By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … After summer rains the earth is still green / In the cooling breeze oak leaves dance happily / Old lawn chairs are the humble chairs of poets / Old lawn chairs are the glorious thrones of kings…
Join us as we explore the True, the Good, and the Beautiful: Nature! In this issue you will find multiple poems on various aspects of nature, plus pigs, Fibonacci numbers, and beyond! As ever, there is still Bible Trivia, Controversy Corner and plenty more!
By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Being a ‘possum can only be rough / Dragged all over the yard by a dachshund / A furious dachshund half its size / Until it collapses into a faint
By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Squirrels! / They’re up the trees; they’re down the trees / They swarm each other just like bees / They’re up the oak; they’re down the pine / They really need a traffic fine
By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Hummingbirds buzz the sugar water buffet / At this junction for the connection to Mexico / I feel I should be wearing a white apron and cap / Refills for everyone – and will that be to go?
By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … No one is fully awake in this strange moonlight / The magic won’t work if we think of it / Pirate ships can’t fly if there’s logic about / And lovers would never touch hands
By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Purporting to love nature is a commonplace / This does not mean that nature loves us back / We often look for nature’s smiling face / But nature looks for us as a tasty snack
Trees form an arch overhead, / shading my eyes from the fierce sun. / I’m winding down the twisted paths, / meticulously moving through the shadows. / Back and forth, the road bends and turns.
That commonplace of art instruction is true:
From the rainbow to the tomato worm
And in the rhythms of our chambered hearts
Creation curves itself around our lives
“Are you more Phlegmatic or Sanguine?” “She’s probably not going to come. Those Scorpios!” How we like to package people neatly and tuck them, tied up with a perfect bow, in a little slot with their fellow creatures! Human beings are unpredictable, and any hint we can glean or formula that we can follow that sheds some light of foreknowledge on their actions is welcomed with open arms. To understand those around us is a heady power and one that we would not lightly lose.
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