Dispatches for the Colonial Office

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

I Will Bake You a Mooncake for the Autumn Festival

(Actually, I'll buy it at your favourite bakery)

And I will divide it with a four-part secret message

Will it be...

Lady Moon

Are

You?

No? Or maybe...

Are

Lady Moon

You?

Nope. How about

Are

Lady Moon

You?

Oh, no! But now you can move the four pieces

Of your mooncake to read:

You

Are

Lady Moon!

Peace and happiness to you and all who are blessed in knowing you!

Autumn Equinox and a Lawn Chair - a poor attempt at Haiku

Lawrence Hall

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

Autumn Equinox and a Lawn Chair

Coffee on the lawn

Cool dawn wind, old man, old dog

A September song

The United Nations - Or Not - rhyming quatrain

Lawrence Hall

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

-About Us | United Nations

The United Nations – Or Not

The United Nations…where all the world’s nations can gather together,

discuss common problems, and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity.

From war’s disasters this lesson we learn:

Each nation to nation is as a sister or brother -

So why do the ambassadors all in their turn

Do little except to walk out on each other?

Thursday, September 24, 2026

When I was God's Latest and Best Creation - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

When I was God’s Latest and Best Creation

When I was young I was God’s best creation

His latest and His best, the golden result

Of millions of years of evolution

And thousands of years of civilization

All of history led to glorious Me

For whom the Salvation story was but a preface

Shakespeare could only dream of being me

And Mr. de Mille was ready for my closeup

I was destined to be the world’s greatest…

(I wasn’t exactly clear about the greatest what)

But I was going to be the greatest (something)

And all the peoples of the world would follow me

All wrongs would be righted, all failings addressed –

But as things turned out, no one

was much

impressed

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Our Lady of Walsingham - poem

(almost surely a re-post)

Lawrence Hall

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

Our Lady of Walsingham

O how beautiful is Our Lady Queen!

Queen of our hearts and hopes, and of each day

Sweet Empress over forest, down, and dene,

And happy Sunrise over the pilgrim’s way

O let us crown Our Queen with leaf and flower

Gathered this morning in the dawnlit dew

For we in this Island are Her true dower

Pledging our faith with thorn and rose and yew

She gives us Her feast day, cool and quiet and green -

O how beautiful is Our Lady Queen!

Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Resettlement in the East - poem

Lawrence Hall

ICE deports Afghans and others to Africa, expanding "third country" deportations - CBS News

Resettlement in the East

“It’s my great honor to welcome the world to America

as we celebrate 250 years of glorious freedom…”

President Trump to the United Nations

22 September 2026

Old cattle trains rattling across the steppes

Are now old jets rattling across the skies

While old men rattle out decrees of death

And fondle their most precious testosterone

Young and old rattling their shackles and chains

The shades rattled shut against the light

The rattling of an empty galley bin

Beats time to humiliation, suffering, and despair

In Washington, Getaga, Yaounde

Bangui, Malabo, Mbabane

Monrovia, Kigali, and Freetown

Our masters rattle their ice for another round

ICE Detention Facilities Statistics 2026 | Key Facts - The World Data

The Laughing Altar Girl - couplet

Lawrence Hall

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