by phillipw | Apr 10, 2023 | AD, EN
Serendipity Almost Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A mother in Japan advised her son With haiku words. He planned to see The capital. Perhaps he wanted fun, A palanquin and social silk degree,...
by phillipw | Jan 14, 2022 | AD, KE, MA, MO, PE, RO, RU, TH
Archangels in the Moon Garden on Christmas Morn The flowers in whitest rows set forth their white Perfume beside the Great Rift Valley on The day that Christ was born. A rose’s might Is all that they can muster in this dawn Of Kenya. That is strong...
by phillipw | Oct 24, 2021 | AD, AN, GR, JO, KE, LA, ME, OV, SI, SU
On First Looking into Ovid’s Metamorphoses For Adam Meister and Suyash Singh His hand was heart. His heart was hand. The hand Was heart and more. This hand was soul and mind. He learned that there are more than Sabbaths, bland And filled with trifling things like...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2021 | AD, CO, DR, HE, LO, PA
Ingredients That photo of the man, his little son, And summer sunlight on their cuddling skin Has disappeared. It was the only one Jill had and most importantly no sin Could be detected in it. But it’s lost. Jill wonders if Ray...
by phillipw | Aug 16, 2021 | AD, CH, DR, FR, MA, ST
Vanilla Vermont I think the man I loved for many years, A druggie, lost in needles and cocaine, The man who caused so many useless tears, That man called Chuck, would find it quite inane That I am drinking coffee, milky stuff With lots of sweeteners...
by phillipw | Aug 6, 2021 | AD, EV, GA
The Reptilian Part of the Female Brain Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Because the birds are dinosaurs reduced (No, not evolved), the pheasant’s head is like A serpent’s, though more jewelled, as if...
by phillipw | Jun 24, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, GA, LO, RO, RU, SE
An Evensong at Rugby School Chapel Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The service is devoted to Saint John The Baptist. Then when prayer comes, “Lord, now let,” I think of peace and one plain tomb upon...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, CH, DE, FI, GA, Ho, LO, MI, PO, RO, RU, SC, WO
Blue Rugby and Blue Gallipoli Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We do not think of Rubert Brooke in blue, When we remember him at all. We think of Brooke Between some pages of a volume, true To...
by phillipw | May 17, 2021 | AD, BA, CH, CR, EV, JE, TE
Fingering of Instruments So, we are made of dust; at least we men Are. God created us from dust. He bound The dust together with some liquid. Then He made us breathe. Between our thighs two round Or oval things he hung. He must have meant For us to use...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2021 | AD, CO, DO, DR, EL, FA, MA, PA, PR, RE, SE
There to Efface Himself in Ecstasy Religious? There to efface himself in Ecstasy he flailed about. Yes, he tried Cocaine at first and, lolling in that sin, He won election victory as he fried His brain that way. Of course he used plain Ole dope as well but somehow...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2021 | AD, GA, HE, Ho, LO, ST
It’s May! It’s May! The Month of “Yes, You May” Traditions here are moss grown, very green And healthy. Ordered ways have not gone down. The white dressed cricket teams can still be seen Though players’ skins may well be black or brown As maybe distant centuries...
by phillipw | Nov 22, 2020 | AD, GA, MA
Scriptural Interpretation of Adam + Steve Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ……. The mud of being just a man is where We start from (mainly dust). God breathes his wet Breath into holes. ...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AD, AN, FE, GL, HI, Ho, KY, ME
Were I to Believe in Angels’ Songs If angels, each one, had a message they Would sing to us, would each charge be the same, A Kyrie, an Adoramus te, Or Gloria? No, that would be too tame. I’m thinking every one would be unique, Each text and melody enough to...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AD, AE, AL, AR, BO, LO, PA, PH, RO, SE
The Venerable, Ancient Need Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “And Socrates the philosopher, who despised everything, was, for all that, subdued by the beauty of Alcibiades; as also was the venerable...
by phillipw | May 31, 2020 | AD, EM, FE, TE
Black Light was not Needed I used to wear my heart a little wet With Day Glo blood, and pumping, on my sleeve, A pulse of adolescent scarlet, jet, Throb, jet in all directions. No steel greave Protected it politely in this show. Beats warbled as a sobbing gospel...
by phillipw | May 29, 2020 | AD, CH, FL, GO, HE, MO, PR, RO, SE, ST, Ta
Talleyrand & Gouveneur Morris Crippled Twinning “Your character is such that you destroy Unhappiness much faster than can fate Create its sadnesses,” said Monstesquiou To Adelaïde, who had the lovely trait Of being charming Countess de Flahaut— Which meant that...
by phillipw | May 19, 2020 | AD, DA, JO
Banjul…We Are Very Far Apart I’m at the margin of your universe. In fact, I’m banished past the boundaries of It, out in outer darkness. I am worse Than lines sans meaning, meter, rhyme or love, So far as your concerned. The galaxy That forms the center of your...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AD, DA, JE
The Pygmy Despair The other John was in there first or you Were in him first. (That’s what I suspect.) I Was not the first and that’s the point. Your true Loves, firstly, are for one who made you cry, Who hurt you awfully, pepper sprayed your heart, And then for...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AD, DA, JO, LO, RO
On Waves of Song Relief comes in as slowly as a tide On gentle coasts but feels as urgent as The tidal bore up Severn. Hope had died Until you spoke and now I feel like jazz Is jiving in my bones. The slowness came Because my heart was made of numbness, so My...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AD, DA, LO, RE
A Plea from Sodom and Gomorrah Please return to pain and bruising, not scars With numbness in the tissue. Trauma gives A certainty at least. Those dense armoires Of pale cicatrice commemoratives Might be, you think, better than current harms That sting, then ache,...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AD, DA, JO
Secondhand Frank John handed me a jacket of the sort They call a fleece in England, made of mild Beige man-made fiber looking like a short And curly lambskin. Then perhaps he smiled Though what that meant I would not know. I tried it on because it was a...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AD, DE, Ta
Beautiful Beyond Your Lips Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem An apple high above, up on a limb Where dawn can see it earlier than you Will ever know, awaits. The tree may brim With other fruit but still...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AD, EX, Ho
Fear God If wrecked upon the Shoal of Thought How is it with the Sea? The only Vessel that is shunned Is safe—Simplicity— ~ Emily Dickinson We move across the depths. We skim the waves. We barely penetrate the sea. We glide As if the ocean...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | AD, AN, AP, AR, HE, IN, MA, MY, SE, VE, VU
Primitive Sophisticated Truth Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ….…… When Greeks believed that nature’s aspects moved As gods and goddesses, as wind and fire, Then Bóreas came...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | AD, CO, GO, NO, SC
The Degradation of the Divine The gods have been reduced to ploys for ads, Cartoonish movies, and perfume campaigns For goddess-like attraction, and for fads Like PS4-ish war games. Gods’ remains Are just commercial or for trivial Stupidities. The great gods...
by phillipw | May 7, 2020 | AD, MA, SE
Médecins Sans Frontières …. Now even doctors for a charity Must be sexed up. They go to help in war Zones, in the broken bone severity Of mass catastrophe, but requests for Donations now require the sex appeal That permeates our whole society. The patient lifts...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AD, AU, BO, CA, JO, JU, MA, NA
Modern Improvements I find it faintly droll that Caesar had No clue about Napoleon and Hitler, that Augustus never knew how ultra bad That Mao and Josef Stalin were. How flat Those Caesars would have felt if only they Had known how pipsqueak they would seem compared...
by phillipw | Apr 21, 2020 | AD, CH
Florida Sunshine Although my memories, bleached by time, by years And decades, are both pale and patchy, some At least float, vivid. Often those with fears And pain recede. Noon beauties overcome These bad ones. Photographs of me when blond, So blond that it...
by phillipw | Feb 9, 2020 | AD, DA, JO, LO, RO, UN
When I Wake Up, I am Absent from Thee ‘As ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.’ 2 Corinthians 1:7 Two continents and long tides far away You live alone now and we sleep apart. The beauties of my high spec life hold sway,...
by phillipw | Feb 6, 2020 | AD, DA, JO, LO, RO, UN
The Rest is Silence A vacuum-like presence fills my veins, My arteries, my heart, yes, mostly in My chest. These vessels for my blood have stains Still where pulse used to course. Each ulta-thin Tattoo that love has mottled on their walls Is ugliness made up...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2019 | AD, CH, DR, LO, ST
Intravenous Love: A Sonnet Sequence I I take my drug in doses that must last For months—or years. Your distance now restrains Me from continuous supply. In veins Scarred caution punctures steady highs, but vast Effects on mind and soul make...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2019 | AD, DR, LO
Hoverdose Your dying in this moth-meandering way Just might destroy me more predictably Than if you pressed your earlobe (with a plea For ultimate commitment) to the stray And curly strands of sideburn by my ear, Then pulled a trigger at your other cheek...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2019 | AD
Will The one whose mouth is always dribbling dirt In lessons, can’t resist the urge to fling His limbs about and has to pull his shirt Away from sweaty sides and rub his thing (For any unsuspecting girls in The room), the one who flops his hair about...
by phillipw | Nov 6, 2019 | AD, CH, CL, GI, HE, KI, TE
….. Pubescent Vector Tom’s shoulders—knots of boyishness—were tied By Jahweh when in Baden-Powell mood But move in that white shirt where they must hide (Required by dress-code rule, to make Tom good), So they remain as veiled, as chaste, and...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | AD, Uncategorized
Adam’s Sweat His hair was colored like the soul of flares That curl up from licking flames. Those arms Were lightly glorified by copper hairs Which magnified their swollen, manly charms. Warm major veins that ran along the bulge Of biceps there were made...
by phillipw | Oct 3, 2019 | AD
Ady, Endre Ermindszent’s Parnassian Poet in Paris The light falls down athwart his hair in gloss And splay of lyric brilliance. Yes cascades. These streaks of glory are tight heaven’s loss, The loss celestial heights’ desires. Shine fades But only...
by phillipw | Sep 24, 2019 | AD, DA, JO
Darwin, Sickness, and Venice My recollections made from you and of Our time together are too much like ghosts Of gondolas. They move in fogs of love And far too fast in haze between the posts On either side of grand canals. There black Gesticulations of the water...
by phillipw | Sep 21, 2019 | AD, TE
BMs 0 All teenage boys are bored and mad, or mad And bored. (Is there a difference?) Some are bored Enough to kill. Testosterone gangs, bad And bored, don’t reckon they have really scored Till they have blasted some innocent head, Its boring gray...
by phillipw | Aug 12, 2019 | AD, AL, DR
Outside the British Museum Of course I cannot speak. I’m crammed with drugs And all the shit that comes with them. I’ve turned Intelligence to stupid drawl. The dugs Of chemical addiction leave my burned Synapses tottering. They’re like a man...
by phillipw | Aug 12, 2019 | AD, CH, ST
Insight He holds his whorly head there in his hands. He clutches druggy hair and all the world There. Hypnotized, he thinks the junk expands The universe, or painlessness impearled Is forming there inside his long-locked skull. The fix is not predictive; addictive...