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Lawrence Hall Sep 2021
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

      On Teaching Jean Anouilh’s Becket to High School Seniors

Beginning with the film

1st student young person on the roll sheet: “Is that th' pope?”
2nd student young person on the roll sheet: “I’d like to shoot that old pope.”

We have a lot of work ahead of us
"Let it be a challenge to you."

-Admiral *** to Sylvia in UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE
Lawrence Hall Jan 2021
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 Coffee Shop Darwinians

          “We’ll set a fine, new, well-oiled machine in place
            of the old one and this time we’ll put the Normans
            into it instead. That’s what justice means, isn’t it?”

                                        -Saxon Monk in Becket

No, of course it didn’t have to happen
We’re not campus coffee shop Darwinians
Determined that five innocents needed to die
Within the gears of our new, well-oiled machine

And that more should come, chanting “O Machine!” 1
“Follow the Science!” and “Learn. To. Code!”
As they sacrifice themselves to a Tweeter-sanctioned
Infestation of Manifest Destiny

And I’ve got a feeling, as you might agree:
No one on either side quotes Dostoyevsky


1 “The Machine Stops,” E. M. Forster
A poem is itself.
A C Leuavacant Jul 2014
Applause
Ten bars long
No pause
Swift swaying motion
Along the hook
Lit up hands clap
But don't echo
They'll sway
Passing by
Words of thought
Daily talk
Catch a few
Hear things so sad
Think of it's relativity
To you
But stop
Just stop  
That will be you
sad
The cycle will continue
Eating away
The happiness
Of now
And now
And now
And the few more hours
Maybe more
Stop a few
Daylight savings
Not back
Forward
Forward
It's going forward
Even an end
Pain towards
But it's happy
So happy
One year to go
The Blackbirds song
Shows up at my window  
To Escape
But dependent
Still dependant
So so dependant
Not on time
It's not you
It's a loan shark
Time
Toothpick falling
Moustache shaven
Foam falling on ground
In black and white
At the crumblings start
But no it's started
Moment of birth
No end till moment of death
Sleep breaks
Still up
Three am
Heavy breathing
On Time
So don't panic  
You have time
Lots of time
Twelve
Six
One
Zero
Don't think about zero
Zero
Don't think of the end
End time
Movement
Slicked up hair
Passing me by
A ghost
That still lives with me
But not yet
The lock will slip
You a ghost
Not yet
Not yet
Not yet

Half an hour later
Sitting at the banister
With tears
Funny noises
The Looks around
A Half a cup of tea
No sugar
Not an end  
Here's me
Not me
Really experimental style. Slightly inspired by "Not I" by Samuel Becket.
A stream of consciousness

— The End —