Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                              Grandmama’s Methodist Bible


                          “For all find what they truly seek”

                        -Aslan in C. S. Lewis’ The Last Battle


The well-worn Bible my Methodist grandmother loved
Sunday school pictures of Jesus, brave and kind
Chaplains who suffered with us in Viet-Nam
Prison pastors who bring Light into the dark

The ministers and faithful in contested streets
The priest who blessed my mother as she died
Those sturdy Baptist friends who bless my days
The Glorious Mysteries in the Rosary of being

I love The Story in word and prayer and song -
But those who force a Reichskirche upon us
                                                              are wrong

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

How to Respond Diplomatically to Those Who Want to Trap You into Saying Something Intemperate about Political Violence for Which They Will Denounce You on the InterGossip


          “We can’t go arresting people for what they say in a private
           conversation…I’ve no doubt that we shall come to that
           eventually, but in the present state of our struggle for
           freedom it just can’t be done.”

                        -Evelyn Waugh, Put Out More Flags



                        You have the right to remain silent

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                             Maybe Li Po was from East Texas?


                               I can remember when I
                               Was Li Po, and not Li Bai

                                    -as Li Po never said


He never drank Lone Star Beer
Wine-drunk, then, he craved a boon
A reflected kiss in the water near
A kiss from the amorous moon

Cf. 300 Tang Poems, Everyman Pocket Poets, Peter Harris ed. and trans.



The story of Li Po / Li Pai’s death has no real sourcing, but it is popular. A dude who gets drunk and drowns while trying to make out with the moon reflected in the water – definitely my people!

I played with the legend in a rhymed quatrain of seven syllables per line. I was sober. Really.

Several of you have reposted my humble takeoff on "Star Light, Star Bright" to your collections, for which I am most grateful.  As in a skit on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE years ago I must plead, "I am not worthy!" But you are all so kind, and again I thank you.

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                    The Moon is Setting in the West, And in the East...

Sun beam
Sun ray
First sun I see today
I wish I might
I wish I may
Have the wish I wish today


Cf. “Star Light, Star Bright,” a nursery rhyme of undetermined origin, dating to at least the 19th century.

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office


                                 “This Is Not Who We Are”


                             -The Honorable Mike Johnson
                  56th Speaker of the House of Representatives
                                     10 September 2025


                     Well, yes, Congressman, I’m afraid it is

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                            Are You the Dream?

In the softly dreaming hours of night
Silver moonbeams charm us to the window
To look upon a sweet, mysterious world
Which we may not visit, but only see:

The happy, peaceful joy of tree and leaf
Of lawn and chairs, all silver and shadowy
And the table where we left that little book
We were reading to each other when soft dusk fell

We share the silver silence, the silver light
The silver softly dreaming hours of night