The Whirl of the Aria

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

What Soul wants, that is life for you before

You ever know it.  It is like the cue

Behind the curtain, actors waiting for

It.  This is like predestination you

Desire not guessing.  It is forest fire

That lightning strikes to roaring.  Soul’s demand

Turns other parts of life to widows on a pyre.

Your Soul at last will give its one command

And you will, seized, become the prophet, then

The prophecy combined. The seer’s force

Will forge the way.  The Soul alone knows when.

Its aim destroys the kingdom of remorse.

  The realm of Soul is ever conquering.  Long

    It waits, the opens up your throat for song.

~ Phillip Whidden

[Phillip Whidden says he once heard Beverly Sills trill octaves in Symphony Hall, Tuckerman Hall, in Worcester, MA.]