Lawrence Hall HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                     From Shakespeare: You Will Not be Blamed

                                Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 70

You are so beautiful; you are so good
Twin attributes given to you at birth
Sustained by you in dignity and grace
As you have grown into a woman’s estate

Be careful! You will be envied for those truths
Envied by some for your transient beauty
Envied by others for your transcendent good
Envied by the envious for their own failings

In the end your reputation cannot be harmed
For you are the queen of all hearts charmed

Lawrence Hall HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


                        A D-Day Reminder to Every Neo-**** Oaf

                         Including certain Members of Congress
                           and Justices of the Supreme Court


                                      There is poetry in this:

     Our American flag was not flown upside-down at Normandy

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

One Supposes That a Red Wheel Adds a Festive Touch to a Barrow


Anyone who takes that

Red wheel

Barrow

Seriously

Need not be taken seriously

Lawrence Hall HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                   A Harvester of Praise

                              Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 69

You taught us
Put not your trust in oozy flatterers
Who tell you only what you want to hear
And nothing about what you need to know
Adorning yourself with your own press releases

And as you taught us
Your thoughts, your words, your speech were ever strong
You stood upon the lessons you had learned
With wisdom and kindness you taught hard truth
And with truth found beauty in everything

But then you stopped
You were an artist and scholar in your younger days
But now you are only a harvester of praise

Lawrence Hall HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

      The Doorkeeper of Notre Dame and a One-Fingered Greeting

                                “I pray you remember the porter”

                                                -Macbet­h II.iii.22

“‘Tis my limited service” on Sundays to mind the door
To open it to the faithful with cheerful greetings
This is pretty much my skill-level, this modest chore
Such is the ancient custom for Sunday meetings

A family of long acquaintance approached, almost late
They live some miles away and had a long drive
Their youngest son held his hand out at the holy gate
I thought his intent was a youthful high five

But with only one finger he greeted me!
And that was my lesson in humility

As for the boy’s lesson

While the servers rang the welcoming bell
His momma yanked him outside and gave him
                                             (peace)

Lawrence Hall HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                          The Baptism of Valaria Elizabeth

At the Altar
The young couple presented their first-born
Valaria Elizabeth, wrapped in a silvery gown
A happy child at play in the holy Jordan

At the Altar
Valaria Elizabeth, delightful in herself
Was glorious in white with many colors trimmed
And skillful stitchings as befit a queen

At the Altar
Someone asked Valaria’s dear mother
Did you craft this gown with love and thread?

“No, I bought it just yesterday,” she sweetly said

                        Welcome with love, Valaria Elizabeth!

Lawrence Hall HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                                   Behold a Man

                                 Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnets 67 & 68

He is a man who needs no oils or scents
The arts of makeup, filters on a lens
A touch of blush upon his honest chin
A photographer’s vanity lights placed just so

He is a man who is his own manly self
Washed, shaved, and combed by his own rugged hands
Hands that know shovel, hammer, ax, and saw
A businessman’s hands, a protective father’s hands

He is a man who needs no frippery
For he is clean and honest and just, you see

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                          Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority

                                Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 66

The good among us may indeed be tired
Of being subject to the rule of strident oafs
Jumped-up in station beyond ability
Smug in their electronic ignorance

Their shifting, shifty, and unwritten codes
Order awrong what we might speak and write
How we may draw and paint and film and think
In obedience to their fluid absolutes

But then there is you, a spirit free indeed
A reason for all to hope for a better world

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

         Hate Has No Veto Over Love – Two Thoughts on the Matter

Some people say that
Hate has no veto over love
Some people say that

Some people say that
Hate has no veto over love
And we say that too

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                         ­    You are Eternal

                                Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65

We are told that all things will be renewed
And so this moment with you this springtime day
This scene, these leaves, these trees, this happy breeze
You
Are as eternal as an Ave Maria

I will write about you, but is that real?
The living you of beauty and kind words
Should not be subject to paper and ink
No
But only to the verities of Creation

A memory in ink is but a transient thing
For eternity lives in the realm of the King

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                         31 May 2024 – The Prophet-God Descends

A being descends a de-escalator of brass
As if he were beaming down from the Hale-Bopp
A prophet-god to a room thin with ghosts
Who in hollowness hang upon his vanities

He pauses

Then whines

Obscenities
Threats
Promises
Resentments
Anger

Flinging blame and incomplete sentences

Into a void

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                        Everyone Writes Haiku about the Moon

                               And that’s because we love her

The soft, swelling moon
It’s as if she’s giving birth
Giving us new life

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

               A Pharmacy Aisle Marked INDEPENDENT LIVING

                                 “We shall never surrender”

                                          -Churchill, 1940

Bed and bath grip bars, universal crutches
Quadrupedal crutch tips, raised toilet seats
Cleaning wipes, reaching tools, bedside commodes
Walking sticks (but not one with an Elvis theme)

Sitz baths and universal urinals
Transport chairs, folding walkers, rolling walkers
Commode liner bags, inflatable cushions
Walker ski glides, walker tennis *****

None of this is depressing; it is inspiring:
“We shall never surrender”

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                     Underneath that Mango Tree in 1962

                           Underneath the mango tree
                           Me honey and me make boolooloop soon

Maybe the honey is in her eighties now
Sitting underneath a mango tree
Playing with her grandchildren in the undertaker’s wind
Smoking a cigarette and remembering a handsome boy

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                          Grooving in Area 52

Maybe…

The Beatles got it wrong back-then-ago
When groovy discs through grooves grooved out our songs -
For we now groove in an Area 52
Not in a groovy screen-door submarine  

Certainly…

We groove and grok in ******* behind chain-links
Where elderly men ****** their guitars
And middle-aged women dressed as majorettes
Jiggle duct tape and weight-loss medications

Maybe…

The Beatles grooved it right ago-back-then -
Old grooves, dull mediocrity still lock us in

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

              When I Have Seen So Many Dependent Clauses…

                                 Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 64

When I have seen…
When I have seen…
When I have seen…

Oh, yes, I would miss her, very much so
But
Some of these dependent clauses have got to go!

(Maybe someone woke up on the wrong side
Of that second-best bed…)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                    A Cranky Little Old Man Wearing a Bandage on His
                    Forehead  and Yelling at His Wife and Passersby While
                    Standing in  Line at the Wal-Mart Pharmacy Which
                    Opened Five Minutes Late

“It’s crap, I tell you; it’s just crap! Hey, you bump me again and I’m going to whip your /ss! Why don’t these people walk in that other aisle!? Can’t they see that there’s a line in this aisle!? What’s that?  That’s just crap; I told you that! Hey! Why’re you people late!? I don’t want to sit down don’t tell me to sit down I don’t want to sit down this is all bullsh/t!  Hey! You people need to walk over there! No, I don’t want to settle down don’t tell me to settle down if these people had shown up for work on time they could have had our stuff ready by now but not they just come in a half hour late and they don’t care! HEY! Why aren’t these people on time I got things to do I need my stuff but they don’t care don’t walk so close to me go walk in that other aisle why are all these people here why isn’t this line moving I think that guy’s trying to sneak in no he’s at the wrong window! HEY! That’s the wrong window the line’s over here you won’t get no help there…!”

The bandage on his head needed no explanation.

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             I Will Write of Your Youth

                           Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 63

I feel weary and weak and worn-out tonight
Because I am indeed all of those things
And none of this was part of my master plan
Which never was; I lived, and now I am old

I watch you in your youth and your kingly grace
Limber and lithe for hunting, warring, and wooing
A champion in all the arts of life, of love
Even as I was – maybe only yestermind

I limn in lines of ink the story of you –
Forever youthful, brave and brash and true

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                              Memorial Day: This ****** Field

                   That we may wander o’er this ****** field
                   To book our dead, and then to bury them

                                     -Henry V, IV.vii.75-76

Some say this day began
                    As a memorial to the Confederate dead
Some say this day began
                    As a memorial to the Union dead
We only know that now it is a memorial for those
Who died for causes far beyond themselves

The glory of our soldiers is in the orphans they fed
The huts they helped repair, the ponchos they gave
To the shivering cold, reassurance to the terrified
Poor comforts to the bombed-out and the dying

The glory of our soldiers
Is not in some strident Man of Destiny
Bellowing fancy words from a prompter screen
But in hungry men who gave their C-rats away

Before they died in some ****** ****** ditch

In their honor, then

Let us quietly work in causes beyond ourselves
And risk being made into sacraments

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                     Racism is Popular with All the Cool Kids

Germany ‘would arrest Netanyahu if ICC issues a warrant’ (thetimes.co.uk)

Anti-Semitism again is all the rage
It’s a popular topic in the daily news
Indictments, lists, aktionen, and the barbed-wire cage -
Germany’s long tradition of arresting Jews

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                      But It’s Not About Me

                                   Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 62

I have always been convinced that the world revolves
Not around an axis but around me
That civilization began with my birth
And that in every way I’m pretty hot stuff

But in the mornings my mirror disagrees
And shakes an image of some old man at me
Slack in muscle, thin of hair, dull of eye
Something to set on the curb on garbage day

No, not even my small world revolves around me
But around you, you who keep me forever young

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                    Do You Deliberately Disrupt My Dreams?

                               Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 61

Do you deliberately disrupt my dreams
And send to me your flirtings and whisperings
So that sleep remains impossible?
Even your shadowy image keeps me awake

Do you deliberately send your spirit to me
To pry into my thoughts and hopes and sighs
To know what I am about in my desire for you
To ***** by night my happy thoughts of you?

Do you deliberately disrupt my dreams?
Oh, I hope so!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                   The Campaign of 2024

Mid the sound of the drum, the fife, the flute
To Old Glory in her wave and waft
No one can execute a snappier salute
Than a puffed-up patriot who avoided the draft



Christian leaders react to Trump's 'God Bless the USA' bibles: 'More Trump than Bible?' (msn.com) / Getty Images

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                          You are the Transcendence of Dreams

                                 Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 60

Susurrant waves along the shore sigh our minutes
Sunrises and sunsets sign off our days
Seasons and feasts solemnize our years
But you – you are the transcendence of words

Words to graft your elegance onto the eternal
A wave that never falls upon the sands
The sands of an immeasurable dawn-lit strand
Where minutes, days, and years are memories

And you – you are the transcendence of dreams
Made eternal in the galaxies’ glowing streams

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                 The Upside-Down Supreme Court Justice

                       Perhaps Justice Alito will appear on
                          Sheldon Cooper’s Fun with Flags

Outside his house our Flag hung upside down
Distressing patriots in this time of strife
Did he make it right with his country and town?
No
He appealed to Heaven but he blamed his wife

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

               A  Former President and his Former Ambassador

                          “…a drab assortment of mediocrities.”

   -William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third *****, p. 1142

There is a very obvious thing
About that kissing that shouldn’t be missed:
It wasn’t the former president’s ring
That the former ambassador kissed

22 May 2024

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                       Shakespeare: Love is Our Queen of Freedom

                                   Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 59

I must dispute King Solomon the Wise
For in you there is something new under the sun
A singing voice that before was never heard
And a merry nymph who never teased

Grasses were never tickled by such light dancing feet
The moon never shone on one more beautiful
The stars never wove for others a crown
Of lights that never graced a mortal queen

I must dispute King Solomon the Wise
When I look within your fairy eyes

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

              The Power was Out, the Road was barely Passable,
                                   a Man Wore a Glock

The dawn was hot and wet and sticky and still
In quest of a coffee and a croissant
I stowed a chainsaw into the four-wheel-drive
And dawdled into town, clearing windfall from the road

The breakfast buffet at the Valero, and then out
Some men blocked the door, swapping pills and cash
I begged their pardon and walk through their deal
One wore a Glock on his hip; they all glowered at me

The dawn was hot; the paper-cup coffee was warm
I drove home and got my old generator to work

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

      In Which We Find That Even Shakespeare Could Write Drivel

                         Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnets 57 and 58

Slave, imprisoned, tame, hate, bitterness, sad, fool:
Topics enough to make pornographers drool

There is nothing here upon which to dine -
Let us wash our hands and go to Sonnet 59

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

           A Run-Off Primary Election Between Two Inadequate Men

Prologue, Exposition, and Chekhov’s Ballot Box:

A wobbly old man complained to the judge
Who had found that he was ineligible to vote
“But the guy on the TV said I could vote,” he whined
“I have to obey the law,” replied the judge, “not the guy on TV”

Rising Action and Conflict:

I took my ballot and perused the names
Two names, the only names, of two bad men

Further Conflict:

I do not have to vote for the lesser of two evils
Because the lesser of two evils is still an evil

******:

I left the little bubbles for those little men blank
And pencilled into an empty space my choice:

                                                        ­   NO!

And underlined it twice

Denouement:

I drove away

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                               Somehow a Desert Came Between Us

                                     Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 56

There lies between us a long desert interstate
Distance and time, scrapyards and tumbleweeds
Abandoned railway towns and empty shacks
Rusty barbed wire defining futile dreams

The hull of a DeSoto, a cast-off shoe
Beer cans, a license plate from ‘52
Cemeteries of young men urged to go west
Where they eventually died, buried with their hopes

Lost lives, lost loves along that lonely way -
But surely you and I will be okay

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                    Draining the Blood of Humans at Twilight


                           A powerful monster //  living down
                           in the darkness growled // in pain…

                         -Beowulf, Burton Raffel translation


In the sinister dusk // they seek our blood
A ghastly enemy // of disgusting thirst
Stealing up from the swamp // and primordial mud –
Well, we stole their habitat // – mosquitoes were here first!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             Dancing in a Field of Flowers

                                Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 55

I saw you dancing in a field of flowers
As lightly as a happy butterfly
Or the nimblest, sweetest little honeybee
Pollinating the universe with beauty

Even had I not been there, not shared the hour
You were, you are, you will forever be
Complete, without statue, picture, or poem
For you danced joy into this tired old world

Even so, I still delight in those long-ago hours
when
I saw you dancing in a field of flowers

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

   Maybe my Long-Overdue Lawn Chairs are Aboard New Shepard

Upon checking I can see that the item is not shipped yet because of error. If you would like I can cancel it and help with refund so that you can reorder it. I will also raise a complain regarding this to the internal team and we will make sure to not happen this again. May I know whether your okay with this option, please? I can see that it gets stuck before its shipped Yes the chair will be sent to you please don't worry Lawrence 10:00 PMTop of Form Yes the chair will be sent to you please don't worry Lawrence Escalation successfully submitted Yes I can understand your concern Here are the information about the ticket What's the subject of the ticket? Shipment Stuck, date Passed/not delivered MarketPlace: ATVPDKIKX0DER Asin: B07NVT5DNK Type of request: Customer requesting shipping of order ShipmentID: Shipment has not generated Missed EDD? date Passed/not delivered Cancellation Request: No Shall I create a ticket for this order?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                          A Rose of Chambray

                                     Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 54

Comparisons to a rose are common, even trite
The Elizabethans seemed to write with rose perfume
White roses for purity, red for desire
Innocent petals, Macbethian thorns

How, then, roses for you, rockin’ your jeans
And an old chambray shirt, barefoot at the easel
With a bouquet of artists’ brushes in your hand
And your brow furrowed with creativity

I give you a perfect rose anyway

Comparisons to a rose are common, even trite
But with you the comparisons are exactly right

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                          Ode on a Dark and Silent Electric Meter

                                For a Secretive Power Company

The Power is Out
That is all ye know
And all ye need to know

(as Keats did not say)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                    I Might Compare You with Helen or Adonis

                                     Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 53

I might compare you with Helen or Adonis
Or yet some other bright-marbled Hellene
An Aegean deity perfected to rule forever
Over that sea where the sunset kisses the stars

I might compare you with those Aegean winds
Who whisper warriors home to their lovers’ beds
Sailors to sea, philosophers to their pens
And all to sing the eternal verities

I might compare you with Helen or Adonis
But they would defer to your majesty

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                There are Treasures and Keys, But not Like These

                                     Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 52

We are a pair of diamond rings, you and I
Rare treasures sometimes hidden in a chest
And sometimes sparkling on each other’s hand
As though to dazzle the world with our full-hot fire

We are a pair of diamond rings, you and I
Odd bits of carbon firmed and formed by pain
By pressure pushing us into completion
And by our power we made our love victorious

We are a pair of diamond rings, you and I -
Others can only envious us,
                                                              an­d sigh

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                              The Heirs of the Heirs of Stalin


                   But how remove Stalin’s heirs from Stalin!

                          -Yevtushenko, “The Heirs of Stalin”


The heirs of the heirs of Stalin

Fat boys fly Come and Take It flags on their cheeseburgers
Their double cheeseburgers with fat fistfuls of freedom fries
John Wayne-ing lines from Fort Apache and The Green Berets
Taking their orders from QAnon and Fox

The heirs of the heirs of Stalin

Beefcake their *** toys in 5.56
They love the man who threatens their lives and wives
They kneel and grovel to him; they would ****** for him
Moulder in prison for him – and he would never notice them

The heirs of the heirs of Stalin

Whoop that their Leader is anointed of Jesus, that he saves
(His limousine will rumble over their poor graves)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                     Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump Schedule a Debate

                   “No, sir, I do not bite my dentures at you, sir;
                     but I bite my dentures, sir.”

               -as a brawler in Romeo and Juliet I.i.57 does not say

Neither man is a coherent talker -
This might end as combat by walker

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                       Love Abandoned Along a Desert Road

                                Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 51

I wonder if my love forgave me at all
For tossing my sleeping bag, my books, my clothes
My typewriter and my dreams into my old MG
And pointing everything west into the sun

Shakespeare speaks of a slow return to her
But I stopped at the Pacific, and lingered for years
A few ‘phone calls from far away, some letters
And then forever silence

Relationships are not covered by a funeral pall

But still

I wonder if my love forgave me at all

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                   Would You Like to Go for a Coffee with Me?

The sweetest words that anyone ever spoke
Were not by Shakespeare, no, not even he
But by many a shy and nervous bloke:
Would you like to go for a coffee with me?

Even Romeo would squeak it in a trembling voice
Fearing, hoping what might her answer be
Oh, what will be her answer, her pleasure, her choice:
Would you like to go for a coffee with me?

For a cup of coffee is a communion shared
A moment when friends make a discovery
Of a vision and gentle thoughts now paired:
Would you like to go for a coffee with me?

Oh, yes

The sweetest invitation that ever could be:
Would you like to go for a coffee with me?

14 May 2024

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                  Shakespeare Didn’t Drive a Clapped-Out MGA

                                  Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 49

A time will come when you will audit me:
My prospects as a husband and provider
The possibilities of a comfortable home
And maybe the Mercedes you deserve

I amuse you now, but not for long:
A studio apartment with a rabbit-ears TV
A hideaway bed for frolics in the afternoon
Sale-table wine and Bugler-rolled joints

Not quite Rod McKuen, to my dismay:
It’s not if but when you go away

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                    After a Night of Thunderstorms

The zinnias are rich with the works of the bee
Meanwhile the mosquitoes are working on me!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                            Schrodinger’s Lover

                                      Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 48

I have always kept things carefully hidden
Especially the secrets of my heart
But a lover cannot be secreted away
Nor would anyone want this to be so

And because you are no one’s possession
You cannot be kept from the gaze of the world
Locked away in a metaphorical box
Because of anyone’s inappropriate fears

I have always kept things carefully hidden
But you, brave happy spirit, will not be bidden

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                      This Time the Mind and Heart Agree

                               Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnets 46-47

My eyes delight in the beauty of yours
In all the catalogue of your sweet charms
Visions and scents of dreamy summer flowers
Blossomed in anticipation of love

My heart delights in the happiness of yours
The generosity of your saintliness
The rigor of your analytical mind
Your kindnesses to all humanity

There are perceptions and appearances, true
But then there is the perfection in you

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                This is Your Shoulder-Fired, Gas-Operated,
                             Semi-Automatic Metaphor

In wars generals deploy sports metaphors
In sports coaches deploy war metaphors

Why are they being evasive about what they do?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                     No One Writes Verse about the Precinct Dump

Look for the sign that reads PERCH TRAPS 4 SALE
After a hundred yards take the gravel road to the right
It’ll go down to this stagnant little creek
And that old bridge is stronger than it looks

Then up and to your left; you can’t miss it
Refrigerators and washers to your left a bit
As for the right, you just don’t want to know
But them buzzards today; they’re puttin’ on a show

There was this fat boy who used to work there
Made rhymes about garbage; must have been the air

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and You

                                  Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 45

Fire and air sound like a poetic cliché
A pastiche from half-remembered Elizabethans
Cut from Jonson or Marlowe, or Will himself
And pasted to a puerile plaint of love

But there is a reality in fantasy
And you are the fantasy in reality
There are swift messengers of fire and air
And you are sender, signal, and recipient

Fire and air only sound like a cliché
For you are truth, truth clothed in splendid array