A short collection of poems by Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall
All Intelligence is Artificial
No, no, we are not banks of blinking lights
And random teletype-type taps and beeps
Like Patrick McGoohan’s educational General
Or George Jetson’s mainframe at Spacely Sprockets
And we are not new Robby-the-Robots
Nor one with The Borg, with electric eyes
Scanning decaying humans for their flaws
Devouring a pancreas and a battery for lunch
We are within and through God’s intelligence –
The artificial part is that we must work it
Are We but Obscure Lines in Ezekiel?
Maybe we are doing time along the Chebar
But we are not in Babylonian captivity
Only in the captivity of our choices:
We fouled our own endeavors, our own lives
We banned and burned our books, our music, our art
Upon the orders of megaphone fuhrers
Sacrificing Truth on their altars of fear
We abandoned duty and found ourselves alone
Dry bones, dry bones in a desert of despair
But, shush – what is that Sound from over there…?
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Moderated Commentator
How comforting to know that at the end of this plod
Despite each fault and flaw and fall and fail
We will be judged by our loving God
And not by the readers of the Daily Mail
(Cf. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards)
Subverting Convention
Given that the convention
Is to subvert convention,
Then to subvert convention
Is to follow convention
Or we could craft poetry
With honesty and wit
And as for convention
Give not a thought to it
The Times They are not A-changing
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in” -Thoreau
If the times they really are a-changing
Then they were never relevant, nor can they be
Love is not measured with a fine Martian watch
Nor do Sinai or Olympus count the minutes
The dances of the planets need no batteries
Galaxies do not bother with the news
The Torah can never be outdated
(Nor can Bob, but that’s for another not-time)
If the times they really are a-changing
Then this moment with you can have no meaning
Trial by Twitter
“…why torture ourselves in order to hurt others?” -Dag Hammarskjold, Markings
We have made ourselves a surveillance state
Eager to be approved
Fearful of being judged
We the accused must not presume to think
We impeach ourselves daily on their screens
(The screens are hardly ours)
Accusing ourselves of sin
Against the loving terror of the Now
But as for a torch and a Phrygian hat –
Is there an app for any of that?
You are not Bi-Polar
You are not bi-polar
‘Tis the planet that’s bi-polar
You are doing fine
LogoSophia Magazine 