by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | MU
The Muse Where silence is, no music can exist As long as quietude remains. Relief Comes flooding in a man who has been kissed By love or even lust as strong as grief. When silence is replaced by roaring sound, That sound we name amour, then need...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | CH, JE
The Long-haired One The long-haired man, the trouble-maker in A pose, yes, always; ever in those clothes That none of us would wear . . . he has that chin Held there too strong (as if he could depose Our ways with just his attitude) Or much too low (as if...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | RI, VE
Séance Verlaine was more a séance poet than A seer or prophetic voice. He saw The vestiges of love, a phantom man When love was gone, and souvenirs, not raw And brutal facts. Paul called up from his past Misshapen memories. He did not want To...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | OE, PR, RI, VE
The Deaths of Mad Queens The heroines in Racine’s tragedies Are monsters, dignities destroyed by heat Of passion harder than a marble frieze, Rock lust for man or boy. Queens’ hearts replete With rage and love, this royalty is blind As Oedipus’s eyes with jelly...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | SE
Holiness As beautiful as arrow bolts inside The skin of Saint Sebastian, his flesh Made up of martyrdom, his holey hide As glossy as the oil paints when fresh, That moment is the one that we desire. Forget the pain. At first it’s only dull, Or...
