Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                   There’s Nothing Old to Write About the Moon

The newest moon – it blessed us tonight
A sharp bright crescent within a rim-glowing orb
Following the sun’s afterglow deep into the west
Ornamented with a frosting of stars

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                       Deep Woods ON

The label on the bug repellent ought to say
“Welcome to our Human Buffet Today!”

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


                           For a Texas Ranger on His Retirement

                      
   Strong of Heart, Lover of Truth, Teller of Tales, Stoutest of Friends


                             “Rangers! The best in Texas!”

                 -Monsieur Paul Regret in The Comancheros


A Ranger

Tracking a man among the obscurities
Of a weedy field lit by refinery flares
Beer cans, shadows and mud, cigarette butts -
A suspect is out there somewhere, out in the dark

A Ranger

Tracking a man among the obscurities
Of Texas plains known to Nocona and Coronado
Bleak ridges where the Comanche danced for the sun -
A suspect is up there somewhere, hiding from himself

A Ranger

Tracking a man among the obscurities
Of decaying DNA in a coat worn years ago
A few rotting fibers under a microscope -
A suspect is in there somewhere, under a light

A Ranger

Finding a man in the darkness of lost souls
And bringing him out of it, into the Light

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                  The Theology of Girl Scout Cookies

Girl Scout cookies at the church door today
Offered by a precious little wide-eyed fey -
And she’s another way
We hear God say
The world’s okay

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                              The Silence Between God and Me

I’m not sure God is listening to me
But I keep talking
I don’t hear God talking to me
But I keep listening

Hello…is this on? (tap, tap)…testing…

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             Search Them Out. **** Them All

Do you truly and honestly want your writing
Finally to be actually and really stronger?

Then go search out your adverbs. Destroy them all.

Do you want your writing to be stronger?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                  Wild Insects I Have Known

                        (as Ernest Thompson Seton did not say)

Please don’t tell me that red wasps are benign
A recent one I met had my behind in mind
Its sting by design was most malign
So as I sit please be patient and kind
If I indulge in an unmanly whine!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                                The USS Texas

Whatever happens
We have got
A rusting dreadnaught
And they have not

(as Hillaire Belloc did not say)


Fun fact: The elegant, British-designed Texas is the last dreadnaught in existence.

Battleship Texas Foundation

USS Texas (BB-35) Battleship in World War II (thoughtco.com)

Last-of-its-kind battleship USS Texas returns to the water after months of work to restore the warship to its former glory (msn.com)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                                  Gaslighting

Am I being gaslighted?
Or am I being gas lit?
Whichever way the verb might be
The gaslighter is full of (it)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             A Wedding Dress at Goodwill

Long lost longings along a dusty rack
White for purity in her tender years
Backless for a slender, suntanned back
Now stained with disappointments and angry tears

Did she wear it happily that first night
Share champagne kisses passionate though shy
Then slip it off slowly for his delight?
A pause, a touch, an answering touch, a sigh…

Why did she bin it, happy memories and all
That day she received a telephone call?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


                                             After the Elections


                                     What century is it outside?

                           -Boris Pasternak, “About These Poems”


Perhaps next we will have book burnings, torchlight parades
And children singing "The Horst Wessel Song"
To be scared is okay, even logical
But it’s not okay to recuse one’s self on election day

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                           We Sat Outside and Smoked Our Pipes


                        He was my friend, faithful and just to me

                             -Marc Anthony in Julius Caesar


Even on the InterGossip whispers are whispers
Arrangements for end-of-life care, the funeral to plan
Who needs to be notified, who is not speaking
What about the cousins in Ohio?

In the whispering care home whispers are whispers
Polite ghostly whispers in the waiting area
(And unwhispered thoughts about who might get what)
Someone whispers into his room; someone whispers out

But he seldom whispered; his speech was clear and free -
And
He was my friend, faithful and just to me

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                I’m Tired of Everything as Lent, He Said

I’m tired of everything as Lent, he said
I just want to drop dead
Dead before I hit the ground
With God’s voice telling me that I messed it all up
But inviting me into the Light anyway

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                 No One Keeps a Diary Anymore


                  Which is better — to be ruled by one tyrant three
                  thousand miles away or by three thousand tyrants one
                  mile away?

                                                  – Mather Byles


No one keeps a diary – life is safer that way
Men have been hanged for what they have written
It may be that they revealed some forgotten crime
Or worse, that they possessed the gift of thought

No one keeps a diary – life is safer that way
The Moms for Liberty are scared of books
Even the diary of a little girl
Because children must not read or write or think

No one keeps a diary – life is safer that way -
And have you self-purged your own books today?


South Carolina school district reviews, returns books after ban attempt (msn.com)

The first Mom For Liberty to successfully ban Anne Frank went on an antisemitic livestream - Jewish Telegraphic Agency (jta.org)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                      Bees and Breeze and Lime-Green Butterflies

                                  How beautiful the world is
                                  In the morning cool and clear!

                -Anna Ahkmatova, “The Lime-Trees by the Open Door”

Bees and breeze and lime-green butterflies
Follow the little green electric tiller
Bouncing through the turf from clod to clod
Upending roots and sticks and last year’s grass

Fresh soil awakened from its winter sleep
Eager to push summer sunflowers up and up
Sneezes and wheezes follow the tiller too
Pollens in green and yellow, clouds of allergens

But, oh, the earthen scents, perfect skies -
Bees and breeze and lime-green butterflies!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


                   My Child is Not a Resource, Mr. Bush


   Is your education system meeting your state's workforce needs?

                 -SLDS – George W. Bush Institute (bushcenter.org)


My child is a Texas girl

She is not subject to your workforce (sic) needs
Nor is she in anyone’s pipeline
She is not subject to your collective purpose
She is not subject to your collective management

My child is a Texas girl

She has a habit of thinking for herself
And she’s pretty darned obstinate about it
She is not subject to pedantic filler language:

                    “State longitudinal data systems (SLDS) that
                    meaningfully connect workforce, higher education, K-
                    12, and early childhood outcome data from multiple
                    state agencies over time are foundational to strong
                    decision-making by state leaders. See our SLDS policy
                    brief for more.”

And beyond that she knows that “work force” is two words

My child is a Texas woman
Who built her own successful career

She is not “workforce”

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                  Ghosts are Following You

Even the road seems tired and out of time
A metaphor in need of end-of-life care
A cratered surface, an encroaching weedy verge
And darkling caves of Texas gothic trees

A JESUS LOVES YOU sign along the way
A peeling painted cross in worn-out white
DALLAS COWBOYS in fading blue, THIS IS TRUMP COUNTRY
Fading, fading, all fading, and fading more

All of this in need of end-of-life care
Even the road seems tired and out of time

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             One of Texas’ Foundational Documents

Taking an oath by placing one hand
Upon a copy of Lonesome Dove
Is not yet law in our sacred land
But by the Grace of God above…

Someday it might be

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                   As Gloria Swanson Did Not Say in Sunset Boulevard

We are great -
It’s the MAGAs that got small

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                   Kissing Trump's Ring

A certain clarity of thought is missing -
It’s not his ring that the servile are kissing

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

             Never Mind the Guns and the Fentanyl; Seize the Books

          By 1938, the Nazis had banned eighteen categories of books,
          4,175 titles, and the complete works of 565 authors…

                 -Molly Guptill Manning, When Books Went to War

Ideologues search libraries for ***** books
Because reading might give people ideas
And encourage them to think for themselves
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

Censors search Mary Poppins for ***** words
Because a wide vocabulary might give people ideas
And encourage them to think for themselves
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

In an era when even mere literacy is suspicious
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas




How conservative and liberal book bans differ amid rise in literary restrictions - ABC News (go.com)

The Spread of Book Banning - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Film censors aren’t protecting children from Mary Poppins – they’re protecting themselves (yahoo.com)

States Tell SCOTUS That Social Media Censors Conservatives : The NPR Politics Podcast : NPR

List of banned films - Wikipedia

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/12/22/police-officer-searches-middle-school-library-after-complaint-abo­ut-concerning-illustrations-in-lgbtq-book/

Someone is cutting down free little libraries in a Chicago suburb and police are searching for the suspect (msn.com)

Over 170 books banned from Florida school libraries following new education reform - CBS News

The police officer who searched for a book in a Great Barrington classroom also used a body camera. The ACLU has ‘deep concerns’ | South Berkshires | berkshireeagle.com

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                    Hazmat Unit Rushes to Donald Jr’s Florida Home

                                    -Daily Mail Online

At the first whiff of a white powder leak
The New Order lifts its skirts and cries “Eek!”

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             Broccoli on the Primary Ballot

                         (as President Bush maior did not say)

Broccoli, limp broccoli, that’s all I see
Just rotting broccoli all stink, stunk, stank
No real choices today, only broccoli –
The same old broccoli, putrid and rank

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                  The Dime-Store Philosophy of Kahlil Gibran

            How The Prophet Made Kahlil Gibran a Household Name in
            America ‹ Literary Hub (lithub.com)

The dime-store philosophy of Kahlil Gibran
                    (“Daddy, what’s a dime-store? And what’s a dime?”)
Reposing mostly undisturbed on brick-and-board shelves
The free-verse love-salad of Rod McKuen
And Lord of the Rings in 50-cent paperbacks

The Seekers played over and over on the phonograph
                     (“Daddy, what’s a phonograph? Is it something bad?”)
Have you heard The Mamas and the Papas’ latest single?
Peter, Paul & Mary in “stacks of wax”
Three-chord commandos in every coffee shop

Looking back - it wasn’t the greatest stuff
But for the time and place, it was good enough

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                   “A Dragon Has Just Flown Over the Treetops…”

                            “We must all show great constancy.”

                        -C. S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Dragons! They seem to land among us daily
Blotting out all happiness, all innocent joys
In appearance and demeanor ugly and scaly,
Suppressing silence through foul foolish noise

Dragons! They don’t like anything about who we are
Our words, our works, our walks, our dreams, our tunes,
Our happy memories of a long-ago star
Our lazy moments in barefoot afternoons

Dragons! They want to crush us in the end
But we’ve read the story – we always win

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                 Four Shirtless Boys on a Mountain in California

                            Sergeant Schneider’s Prophecy

There we are in a fading color photograph
Posing atop a mountain peak in Big Bear
Immensely proud in our Edmund Hillary moment
Though most every casual hiker has been there

On Monday morning we were back in Camp Del Mar
Navy Corpsmen standing formation in Marine green
“Split off into groups of four,” Sergeant Schneider barked
“Look at the other three. Within a year
                    One of you will be dead.”

Half of Mike’s brain was blown in Viet-Nam
The other Mike died in Minnesota last year
                     I don’t know what happened to Bill

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

           The Great Matter of Processing Hogs at the County Jail

       The poets have been mysteriously silent on the topic of hogs

                           -as G. K. Chesterton did not say

Our candidates for county sheriff have promised
There will be no more hanky-panky hog-ness
At the county jail
                    (Where Elvis says the cats do wail)
Maybe the prisoners are going vegan now

The chief deputy says the hogs are a charity
That the prisoners are happy to butcher them
And share the meat out for the hungry poor
And nobody gets any personal advantage out of it

But whether the prisoners were volunteers or tasked
Certainly none of the hogs was ever asked

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                        No, I Will Not Watch X

For all the same reasons I repudiate Q
I will not watch X, not even for you
And I regret that you asked me to -
They’re both a Macbethian witches’ brew

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                       Night of the Long Sporks

Republicans have their sporks out for each other
Slashing each member with unpassable bills
Impeaching each MAGA sister and brother -
The 118th Congress gives me the chills!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

             IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
                ALL OVER EUROPE AND OHIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Th­e Great AT&T Blink of 2024

America has failed; Babylon has fallen
Amid sturm und drang and riot and rout
Civilization has collapsed and we can’t call it in
Because our telephones are out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Oh, it’s back on – is this Joe’s Pizza?)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                    Standing the Test of Time

So tell me about life’s test – is it multiple-guess?
Or fill-in-the-blanks for my empty mind
If the most common answer is C…oh, what a mess!
Gimme a hint, Teach; I’m falling behind!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                           The Wind Drove the Pages Wild

                     Reading Yevtushenko on a Windy Day

The flapping, fluttering pages went wild in the wind
And poetry sometimes should go wild, blow wild
To shake those gently slumbering words awake
Provoking peaceful musings into a storm

Nouns chasing verbs into logical conclusions
That turn about and bite the reader in the (hand)
And adjectives torment the symbolism
While adverbs, as always, were mostly in the way

I just wanted a quiet hour with coffee and verse
But flapping, fluttering pages went wild in the wind

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

            How to Write a Modern Scholarship Application Letter

On a photocopy of a photocopy of a word soup scribbled in pencil on a torn-out sheet of notebook paper at lunch:

My future life plan goals include being a jet pilot or a dentrist I havent chose a college yet I have a A in honers english your cholarship would mean I don’t have to stress about working and my mom and dad don’t have to stress about working I can just make good grades about stressing about working I love aminals my hobbies are hanging with my friends and video games I want to attend community college and become a veteranariarian PHd i was in peewee football and cheerleading I want to major in bussiness’es and get my batchelors in bussinnesse’s administeriation in my spare time I hanging with my friends and we right fourwheeler’s and s’tuff i have looked at your program and it look’s alright for me maybe I would like it because as a wise man once said to thine true self be thine I am active in my crurch I help with blue Santa last year I take care of my specail need’s sister which is why I want to be an pediatrishin to help specail nee’ds kids and I can inspire other’s to be like me my swimming coach said I would never make the team and I did so I showed everyone who didn’ believe in me because the key to the bridge to success lys in my dream’s because my dream’s are what make me me and my dream’s are going to take me to place’s I never dreamed of as a wise man his name was Martin Luther King said as a wise man named Gandih said it’s in this book as a wise man named Churchell said as a wise man named Rosa Parks said as a wise man said
As a wise man said
As a man said
Maybe he said
Maybe
I found it in a book somewhere

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

         A One-Line Dismissal of Tucker Carlson Isn’t a Poem, But…


                                   Democracy dies in dorkness

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                Waiting for the Other Boot to Drop

And it’s not even a good and honest boot
But the steel-tapped heel and studded sole
Of anger, hatred, and existential despair
One that takes time to stomp the flowers

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                          Faces Among the Leaves

               At first she thought it was but the rock and the bushes…
               But all at once she was aware of a face among the leaves…

                        -Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

There are curious faces among the leaves
Among the trees and sometimes in the trees
Along the road a little old man appears
Looking at me from the trunk of a rotting pine

He seems to be a little bit annoyed
But not dangerous; he’s become used to me
Tapping along with my shiny hiker’s stick
Searching the winter sky for something of truth

And there are bare feet dancing in the underbrush
And faces in the trees I must not see

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                      A Ballerina Arrested for High Treason

                           Let them dance in praise of His name

                                                 -Psalm 150

A ballerina was arrested for high treason

And no wonder – dance is a beautiful thing
Whether the thunderous tread of a country line
Or the ethereal flights of Russian ballet
Dance is a joy, and so must be suppressed

A ballerina was arrested for high treason

A dancer moves to mysteries of her own
On an imperial stage in Saint Petersburg
Or barefoot in a meadow among butterflies
Dance is a joy, and must be controlled

A ballerina was arrested for high treason

In the street or in a moonlit fairies’ ring
Such wild wonder – dance is a dangerous thing!

A ballerina was arrested for high treason

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                               Sunshine is Dogshine

                    Be prepared. A dog is adorable and noble.
                    A dog is a true and loving friend. A dog
                    Is also a hedonist.

                          -Mary Oliver, “The Wicked Smile”

My little dogs pause at the kitchen door
But after tentatively testing the air
Run wild into the sunlit of a rare warm day
Leaping across the long-dead summer grass

They tumble and roll, and loll with their tummies up
For each little sunbeam is a doggie-kiss
To be cherished against the next arctic front
When the sleeting wind rattles the window panes

My little dogs scratch at the kitchen door
Sunshine is dogshine
But now they want a doggie-nosh and a nap

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                    Lent is Not About Giving Up Things Lent is Not About
                    Giving Up Things Lent is Not About Giving Up Things
                    Lent is Not About Giving Up Things

All of my life I have been told
That Lent is not about giving up things
So was there a time when anyone
was told otherwise?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                Scary Men in the Streets at Night

They swagger into the convenience store
Sullen in their grotesque tats and shabby tees
Shaven heads, unshaven faces, gas-station shades
Old roach-stompers, unwashed jeans, bad-/ss bling

A big ol’ Glock .45 on every man’s hip
Manly-man Velcro tactical gear
Beer-guts rolling over their leather belts
More than a hint of menace in their eyes

These are our local deputies, of course -
Our criminals usually show a little more class


(There is no one I admire more than a proper copper, but until local governments provide better training, better pay, better backup, and meaningful benefits to our police we’re going to have to suffer the leather-boy Barneys.)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

       “Never Surrender” Sneakers – Collectible Bone Spurs Edition

Now we have lived to see a president
Hawking tatty cartoon-character shoes
Having already pawned his soul for rent
And now the bailiffs are turning the screws

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                       Cheerful Young Fascists at my Door

Pickup-trucking along on a Saturday morning
Rosy-red cheeks and rosy-red baseball caps
Laughing in youthful joy this cold winter day
Anxious to spread their Leader’s polemics

On the march from their truck and back
Bearing pamphlets and posters and signs
With triumphalist messages of loyalty
To a man who has betrayed everyone he ever met

I almost broke their hearts when I told them to go
But soon enough they will be breaking people’s heads

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, and Boomer Tea

How wicked to stereotype the several gens
To brew a tempest in a *** of self-pity -
The morning sun shines upon a world of friends
For we are all leaves on an Eden-tree

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                           A Martyr is a Poem

                                           For Alexei Navalny

               “Only in Russia is poetry respected; it gets people killed.”

                                              -Osip Mandelstam

His soul was a poem; upon it he wrote
Of hope for Russia’s peoples frozen in pain
A poem of stern rebuke to Rolex tyrants
Who censored him with beatings, poison, and death


He spoke
He died
Because he spoke he died
Because he spoke the truth he died

They left his unfinished poem upon the ice
His soul was a poem – we must complete his verse

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

          Twenty-Four Casualties, But, Hey, There Wasn’t a Nexus

                           We’re gonna need a bigger dictionary

The police chief says there was no nexus with terrorism
“Nexus” – a buzzy word, a useless euphemism
If you say “nexus” then everything’s okay
Children killing children – it’s the American way

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                The Story of America Discounted 20% on Wednesdays

A Goodwill store is a story of America
All the discarded things we never needed
A selection of “The World’s Best Secretary” mugs
A thirty-year-old cell ‘phone without a base

Plastic trophies from bubba golf tournaments
A ceramic Japanese lady made in China
Books organized only as “hardbound” and “paperback”
Except for the shelf of gimme-money preacher-books

Poor women shuffling through the debris for clothes
A Goodwill store is a story of America

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                      Southpaws of the Spirit

                        Upon reading Mary Oliver’s Devotions

My favorite poets write on the left side of the page
Which I hadn’t known, and didn’t need to know
“It’s not important how you write, but that you write”
As my dear friend Rod McKuen did not say

I could not coax this site into publishing "There are no Foreign Accents in Texas," but this short poem is available at:

https://dispatchesforthecolonialoffice.blogspot.com/?zx=791c4035bc496f75

Later:

A weak version for HP:

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                              There are no Foreign Accents in Texas

                       “For all its enormous range of space, climate, and
                         physical appearance, and for all the internal
                         squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a
                         tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other
                         section of America.”

                                                   – John Steinbeck

There are no foreign accents here, right?
A foreign accent is for a foreigner
And there are no foreigners here
The land belongs to all of us and to no one

Before even the First Nations there was the land
And we humans have come in successive waves
Betraying each other with conquest and blood
Violence and betrayal instead of feasting

But we are trying to make it better now -
There are no foreign accents here, right?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


                         If You Love Someone Deeply Enough…

                                           -Brigadoon, 1954

Mr. Lundie says that if you love someone deeply enough anything is possible

Probably not

But for an hour - or a century - we can dream

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                         Welcome to the Beatnik Revolution;
                            All Major Credit Cards Accepted

                                    Vist (sic) Our Website

I saw the derivative minds of that generation destroyed by free
                    verse
Obedient in their disobedience
Against the stuff they were told to be against
And not being much for anything

Waving copies of that little Howl book
Obedient in their disobedience
1,210,000 copies in print
All Rights Reserved. Vist (sic) our website

Validated by the Library of Congress
Obedient in their disobedience