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

                  Palm Sunday Processional and a Volkswagen

We’re along the four-lane, no village street
And so in the parking lot with our palms we meet
We begin our hymn at a Fiat, mama mia!
And step off from alongside my brother’s new Kia

I suppose we could sing, “O Cadillac, My Destiny”
While waving our fronds over a wingless Mercury
Watch your step; there’s a Honda Accord
Oh, look; I found a penny – praise the Lord!

We have only the four-lane, no village street
But at the church door we have Jesus to greet

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

                   Existentialism and Schrodinger’s Eyeglasses


                “…books and music and circling philosophies”

                                       -Mary Oliver, “Answers”


Not even the Pascaline could sort things out -
The whirlings and circlings of discrete stimuli
As when you are commanded, judged, rebuked
Rewarded, shamed, and praised, all at the same time

Where are the little wheels that could line them out
In order mechanical and neatly filed
Then catalogued by order of the mind
Ready for good service to God and man?

Not even the Pascaline could sort things out –
And has anyone seen my glasses about?

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

                                            I’ll Try Again Tomorrow

The day was sour, and so were my poor words
Poor words written against our ******* regime
Words so inadequate that I ripped them down
And pitched them into the compost of philosophy

There to decay properly and be rebuilt
To fling against armored limousines
And maybe rattle an oligarch or two
Who sneer at us as but their petting zoo

The day was sour, and so was my poor verse
Useless, counter-productive, and worse

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

                                     Some Poor Rhymes for Easter


            “There is a time for penance and a time for partridge.”

                                        -Saint Teresa of Avila


Processions and prayers among the cloisters
Weary pilgrims in their thread-bare habits
The faithful beading Aves and Pater Nosters -
Still,
There is much to be said for chocolate rabbits!

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

                               A Failure to Practice Caritas
                         for a Certain Fellow Human Being

                            "I have never wished a man dead,
           but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."

                               -attributed to Mark Twain

When God's good time puts an end to that snake
And obsequies are read over that foul mistake
And the interment prayers are reverently spake
Oh, let us not forget the wooden stake

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

                            Your Poems as Love-Letters to God


          Gregariousness is always the refuge of mediocrities, whether
          they swear by Soloviev or Kant or Marx. Only individuals
          seek the truth, and they break with those who don’t love it
          sufficiently.

                 -Doctor Zhivago, p. 9 in the Pantheon edition


You live, you have lived, and you will live
And because you live you will engrave your life
In elegant scansion, in noble lines
That shape chaos into beauty and truth

Not into metal or rocks or wood
But flung into Creation in gratitude
For the sacred life you have been given
For the strength of your love and thoughts

Each little line is a gathering-gift to God
Baptized in the Jordan and in the Hippocrene
To God, and to the Muses who smile on you
And to great Mysteries beyond the stars

Each little line is a gathering-gift to all
To read in the light of seven sacred lamps
The wisdom of patience and pilgrimage
Beside the banks of the river you know

You live, and so you write, you must, you must:
For there is meaning in tumbling in the grass
On a summer day that will live forever
Helped along in your written remembrancing

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of laughter and puppy-kissings and grass-stained jeans
And that is why you must write it all down
For others in intellectually-sharpened rhythms

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of love, of deeper kissings in the dark
Emotional confusions gone crazy-wild
Until they are sensed through crafted verse

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of recruit training and sometimes war
The joys of learning wisdom from great books
Tentatively shaping your own new knowledge worthily

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of leafy springs and apple-green summers
Golden autumns and winters of blue
Writing them as hymns of gratitude

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of children in a home modest in wealth
But rich and layered in love, work, and prayer
“Is this poem about me?!” Oh, yes, child

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of lonely nights, hospital stays, mistakes
Disappearing dreams, disappointed hopes
Memories of friends buried in the dust

You live, you have lived, and you will live
And because you live you will engrave your life
Love-letters as your gift to Creation
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti

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

                    The Police Department’s *****-Pictures Squad


           The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 26 January 2025


The police department’s *****-pictures squad
Under the direction of their sharia-ish chief
Will save us from sin at the degenerate Mod
And thus they rule us in matters of art and belief

They raided the museum, eager for filthy pictures
And found four images of infant innocence -
Such being repugnant to official strictures
The police seized the artwork, claiming moral offense

But

The grand jury no-billed the pictures, gave ‘em the nod
Rebuking the lusts of the *****-pictures squad!




Fort Worth Police to return seized photos to Modern Art Museum | Fort Worth Report

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This legislation would penalize museums for “obscene” photography, but is it a dangerous idea for the art community? | Digital Camera World