Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
A Three-Character-Group Code for Advancing Civilization
Learn. To. Dostoyevsky.
Sunday, July 27, 2025
A Three-Character-Group Code for Advancing Civilization
Saturday, July 26, 2025
They. Learned. To. Code. - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
They. Learned. To. Code.
14-year-old boy identified as victim
in University of New Mexico dorm shooting
I call, therefore, a complete and generous education, that which fits a man to perform, justly,
skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace
and war.
-John
Milton, “Of Education,” 1644
Learn. To.
Code. is the fashionable chant
Staccato’d in
every callow response
Make. America.
Great. through cliché’ and cant
To force a lath-and-plaster
renaissance
The Great
Conversation of books and thoughts
The Great
Dialectic of civilization
Are now toys,
guns, and video games, all for nought
Ferality within
a generation
Within a
generation, within a blink
They.
Learned. To. Code.
They did
not learn to think
Friday, July 25, 2025
The Apex Predator - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
The Apex Predator
They…
Have watched me rise from the darkness of war
Dripping with my enemies’ blood
-Beowulf, trans. Raffel, lines 151-153
The apex predator feeds upon the flesh
Of those who wanted desperately to live
To hew and chew and gnaw and digest and mesh
With those who died with no desire to forgive
The apex predator feeds while others starve
The sentient flee from him in grievous fear
But he always wins, his victims then to carve
In bloody fields and haunted forests drear
War ends violently in drang und sturm
And the apex predator is obviously
The Worm
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
We Ask Everyone to Respect Our Family Privacy at This Time - poem about the guy who bit the head off a bat
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
We Ask Everyone to Respect Our Family Privacy at This
Time
“Our family privacy” – people
keep saying that
A friend came over and mowed
my rankling lawn
Because finding a lawnmower
mechanic these days
Is like searching for a
unicorn in a shopping mall
Their family privacy – I’m
blessed with friends
But lawnmower mechanics seem
to be extinct
The temp today was 98 at noon
Nobody chants “Learn. To.
Code.” anymore
Their family privacy – chicken
pot pies
Are on sale at Brookshire’s
for 88 cents
I’ll mail all those bills this
afternoon
That’s a really nice shirt
you’re wearing today
Their family privacy – a middle-aged
woman
Sheds tears upon an altar of
VHS tapes
In privacy
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
A 5-7-5 About Listening to Your Body - yes, a 5-7-5, unworthy of a senryu
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
A 5-7-5 About Listening to Your Body
I listen to my body
All day, all night (Mary Ann)
If I eat too much
Piso Mojado Sounds Somewhat Vulgar - rhyming doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Piso Mojado Sounds Somewhat Vulgar
Piso mojado en Tejas y
Colorado
Does not exactly trip from my
English tongue
Cuidado that floor in El
Dorado
For piso sounds slippily
close to dung!
Monday, July 21, 2025
Loose Vowels - not really a poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Loose Vowels
A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y – why?
(Asking for a dipthong)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)