A Boyhood Friend Goes Down To The River

February 17, 2026.Reading time 1 minute.

They listened to the waters and the winds
One more lesson from the river, the eternal flow

Maybe Winter is Tired

February 12, 2026.Reading time 1 minute.

The paling sun drops coldly in the west –
False spring in its own turn now takes a rest

A Rotor-Tiller and the Feast of the Presentation

February 3, 2026.Reading time less than 1 minute.

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

Resolution for a New Year – or for a New Life, and Cuddled up with Cold Medicine and a Warm Dachshund

January 6, 2026.Reading time 1 minute.

By Mack in Texas
Perhaps dear old Puddleglum, who burnt his feet
When stamping out the fires of wickedness
Made a fine new year’s resolution with
“I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can.”

And This the Happy Morn

December 16, 2025.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall …
No one has yet messed up Advent (aka “The Christmas Season,” which it is not), and so we are spared Advent sales and Advent gifts and Advent movies and news stories babbling about The True Meaning of Advent. Advent is a season that points to the Nativity, not to itself.

Negotiating Toilet Paper

November 4, 2025.Reading time 3 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Dignity, like treaties, can be broken In many ways…

So Fast Thou Growest

October 14, 2025.Reading time 9 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Happy children playing in a roadside ditch / Barefoot and laughing in shorts and tees / A boy grabbing up a frog to frighten the girls/ A girl sloshing the boys with a bucket of muck

Because They Are Young

October 6, 2025.Reading time 2 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Little children attend the school of Creation: / A stick, a caterpillar upon a leaf / A pine nut spiraling down upon its wing / A yellow butterfly dancing autumn in

Hobbit Day

September 23, 2025.Reading time less than 1 minute.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … I read that today is Hobbit Day / On the autumn equinox every year…

August is Unusually Hot – Someone Must be Punished for It

August 16, 2025.Reading time 3 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Having only graduated from high school (I think the quarter-credit for driver’s education put me over the top) I am certainly no climatologist, meteorologist, or vulgar Swedish child, but I am not persuaded of the concept of man-made climate change.

Laundry Day – The Solemnity of All Stains

July 15, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … The washing machine baptizes our busy days: / A shirt freshly stained with this morning’s coffee / Wrinkledy tees in grimy greens and greys / A child’s blue jeans all sticky with toffee

Make Thee Another Self

June 17, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … After the Order of Saint Joseph, all men are fathers / Commanded by God to protect all children / Permitted by God to protect all children / Empowered by God to protect all children

Holy Smokes: Habemus Papem

May 20, 2025.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Latins and Sabines may have watched for smoke / From the Vatican Hill across the way / Wondering if a careless shepherd had set a fire / Beyond the Seven Hills of holy Rome

Shakespeare & Chinese Verse

April 22, 2025.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Dear Will, / About your obsession with mortality: / Transitions and death are essentials in life / And we must face the obsequies of ashes or earth / But there are other topics upon which to write

Fragments of Life and Literature

April 15, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … We have mysterious runic messages still / Appearing this morning – there, on the road – see them?

Fragments of Life

April 8, 2025.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … The seasons pass and footsteps pass, leaves fall / But nothing changes for those frozen in place / By the decrees of stasis and stagnancy / Progress blocked by torpidity and time

We Know Where The Holy Grail Is

March 11, 2025.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … We know where the Holy Grail is / Each Sunday we see it on the Altar / As a cup, indifferent in its origins / In the catalogue of a church supply…

Your Favorite Author is Nothing Without You

March 4, 2025.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … When I was a child I read without discipline: / Robert A. Heinlein, Robin Hood, cowboy yarns / Pirates raiding across the Spanish Main / Penrod and Sam, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn…

Each Birthday is a Step in the Right Direction

February 25, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … A birthday is not the beginning of something new / But rather part of a continuing story / From its Prologue and its Chapter One / Through the dark leaves of Mirkwood and beyond