Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Goslings and Quislings
Goslings and Quislings
Die in a reflecting pool
Goslings have no choice
Thursday, July 2, 2026
Goslings and Quislings - haiku
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Who Taught You How to Tie Your Shoes? - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Who Taught You How to Tie Your Shoes?
(a rabbit and a
cousin help)
Now when we learn to count our fingers and toes
Learn about laundry hampers and feeding the dog
Eat with a spoon, pick up our toys and clothes
And gently, gently touch the little tree frog
We must then teach another child
To laugh when she counts her fingers and toes
Learn about laundry hampers and feeding the dog
Eat with a spoon, pick up her toys and clothes
And gently, gently touch the little tree frog
Civilization is generational
Pass it on
Saturday, June 27, 2026
Is Life an Open Road or a Blind Alley? - short poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
“Is Life an Open Road or a Blind Alley?”
-de Chardin, Pensee 33
You can tell it’s an open road because
Someone has crow-barred the rusty lock and chain
You can tell it’s a blind alley because
Of your dark glasses and your tapped-out white cane
If We are a School of Poetry, Then When is Recess? - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
If We
are a School of Poetry, Then When is Recess?
…what we mean to establish is a school for the Lord’s
service
-St. Benedict’s prologue to his Rule
1997 English edition, Ampleforth Abbey
When a poet consecrates a poem
(Which is in the nature of what
poets do)
And a soul-friend breathes beauty
into it
Then they have formed a school of
poetry
Which is not a school for the
Lord’s service
Except that it is – all this
shifting of words
From chaos into meaning and
purpose and love
Is a school of life, only without
the home-room pledge
(or morning Mass or a chemistry
lab)
We write in procession through
cloisters of hope
To elevate each other as
presentations of truth
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Envision a World Without Mission Statements - rhyming couplet
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Envision a World Without Mission Statements
Your Thinking has Been Edited for Time and Format
Let us propose a series of abatements -
Deliver us, O Lord, from mission statements
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
How Big is Our Universe? - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
How Big is Our Universe?
Time goes by – or do
we?
- The Once and
Future King / Camelot
How big is our universe? How deep? How far?
In youth we learn of planets, orbits, and stars
Of the infinite Great Dance of the Spheres
And God, before forever, Who created all
But meditate upon this pilgrimage -
Will we shrink it into a transient Now
Which with death and dust and ruin and rot
Seems to go away even before the next hour?
Let us stand on this cusp of Creation
And together we will consider the Beyond
Monday, June 22, 2026
Basho's Frog for Our Time - Haiku
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Basho’s Frog for Our Time
An old roadside ditch
A frog leaps into the lane
‘Neath Subaru tires
I suppose I had better apologize to Basho, his frog, the Japanese people, Subaru, the pretty little tree frog glaring at me through my bedroom window, and all lovers of Haiku!
Later: a dear friend reminds me that I have touched on this topic before:
Flat Frog Floogie
The silent carport
A frog croaks under a tire
Then silence resumes
Pinched from Basho’s famous pond poem
Music: “Flat Foot Floogie,” 1938
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