by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | AN
Masculine Rhythms and Forms How formal were the Greeks in ancient verse, The oldest voices most of all, the blind One, Homer, and then Hesiod. Disperse All thoughts of paltry freedom. Do not mind The strictest beauties of control. Since males Are almost always in the...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | AN, ME, SC
Medieval or Eternity The artist does not have a name. Severe With grace in stone, the sculptures look down on Us, masking his identity, a tear Not shed, a smile withheld. The brawn Of arm and shoulder, strength and talent of The hand can only be supposed. The man...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | AN, GR, PO
Daedalus and Icarus “The natural rhythms of Greek [poetry] tend ‘downward,’ falling” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 14 How strange it is to think that ancient Greek In poetry inclined to downward flow. We think that the trajectory was sleek In upward movement...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | AN, SA
Sappho Wrote about Twelve Thousand Lines of Poetry Twelve thousands lines of poetry were torched By time and Christians. Piety increased The ravages, all this because she scorched With love for girls. The bishops made a feast Of male disgust that Sappho caused by fire...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | AN, LO
The Sacred Fire 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 as perfect paints: Vermeer’s silk velvet spaces spring to mind. The purity those Thespians conceived...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | AN, PO
Myths of Poetry The early words of poetry arose From darkness in the depths of throat and lungs In caves and mixed with burning air. The bows And arrows in the shadows gave the tongues That sang the blood and flesh which chanting needs. Or else out on a...
