by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | SP, SU
The Good Side of Death: Oracular Pre-echoing The Delphic good to come from spring buds’ deaths Is roses’ resurrection from their stems. The early summer flowers take their breaths In May’s bright air. Their petticoats and hems Begin to spread for the summer heat. They...
by phillipw | Apr 9, 2020 | DE, MO, PO
Centuries before Sappho Praised Men and Women Pre-echoes of that verse, ancient Greek In poetry, go back so far that lost Verbs, Indo-European ones, can almost squeak Through Sappho. It is like they are embossed Behind her blond papyrus. Her inked lines Were written...
by phillipw | Apr 9, 2020 | PO
A Purpose of Poetry “For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d” The hands of poets are encircled by A ring of gold—or rings of gold and life. Such hands know much of wrinkled clouds and sky, Of thorns, and of the after rains of strife. The...
by phillipw | Apr 9, 2020 | AE, BE, ES
Critiquing Beauty Your beauty reasons truer than the truth. It throbs a thoughtful feeling where a mere Veracity of judgement yields to youth And freshest irises. Your pupils peer Past plain philosophy. Where liquid lies On lenses, they give entrance...
by phillipw | Apr 8, 2020 | BU, EN
Blankness for Sale as Enlightenment The Buddha stands in golden skirts with sight Of toenails underneath. Above his waist Black’s lacquer torso brings the dynamite Of revelation. He has been erased Not just by gold and lacquer darkness: he Is broken. There below...
