by phillipw | Feb 11, 2024 | AL, JO, MI, PA
“The mind is its own place” ~ Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 221-270, John Milton The mind creates its own space/time inside A rumpled space in skulls. The gravity In that dimension grows as long and wide As heaven and hell to hold depravity Of atom bombs and...
by phillipw | May 29, 2023 | AL, BO, DO, LO, OS, WI
BruteBitchBastard Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “like murdered singing birds” Lord Alfred turned to singing something worse Than that monstrosity, that attic room Abomination. He became...
by phillipw | Dec 15, 2022 | AL, AT, HI
Raising Civilization Ten thousand years ago men took to ploughs To train wild grass to flourish tame and fat. Men didn’t know that drilling seeds would rouse The walls of cities, brewing hops in vat, And stewing barley (whisky). Men grew drunk Not just...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | AL, BR, RU, SE, Uncategorized
The War Poet “a rich nature … fighting eagerly towards the truth.” “I have a rendezvous with death At some disputed barricade” ~ Alan Seeger Alan Seeger Not all war poets are the same as Brooke. Not all are like a cabinet display Of Royal Worcester...
by phillipw | Feb 11, 2022 | AL, SO
Imagine Ignorance Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Imagine being ignorant enough To fail to know the difference between The Fates and Furies, or between the buff Abderos and his...
by phillipw | Dec 6, 2021 | AL, BR, FI, RU, SE, WA, WO
The War Poet “a rich nature … fighting eagerly towards the truth.” “I have a rendezvous with death At some disputed barricade” ~ Alan Seeger Alan Seeger Not all war poets are the same as Brooke. Not all are like a cabinet display Of...
by phillipw | Jul 11, 2021 | AL, AP, Uncategorized
Lack of Olive Oil for Cooking and Cleaning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Alexander’s men learned they were out Of olive oil, or nearly out, they stopped. They halted. They began to soldier...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2021 | AE, AL, AR, CA, DE, ES, SO
Libation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Solutrean bison – By Museo de Altamira y D. Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 3.0 I sprinkled my best wine with dust from tombs, Presuming that...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2021 | AL, BE, BI, CO, DU, HE, PO, RH, TH
Binfield’s Baddest Bantam Boy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Pope devised heroic couplets, they Were like the weapons of the day men walked With by their thighs. Their rapiers’ display Was...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2021 | AL, CR, DE, ED, FA, GA, GR, Ho, SC, SM
Wandering in Warriston Cemetery “Smith contracted diphtheria in November 1866 and, although he seemed to have recovered by Christmas, was then struck down by typhus. He died at home on 5 January 1867 at the very beginning of his thirty-seventh year, and was buried in...
by phillipw | Dec 31, 2020 | AL, DO, EM, TR, WH
The Innocence of Snow Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Wherever snow is, it is always just Like snow in other places. Snow in Rome And Paris lies just like the holy dust Of manna in the desert,...
by phillipw | Dec 25, 2020 | AL, AN, CH, FE, KI, MU
The Cambridge Christmas Choir Trinity The beauties vary. One young man whose throat Appears to have no voice box sings high Inside the chapel. Melodies devote Themselves from him like angels in the sky Above sopranos and the trebles. He Turns into miracles the...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2020 | AL, BA, GA, Ho, LO, PA, RO
The Prophet Addresses Bagoas Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Your heart will be volcano-like with force And lava. You will be the lightning bolt That he has always wanted, you the horse And he your...
by phillipw | Nov 29, 2020 | AL, AN, DE, EP, GR, HE, IS, LU, MA, PH, PL, SE
Healthy Hedonism; and, Holy Hedonism, Paired Sonnets Healthy Hedonism Tattoo upon yourself this perfect law— The sacredness of pleasure is above The other, puny principles. The awe That it deserves, like God in love, Confirms that thrills, inviolate and...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2020 | AL, GO, IS, PR, RE
Revenant Religion The ancient skies were filled with gods and gods And gods. We sickened of them, most of them. The priests and prophets held them up at odds With us. The gods were one vile diadem That crowned creation. But these gods were red As death...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2020 | AL, CA, LA, LI, MY, SA, ST
Lost Legends Long Before the Vedas and the Iliad Go far enough in time and all becomes Strict mists and stone. Fire circles heard the tales So long forgotten now that tribal drums Are recent evolutions, compared. Trails Do not exist to take us back to spells And...
by phillipw | Nov 11, 2020 | AL, BR, GO, IN, JE
Harvest and Outside Harvesting 1 Kings 8: “Then spake Solomon: “The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.” First Samuel 22: “He made darkness pavilions round about Him, dark waters.” Psalm 18:11: “He made darkness his secret place.” The harvesting...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | AL, GO, JE, JU, LI, ZE
Lightning Gods Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The lightning rods for timelessness, we wait For sly eternity to strike. We wait in time Yet immortality aims to castrate Or drown us. ...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AL, FR, SA, TH, UN
Thucydides: Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Because of the Human Thing” We forecast both the worst and best because The human thing is settled in the crux. Set there like...
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 | 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 8, 2020 | AL, BA
Instinct and Alexander the Hateful Achilles, after many years of war, And after losing Patroklus to death, Reacted vilely, more like smelly whore Than man of Greek-sky principles. Blue death And anguish overwhelming him like sea Wave, catastrophic, made by monsters,...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | AL, EU, OR
Imperfection as Perfection Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The eyes are white and wide. They look as spare As Orpheus’s when he lost his wife. Yet Alexander never knew such bare And sand-dune...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AL, DE
Apollonian Loveliness in the Lands of Eos, Trailing Robes “He would delight his heart while gazing on Their men,” those ancients, the Ionians, This visitor to Delos. God-like brawn Made sons that later Macedonians Would urgently have coveted if they Had seen them...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AL, BA, GA, Ho, LO, PO
Bagoas Won Two Prizes, the Great One First and then the Minor One Bagoas, given as a present to The King of Asia, was so stunning in His beauty that he caused a noble, true Benevolence in Alexander. Skin As lovely the younger man’s was more Than equal to the royal...
by phillipw | Jul 3, 2020 | AL, AR, CH, MO, ST
Bitterer than Blue Dreams Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse I sleep with one black perfect curl beneath My pillow. It belongs to love. Below My blond, blond head this curl is like a wreath Of mourning. Blackness almost has a...
by phillipw | Jun 30, 2020 | AL, BY, GE, Ho, IS, JO, KE, LO, WA
Crippled Poets Among the earliest of lines to spring And linger utterly till now are long Ones drawn from blinded eyes. The verses sing Like prophets’ spirits which must see. A song Of guts, the gods, and marrow-spills came out From manly depths behind the...
by phillipw | Jun 24, 2020 | AL, GA, HI, IS
Sacred Incenses The fragrance of the orange groves comes down From paradise, whatever God you know. A Christ, Ganesha—or an Allah frown . . . Yes, even that—must carry with it glow Of perfect redolence from heaven. White Perfection flows out from the...
by phillipw | Jun 19, 2020 | AL, AN, Ho, MA, SC
Imperfection as Perfection Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The eyes are white and wide. They look as spare As Orpheus’s when he lost his wife. Yet Alexander never knew such bare And sand-dune...
by phillipw | Jun 17, 2020 | AL, BA, PA
Instinct and Alexander the Hateful Achilles, after many years of war, And after losing Patroklus to death, Reacted vilely, more like smelly whore Than man of Greek-sky principles. Blue death And anguish overwhelming him like sea Wave, catastrophic, made by monsters,...
by phillipw | Jun 13, 2020 | AL, CH, DE, GR, MO, ST
Bitterer than Blue Dreams Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse I sleep with one black perfect curl beneath My pillow. It belongs to love. Below My blond, blond head this curl is like a wreath Of mourning. Blackness almost has a...
by phillipw | Jun 11, 2020 | AL, ES, GI, LI, SE
Gin as Tonic It moves like hypnotism down the throat, Like fuzzy ecstasies that stroke the tongue Along their way. A beauty soon begins to bloat The brain like sugared peace and mist among The nagging weights, those boring days, the nights Of brownish...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | AL, CH, EL, KI, PH, PR, WI
Simian Wound to Greece “The new Greek king, Alexander, … was out walking his wolfhound, Fritz … and the dog was attacked by a tame Spanish monkey. While trying to release the monkey from Fritz’s teeth, the king was attacked by its mate and severely bitten...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | AL, KI, PH, PR
More than Just Blue Eyes His family was as full of grief as most Extended ones, blue of flowers more Like purple though. While on the Baltic coast With Alexandra sporting on the shore Perhaps he temporarily forgot Along with her King Alexander’s death. They played in...
by phillipw | May 23, 2020 | AL, AN, PH, PR
Mother’s Unhinged Love, Father’s Unrepentant Loves A blond much raised without his parents through His early years may be quite different from A brown-haired boy whose blood is far less blue. Instead of royal meals he got a crumb Or two from palace tables. Father had...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | AL, GO, HY, RE
And Lifted Up If poets and composers failed to come, Then who would write the hymns for Venus, Mars, And Jupiter? Our race would be a numb Excuse for souls. If none could look at stars Through telescopes, or build an altar, then Existing would become a...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | AL, CE, GE, SP, TH
String (Strung Out) Theory Stop! Not so fast, guys! Einstein’s shocked white head Apparently opined not that the rate Of light was swiftest, but nowt could be sped Up quicker than light, could accelerate To be more fleet than it. His crucial thought, That...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AL, DA, IN, PA, PU
A Gay Ole Time in Daisy-Circle Hell “Why does your vision linger there below Among those lost and mutilated shades?” He asked. I stared at him. Was he so slow? “It’s obvious. None living in the glades Of heaven or in Purgatory now Is nearly so...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AL, AN, DI, GO, JE, ME
Some readers may find part of this pair offensive. If you might be offended, do not read these sonnets, please. “The Men of Ancient Hellas” and “Exodus 34:14”— a pair of sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AL, AN, BO, CO, DO, GI, OS, PE, RO, WI
The Ultimate Chamber of Silent Adoration Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “When Robbie Ross died, […] he triumphed over both Bosie and Constance, by having his ashes interred in Oscar’s tomb.” ~...
by phillipw | May 19, 2020 | AL
Alexander He had the countenance and features of Great gods. Believing this, men fashioned for Him attributes humanity must love: Invincibility shot through with more Than imperfection—sadness from desire, The will to triumph at the greatest cost, An...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AL, AR, MA
Like Algae-covered Art Attempting to Create Immortality Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AL, CO, IS, RE
Uranium Rods and Synergy “no proud dreams and no proud lusts” ~ H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds The swelling and the force of men is like The power of God, Jehovah at his best, Or Allah at his fiercest, or, more the spike In Mercury’s performance, gods...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | AL, BA, BI, GA, HE, RO, ST
Barsine, Roxane, Hephaestion, Bagoas and So On and So On Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Prince Alexander’s face looks melted, hard But melted slightly. Hardness lives in stone. The melting comes from...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | AL, BU, MA
Physiognomy as Prophecy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem https://moco-choco.com/2015/01/29/the-discovery-of-the-tombs-of-alexander-the-greats-father-and-son-in-vergina/ The fact that Alexander’s nose...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AL, PA, PE, PR, RO, SE
Zip, Zap, Slap Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem That oops-ish, Oh My Gosh-ish feeling comes https://www.bwpawards.org/winners2017#&gid=1&pid=1 Sometimes, yes even to an amphipod It seems. The...
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 16, 2020 | AL
Instinct and Alexander the Hateful Achilles, after many years of war, And after losing Patroklus to death, Reacted vilely, more like a smelly whore Than a man of Greek-sky principles. Blue death And anguish overwhelming him like sea Waves, catastrophic, made by...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2020 | AL, AN, SC
Alt Clud A darkness darker than the darkest dark Forbids it to us. We know nothing more Than guesses at its language and its stark Rapine and slaughter. Battles, battles, war, And tiny strips of peace are all that we Can stab at in the...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2020 | AL, PH
Potidaea and Delium There was a time philosophers and those They taught were men on battlegrounds. They fought Together, side by side. There was no pose (About butch fortitude) in fancy thought— They did it sword and shield and spear and brawn. And if they...
by phillipw | Mar 16, 2020 | AL
Self-knowledge, Selfish Knowledge “Socrates was once asked why it was that Alcibiades, who was so brilliant, beautiful, rich, and high in society was so unhappy. Socrates answered, ‘Because wherever Alcibiades goes, Alcibiades is there.’” This Alcibiades could cry...
by phillipw | Dec 30, 2019 | AL, AL, ME, MI
Mists Does mist mean something in the mind? Besides The coming of dementia with its fog Of numb remembrance, Alzheimer’s knife slides Right through the brain. Schizophrenia’s Gog And Magog thrust an Armageddon in The very citadel of logic. Does...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2019 | AL, BU, LO, SE
Phenomenal .A kiss is more than lips, spit, tongues and teeth .Luxuriating in a bedroom’s heat, .Exploring to blue veins and nerves beneath .Conventions recognized by skin. The beat — .Against the ribcage in each chest — of hearts...
by phillipw | Aug 25, 2019 | AE, AL, BU, FL, IN, LO, ME, NO
Erde und Himmel: a Sonnet The picture on the page (this photo in the ad) was not of you. It looked like you, though. Can it be that something quite so thin and boring as casually leafing through an in-flight magazine might bring this...