#lawrencehall
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Who is Your Favorite Hero?
Do you now, or have you ever…
Worked double shifts or double jobs to pay the bills
Read to your children instead of yelling at them
Had to jump-start your car in the pre-dawn cold
Jump-started your neighbor’s car in the pre-dawn cold
Do you now, or have you ever…
Done some hard time in the military
Served in the volunteer fire department
Attended divine services without making a fuss
Milked cows, chopped wood, raised a garden
Do you now, or have you ever…
Know which end of a hammer hits the nail
Built a home library for your children and yourself
Set a daily study schedule for developing your mind
Raised your children after your spouse bugged out
Do you now, or have you ever…
Gone to work zero-dark-early and stayed there late
And did more than was expected of you
Taken your children on nature works
Volunteered at your local hospital
Of course you have
So who is my favorite hero?
You are
Oct 18, 2025
Oct 18, 2025 at 8:51 PM UTC
Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]
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
Feb 20, 2024
Feb 20, 2024 at 1:39 PM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Goofus and Gallant Revisited
Thanks to The Atlantic Monthly
I never paid attention to Goofus and Gallant
Because I sensed that I was being preached at
Only later in life do I appreciate their talent -
Much better than the cat who sat on a mat
Jul 10, 2023
Jul 10, 2023 at 9:20 PM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Hellopoetry.com
In Search of Lost Timepieces
(as Marcel Proust did not say)
When clocks were electric and mechanical
They almost never agreed with each other
The glowing G.E. beside the bed read 2:00
While Mother’s kitchen pastel hummed 2:03
Dad’s Hamilton ticked 1358
(And you never argued with him about it)
Grandfather Clock chimed whenever he wanted, by cracky
And the Timex took a licking at 2:04
But now all clocks obey an electronic command –
As the old joke goes, “We have ways of making you tock.”
Jul 3, 2023
Jul 3, 2023 at 8:41 PM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The ’57 Chevy in the Woods
The shell of a Chevy rusted in the woods
Almost lost in the blackberry bushes
All of its windows broken, the front bashed in
Pale creepers writhing in and out and down
A kind man gave his son this car, they said
The boy wrecked out and died at hot rod speed
His daddy had the car towed into the weeds
Not knowing what else to do in his despair
We carelessly flung pine cones at the corpse
Then in our shame slunk quietly away
May 28, 2021
May 28, 2021 at 10:43 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
When Abstract Concepts are Seen Floating By
When abstract concepts are seen floating by
The situation might require new thoughts
Assembled with worn-out hypotheses
Through this twisting night of long butter knives
Abstracts are comfortable in their discomfort
Begging one’s soul for logic and spare change
But also willing to go away unanswered
And quite at peace in having disturbed yours
When abstract concepts are seen floating by
Better just turn over and get back to sleep
May 24, 2021
May 24, 2021 at 10:37 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Art 101 and 102 for Dudes in Costume Hats
For 1971’s Beret Art Dude
When paint can mean anything you want it to mean
Then it has no meaning
and neither do you
For 2021’s Baseball Cap Art Dude
When you paint ideological commands
You’re just obeying
your master’s orders
May 22, 2021
May 22, 2021 at 8:06 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Utility Pole at the End of the Rainbow
Rain, dreary rain all day, falling in sheets
(Or maybe in comforters and counterpanes)
The whole world shakes to the thunder’s wild beats
And water ponds in the green fields and lanes
But then at dusk the clouds part just right
Allowing the sun to make the sky fire-red
And in the east, a rainbow all alight
But behind a utility pole (it must be said)
The convention is gold at a rainbow’s end
But electricity too is a useful friend
May 18, 2021
May 18, 2021 at 9:10 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Graduation Speech Soup – Simply Stir and Serve
Keep the torch alive to pass to a new generation with the key that unlocks the road to the future follow your passion the unemployment will follow woo-hoo we’ve been through some amazing times together make a difference to thine own self be true woo-hoo commencement means a beginning not an ending woo-hoo as we go forth life is a journey not a destination we made it all the hard work we’ve put forth to this point in time these are the best time in our lives as one door closes another door opens because a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step to make the world a better place trust your instincts you don’t find education in books we are the future bright with promise some see the future and ask why but we see the future and ask why not Habakkuk 2:7 woo-hoo we did it I can’t believe we’re here believe in yourself live your dreams to be all that you can be as a famous man John Kennedy once said God has a plan for you woo-hoo we have the responsibility to build a new world if opportunity doesn’t know build a door don’t follow the path blaze a trail because there is no one like you because you are an individual just like those other hundred or so people your age and all dressed just alike because life is what happens while you’re making plans woo-hoo live, laugh, love you have to look through the rain to see the rainbow dance like nobody’s looking (even though they are, and they’re laughing at you) aim for the moon and if you miss you’ll hit the moon (or something) life is not waiting for the storm to pass it’s about dancing in the rain because you are a new generation called to miss 100% of the shots you don’t take because we were all one big family who have lived, laughed, and loved together hey and remember the time (name) barfed on the stairs we’ll all that that shared moment to remember together woo-hoo we can’t save all the starfish but I can make a difference for this one because as a great man Robert Frost said in “The Road Not Taken” we can make a difference for all the starfish in the sea of life woo-hoo today is the first day of your rest of your life oh, the places you’ll go like maybe eternal stasis in front of a MePhone I don’t know why they asked me to be the speaker shout-out to Mom wear sunscreen because your future’s so bright close your eyes and remember when hey, an air horn, that’s so cool, no one’s ever done that before woo-hoo I want to congratulate each and every one of you on your incredible talents and abilities as you begin your journey to a bright and shining future because we are the best class (name of school and a shout-out to the mascot) has ever graduated (since last year) woo-hoo a dream is a wish your heart makes and you can become anything you dream to be or wish to be or something #lifehack #hashtag now go forth and make your lives exceptional woo-hoo although on Monday morning we’ll wake up and realize we’re just more unemployed Americans.
May 16, 2021
May 16, 2021 at 10:50 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
For Training Purposes this Life May be Monitored
An examination of conscience is good
Thinking about things at the end of each day
Hail Marys mixed in with exasperation
Rough words that should never have been spoken
Reading casual cruelties on the InterGossip
Whatever God’s plan might be, that wasn’t it
Gratitude for work, gratitude for meals
Gratitude for peace at the end of the day
And as for the occasional bitter cup
Your Mother taught you right: offer it up
May 16, 2021
May 16, 2021 at 8:29 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Student Walkout with Hissy-Chants
But
I heard of one student who refused to go
Who bravely thought for herself, and so said no
And she’s the one student I want to know
May 14, 2021
May 14, 2021 at 7:47 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Talmud Portion for Today
In the Talmud portion for today we read
Of the priestly appointments for stacking wood
And of other liturgical usages
As preparation for the sacrifice
But some must read their portion for the day
By a battle lantern’s flickering light
Deep down in a bunker among the tombs
While rockets fall upon Jerusalem
Thus blood still splashes against the Temple walls
Thus blood still forms the letters of the text
May 13, 2021
May 13, 2021 at 8:55 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE
Thus saith the comma-less yellow plastic bags
Fitted to the gasoline pumps of the nation
Where men are free from fuel and punctuation
Free not to take vaccines, wear masks, or vote
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE
The check is in the mail that does not come
Or maybe in a hijacked delivery truck
Silhouetted by a burning liquor store
Where dreams of lottery winnings go to die
SORRY OUT OF SERVICE
And there’s nothing left in the looted shops
(Let’s blame the teachers, Asians, and cops)
May 12, 2021
May 12, 2021 at 9:00 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Cargo Cult
Conversations are about packages
Packages considered, packages ordered
Packages delivered and packages stolen
Packages as the cosmic medium of exchange
Conversations are about packages
Packages that give meaning to our lives
Packages pinched by plundering porch pirates
Packages snatched by maskers in masks
What is it all about? the thinker asks -
What if the packages are filled with
masks?
May 11, 2021
May 11, 2021 at 9:40 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
He was Hollerin’ Jesus on Nowhere Street
The madman shouted in the market place. No one
stopped to answer him. Thus it was confirmed that his
thesis was incontrovertible.
-Dag Hammarskjold, Markings, 12.22.57
He was hollerin’ Jesus on Nowhere Street
At the Corner of Life and Death, ‘way gone
Where there was a grocery store when we was kids
Next to a soda fountain with pinball machines
He was hollerin’ – sinners can’t hear, I guess
And beatin’ on his Bible and dancin’ about
Like a man with a devil in his soul
And that ol’ devil was wearin’ him down
He was hollerin’ among the ruins, a shame
When he looked at me
and hollered my name
May 8, 2021
May 8, 2021 at 8:26 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Texas Ranger on the Trail
For Ranger Brandon Bess
His steely eyes stare into the microscope
Following a ****** track of DNA
Across the scrubby badlands of the lab
And into computer analysis
His gun hand targets matching saliva swabs
With a hair-trigger spectrophotometer
Double-loaded with HLA-DQalpha
Against Minifiler STR at high noon
Say, pardner –
If you commit a crime in Texas, then you had best
Beware the Ranger with a Teichman test
May 6, 2021
May 6, 2021 at 8:06 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
About that Bicycle Leaning Against a Sunlit Wall
About that bicycle leaning against a wall
All artsy and stuff in the slanting sun
“Take my clear photograph!” it seems to call -
Nah, put away your Leica - it’s been done
Apr 28, 2021
Apr 28, 2021 at 8:01 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Footprint on the Road to Santiago
A footprint on the road to Santiago
It has meaning - a footprint, and another
An indent from the ferrule of a stick
Toward a vision of a Field of Stars
Sin-weary and sunburnt, a pilgrim plods
Through weeds and dust and sometimes traffic lights
And idlers mocking from across the road
Toward a vision of a Field of Stars
Where free from sin and pain and blood and scars
He may at last find peace in that Field of Stars
Apr 25, 2021
Apr 25, 2021 at 8:40 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Online Certificate Program in Novel Writing
“…that led me to answer an advertisement in
the Sunday Times and take a job…with a
correspondence school…”
-Elizabeth Bishop, “The U. S. A. School of Writing”
And a certificate!
The ad presented as a joke, only it wasn’t:
(Famous Name Brand School)’s Continuing Studies Program
Will make you a Hemingway for eighty dollars
And there is a student testimonial
And a certificate!
Embrace the tools solidify develop
Accomplished authors craft tutorials
Dedicated dynamic cohort peers
Passionate instructors prestigious fellows
And a certificate!
Achieve the goal for which you have been aiming!
(And a certificate, suitable for framing)
Only eighty dollars
“The U. S. A. School of Writing had been raided
by the police shortly after I left…”
-Elizabeth Bishop
Apr 21, 2021
Apr 21, 2021 at 8:41 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Morning Coffee with Signor Bialetti
Wreckage is everywhere, two apple trees down
Limbs and leaves and litter, shingles and wood
The lawns are white with shoals of springtime hail
The lines are down and the power is out
But Signor Bialetti from Italy
A super-hero in aluminum
Is pleased to take his place on the camping stove
Twirl his moustache and stride through Sterno fire
Singing songs from his favorite libretti
While making us coffee – O brave Signor Bialetti!
Apr 18, 2021
Apr 18, 2021 at 8:50 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Afghanistan, Graveyard of 19-Year-Olds
“You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
-Holmes’ first words to Watson in
A Study in Scarlet, 1887
Ghosts shriek in the wind from the Hindu Kush
Falling upon the lowlands in despair
Of any reality beyond death
In the blood-sodden sands where sinks all good
Walls, monuments, souls, hopes – all blow away
In the wreckage of long-fallen empires
Their detritus trod upon by tired men
Whose graves will be the howling dust of time
And yet the empire masters will return
And leave fresh offerings of more young men:
A British Enfield, a Moghul’s lost shoe,
A cell phone silent beside the Great Khan’s skull
From The Road to Magdalena, Lawrence Hall, 2012, available via amazon.com
“Afghanistan, graveyard of empires” is a common saying whose source is unknown.
Apr 15, 2021
Apr 15, 2021 at 9:31 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Moo. Herd Immunity. Moo.
"I don't know what herd immunity is, but when you
add that to the people who have acquired immunity,
it looks like it could be very close to herd immunity.”
-Texas Governor Greg Abbott,
as quoted by the Washington Post via The Houston Chronicle
Moo. Herd immunity. Moo. Simple math.
Moo. Very close. Moo. Vigilant. Moo. Proactive.
Moo. Efficacy. Moo. Calculation.
Moo. Dashboards. Moo. Trackers. Moo. Asymptomatic.
Moo. 70% Moo. 80%.
Moo. Fourth surge. Moo. Waves. Moo. Gaps. Moo. Pockets.
Moo. Complications. Moo. Misunderstandings.
Moo. Factors. Moo. Threshold. Moo. Duration
Moo. Emerging. Probable. Moo. Data.
Moo. Equation. Moo. Very close. Moo. Died.
“I don’t know what herd immunity is…”
Moo.
Apr 13, 2021
Apr 13, 2021 at 9:18 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Our Antikythera Mechanisms
Chariots of the odds and ends of life
Wooden boxes of bronze mechanisms
By which we navigate the memories
Of all the golden islands of our youth
The hidden anchorages of lost love
And barefoot beaches of youth’s innocence
Beneath bright sunlit hills of wild must grapes
That taste of our desires in dreaming hours
All lost, alas, fallen into the sea
The sea of remembrance, eternally
Apr 12, 2021
Apr 12, 2021 at 9:18 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
On Divine Mercy Sunday
Above all, don’t lie to yourself.
-Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov
On Palm Sunday a shortage of palms
On Divine Mercy a shortage of mercy
An onion, a candle, a moment, a prayer -
We’d better give something of ourselves away
Apr 11, 2021
Apr 11, 2021 at 8:06 AM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Squirrels Without End, Amen
Whenever I take my book to the front-yard oak
The squirrel stretched from the feeder to the trunk
Flees in a seed-strewn panic across the lawn
To a farther tree, free of human menace
This is a young squirrel; its predecessor
Arched from feeder to trunk in exactly the same way
But held its ground, or, rather, its rough old tree
And chittered defiance in contempt of me
By summer’s end this squirrel too will stare me down -
I wonder what Pasternak wrote about squirrels
Apr 10, 2021
Apr 10, 2021 at 10:05 AM UTC