Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Gradations of War
Why does he say an all-out war?
Is there somehow a some-in war?
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Gradations of War - couplet
Typewriter, Telephone, Dictionary, Thesaurus - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Typewriter, Telephone, Dictionary,
Thesaurus
The typewriter is
holy
(okay, Ginsberg got
that right, at least)
Over the years a series of corded telephones
Stood to their duty next to an Underwood
That’s now stowed away in a closet somewhere
The dictionary and thesaurus are retired
Over the years a series of wordy battles
Have been fought over this Polonian plain:
Thesis and antithesis to synthesis
Theses, structures and sources, papers and poems
Over the years
A little glowing machine now centers my desk
But verse and prose, and you and I, are forever
There's an Old Sheriff in Town - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
There’s an Old Sheriff in Town
In Technicolor!
This evening I ordered the twenty-first century to shut up
And caught the time machine to dusty Diablo
A corrupt city government, an outlaw gang
And soft-spoken Audie Murphy to set things right:
You’re new in
town, aren’t you?
I came to find
out who did the killing
Somebody’s running off our herd!
He’s out for revenge and headed straight for Boot Hill.
If I was smart, I’d shoot you right now.
You still got a deputy named O’Mara around here?
That's the
trouble. He kissed me good night... and I liked it
You trying to
make yourself a reputation?
Maybe you're
turning into a human being
I don’t hand out
tin stars as licenses for murder
He only stole
one horse, didn’t he?
You go through
those swinging doors and you’ll be dead
I’ll take good
care of him, doctor
You going to be
hanging around Diablo for a while?
You going to be hanging around
Diablo for a while?
Yep – all Saturday afternoon,
with popcorn and a soda
Lines from Ride Clear of Diablo, Universal
International, 1954
Monday, June 1, 2026
A Summer of Blueberries, a Summer of War - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
A Summer of Blueberries, a Summer of War
SUMMER OF WAR
IRAN THREATENS NEW STRIKES ON ISRAEL
CEASEFIRE COLLAPSES
OIL SURGES
-Drudge
This morning’s news is all about the wars
For oceans and oil, and oceans of oil
For the ideological souls of men
For a tyrant screaming through a midnight screen
Our morning is all about the blueberries
Fresh dewy little globes among the leaves
Magic treats for children, fairies, and elves
Or for a dream-lover with flashing dark eyes
Blueberries fresh and new, colored sky-blue -
I picked a basket of them just for
you!
Sunday, May 31, 2026
It Doesn't Matter if You Write a Good Poem - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
It Doesn’t Matter if You Write a Good Poem
A poet’s autobiography is his poetry
-Yevtushenko
It doesn’t matter if you write a good poem Today
But only that you write a poem Now
The poem to follow will be better Tomorrow
Or maybe not -
But it will BE Forever
Delaney Hall in New Jersey is not my Cousin - rhyming couplet
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Delaney Hall in New Jersey is not my Cousin
…nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
-Amendment IV
From a few miles away, The Lady with the Lamp
Shines her light of freedom upon a concentration camp
Thank you for your attention to this matter
Saturday, May 30, 2026
Grace and a Wheelchair - poem
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Grace and a Wheelchair
At the coffee shop
I found myself kneeling, as if in
church
Crawling behind some empty tables in
search
Of an electrical outlet for my new
friend Grace
Whose mother wheeled her in for a space
And Grace needed electricity for her
little screen
Where a red cow played in a pasture
green
“Will this outlet do?” “Oh, it’s too
far away”
So good folk formed a committee today:
“If we move this table back, and shift
this chair…”
Family together – it’s right and fair
Thus Grace was enthroned, the queen of
our hearts
Her subjects had all played their
several parts
Grace has no filters, no volume
control
But, oh! What a happy, blessed soul!
And I returned to my coffee as if
everything had happened
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