That Famous Participation Trophy - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

That Famous Participation Trophy

 

One hears of that participation trophy-trope

A theme, a meme, mostly by cranky old men

Withered gaffer-gossips condemning the young

For being rewarded simply for showing up

 

Like Santa Claus it might be a good idea

I still listen for sleigh bells every Christmas

And yet – I have never seen a participation trophy

If you find one, call; you have my number

 

And, speaking of unearned rewards,

 

We’re presented a trophy each morning, just for fun

When God gives each of us a golden sun!

For the Feast of Saint Lawrence, 10 August 2026 - doggerel

  Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

For the Feast of Saint Lawrence

 

Today is the Feast of Saint Lawrence

His faith and martyrdom we already knew

We remember his death with a sense of abhorrence -

It's not an occasion for a barbecue!

When Biologists Fall in Love - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

When Biologists Fall in Love

 

There are many things that a frog doesn’t know:

That he is a biological marker

That he doesn’t sing as well as Chevalier

That green is not appropriate evening wear

 

But he knows the bugs are tasty on my window screen

That he feels froggy this warm summer night

That he sings well enough for m’lady frog

That she admires him in his cool green coat

 

And now the stars are brighter and the evening is darker:

Will you be my sweet biological marker?

Happy Little Raindrops for Children and Liberal Arts Graduates - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Happy Little Raindrops for Children and Liberal Arts Graduates

 

Do you suppose a raindrop laughs as it falls?

Water vapor floating in the sky

Condenses one little molecule at a time

Wrapping around a particle of dust

 

Can you say, “condensation nuclei?”

 

And why would you?

 

And all these tiny droplets join to form

A larger droplet now too heavy for the air

Which playfully sends it sailing back to earth

Where it seeks for a safe place to land

 

“Hooray!” it cries as down-down-down it goes

To land at last upon your little nose!

All My Neat School Stuff for the First Day of Term - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

All My Neat School Stuff for the First Day of Term

 

The Trapper Keeper is a fun retro thing

I wonder if anyone else will have one

I might start a trend with this ‘way-back look

I wonder if that cute girl will notice me

 

This new graphing calculator is the best

I like the smell of new pencils and paper

And I’m going to rock the opening assembly

In my happenin’ new light hoodie and baggy jeans

 

There won’t be a second day, so on the first

Which of my daddy’s guns should I pack?

You're Okay, Buddy; You're Gonna be Okay - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

You’re Okay, Buddy; You're Gonna be Okay

 

An encouraging smile is a battle dressing

We apply to the wounds of others

A cigarette while waiting for the dust-off

Within a collapsing perimeter

 

You’re okay, buddy; you're gonna be okay

 

I’m not sure I believe in God anymore

It’s okay, buddy; He believes in you

Oh, God, it hurts; why does He hurt me like this

I need a cigarette / I gave you one

 

You’re okay, buddy; you're gonna be okay

 

It’s so loud; everything’s loud; make it stop

I can’t breathe; why can’t I breathe…oh, God

 

You’re okay, buddy

                                You're gonna be

                                                      Okay…

Three Little Friends Spent the Day Playing in my Garden - a poor attempt at Haiku

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Three Little Friends Who Spent the Day Playing in my Garden

 

 

 

Good Night, Brother ‘Possum

 

Dear Brother ‘Possum

Take supper at the cats’ bowl

Then waddle to bed

 

(Opossums are generally nocturnal, but this fuzzy little guy loves the sunny hours.)

 

 

Good Night, Sister Bee

 

You love my flowers

You work among them all day

At dusk fly away

 

 

Good Night, Sister Butterfly

 

You were up early

Floating among the zinnias

See you tomorrow!

I Met a Girl in Newfoundland - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

I Met a Girl in Newfoundland

 

‘Twas in St. John’s on a cold and rainy day

Because most days in St. John’s are rainy and cold

Even in July, when I met a girl clerking in a store

Shivering in a parka as she rang up my purchases

 

“Oh, it’s not all that cold…” I began to jest

When I saw that she was almost in tears

 

“I’ve never been warm in my life,” she sighed

“I’ve never been off this island

And I’ve never been warm”

This is Not About a Casual Acquaintance Named Mohammed - poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

This is not About a Casual Acquaintance Named Mohammed

 

I really like him, and I would like to ask him

Why some of his co-religionists hate Jews

But we’re not really friends, and so I won’t

Because he might ask me about the Inquisition

 

Or about my great-grandfather, taken prisoner

At Saylor’s Creek (he was on the wrong side, you see)

A docent at Grand Pre’ asked me about my Acadian ancestors

“Not mine” I said; “mine would have been wearing red coats”

 

“Well,” she replied wryly, “Someone had to.”

 

But maybe these things won’t always be so

 

Remember the Sabbath - Praying with the Reicheskirche

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Remember the Sabbath – Praying with the Reicheskirche

 

Bombs across the sea

Still winning the hearts and minds

Of all the nations

Don't Phone Your Mom - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Don’t Phone Your Mom

 

US military may require some troops in Mideast to surrender cell phones, sources say

 

The Admiralissimo has ruled and rendered

That since our forces are low on ammunition

Our soldiers’ phones might soon be surrendered

Which will bring our victory to fruition

 

So fight without those unsupplied supplies

The Commies stole through your Apple phone

It’s medals for us officers when an enlisted dies

Now attack with just your testosterone!

 

No phone will record the truth the moment you splatter -

Thank you for your attention to this matter

Hearts and Minds and Books Open to the Autumn Air - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Hearts and Minds and Books Open to the Autumn Air

 

 

The Dreaming Water Towers of State University

 

“In the quad, where we lay our scene…” 

-As Shakespeare did not say

Math students whose favorite dessert was always pi

Engineering students with leather scabbards at their belts

Ready to charge into battle with their Kueffel and Essers

Against heretics who believed in “It’s close enough”

 

Historians who made the acorns drop

With their thunderous defenses of Pirenne 

And measured Turner’s western frontier thesis

Against the Czarist empire’s eastern lands

 

English majors (and maybe French lieutenants)

Free-versifiers arguing against disciplined meter

The next Rod Mckuen with his guitar

Biologists considering an ant’s nutritional needs

 

And hearts and minds and books, books everywhere -

All open to thought and the autumn air

 

 

 

It wasn’t that dreamy; I worked the night shift seven nights each week and often double shifts on the weekends in order to live and study, and so was constantly tired. But there were indeed golden moments…

Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale as a Cabinet Meeting - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale as a Cabinet Meeting

 

A brotherhede of sworen conspiratours

Blody daggares, poysouned wyn, hepys of gold

Caroignes under an ok – a counseil of trecherie

And the scorneful laughter of Olde Man Deth