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...