Dispatches for the Colonial Office

Saturday, July 18, 2026

A Back-to-School Shopping Fantasy - poem

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

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

Home - Hello Poetry

A Back-to-School Shopping Fantasy

Dialogue Log Log Between Two High School Students

“From my summer job I saved and searched and bought

This Keuffel & Esser 4081-3 Log Log Duplex Decitrig Slide Rule -

Now I control the numbers, touch the numbers

Bend the numbers to my purposes; numbers mind me”

“That is so old school!” He chewing-gummed in scorn

In adolescent scorn

“All I need is a calculator from Shanghai

It tells me what it wants me to know

And, hey, check out my new autograph sneakers!”

Ten Years Later

When she bid the engineering for the next Airbus

She did not hire him

Friday, July 17, 2026

"The Intoxicating Poetry of Belief" - poem

Lawrence Hall

mhall46184@aol.com

“The Intoxicating Poetry of Belief”¹

From an idea by a fellow scrivener

And for the fellowship of these electric pages

Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam

The liturgy is a poem

A hymn of the universe ¹

That was

And is

And forever will be

Spoken and sung

Sometimes we get lost in a volta

But it all comes together in the Consecration

And again in the L’envoi

We are the poem

We don’t have to get it right

Or know all the words

We are loved and sung

All the way to the end

And if we’re sometimes inattentive

Well

That’s okay too

The liturgy is not a got’cha

The liturgy is a gift

¹ cf. Anais Vionet

² Teilhard de Chardin

Is Your Life No More Than a Login Code? - 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

Is Your Life No More Than a Login Code?

Login code: 209455 Your login code is 145180 Login code: 653777 Login code: 409641 Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address. 550: 5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try 5.1.1 double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or 5.1.1 unnecessary spaces. For more information, go to

5.1.1 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=NoSuchUser 586e51a60fabf-4044bd73886si3150986fac.144 - gsmtp

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Do I.C.E. Waiting Rooms Feature Coffee Machines and Kitsch? - 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

Do I.C.E. Waiting Rooms Feature Coffee Machines and Kitsch?

Plastic Herbs in Physicians’ Waiting Rooms

Those photographs and paintings of bicycles

Leaning against sunlit Italian curbs

Are no more – now doctors’ offices

Are all about ceramic pots of plastic herbs

And coffee machines that pierce cute little cups

And brew up coffee with a soft low hiss

To serve you freshly-brewed pick-me-ups

That go so well with your diagnosis

New decorations, same old fluorescent lights

While scribbling out ideas for your funeral rites

Monday, July 13, 2026

Exit the Hurricane - Hurricane Harvey, 2017

possibly a re-post

Lawrence Hall

mhall46184@aol.com

Exit the Hurricane (not the catchiest title, eh?)

What is that silence? It is the not-rain
The first not-rain since Friday this past week
Every loud frog gloats in unseemly song
The old, sour water recedes from the door

The whole house stinks; it stinks of damp and rot
Of clothes unwashed because the drains are dammed
Of smelly shoes and even smellier socks
Of refugee gear flung casually about

The whole house stinks; it stinks of damp and rot
Of too many people – and isn’t it wonderful!