Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                     The Aeolian Harp and the Aeolian Tree-Stump

Every tree is an Aeolian harp
Singing the Daily Office of the wind
Not often the night’s Matins and Lauds so much
But with the breezy dawn the service of Prime

And I know an Aeolian tree-stump too
Of deeper voices through its mysterious hollows
Wind whispering into the damp, dark earth
Then booming out into the air again

Every tree is an Aeolian harp
But a tree-stump can be musical too

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

          18 October 2023 - When Missiles Fall Upon Our Vanities

When missiles fall upon our vanities
And children die among our smoking ruins
Will we dare plead our weak excuses to God:
“This isn’t what we meant…”

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

          If Children Ask for Bread Will We Give Them a Statement?

“The Roman Catholic–Orthodox Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue produced a statement this past June on the vexed issue of papal primacy and the timely topic of synodality.”

Well of course they did.


[What Is ‘Eucharistic Ecclesiology’? | Commonweal Magazine]

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                A Deer and I Surprised Each Other

Silence
We paused
We looked
She leaped

I said
Goodbye
But she
Was gone

And I
Was left
There all
Alone!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office


                        Will There be Coffee after the Crucifixion?

                    Everything’s going to be discovered
                    And understood in the course of time,
                    Only we have to go on thinking

                                    -Yevtushenko, “Zima Junction”

Not all are crucified, but all are wounded
We bring our gifts to the Altar; they fall apart
In secretly clinging to them for ourselves
Our claims to be defined by an era
But rotting corpses in a tangled wood
The celebrant elevates the Host
We lift unfocused eyes in grave pretense
Inattentive at the Wedding of worlds

The Mass is the central Act in Creation -
Not all are crucified, but all are wounded

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office


People are Dying by the Thousands – Let’s All Go Buy Slogan Tees

                                       XL, L, M, S, and Petite
                      Guaranteed Ethically-Sourced Materials

                    Domestic carnage now filled all the year
                    With Feast-days; the old Man from the chimney nook,
                    The Maiden from the ***** of her Love,
                    The Mother from the Cradle of her Babe,
                    The Warrior from the Field – all perish’d, all

       -Wordsworth, The Prelude, 1805-1806, Book X, 356-360

We busy ourselves in our accustomed ways:
Dishes to wash, the still-green lawn to be mowed
The vacuum cleaner to annoy the household pup
A book, a chair, a reverie, a glass of tea

But then

The evening news is a call to our conscience
With offerings in two senses only
Tastefully muted sounds and filtered visuals
Across a couch with a motorized recline mode

Dead bodies fuzzed out on the evening news
And peace-loving intellectuals chanting
                                                       “Gas the Jews!”

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                         My Concealed-Carry Jewish Space Laser

In my state you can carry a switch-blade knife
And shoot an AR with 30-round magazines
Or a .50-calibre Barrett for vaporizing a life
Tote brass-knuckles in your camouflaged jeans

In my state

Few methods of ****** are regulated
But if you read Anne Frank you could be investigated