supply store)
Cradling a Mystery from before time
A plate of bread that looks like bread but isn’t
The Altar is where the arc of history bends
Mystery
Who among the servers did the dishes
And did she accidentally drop a Cup?
(That part’s not important)
Friday, September 13, 2024
I Had a Flat Tire Along the Silk Road - not a Tang quatrain
Lawrence Hall, HSG
I Had a Flat Tire Along the Silk Road
A bandit-princess stole my trail-lost heart
To play with carelessly one idle day
She teased me a road sketched on her magic chart
But I had a flat tire along the way
In reading Li Po (variant pronunciations and spellings in English) and others, and trying to understand Tang quatrains, well, I don’t understand much. The forms and content are so varied as to make the term almost undefinable to my simple English soul. But nature, irony, loss, and separation are apparently common, as well as rhyme, so I took them and iambic pentameter for this not-really-a-Tang-quatrain.
Tropes, Dopes, and Culture Worriers - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Tropes, Dopes, and Culture
Worriers
I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch.
I am not of Aryan extraction: that is
Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani,
Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are
enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only
reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted
people.
-Tolkien, from a letter rebuking a
German publisher, 1938
One
does not imagine Tolkien schlubbing about
In a
garish cartoon tee and baggy shorts
A
Glock strapped to his 50-inch waist
Shopping
the dollar store in a Trumpy cap
One
does not imagine Lewis following QAnon
Encouraging
Peter to take an AR to Latin class
Or quartering
the Cross of good Saint George
With
a swastika’s spidering wheel of shame
Not
all evil comes from outside the Shire –
Sometimes
evil is our own internal desire
On the time J.R.R. Tolkien refused to work
with Nazi-leaning publishers. ‹ Literary Hub (lithub.com)
Why does Lord of the Rings appeal to the
radical right? – The Irish Times
Behind the Catholic Right’s
Celebrity-Conversion Industrial Complex | Vanity Fair
Thoughts of Home from Behind the Wire - poem
Thoughts of Home from Behind the Wire
Over the South China Sea
We could see China past the portside wing
The forbidden land of our enemy
Who encouraged the Viet-Cong in our destruction
But allowed us peaceably to pass
Refueling in Japan
We could see Japan from behind chain-link fencing
The industrial land of an ally now
They sold us tape recorders and radios
And airplane fuel from beyond the wire
Thank you for your service
Honored fighters for freedom almost home from the wars
Penned freely behind pig wire and gates and bars
My Grandfather's Hayfield - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
My Grandfather’s Hayfield
From my own fields I can hear
the band
The high school marching band,
oom-pah, oom-pah
From several miles away, with
merry songs
and merry cheers around the
homecoming bonfire
That was my grandfather’s
hayfield in my youth
Before the town and school replaced
the past
The shaking baling machine
compressing grass
Where the team captain gives
his whup ‘em speech
I found a terrapin where the
cheerleaders dance
From my own fields I can see
my youth
The White Lady of the Well - a senryu
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The White Lady of the Well
She visits at dusk
She’s watching you;
turn around -
She’s just over there
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