Laurence “Mack in Texas” Hall (G) Teenagers opened the doors for me at MassWhich used to be my job, but they stepped upAnd in stepping up they are replacing meWhich is good – I miss my youth but delight in theirs A boy and a girl giggled and whisperedIn a language I don’t know except […]
Read MoreBy Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall “He will not refuse one who is so blithe to go to Him” -Saint Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons With just a telephone, a clipboard, and a stutter He was a happy band of some of our best friends: May we with him At last approach that […]
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Sitting for an hour at an outside café / Sipping coffee and writing verse and, yes / Discreetly noting elegant mademoiselles – / I never got to Paris, but my daughter did
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … We can’t take our books with us when we die / That reality shouldn’t bother me, but it does: / The copy of The Brothers Karamazov / I carried in Viet-Nam – off to a re-sale shop?
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Every morning begins with sunlit hope / Perhaps an echo of the Passover seder / “Why is this morning unlike all other mornings?” / Because this day our hope will be fulfilled
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … A camera time-stops images as electrical codes / Formed by Kyanon Kabushiki Gaisha / And if that is not high art, then what is? / But codes are not you in your many dimensions…
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … The Pulitzer people did not telephone today / Nor did the Library of Congress or the folks at Nobel / I could paper a room with rejection slips / Except that rejections are electronic now
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Methinks I have astronomy; it must be so: / Today the moon eclipsed the jovial sun / And through the clouds and rain a darkness ruled / But with my little car’s headlights I backed it down
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … You will make something beautiful in any event / Even if only a silly ceramic frog / Holding a perfectly pointless umbrella / Upon the tree-stump where you feed the birds
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Time need not play the tyrant; we have tyrants enough / But it is true that we must go away / When time and God say we have played our game / And must withdraw into another world
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … I used to light a candle for you before Mass / With a prayer that ascended to Heaven / For as long as the candle remained lit / Even after everyone departed, deep into the night
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … The flapping, fluttering pages went wild in the wind / And poetry sometimes should go wild, blow wild / To shake those gently slumbering words awake / Provoking peaceful musings into a storm
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … In my boyhood, to the Robin Hood oak / I tip-toed in those hot summer afternoons / With my three sharp arrows and my little bow / Craftily eluding the sheriff’s men
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall .. Dragons! They seem to land among us daily / Blotting out all happiness, all innocent joys / In appearance and demeanor ugly and scaly, / Suppressing silence through foul foolish noise
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … A ballerina was arrested for high treason
/ And no wonder – dance is a beautiful thing / Whether the thunderous tread of a country line / Or the ethereal flights of Russian ballet / Dance is a joy, and so must be suppressed
By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Fronting for decaying videotapes / And clocks that will never again chime the time / Through tinny mechanical syncopation / A drum set reposes without percussion
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … The dragons are a polite and ancient race / And very conscious of their dignity / It would not do to neglect their seasons and feasts / Lest they neglect to visit you this year
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Names have not been restored, as Aslan says / Some are pleased to call this Ground-Hog Day / Although there are no ground hogs here / But the Presentation is everywhere and forever
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … To deny Israel is to curse ourselves / For we are inheritors of the Covenant / That He should be our God, and we His people / He creates us, He calls us – this is so
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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … The frost was still upon the windowsill / As an hour passed for me and Mary’s dogs / Their adventures in the woods, their lonely times / Their happy glances into their human’s eyes
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