Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                            From Shakespeare: It’s Complicated

                                  Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 78

Oh, yes, you have long been a muse to me:
Erato, certainly, a goddess in jeans and sneaks
Euterpe when you sing along to the radio
But maybe now a sad Melpomene

Oh, yes, you have long been a muse to me
To my poor eyes to scan and deeply see
And then translate your joy into iambic lines
In gratitude, in hope, in forever words

Oh, yes, you have long been a muse to me
But now to others – and are we not to be?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                The Hanging of Jake Spoon

                 Nothing in his life / Became him like the leaving it

                                         Macbeth I.iiii.7-8

At dusk. Heat. Heat and dust. Jake’s last slow ride
Words through a fog of fear, last words, slow words
Old pals and dead enemies on either side
Slow cooings and callings from unseen prairie birds

Smooth Jake, always good for a laugh and a drink
A ladies’ man, a gamblin’ man, a man of charm
Unreliable, yes, not one to pause and think
Tho’ he never meant nobody no harm

He suddenly spurred his pacer, making amends
His moment of nobility, to spare his friends

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                         ­        Ad Covers Content

V: Ad covers content

R: Thanks. Feedback improves Google ads.

V (Vox clamantis in deserto): No, it doesn’t

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                           Three Gentlemen Perusing Books
          in the Wreckage of Holland House, December 1940


                                   Manuscripts Don’t Burn

                       -a trope in The Master and Margarita


You needn’t be a gentleman, or English
To care for music, art, truth, beauty, and books
To love civilization and all its possibilities
Through the measured dance of sub-creation

If you happened upon a bombed-out library
You would pull a surviving book from its smoking shelf
Open it to words you may have read long ago
And among transient ruins celebrate eternal verities

I hope I will have the courage to read with you

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                              Grab ‘Em by Their…Patriotism

                      Republican arrested after 'chasing an adult dancer
                      on a road while waving a gun at 2:45am

                               -U. K. Daily Mail, 20 June 2024

Now let this news serve as a stern rebuke
To those who say that America no longer stands tall
Or pursues positive domestic policies
In service to working women everywhere

Oh, may our bible salesman proudly wave his…
Flag as a brave new Paul Revere rides his…
Horse through every Middlesex village and town
Because if the British aren’t coming, someone else is

Now we know (hoist the banner upon its shaft!)
Just why they want our daughters for the draft

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                       Bullets Do Not Whine

Bullets do not whine as they pass one by
Nor do they

Clang
Zing
Ching
Sing
Whizz
Zip
Zap
Zow
Pow
Pew
Pop

What they really say, quite loudly, is
“S*!”

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

             The Fairies Themselves Now Dance Sweet Summer In

                         My work is loving the world.
                         Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird

                                      -Mary Oliver, “Messenger”

Everything is sacramental this week:

The Strawberry Moon in the fullness of being
Midsummer magic by day and by night
The English quarter day, the Feast of St. John
And holy bonfires in honor of light

Good honeybees take Communion at every flower
Soft breezes sing hymns among the ripening corn
The woods and fields are baptized in happiness
The sun and moon bless maidens and swains

We need no clocks or calendars to tell us when –
The fairies themselves now dance sweet summer in