by phillipw | Aug 2, 2021 | AC, AS
Aspire Past Platinum Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem …… Rise high enough and you will be unseen. Rise high enough and others will not know. Your essence will be lodged...
by phillipw | Dec 23, 2020 | AC, AN, EP, Ho, IL, ME, MO, PO
Absence Forbidden by Anamnesis Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pure absence is unknown—as long as mind Retains the memory, absence is denied. An ancient poet, wandering and blind, Can see that fact. ...
by phillipw | Dec 6, 2020 | AC, DA, GO, Ho, MO, SH, TE, TH, VO
Curly Top and Dimples Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You might want to watch this before reading this sonnet: Shirley Temple – On The Good Ship Lollipop.avi – YouTube I never ...
by phillipw | Oct 12, 2020 | AC, AN, Ho, PO, RA
Reeking Champ Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Achilles exists only through Homer.” ~ François-René de Chateaubriand in his preface to Les Natchez, 1826 “Achilles was a heel.” ~ Lapel badge...
by phillipw | Sep 14, 2020 | AC, AN, HI
Not the Greeks Achaeans, Argives, and Danaans, not The Greeks, surrounded Troy. We simplify The facts of history and cause a blot On truth. Such dumbings down exemplify The weight of arrogance and laziness And all our slavehood in their train. We might Be...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | AC, AU, NO, PA
Metaphysical Meteorology The dead surround us like a Northern Lights Display above blue waters, seas as blue As Patroclus’s eyes in tented nights Beside Achilles making love as new And strong as sapphire blades, above the green Of greenest waters, greener than the...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, GA, Ho, MA, PA
Beside the Thousand Ships There once were times when men could hold large pride In having sons who had as lovers men That gods could hate and love — and take their side In gut-strewn battle. Fathers nodded when Their sons retired to tents and to the love Of those...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, AN, HE, PA, TR
Two Men in Love in Death Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Hector dies, and when at last in Book XXIV his corpse is recovered, it is laid out and Andromache holds Hector’s head in her lap,...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, BO, BR, CA, CR, GA, HA, HE, KA, MA, NE, PA, PR, SA
Troy in New Orleans, Manhattan, or London Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So I found “Helen” sitting in a streetcar; the Dionysian revels of her court were transferred to a Metropolitan roof garden...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, AG, DE, IM, PA, SC, TH
To the King of Greece The past attempts to speak. It tries to talk With words and other ruined things like stones That lie in heaps or carved acanthus stalk Of leaves in marble. Sometimes vellum tones Come up from opened scrolls. Occasionally Our history gives...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AC, AL, MA, TE
The Truth The ancient Greeks are there. They do not hide The truth about themselves like holy priests Of papal Rome. The Greeks adored male pride And loathed it. They were not pure logic’s beasts: They gloried in their contradictions, found Them not...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AC, AL, HE, PA
The Silliness of Men “He ran naked to the supposed site of Achilles’ tomb at Troy, while his male lover, Hephaestion, crowned the tomb of Achilles’ beloved Patroclus.” ~ Robin Lane Fox, The Classical World: an Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Forget about the...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AC, AP, LO, TH, VE
The Sacred Fire Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Thespians of Greece in ancient times Upheld the god of love, devout as saints Have ever been. Deep lovers’ paradigms Are never quite as true...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | AC, DA, GA, HE, Ho, MA
David and Jonathan, Achilles and Patroclus, Alexander and Hephaestion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse Hephaestion, lover of Alexander the Great We heroize male anger, all the way From David’s chopped Goliath to the...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | AC, BR, KN, RA
Jerusalem His face is mild, as mild as Elgar chords Set down on paper, or a late June day In Gloucestershire, as mild as sleeping lords In Parliament. His young beard’s a display Of masculinity, or maybe just A statement of his academic bent....
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AC, BR
Paul Bunyan in the British Library Rare Books and Music Reading Room He Ain’t Today he has a thick, full beard, quite dark The brown but with the slightest touch of red. It’s wavy, too. In fact there’s nothing stark About the whiskers or the man. His...
by phillipw | May 15, 2020 | AC, KI, SC, SH, WI
Too Good to be Academically True “For several decades, some theorists have suggested that William Shakespeare placed his mark on the translated text of Psalm 46 that appears in the King James Bible, although many scholars view this as unlikely, stating that the...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | AC, CE, CH, ED, JA, MA, ME, RE
More Widely Sage than Plato Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A cave as classroom with a centaur (wise And just) as teacher is a place to learn, Surpassed by none. They straddled with their thighs...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | AC, AL, AN, DA, HE, JO
David and Jonathan, Achilles and Patroclus, Alexander and Hephaestion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Hephaestion, lover of Alexander the Great We heroize male anger, all the way From David’s...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | AC, BR
Greek Aurora in a Pure Cloud Sky He’s white and dressed in white. His linen shirt Saps wrinkles from his face and otherwise There’s not a spot of sweatiness or dirt. He might as well be marble, brotherwise To still Apollo on a plinth, although These shoulders are like...
by phillipw | Dec 10, 2019 | AC, SC
Wearing a Wedding Ring Somewhere between the Emperor’s age and youth But closer to Antinous in years, This scholar is an academic sleuth (Or wants to be). HIs hair just hides his ears With curls not quite as lovely as the lad’s That drove the ageing...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | AC, FR, MO
Achilles Named Prophetically One writer has proposed his name must mean The “lipless” one. How strange. Or is that weird? Despite Homeric speeches there’s not been A record of his words. His nascent beard Is what we can infer beneath his nose. The rest is...
by phillipw | Sep 29, 2019 | AC
Unsettled When we are nine, we do not know the stars. They play on silver screens but in our minds These images are sexless as guitars. For children life has still to raise the blinds On Vivien and Scarlett. Kids can’t guess That actresses in movies...