Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                            ­  Schrodinger’s Turtle

                    Don’t let a quantum mechanic work on your car

A cat on a fence post probably got there himself
And may be observed to be alive or dead
A turtle in a box is not on a shelf
“And I don’t know why,” the scientist said

“Meow,” the poor little cat cried out in dread



Please know that I am on the ViaSat / Verizon / Directv / Netgear axis of frequent lack of service. I never ignore correspondence, but in the mornings my InterGossip works very slowly at best and in the evenings even more slowly and increasingly not at all. Responding to you may take some time.

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


                 Writing with Love Under the Coming Regime


         We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny
          but what we put into it is ours.

                         -Dag Hammarskjold, Markings


They hate you; they cannot do other than hate
They have gulped from Macbeth’s poisoned cup
With raucous laughter argued over lists of enemies
Carving out the names with ****** knives

But you from Love have chosen freely to love
You have taken communion from the Pierian Spring
And studied beauty and truth upon Helicon
You praise every name with sacred words

They hate you; they cannot do other than hate
But you from Love have chosen freely to love


NOT feeling the love in this matter: Please know that I am on the ViaSat / Verizon / Directv / Netgear axis of frequent lack of service. I never ignore correspondence, but in the mornings my InterGossip works very slowly at best and in the evenings even more slowly and increasingly not at all. Responding to you may take some time.

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                       When She Sold Her Old Ford Mustang

Y’all need some more coffee? I got some fresh

That car was my dream; had it since I was twenty
When I got married it was our honeymoon ride
When I got divorced it was all I had
After me and my baby got away from the beatings

Your breakfast okay? We got a new cook

We sometimes had to live in it, y’know?
So like I had to tell my son I’m selling it
I promised it to him for his graduation
That car was our life. But it ain’t safe

Did I tell you we got a new cook? He’s pretty good

I’m been waitin’ tables in this old café for years
Watchin’ the world go by on th’ highway

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                     Poet, Just Look at You

Just look at you, wrestling with your ideas
Perceiving beauty among the burning ruins
Gently shaping the sorrows of the day
Into comfort

Just look at you, wrestling with your words
Heart and mind in position of function
Boldly shaping the confusions of the day
Into meaning

Just look at you, putting your readers first –
You are good

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                               Who Shares Your Desk?

Hundreds of friends share my desk with me
Leaving coffee and wine and tobacco stains
All over the place, their thoughts cluttering my mind
Dreams and possibilities for my heart

Yevtushenko and his Silver Age poets
More Russian poets
Shakespeare in a worn college omnibus
Larry McMurtry
(One must understood that in Texas Lonesome Dove is a holy text)
The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse
The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse
The Oxford Book of Christian Verse
The Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse
Leonard Cohen and his famous blue raincoat
Cavafy at an oblique angle to the universe
Wordsworth and Dorothy out for a walk
Plath
Keats
Sondheim
Montale
Hopkins
The Oxford Book of English Verse, the 1939 Q Edition
(Not that Q!)
The Oxford Book of English Verse, the 1999 Ricks Edition
Pasternak
Lewis
Frankl
The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse
Kafka
Herrick
Milosz
Virgil
Tennyson
Wavell and his manly flowers
Claude McKay
300 Tang poets (they do seem to drink a lot)
Mary Oliver and all her doggies

So there they are, in untidy rows and piles
(The Tang poets simply will not behave)
They are patient with my slovenliness
Pens, screwdrivers, a Rosary, two light bulbs
(I don’t know why)
A thermometer from my grandparents’ house

A 1962 Missale Romano and a toy fire truck
An Orthodox ikon from Tod of happy memory
A Tupperware coffee cup they don’t make anymore
Spare spectacles for seeing what comes next

Hundred of friends who ask the best of me
And who don’t mind my rows and piles of words
They talk to me, and I ask their advice
I pray I am not a disappointment to them

Or to you

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                     The Blues and the Blahs

“Ennui” sounds like a urinary tract infection
“Torpidity” something to do with one’s bowels
“Anomie” might be a boring friend
“Lassitude” a cowboy who has lost his rope

“Insipidity” the noise of slurping one’s soup
“Angst” a degenerative heart disease
“Weltschmerz” Sergeant Schultz’ least favorite beer
“Misanthropy” a cute but cranky girl

I don’t how many of these I have got
But I have got ‘em - and wish that I did not!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                    Which Karamazov are You?

Wise Dostoyevksy
Writes with holy words the mysteries  
Of the Russian soul