Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Cosmic Inertia of a Six-Pound Dachshund
Why is the resistance factor
In shifting a six-pound dachshund
Who does not want to be shifted
Greater than that of tons of iron?
Saturday, September 28, 2024
The Cosmic Inertia of a Six-Pound Dachshund - short poem
An All-You-Can-Eat Buffet of Summer Bugs poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
An All-You-Can-Eat Buffet of Summer Bugs
(He was small in the spring)
When a tree frog moves up in the world
He becomes a fashionable window frog
No longer the pain of a rough tree bark life
But rather the pane of easy living
(He grew larger during the summer)
My bedroom window is his buffet
An all-he-can-eat buffet of bugs
Delicious summer bugs shared around
With an uncommon house gecko of style
(He’s really big now)
I look out at a hungry tree frog, you see
But now – is he looking hungrily in at me?
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Boeing, Studebaker, John Deere, and my Tupperware Coffee Cup - an elegy
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Boeing, Studebaker, John Deere, and my Tupperware™
Coffee Cup
“The days are gone…
When wonderful things were worked among them”
-The Seafarer, trans. Burton
Raffel
My Tupperware coffee cup is
as a chalice
With which I salute the beginning
of each day
Cool, colorful, comforting craftsmanship
An honest, utilitarian work
of art
We are told such things will
be no more
“Made in USA” is “Factorum
Romae”
Younger nations will find us
camping among the ruins
Of works and arts we no
longer comprehend
A colonial soldier might note
that once we were a great people
His colonel will reply, “Tosh!
They’re simple savages.”
Smart*ss Watch - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Smart*ss Watch
It clings to my wrist like a faithless friend
Good fun to pal around when we met
But getting just a little tiresome with time
Unreliable in his many promises
He fails to make the appointments that we set
Or note the weather or mark activities
I dunno; maybe he’s making time with that Timex
My long-time steady who could sure tick my tock
Sweet face, delicate hands - she’d been around, but
Maybe I was wrong – I think I’ll dial her
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
On Reading a Poem by Du Mu - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
On Reading a Poem by Du Mu
Everything is far away
China is ever so far away
The dynasties are far away
A golden dragon might fly us
there
The moon is across the river
The blue-black river in the
mist
A fishing boat is tied to the
gate
The water-gate of our inn
What do they mean, the moon
and boat?
Maybe the moon and the boat
mean nothing
They simply are; they are
themselves
Or perhaps we mean the moon
and boat
Because of Du Mu and his
words
The moon and the boat are
forever
The blue-black river is
forever
In reading of them so are we
“A Night at
the Inn While Travelling”
Three Hundred
Tang Poems
Translated
by Peter Harris
London:
Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 2009
Monday, September 23, 2024
Hobbit Day - short poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Hobbit Day
22 September
I read that today is Hobbit
Day
On the autumn equinox every
year
I was both delighted and
surprised
Even though in our shared
adventures, dear friends,
Every day is Hobbit Day
I first read The Hobbit as a discarded paperback at the Station Hospital in Da Nang.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Such Men Will Someday Live in Palaces - poem
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Such Men Will Someday Live in Palaces
Cf. Saint Matthew 11
I am only a visitor here,
unqualified to speak
Of the incessant sufferings
of men of God
Who may not go beyond the
compassing wire
To see a reed shaken with the
wind
For they sometimes are wind-struck
reeds themselves
Planted for a time in this
desert of penance
But they are men, and do not easily
shake -
When the bitter wind blows
they stand up straight
They do not raise their fists
against the wind
But rather their hearts in manly
strength and faith
Such men will someday live in palaces
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