Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
A Spondee for Parents Who Complain About School Being Cancelled When a Tropical Storm Approaches
Shut up
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
A Spondee for Parents Who Complain About School Being Cancelled When a Tropical Storm Approaches - one spondaic foot
Reading Basho on a Rainy Morning - a poor attempt at Haiku
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Reading Basho on a Rainy Morning
When I read Basho
I am properly chastened
For my ignorance
Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho
Translated and edited by Andrew Fitzsimons
Oakland: University of California Press, 2022, 2024
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Civil Penalties for Mailing Anything Dangerous - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
“Civil Penalties for Mailing Anything Dangerous”
…our children will be ashamed…
remembering how in so strange a time
common integrity could look like courage
-Yevtushenko, “Talk,” in Selected Poems: Yevtushenko
The postmistress chants this as part of her list to us
Whenever a citizen sends a package by postal bus:
Civil penalties for mailing anything dangerous
Firearms, fireworks, a radioactive truss
Air bags - and why mail one? (just an aside)
Poisons, perishables, formaldehyde
The cremated ashes of your cousin Clyde
Or anything else on the weirdo side
Logical enough
But in these fearful days, under our mad regime
Mailing even a thoughtful letter is a dangerous scheme
Saturday, August 29, 2026
A Pinball Game with Some Come-to-Jesus Music - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
A Pinball Game with
Some Come-to-Jesus Music
The ritual signing of a padded book
And then invisible paddles launch us into the game
Among electrical bumpers of whisperers
Clustered in their several corners and slots
Suspicious smiles that don’t conceal holy hate
As they repel outsiders through platitudes
Invisible daggers fly through the sacred air
The silent sibilant hisses are heard all the same
The dear departed in his old Sunday suit
Seems to smile in peaceful anticipation
of being rid
of all of us
Ka-Ching!
Exit the Hurricane, 2017 - poem
Lawrence
Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
a re-post from 2017
Exit the Hurricane 2017 (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!
Lunch Poems and an Olivetti - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Lunch Poems and an
Olivetti
oz.Typewriter: Poet Frank O'Hara and
the Olivetti Lettera 22 Portable Typewriter
When Frank O’Hara poemed on an Olivetti
At a typewriter shop on Fifth Avenue
He pulled out a sheet of paper which did not read
Error 1101 Ray ID: a324930b6bd1e5a5 •
2026-08-28 16:08:24 UTC
Worker
threw exception
Lunch Poems and a Subaru - Poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Lunch Poems and a Subaru
“The world is full of people who want to tell you how to live…”
-attributed to Gus in Lonesome Dove
When I picked up a copy of Lunch Poems
I didn’t know I was required to be gay
And when I bought a fine new Subaru
I didn’t know I was required to be
a feminist lesbian professor with big round glasses and short grey hair
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