by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | RI, VE
Sacrificial Investments “In exile, life was a stage where literature’s masterpieces were played out,” the poet wrote in “Illuminations,” several years before moving to Harar. “I could share untold riches that remain unknown.” ...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | RI, VE
The Blankness of the Prosaic “like an unfeeling stone” ~ Arthur Rimbaud while in Harar What turns a teenage poet into stone Without emotion? Maybe in the nest He made there he had banished joy and groan. Perhaps he planted rocks inside his chest To make the desert...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | LO, RI, VE
Watered Down Wine “My life would always be too ungovernable to be devoted to strength and beauty.” ~ Arthur Rimbaud That’s why he chose Verlaine. This Rimbaud deemed Himself unworthy, incapable of Superior phenomena. He steamed With second-rate...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | VE, WI
“The Most Beautiful Life in History” (Oscar Wilde on the life of Paul Verlaine) Wilde’s entertaining Magdalen French did not Amuse Verlaine. The fireworks of those words Were sparkling like champagne but they meant squat To Paul—or were as...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | BA, FO, SE
The Origin of the Dead Sea The music sears, romantically intense, As well it might because it is a sea On fire. It is a sparseness that is dense With utteration of severity. The darkest wine dark ocean set to flame Sings out like pain’s eternity in time. It is an...
