The O Antiphons, the Star, and Us

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Solstice is not a time when the sun stands still / But rather a season when the sun stands aside / That we may better know the mysteries of deep night / In darkness just before deep Light returns

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A Dixon Ticonderoga #2 Pencil from 1955

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … The yellow paint a little aged now / The green metal ring a little bit dull / The eraser now hardened beyond all use / The point well-sharpened with a pocketknife

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By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … “‘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 

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Sunshine is Dogshine

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … A dachshund will burrow under the garden fence / For every dachshund thinks she is a wolf / A fearsome apex predator with a squeaky toy – / This is in the nature of dachshunds

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A Row of Missals on the Chimneypiece

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … Those inexpensive missals, all in a row / Upon the chimneypiece of their little home / Each with its ribbons in orderly place / Like children in line for the Eucharist

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The Weight of a Rifle and other Memorial Poems

By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall … An old belt buckle in the back of a shelf / Greening brass on a belt now much too short / Maybe the same one I wore on the Vam Co Tay / Scattered thoughts shift to Thomas; I don’t know why

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Meditation and Merriment in Early Autumn

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…

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My Great Replacement Theory

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 […]

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For Bob Newhart

By 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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Guardians Of Atlanta Episode 5 – The Great Phantasma

By Joshua David Ling (Rated PG) Read more of this story here. 32: Sleight Of Hand The last time we left Cyrus Jones,She was given a proposition over the phone.That strange Mr. H had a mission for Cy,A mission that required a local spy. And so she went to a traveling carnival,Uncle Andy’s by name […]

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A Decrepit Father Indeed!

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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We Can’t Take Our Books with Us When We Die

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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Every Morning Begins with Sunlit Hope

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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You Are The Poem

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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The Pulitzer People Did Not Telephone Today

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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Methinks I Have Astronomy

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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So Fast Thou Grow’st

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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Time Will Play the Tyrant

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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