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Lawrence Hall Apr 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                 Hey! Hey! **! **! Mindless Chants Have Got to Go!

One seeks in vain for a “Hey! Hey! **! **!”
In the Bible, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita
In Tolkien, Lewis, Frankl, or Yevtushenko
In any declaration of the rights of man

The Greek philosophers never barked “Hey! Hey! **! **!”
Phillis Wheatley would have rebuked that vulgarity
Lincoln yapped no such drivel at Gettysburg
Elizabeth Bishop argued with wit and grace

“Hey! Hey! **! **!” is boorish and ineffectual
And would never be spoken by a true intellectual
Lawrence Hall Mar 2021
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 Hey, I Really am a Neanderthal!

The spit-into-a-cup DNA folks
Advise me that 742 strands
Of vintage Neanderthal DNA
Are roaming loose in the tunnels of my being

It’s good to be descended from a fine old family
Maybe that’s why my ideas drag the ground
As I lope along following the science
Live chicken tastes a lot like rattlesnake

Why don’t you join me for dinner with the neighbors?
Their brains will go well with hyena blood
Do Neanderthals scan for blank verse?
Lawrence Hall Jan 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                    Hickory-Doomsday Clock

                                       Analogue or Digital?

That Doomsday Clock has ticked since 1947
The sweep hand always dancing on the edge of doom
Sometimes a missile more (7, 6, 5, 4…
Sometimes a virus less (a jab, I guess)

I’ve been thinking of buying me one
Maybe from the times-table at Wal-Mart
Or as a timeless fashion from Amazon
I want to know the hour we’re going to die

But are we truly any closer to Heaven?
That Doomsday Clock has tocked since 1947
Doomsday Clock
Lawrence Hall Nov 2017
High Noon at the Bird Feeder

A little dog, a streak of dachshund red,
Across the grass speeds to a squirrel’s doom
She wants its blood, she wants its flesh, she wants it dead;
Ripped, shredded, and torn; it will need no tomb.

The fat old squirrel, a fluff of forest grey,
Is unimpressed by doggie dementia;
To Liesl’s grief he leaps and climbs away -
Never underestimate the Order Rodentia!

Liesl’s squirrel clings to a low-hanging limb
And rattles abuse at the angry pup
Who spins and barks and spins and barks at him
Laughing among the leaves, and climbing higher up.

So Liesl snorts and sneers, and marks the ground;
She accepts not defeat, nor lingers in sorrow;
For Liesl and squirrel it’s their daily round;
They’ll go it again, same time tomorrow.
Lawrence Hall Apr 2022
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     High-Speed Space Chatter

laser focus absolutely mission control
a very brief hold okay The Roaring Twenties
Ready to go final checks revs up
I can’t wait to see auto-sequence

We’ve entered a brief hold our teams will assess
we’ll be right back that hold has been released
ladies and gentlemen it is time Godspeed
we’re handing it over to mission control

our four human flight crew Godspeed
on its way to speece space

mego way to go! They just became official astronauts Carmen line well into space apogee returning from space fins all earning their keep really doing some work what an incredible sight out there critical step sonic boom man! Was that incredible! I just love hearing that sound! Touchdown New Shepherd! Welcome back to earth all I can say Jackie is wow! Will take your breath away there’s nothing like it right above that feather beginning to dump propellants that’s a key there go the main parachutes! For the Roaring Twenties crew flying today from the blackness of space to standby touchdown the West Texas desert standby touchdown standby touchdown standby touchdown Wooo!  Wooo! Official U.S. astronauts...
Lawrence Hall Apr 2022
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     High-Speed Space Chatter

laser focus absolutely mission control
a very brief hold okay The Roaring Twenties
Ready to go final checks revs up
I can’t wait to see auto-sequence

We’ve entered a brief hold our teams will assess
we’ll be right back that hold has been released
ladies and gentlemen it is time Godspeed
we’re handing it over to mission control

our four human flight crew Godspeed
on its way to speece space

mego way to go! They just became official astronauts Carmen line well into space apogee returning from space fins all earning their keep really doing some work what an incredible sight out there critical step sonic boom man! Was that incredible! I just love hearing that sound! Touchdown New Shepherd! Welcome back to earth all I can say Jackie is wow! Will take your breath away there’s nothing like it right above that feather beginning to dump propellants that’s a key there go the main parachutes! For the Roaring Twenties crew flying today from the blackness of space to standby touchdown the West Texas desert standby touchdown standby touchdown standby touchdown Wooo!  Wooo! Official U.S. astronauts...
Lawrence Hall Nov 2021
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                   Highway 96 – Dead Dogs and Shredded Tires

U.S. 96 is paved from north Texas to the Gulf
With fragments of dead dogs and re-capped tires
We love to let our doggies run wild and free
And save ourselves some money with unsafe tires

“That’s a big 10-4, good buddy!”

U. S. 96 is paved with articles of faith
For in spite of all the evidence we believe
WE BELIEVE! CAN I HAVE AN “AMEN!”
That a paint stripe will keep cars from hitting each other

“I’m gonna take me a selfie!”

Corpses of rotting dogs and shredded tires -
But the dead humans are scraped up and hauled away

“Can you hear me now?”
Lawrence Hall Jul 16
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

Highway Patrol

An episode of Highway Patrol appears -
(With Broderick Crawford it should be widescreen)
Iron-jawed Bill Boyette as his sergeant
Today’s show features a passenger train

A man in a coat and tie, smoking a cigarette
Stops his DeSoto at a telephone booth
Wildly high fins (the DeSoto, not the telephone booth)
Inserts a dime and, turning a dial, he places a call

And Grandpa takes some time to explain
          All of this to his grandchild
The telephone, the tie, the passenger train
Lawrence Hall Oct 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                              His CHECK ENGINE Light is On

                                      For Chris Singletary

He came by today, a friend from long ago
“I haven’t seen you in a hamster’s age.”
“Yep, too long.”
“How ya doin’?”
“Good enough for government service.”
“Wanna beer?
“Thought you’d never ask.”
“Kids all doin’ good?”
“Yeah; real proud of ‘em. All grown and gone. Yours?”
“Oh, yeah, doin’ doin’ just fine.”
“Heard you was in th’ hospital last year.”
“Yep, made almost about three months of of it.”
“Too much fun.”
“Yep.”
“At our age…”
“Yep.”
“Kids these days.”
“Yep.”
“You okay now?”
“Better’n I deserve. You?”
“Well, you know, my CHECK ENGINE light is on.”


Fresh metaphors are scarcer than crocodile feathers. Thanks, Chris.
CHECK ENGINE Light
Lawrence Hall Dec 2021
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                                His Name is John

We plan our lives, we think our thoughts
We name the days, we name the child
We count the oughts, dismiss the naughts
We seek for peace, we fear the wild

We dare presume to sort our days
As if we were Creators too
To look upon our works and praise
That which we think is right and true

But Zechariah, his old face wan
Corrects us with:
                    “His name is John”
Lawrence Hall Apr 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                            His Sacred Majesty

                                      Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 7

We are told that we mustn’t worship the sun
Nor even truth, but rather each shiny new toy
Powered by batteries and our unhappy wants
Endlessly discharging our minds and souls

We are told that we mustn’t worship the sun
But rather the mechanical fabrications of our hands
Upon the orders of our Lilith-draped masters
To STEM the possibility of thought

We probably shouldn’t worship the sun
But we are still free to think highly of him
Meme-ing from Shakespeare
Lawrence Hall Dec 2017
The President Tweeted his Outrage

The tweeter of the free world tweets:
Speak loudly and carry a big tweet
54-40 or tweet
We have nothing to tweet but tweet itself

The twitteral of democracy
Ask not what your tweetry can do for you
We must dare to be tweet
The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the
        tweet

Government of the tweet, by the tweet, for the tweet
I know in my heart that man is tweet

                                  But now the tweet stops here
(In context “tweet” and “twitter” might be copyrighted terms, although just why anyone would copyright baby noises is a concept that eludes the thoughtful.)
Lawrence Hall Mar 2022
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                         Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Inmates

                                 A Sign Along a Texas Road

Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates

Newton is one way, and Jasper the other
Along the two-lane blacktop between the fields
A farmer in chambray blue cultivates his corn
And lads in prison whites cultivate the state’s

Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates

The passerby wonders if the hitchhikers
Are escaping from inmates or if
The hitchhikers are the inmates who choose
Not to be inmates at the moment

Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates

And then there’s the difference between “may” and “might”
Hitchhikers and inmates, soon out of sight

Maybe we’re all trying to escape something
Lawrence Hall Mar 2022
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                         Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Inmates

                                 A Sign Along a Texas Road

Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates

Newton is one way, and Jasper the other
Along the two-lane blacktop between the fields
A farmer in chambray blue cultivates his corn
And lads in prison whites cultivate the state’s

Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates

The passerby wonders if the hitchhikers
Are escaping from inmates or if
The hitchhikers are the inmates who choose
Not to be inmates at the moment

Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates

And then there’s the difference between “may” and “might”
Hitchhikers and inmates, soon out of sight

Maybe we’re all trying to escape something
Lawrence Hall Sep 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                                    Hobbit Day

                                                   22 September

I read that today is Hobbit Day
On the autumn equinox every year
I was both delighted and surprised
Even though in our shared adventures, dear friends,

Every day is Hobbit Day
Lawrence Hall Jan 2019
The (beep) painting (beep) dates (beep, beep) from (beep)
Holbein’s (beep) first (beep) visit (beep) to (beep)
England (beep) oil on oak (beep) a (beep) golden
Tudor (beep) rose (beep) over his heart (beep)

The chain of office his aurea catena
Of faith in God and in his king (beep, beep)
Is (beep) the (beep) paper (beep) in (beep) his
Hands (beep) Averil (beep) Manchin’s (beep) petition?

Saint Thomas seems to look so far away –
Perhaps he sees beyond his martyrdom day




Except for the rhyming couplet I’m having a bit of fun here. The Holbein painting of St. Thomas More is beautiful (beep) in every way, and I am grateful for the opportunity to spend some time before it. The Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol exhibition is brilliant as is everything the Houston Museum of Fine Arts does:  https://www.mfah.org/

Saint Thomas More, ora pro nos
SaintThomasMore, HoustonMuseumofFineArts
Lawrence Hall Feb 2018
For Thomas V. Morris and William J. Bennett
In gratitude for a wonderful summer at Notre Dame

O, thou dry Jansenist! A night of fire
Left in your pocket like a shopping list
Sitting quietly in a room, will never burn
To set your sere and withered soul alight

And one might wager that your calculator
In brass, for counting brass, touches not the heart
Which has its reasons which the mind knows too
Pensees which never make a night a day

Forgive thou, then, this *lettre provincial

And count it as a friend’s *memorial
Lawrence Hall Nov 2018
For Thomas V. Morris and William J. Bennett
In gratitude for a wonderful summer at Notre Dame



O, thou dry Jansenist! A night of fire
Left in your pocket like a shopping list
Sitting quietly in a room, will never burn
To set your sere and withered soul alight

And one might wager that your calculator
In brass, for counting brass, touches not the heart
Which has its reasons which the mind knows too
Pensees which never make a night a day

Forgive thou, then, this lettre provinciale
And count it as a friend’s memorial
Lawrence Hall Nov 2016
This week at work I received a Homeland Security form with a terse note that I had filled it out incorrectly - in 2003.  But I had not filled it out at all; this was new form (already out of date by its own testimony) predicated on a Department of Justice form which I did complete correctly; it had simply expired.

Altho’ I obediently completed the form,  I rendered part of the form (page 7 of 9) into not-really-a-poem, in lines of ten syllables:


          I Attest That I Am

employment eligibility
verification department of home
land security u.s. citizen
ship and immigration services u
scis form i-9 omb
no. 1615-0047
expires 03/31/2016
start here. Read instructions carefully be
fore completing this form. The instructions
must be available during completion
of this form anti-discrimination
notice: it is illegal to discrim
inate against work-authorized indi
viduals. Employers cannot specify
which document(s) they will accept from an
employee. The refusal to hire an
individual because the docu
ment presented has a future expi
ration date may also constitute il
legal discrimination. Section 1.
Employee information and attest
ation (employees must complete and sign
section 1 of form i-9 no later than
the first day of employment, but not be
fore accepting a job offer). Last
name (family name) First name (given name) mid
dle initial other names used (if any)
address (street number and name) apt.
number city or town state zip code date
of birth (mm/dd/yyyy)
u.s. social security number
e-mail address telephone number I
am aware that federal law provides
for imprisonment and / or fines for false
statements or use of false documents in
connection with the completion of the
form. I attest, under penalty of
perjury, that I am (check one of the
following)…

I Attest That I Am
Lawrence Hall Nov 2023
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                              Homeless Man Found Murdered

He had nothing
And even that nothing
Was stolen from him
Lawrence Hall Feb 2023
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Logosophiamag.c­om
Hellopoetry.com
Fellowshipandfairydust.com

             Honorable Liar, Honorable Liar, Honorable Pants on Fire

If we pay attention over time
We learn about our government this jot:
Lying to Congress is a crime
Lying from Congress is not
Lawrence Hall Dec 2017
Horseshoe, and it Crucified

A hoodie girl outside the truck stop leans
Against a wall, huddled against the wind
While no one’s looking, sneaking a cigarette
A vision of desperation through the windshield

She’s selling Cowboy-Jesus “for the missions”
A table of lacquered cypress crosses
But instead of the Corpus a horseshoe
A horseshoe crucified – and, too, a girl

A poor, sad girl outside the truck stop leans
She’s selling Cowboy-Jesus for some boss

Or else
Lawrence Hall Jun 2019
Whispered voices adrift about the house
The little cousins all sent out to play
Adults ingathered at the kitchen table
Taking communion from the coffee ***

The hospice nurse is in and out and back
A subtle shake of her head – he’s still alive
In the back bedroom, gurgling to an end
Frail fingers twitching on the coverlet

An evening of grieving, darkening fast
Whispered voices adrift about the past
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is:

Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com

It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.

Lawrence Hall’s vanity publications are available on amazon.com as Kindle and on bits of dead tree:  The Road to Magdalena, Paleo-Hippies at Work and Play, Lady with a Dead Turtle, Don’t Forget Your Shoes and Grapes, Coffee and a Dead Alligator to Go, and Dispatches from the Colonial Office.
Lawrence Hall Dec 2020
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com

                    Hospital Waiting Room in Advent

          “How could I bear a crown of gold when the Lord  
                bears a crown of thorns? And bears it for me!”

                          -Heilige Elisabeth von Thuringen


The pre-dawn parking-lot is crowded enough,
And almost pretty with the high orange-ish light
Reflecting nicely on the rainy pavement.
The cold wind blows a lonely paper cup along

Among the puddles and the lonely cars
With the more-than-one-family-members
Dozing or reading their MePhones - it seems
as if the world itself is a waiting room for now

In the lobby a queue forms, everyone standing
Six feet away from each other as ordered by
Plastic signs on the floors. A cheerful-enough
Volunteer aims a little plastic gun

At each human head as it passes,
And asks each owner of a head
DO YOU HAVE ANY SYMPTOMS DO YOU HAVE
A SORE THROAT HAVE YOU BEEN AROUND ANYONE

WITH THE CORONAVIRUS
HAVE YOU BEEN OUT OF STATE RECENTLY

Does Louisiana count?

Pass, friend.

A cold and fashionable Christmas tree obscures
An image of Saint Elizabeth of Thuringen
Next to the row of elevators marked ‘B’
Along a covid-silent corridor

A visitor with his mask and his pass
Can hear his footsteps echoing-echoing
As he passes through the silences,
And reads signs announcing activities

Scheduled long ago that were canceled
Long ago because of the lockdowns.
Only rarely will he see a masked and gowned figure
Seemingly scuttling into hiding

While carrying a tray of lab specimens
Or pushing a cart or whispering into
An official glowing screen. Doors that used to be
Open are secured with NO ENTRY

Or STAFF ONLY signs, and former passages
Are blocked with new plywood panels
Or panes of clear plastic in this unclear time.
The cardiovascular ICU waiting room

Is empty – ONE FAMILY MEMBER ONLY,
Reads a sign scotch-taped to a door, and
NO COFFEE BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS
YOU WILL FIND COFFEE IN THE CAFETERIA

Announces another. Some seats are marked off-limits
With yellow crime-scene-ish tape even though
There is no one in the room to be made off-limits.
The television is dark and silent,

The floors and plastic chairs are clean-upon-clean
From repeated daily wipings and scrubbings
And sprayings although almost no one
Ever goes into that room now. There are no people,

No magazines, no bottles of water,
Nothing in the litter baskets. It’s like
A scene from one of those Star Trek episodes
In which an away-team beams down

To a deserted space ship, a deserted city,
Or a deserted planet, only there is no
Thematic background music in the hospital.
This is the block of floors and space given over

To cardiac care and surgery;
The areas where CV patients are treated
Are hidden behind doors and walls and faces
Of appropriate secrecy and discretion.

Behind those doors and walls life and death
Are worked out through the work and thought and education
And brilliance and industry and love
Of so very many ministers of grace,

From physicians to the nice fellow with
The bucket and mop, and through the mysteries

Of God and His saints.

As for our visitor, he can do nothing but take a seat –
One without the yellow crime-scene-ish tape – and wait
In silent prayer for one he loves.

Saint Elizabeth, pray for us
My brother is to have surgery tomorrow, and this has been a week of isolated waiting rooms.
Lawrence Hall Oct 2017
Houston Man Accused of Decapitating Mother

He was a quiet man who always kept
His lawn neat would give you the shirt off his back
Was on his way to Bible study wouldn’t
Harm a flea that’s not the (name) that I know

Seemed like a normal everyday guy to me
Never saw this coming just can’t believe it
Let us come together and stand as one
Because that’s not the kind of people we are

We just won’t let them change the way we live
He just snapped so GoFundMe tee-shirt give
Lawrence Hall Oct 2018
-Houston Chronicle, 10.1.2018

A robot wandered the mean streets alone
While lighting up and smoking his last transistor
Remembering an IBM long gone
“Buy me a WD-40, mister?”

A ****** thermostat took him to Radio Shack
And talked about some Texas Instruments she knew
A Compaq sent them to a room out back -
“Do ya wanna undo my phillips *****?”

He paid the thermostat some gigabytes

And then…

He was mugged by a relay who put out his lights
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is:
Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com.
It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.
Lawrence Hall Oct 2019
The dribbling Head in That Hideous Strength
A man behind a curtain, pulling cords
How many fingers, Winston, six or five?
Mrs. Wilson holding the president’s pen

Doctor Wakefield will see your children now
Sender Gleiwitz is very clear tonight
Reporting North Vietnamese attack boats
Sailing in crop circles to Area 51

A child abused upon The People’s throne

Go to the rostrum

We will tell you what to say
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is: Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com

It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.

Lawrence Hall’s vanity publications are available on amazon.com as Kindle and on bits of dead tree:  THE ROAD TO MAGDALENA, PALEO-HIPPIES AT WORK AND PLAY, LADY WITH A DEAD TURTLE, DON’T FORGET YOUR SHOES AND GRAPES, COFFEE AND A DEAD ALLIGATOR TO GO, and DISPATCHES FROM THE COLONIAL OFFICE.
Lawrence Hall Apr 2019
For Riley and His Friend Bailey


In the beginning -
                                     we humans were primitives
Existing as crude hunter-gatherers
Quite unaware of any higher thought
And curiously unaware of love

But then we were discovered by The Dog

Who taught us the glorious mystery of play
And how to laze throughout sweet summer days
To contemplate, to cuddle, and to care -
To care about beings beyond ourselves

Because we were accepted by The Dog

Through God’s intended, love-barked dialogue
We pray we may be worthy of The Dog
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is:
Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com.
It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.

Lawrence Hall’s vanity publications are available on amazon.com as Kindle and on bits of dead tree:  The Road to Magdalena, Paleo-Hippies at Work and Play, Lady with a Dead Turtle, Don’t Forget Your Shoes and Grapes, Coffee and a Dead Alligator to Go, and Dispatches from the Colonial Office.
Lawrence Hall Nov 2016
How Lovely Not to be in Jail Tonight

How lovely not to be in jail tonight
And have to share a small and smelly space
Under an eternal fluorescent light
With a dude who don’t like yer race or yer face

How grand to have a bed that’s enough
With sheets and pillows and blankets all clean
And not a bare mattress sour-stained and rough
Against a wall of cinder blocks in green

And howlings from a soul who has lost life’s fight -
How thankful not to be in jail tonight
Lawrence Hall Jul 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             How Many Moons Can You See?

               It was a full moon and, shining on all the snow,
               it made everything almost as bright as day.

          -C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

When the subject of vision came up
(as it must with an ophthalmologist)
I told Dr. Talbot that I saw two moons
When only one of them would be sufficient

But which one?

After a gentle touch of surgery
I now see only one moon, which is nice
But I rather miss that other moon
And wonder if in her exile she misses me too

Where is she?

On whatever planet you happen to live
I don’t think you can have too many moons
Moons and cataract surgery
Lawrence Hall Sep 2017
How Peaceful this Morning to Drive a Desk

How peaceful this morning to drive a desk
The culturally-despised desk, that cliché
The flat surface littered with papers and screens
And a telephone with buttons that light up

How lovely - fluorescents flickering over files
And not a yellow sun over shimmering muck
Lines for gas and water, rot and decay
And cast-off couches reeking in the heat

How peaceful - the ordinary all about
(Even though the men’s room is all wrecked out)
Lawrence Hall Jan 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

       CBCListen, 20 January 2024: How to Feng Shui Your Fridge

I don’t think so
That doesn’t sound very nice
Lawrence Hall Dec 2023
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

               How to Review a War Movie Without Saying Anything

First, copy out the same old filler words
You’ve read in almost every film review:


Glued to your seat edge of your seat action-packed
All-star cast powerful and moving iconic
Must-see intense cult classic gripping scenes
Gritty realism classic cinema

Haunting intense unforgettable thrilling
Sweeping raw emotion (as opposed to
Cooked emotion) unflinching essential
Stark visuals overwhelming odds intense

Stunning cinematography powerful
Unflinching acclaimed devastating action-adventure
Action-thriller infiltrate timeless story
Treacherous powerful performances


Then stir the words into a metaphorical soup
And let them crawl weakly across the screen
And die
Lawrence Hall Feb 2024
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 Oct 2018
-Drudge

What do you look for in an eyeball lab-grown
While maybe it is looking back at you
And if you are looking for an eyeball
What are you looking for an eyeball with?

Will we have eyeballs grown for occasions -
A lovely blue for a day at the beach
And a stunning black for the opera
And Harris-tweed brown for a country weekend

But maybe lab eyeballs are just a rumor
A corn-ea attempt at vitreous humor!
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is:
Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com.
It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.
Lawrence Hall Jan 2019
Humans to Download Their Souls onto Microchips
                                          So They Can Live Forever

                                                        ­  -Headline

And so all hopes and dreams and fears and loves -
That beautiful girl who kissed you one night
Your after-school job, your first little car
Recruit training, your Navy buddies, the sea

Your wedding day, your children at their play
Your coffee pals at the Old Men’s Café
The songs you wrote, the dreams you dreamed, your - self
Light-beamed and streamed into a little pill

The chip was lost; in someone else’s drive it sits -
He replaced your soul with Elvis’ greatest hits
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is:
Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com.
It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.


Lawrence Hall’s vanity publications are available on amazon.com as Kindle and on bits of dead tree:  The Road to Magdalena, Paleo-Hippies at Work and Play, Lady with a Dead Turtle, Don’t Forget Your Shoes and Grapes, Coffee and a Dead Alligator to Go, and Dispatches from the Colonial Office.
Lawrence Hall Apr 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                           Humility Through the Looking Glass

                                 Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 22

My glass surprises me; it tells the truth
“Who is that old man?” I ask myself
And it rebukes me for that foolish question
I must admit to the glass that I am old

But when I turn and look outside myself
And greet the happy sun and breathe the dawn
Of a day rich with possibilities
And think of you – then I am young again

I tell my glass it is a silly glass
And it tells me I am a silly ***
Meme-ing from Shakespeare Sonnet 22
Lawrence Hall Jul 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                  Hurricane II: Outer Bands and Second Thoughts

Clouds give way to sun
Winds to stillness, birds circle
In healing symmetry
Lawrence Hall Jul 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                      Hurricane I: Outer Bands and Inner Thoughts

Sun gives way to clouds
Stillness to winds, birds circle
Searching for meaning
Lawrence Hall Aug 2017
Hurricane Preparedness Checklist

Double-A batteries, a map out of town
A tank full of gas, a mind full of plans
A flashlight, toilet paper, a radio
A can opener and cans to go, go, go

Leather gloves and duct tape, whistles
Waterproof matches, and match-proof water
Blankies and ponchos and changes of clothes
A medical kit and a pocket knife

But

No one ever lists a box of cigars,
And a Wodehouse for reading by lamplight
Lawrence Hall Jul 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                            Hurricane Track Attack Forth and Back

Spaghetti models are not really spaghetti
But only colored lines across electric maps
Squiggling in iridescence around the Gulf
Slithering atop the waves, then to your house

The weather reporters’ cliches fall from the skies
As microbursts of bottled-water-babbles
Canned goods and fresh radio batteries
Tune to this station as your roof blows away

Spaghetti models are not really spaghetti
But watch the newsie in the street – he’s getting all wet-ty!
Feral Beryl
Lawrence Hall May 2017
Hymn of the Holy Drum Set

A middle-aged man in an open shirt
A shaped and sculpted five-0 shadow fuzz
An earring and a tat, sneaks and jeans because
He wants to reach the kids where they’re at

And where they’re at is in suppressed giggles
At an old man with a pimple-microphone
Around his face like mucous on a wire
They pocket-text each other angelically

     “Can I have an ‘amen?’”

He puts the devil in a world of hurt
That middle-aged man in an open shirt
Lawrence Hall Apr 2019
I am a clerisy of one
I argue with myself a lot
And as I speak I know I’ve won
I’m all about me, and you are not
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is:
Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com.
It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.

Lawrence Hall’s vanity publications are available on amazon.com as Kindle and on bits of dead tree:  The Road to Magdalena, Paleo-Hippies at Work and Play, Lady with a Dead Turtle, Don’t Forget Your Shoes and Grapes, Coffee and a Dead Alligator to Go, and Dispatches from the Colonial Office.
Lawrence Hall May 19
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                   “I am Going to Call for a Major Investigation…”

                             -Our Red Queen on Truth [sic] Social


In Wonderland a new oppressive conjuration -  
His name is Major Investigation
Sent at our screaming queen’s instigation
To drag us all down to her police station

Beginning with Kamala, Oprah, and Bono
For somewhat disapproving of him – oh, no!
The Major will punish their laissez-majesto -
In the name of freedom their heads must go!

(But of course the irony in all this biz
Is that their heads are even larger than his)
Lawrence Hall Aug 2019
Says...

                               -The King of Israel,
                        the Second Coming of God,
              and Member of the Order of the Purple Heart
                                  21 August 2019

No
No, no
Oh, no
Now please
Just go
Your ‘umble scrivener’s site is: Reactionarydrivel.blogspot.com

It’s not at all reactionary, tho’ it might be drivel.

Lawrence Hall’s vanity publications are available on amazon.com as Kindle and on bits of dead tree:  THE ROAD TO MAGDALENA, PALEO-HIPPIES AT WORK AND PLAY, LADY WITH A DEAD TURTLE, DON’T FORGET YOUR SHOES AND GRAPES, COFFEE AND A DEAD ALLIGATOR TO GO, and DISPATCHES FROM THE COLONIAL OFFICE.
Lawrence Hall Dec 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                            I Beg Your Pardon, Mr. President, Sir

One faction despises the Constitution
The other is all about corruption and sin
They laugh and give each other absolution
But your poor daughter caught with a little smoke –

She’s in for ten
Presidential pardons
Lawrence Hall Feb 19
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                             I Believe in Love, NOW STAY AWAY

In the tiny coffee shop all the tables were full
A man kept his table to himself
And would not acknowledge anyone
Defensive behind his deep-thoughts book

The rest of us shared our tables and space
Exchanging greetings, pleasantries, and thanks
Passing the cream and sweeteners and napkins around
                       All
Except for that one poor sullen man

On the cover was a drawing of a Christian dove -
His book was entitled *I Believe in Love
The book is entitled I BELIEVE IN LOVE. I couldn't coax the * into doing its job. :)
Lawrence Hall Nov 2023
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                   “I Called to the Lord from my Narrow Prison”

                  “I called to the Lord from my narrow prison
                    and he answered me in the freedom of space.”

                       -Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl

Dark prisons of the mind are narrow too
A lack of light to fall upon a page
A page where hopes are written in words of hope
And spoken in hope through layers of shame and guilt

Dark prisons of the heart are narrow too
So reach into your mind, your heart, your soul
And even in the darkness of a narrow cell
Call softly to the Lord through the fetid air

Dark prisons of the soul are narrow too –
Perhaps you are the one who locked the door?

Open it.

Try.
Viktor Frankl
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