by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | WH
Family Portrait Sonnet–a Sequence An Ideal Shape and the 1950s He lined us up in no conceivable Arrangement, except a pyramidal One, which is only just perceivable. Our father’s smile is not a riddle; He was a handsome, square-based man, and so The...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | DO, WH
Donald Anthony Whidden She holds me on her lap, embracing with Her arm and hand my young boy ribs and blue Pajamas. It’s become a monolith— This portrait—packed with family meaning, true Or not. My brother leans against his dad, A cheek against that dark wool...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | IV, WH
Ivan Louis Whidden Ivan is on the far left In the portrait Ivan has a distant Look, almost a simper—an artefact Of darkroom doctoring, that persistent Saccharine retouching, to hide the fact That we were human beings? And we were, Despite our mother’s...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | PH
What the Photographer Did Not See There is a certain irony within The carefully contrived composition. One face is part obscured; that bit of chin Is veiled from view. A blond apparition Of glossy hair obtrudes beneath the smile. Is that a prophecy? This partial...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | PH, WH
Span Span Span Span Span The earliest of colored pictures of Him shows him dressed in blue, but not a blue Of firmness, not a strong one. Pastel love Perhaps was its prediction. Pale is true, Though, also. Manliness is not required To be one hue. Maleness...
