Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
The Modern Science of Imprisoned Sound
If thousands boo the vice-president
And NBC filters them out
Is there a sound?
Thursday, February 12, 2026
The Modern Science of Imprisoned Spound - short poem
The 1970s, When Lapels Roamed Wild - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
The 1970s
– When Lapels Roamed Wild
In the 1970s’ men’s lapels grew
wider and wider
And men’s neckties grew wider and
wider
And men’ sideburns grew wider and
wider
And they all got so wide that they blew
away
(Poof!)
And haven’t been seen since
And in the Darkness Bind Them - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
And in the Darkness Bind Them
-from the ring-verse in Lord of the Rings
I.
I should pity a certain poor old man
But he has established for us concentration camps
Where pity is forbidden
II.
And why is Jeffrey Epstein’s ghost
Our fourth branch of government?
A Night Prayer for You - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
A
Night Prayer for You
Thank you
For the prayers you offered over
your first cuppa
For the breakfast you made for
yourself and others
For singing along with the radio on
your way to work
For wearing your seatbelt and
stopping at the lights
Thank you
For going to work in the heat or the
dust or the snow
For tipping the overworked server at
a hurried lunch
For the jokes that made the workday better
for all
For minding your tongue when the
boss said something stupid
(something
really stupid)
Thank you
For the verse you wrote, the words
you read
For your little children whom you
tucked into bed
Thank you –
You made the world a better place
today
My Preferred Verb and Adverb
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
My Preferred Verb and Adverb
Grow up.
In other contexts “up” can be a preposition or adjective, but in “grow up” it is an adverb. As Pontius Pilate said, “what I have written I have written.”
My Brother Lost His Wife - poem
Lawrence Hall
My Brother Lost His Wife
Which sounds as if he misplaced her, like car keys
But she has gone away, as must we all
Into those far-beyond mysteries beyond our poor knowing
And leaving us vacuums and vacancies
And he is sorting out bills to be paid
Her nursing license which will not be renewed
The bits and bobs to be given to the children
Daily remembances in all the little things
His days are mysteries
Filling in the great emptiness in his life
and all the small ones
Sunday, February 8, 2026
A Boyhood Friend Goes to the River - memorial poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
A Boyhood
Friend Goes to the River
My soul has grown deep like the
rivers
-Langston Hughes
His son visited him in hospital
every day
The father told the son, “I need to
go to the river”
And so they left the hospital; they
sat on the bank
They watched the river, they talked
to the waters
They listened to the waters and the
winds
One more lesson from the river, the
eternal flow
The growing-up river, the teaching
river
The river, their father-and-son
river
One day, in silence, his spirit
slipped away
And crossed over the river forever
Saturday, February 7, 2026
A Funeral is a Dress Rehearsal - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
A Funeral is a Dress Rehearsal
“He looks so natural...”
Even among family, you feel alone
Because attendance at a funeral
Is a dress rehearsal for your own
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
The Galaxy's Guide to the Hitchhiker - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
The
Galaxy’s Guide to the Hitchhiker
A very, very, very, very weak attempt at the Thai Khlong
Suparb form
An idea suggested by Emily Johnson
On a topic suggested by an idea from Bulletcookie
(sic)
Gratitude
to Douglas Adams will be found
locked in a
filing cabinet in a disused room in the basement
We are all hitchhikers of the spirit
Thumbing a ride to the moon and stars
And we fall for a pause on Mars
On our tide of discovery
And then swing an orbit around
An errant earthling satellite
Sweetly sing to its blinking light
While riding along on a comet
Do the stars have a guide to us?
We study our home galaxy
But does our galaxy study you and
me?
We are all hitchhikers of the spirit!
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Some Clinical Notes on Anaesthesia and, Like, StuffZZZZ - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Some Clinical Notes on Anaesthesia and, Like, StuffZZZZ
A chair in the waiting room
A chair in a consulting room
A chair in a room where they rearrange your body parts
A blood pressure cuff that chuffs and puffs every few minutes
(And can you say, “sphygmomanometer?”)
(I thought not)
Clamps on your wrists
(Is the prisoner ready, chaplain?)
Steel trays of shiny steel things for cutting and drilling and clamping
A quest for veins. Not that vein. No, this vein. No, where’d it go…
Ouch
Let there be blood
Are you comfortable?
You’re going to start feeling sleepy
Grey floating boxes and conversations among them as they move about in an unreality which for the non-time-being are the / a reality and they’re nice enough little boxes but why are they grey and there is no fear and there is no pain but there is no control only grey floating boxes speaking to each other
Another chair in another room – how…?
And those are your post-procedure instructions…are you ready to go…?
I want a cup of coffee
Nothing hot until tomorrow
Sunday, February 1, 2026
The University of Granddaddy - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the
Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
The University of Granddaddy
Class meets on the wooden steps of the old back porch
Syllabus:
Talking. Listening. Whittling on a length of cedar
Please bring: a Schrade-Walden Old Timer pocketknife
Pale Shadows and Seasons - poem
Lawrence Hall
Pale Shadows and Seasons
Pale shadows and seasons and leaves drift by
The slanting sun of February falls
With merciless mortality upon
Our weak attempts to prepare for spring
The leaves we mulch today mulch us tomorrow
The roses we prune in anticipation of June
Await the night when we are pruned for them
While the wolf pack keens beneath the ancient moon
No, It Wasn't the Medications - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the
Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
No, It Wasn’t the Medications
If we do meet again,
why, we shall smile
Julius Caesar V.i.28
Last night my friend and mentor was dreamed to me
He was himself again, and so was I
Among Spenserian fields and forests and friends
In a summer world all warm and green
In a time of waiting rooms and surgeries
Slow days of headaches and painful awkwardness
Appointments, lab reports, diagnoses
He came as a comfort, a vision of what will be
We did meet again, and we did smile
And so, just so, we all will meet again
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Maybe Winter is Tired - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Maybe Winter is Tired
And taking a break for a few sunny days
Icicles have dripped and dropped away to earth
Merry breezes breathe away dawn’s drifting haze
A warm front soon after the new year’s birth
But even now the north drops down in greys
The shifting wind blows dark, decaying leaves
Away to prep for tomorrow’s icy glaze
As the wilding weather bobs and weaves
The paling sun drops coldly in the west -
False spring in its own turn now takes a rest
This is the Church House, This is the Steeple - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
This
is the Church House, This is the Steeple
This is the church house
This is the steeple
Open the doors
And see all the…rioters, ICE, podcasters,
snoops, gossips, busybodies, stirrers, activists, influencers, selfie-istas, agitators,
provocateurs, disruptors, boors, instigators, trespassers, hecklers, hooligans,
gorms, dips, loonies, stooges, vandals, protestors, patsies, and puppets
(One hopes they left a few coins in
the poor box)
Friday, January 30, 2026
"A Republic, Madam, If You Can Keep It" - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
“A Republic, Madam, If You Can Keep It”
-attributed to Ben Frankling and many others
Americans, please take time for reflection -
While watching the rioting we might take note
That in the last presidential election
35% of the people did not bother to vote
How Many People Didn’t Vote in the 2024 Election? | National News | U.S. News
Where We Grew Up is not Where We Are - against ICE
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Where
We Grew Up is not Where We Are
Our fathers strong, home from Europe
and the Pacific
Worked confidently at building a
peaceful America
Lean, weathered, war-weary men in
chambray shirts
Who sweated to make their crops and
cattle grow
But the feed store shut up shop in
the 60s
The gas station pushes eight-liners
and vapes
The old picture show where John
Wayne rode
Is now a missionary Christian
fellowship or something
The drugstore with the best comic
books burned long ago
Once-busy sidewalks are mostly weeds
and grass
Our favorite rocker on the A.M.
radio
Has long since been Forest Lawned in
bronze
Our fathers are buried, and on the palantir
A man in an SS coat orders us to
report each other
Antibiotic-Go-'Round - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Antibiotic-Go-‘Round
The dermatologist cut away part of my ear
Truth!
The maxillo-facial surgeon cut out my impacted
Tooth!
They negotiate now which antibiotic to use
To void the chances of infection or bruise
“Gentlemen,” I say,
“Weigh each certainty against a doubt
But both the original ear and tooth are out!”
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Hecho en China - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Hecho
en China
New hiking shoes from Wal-Mart say
what?
They say, “Cubierta de Cuero y
Sintetico”
Does that mean
“Made by Prisoner X7741?”
Or
“Made of Prisoner X7741?”
January - Soup and Peace for all - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
January
– Soup and Peace for All
As the winter winds flail, soup on
the stove
Blessing the kitchen with all its
summery scents
An all-morning bouquet of comfort
and peace
Simmering against the grey and
dreary cold
Sleet rattles against the window
panes
Sharp ice metastasizes on the skeletal
trees
But inside we ladle up happiness and
love
With Momma’s prayers over each comforting bowl
Veggies and beef – could I have a
little more, please?
As the old gag goes, visualize
whirled peas!
Monday, January 26, 2026
It's All Anne Frank's Fault - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
It’s
All Anne Frank’s Fault
Imagine escaping the brick-pits of Goshen
Trekking the deserts with Joshua and
Moses
Learning the Commandments, feeding
on Mannah
Crossing the Jordan into the
Promised Land
Imagine chanting the Psalms, learning
from Isaiah
Teaching Proverbs and Wisdom to your
children
Telling the ancient stories while
working the fields
Braving the adventures God has given
us
Imagine stepping outside after Mass
After sharing the body and blood of
the Christ
And complaining that all the world’s
problems
Are caused by “th’ Jews”
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Thank Your for Your Attention to This Matter - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Thank You for Your Attention to This Matter
Both sides waving American flags
Bodies in the streets like bundles of rags
Saturday, January 24, 2026
Laundry on a Snowy Day - poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall 46184@aol.com
Laundry on a Snowy Day
Little fluffs of white floating
through the air
Swirling and drifting and dancing
merrily
Falling upon us as gently as a
prayer
One landing on your nose momentarily
But this is not from the January
snow
This puffy white stuff all over the
floor
Because it has nowhere else to go
Except for Hoovering it up (a
tiresome chore)
It flies from the dryer much like a
rocket
Because
Someone always leaves Kleenex
in her pocket!
Friday, January 23, 2026
The Coming Ice Storm - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
The Coming Ice Storm
Wood for the fireplace stacked inside and out
Sterno for the camp stove, bottled water everywhere
Batteries, portable radios, toilet paper, lanterns
The outside faucets covered with plastic and old towels
Bedding for the pets in the laundry room
Mothball-scented blankets disposed here and there
The questions come as quickly as the wind:
What if…? What about…? What if…? What about…?
The day is grey and darkens even more
As strange blue light falls upon us from the north
Can You Describe This? - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Can
You Describe This?
-Anna Ahkmatova, Requiem
Supplicants waiting in long lines in
the snow
Hoping to give their children some
sense of truth
Among the gassings of electronic
screens
Protestors and federals bellowing in
turn
The news blows in as Siberian flurries
Some flailing this way, and some trailing
that
Footprints disappear among the
drifts
Rasputin’s body might float up in
the spring
Describe each human as a number, as
a stat
“Truth?” sneered Pontius Pilate, “now
what is that?”
“Can you describe this?” a woman asked
Ahkmatova
“Yes, I can,” she spoke, she wrote,
she lived
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
A Children's Bedtime Liturgy for 2026 - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
A Children’s Bedtime Litany for 2026
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
From the ICE-men who break into our homes and beat up our families
Deliver us, O Lord
From the anti-ICE who invade our churches on Sunday mornings
Deliver us, O Lord
From the ICE gunfire in our streets
Deliver us, O Lord
From the anti-ICE gunfire in our streets
Deliver us, O Lord
From the tear gas on our playgrounds
Deliver us, O Lord
From government-sponsored kidnappings
Deliver us, O Lord
From fires and looting
Deliver us, O Lord
From explosions in the night
Deliver us, O Lord
From strangers roaming around with guns
Deliver us, O Lord
From the unmarked SUVs that circle our block
Deliver us, O Lord
From the violence-pornographers who take our pictures
Deliver us, O Lord
Grant your children rest this night, O Lord
Or if we must be wakeful
Make the shooting stop
Amen
In the Name of…shhhhh!...they’re beating on the door…don’t let them hear you…
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
A Complimentary Tote - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life,
Literature and Love
A
Complimentary Tote
How very nice of you to check me out
Of all the things you could have
bought today
You purchased a tote, which shows
your good sense
And you picked me, which shows your
good taste
Those are some great shoes you’re
wearing
And your watch is a study in
elegance
Proper dress is all about the
accessories
I’m proud to be seen with such a
classy lady
Wait – diapers? I gotta carry dirty diapers!?
And those dirty baby-bottom wipers!?
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Combat Patrol on the Borders of the Empire - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life,
Literature and Love
Combat
Patrol on the Borders of the Empire
There
were nasty people in the army; but…[e]very few days one seemed to meet a
scholar, an original, a poet, a cheery buffoon, a raconteur, or at least a man
of good will.
-C. S. Lewis, “Guns and Good Company,” Surprised by
Joy
Muffle-armored like Heinlein’s
starship troopers
What attributes of civilization
Can the soldiers of our armies carry
Carefully tucked into their pockets
and packs:
Paperback poets, math reviews, Miss
January
Letters from home, a Rosary, a
Testament
A naughty little short-timer calendar
A creased photograph of someone
special
What do young soldiers carry with
them
When they are ordered to suppress
Their fellow
Americans
Monday, January 19, 2026
Is There a "Board of Peace" for Minnesota? - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Is There a “Board of Peace” for Minnesota?
The president is mobilizing federal soldiers;
The governor, his state’s national guard
Sister and brother to war with each other
While citizens are scarred with bullet and shard
The chief of police makes stirring speeches
The several mobs lock lies into their ‘phones
ICE-men pull guns while a bullhorn screeches
Possibly next they will send up the drones
“We’re better than this,” some official will say –
More smoke to befoul Minnesota today
My Friends and Okra - rhyming couplete
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life,
Literature and Love
My
Friends and Okra
Give my share to the cats, the sea-bass, and the seal!
I have a dear friend who loves her
okra
Evil is Afraid of You - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life,
Literature and Love
Evil is Afraid of You
That in the world which is evil
despises you
Mostly because you never give up
Evil sends you hopeless dreams and despair
And leaves your pillow stained with sour
tears
That in the world which is evil
despises you
Because in the morning you wake
up strong
Greet the new day with your own
songs of hope
And work at your purposes with joyful
intent
That in the world which is evil
despises you
Because it can never be you
The Doomsday Clock and Watch Collection - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
The Doomsday Clock and Watch Collection
Since 1947 the image of a doomsday clock
Has haunted our dreams and possibilities
First nuclear war, then global cooling
Then global warming, and now A EYE
If we continue to date and time our doom
Let’s have it as an app, or a clever watch
Strapping the end of time to our wrists
Or entombed in an Orwellian telescreen
The Doomsday Clock has been frozen for eighty years -
Let’s wear as a fashion our existential fears
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