by phillipw | May 21, 2023 | AP, AR, GR, HA, SE
How Humans Came to Know Themselves “Know thyself.” ~ the pronaos of Apollo’s temple at Delphi Jeremiah 17:9 By juxtaposing paradoxes of Crabbed contradictions ancient Greeks called gods, Greeks learned to know themselves, thus taught that love And...
by phillipw | Sep 28, 2021 | AP, Ho, LU
Blessèd Are the Beautiful The people built for glamor are built for Worship. Adulation of the crowd Is studio directed so that, more Like worship, it concocts a Venus proud Of her authority or actors veil Themselves like royalty in Oz. We do Not want their...
by phillipw | Sep 3, 2021 | AP, CH, CR
Cherry Trees, Apple Trees, Crabapple Trees as Temple Domes Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Our souls go out of us when cherries bloom. Our souls go winging out, but not quite free. Instead they have to...
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 | Jul 11, 2021 | AN, AP, AR, GR, SC
Aegean Immortality Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The eye begins to wonder if the truth About Greek statues is that gods still sleep Within them, living, deep within their youth. The eye looks...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2021 | AP, GR, MA, SP, SY
Accordingly The spirit of the peony is spring. The summer finds itself inside a rose. In May the petals, red and pink, both sing A colored fugue in fragrant ratios. The garden wings have gathered. Great tits leap As through the grandest canyon. Swooped...
by phillipw | Mar 11, 2021 | AP, BE, SP, WA
Memory of a Tree Surgeon Season Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem One spring he knew stretched on — on and on — like Suns rising as eternity insists They should. It was as if an April dyke...
by phillipw | Mar 1, 2021 | AP, GA, Ho, RO, SE
Heterodox Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When first he kissed, his name and family dis appeared, his father and his brothers van ished, and his mother and his aunties mis conceived...
by phillipw | Feb 14, 2021 | AP, AR, DE, LO, LU
Not to Be Eclipsed Artemis and Apollo Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He settles into quietness, a moon That does not give a care about eclipse. He settles into desperate calm, a noon Ruled...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2021 | AP, Ho, RE, SP
The Daffodils Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Another year the daffodils will rise, For centuries, millennia again, Perhaps for eons. Yellow trumpets’ cries Though silent...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2020 | AN, AP, BE, CH, DI, JE, MA, RE
Christ vs. Apollo Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If true Apollo’s temple has been crushed By buildings of the Vatican, the ground Of Lord Apollo’s prophecies now hushed By singing in the...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AP, BE, OR, TO, UG
The Tortoise Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Other poems by Apollinaire relate to Orpheus, for example, ‘The Tortoise,’ whose shell—a gift from Apollo—provided the frame of his lyre.” ~...
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 16, 2020 | AP, DI, GO, LI, ME, MU, PO, RH
The Cavern Leading to the Muses When Linus first invented rhythm with A melody in song, the beauty came Ideal — so lovely that a sacred myth Could not compete. Apollo could not tame A thing so perfect, so he had to kill The poet. Deity must never lose With humans,...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | AP, ET, IM, OR, SW
Stretching the Eternal Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “the soul’s survival and residual divinity” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 23 The followers of Orpheus, if not The man himself, desired...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | AN, AP, DE, GR, PR
Ruined Myth and Heavy Reality Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The pillars look more like some backbones stripped Of skin and muscle than Apollo’s space In Delphi and are squat and stodgy, chipped And...
by phillipw | Jul 10, 2020 | AP, BI, LO, TR, UR, VE
Plato’s Ideal For Denise/Josh and Rachel/Robert Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem [Uranus, the god of the heavens, is both father and mother to the goddess Aphrodite in Plato’s Symposium.] The...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AP
An Ancient Greek Trinity In Athens Love was placed in honor by Athena. There beside chaste wisdom, love Was set up on a plinth. The Greeks placed high In their gymnasia that god above Their bodies practicing for ideal power. Accompanying love there in that place...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AP, UP, YA
The New, Improved Yahoo Mail They never tell you (do they?) till it’s far Too late. They tell you that this upgrade will Be marvellous, that it will be 5-star, Be quicker, much more clever, and will fill Those cybergaps you never even knew Existed, gaps you...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AN, AP, GO, IP
Three Thousand Years before Apple and Three Thousand Years after the iPad Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I carry in my knapsack poems by The ancient Greeks, the eldest ones, the best, The best of...
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 3, 2020 | AP, HU, OR, PI, PO, TO
The Tortoise Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Other poems by Apollinaire relate to Orpheus, for example, ‘The Tortoise,’ whose shell—a gift from Apollo—provided the frame of his lyre.” ~...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | AE, AP, DI, ES
Volcanic Balance Cleanliness is what we need in the art, In music, and in poetry. The heats Of passion and the pulsing of the heart And other organs, lungs, are best when beats Become subdued by breezy parts of mind, The temperate regions. Coolness enters in...
by phillipw | Mar 16, 2020 | AP, DU, JO
Mellow Voiced like Perfection I remember well the first day that we Met. It was Sabbath yellow, white and blue, A summer’s afternoon of sanctity Because of God—and then because of you, Your sister and your parents. Hours of sun And brightness in the sky, a holy day...
by phillipw | Aug 21, 2019 | AP
Distant and Distant For Fiona, Kimberly and Ivan One night when Perseus had put to bed His wingèd horse and kissed his forelock, twice, (While no one else was watching), too much red Wine passed Perseus’s lips since at dice He lost a pile of coins. The next...
by phillipw | Aug 15, 2019 | AP, JA
Hipsypile, Medea, and the Ascending Star Twice Apollonius compares the man, That hero, Jason, to a rising star, A strong one in the dawn or dark. Scan The lines: two women lusting for him are Not praised for stellar loveliness. At best Each comes presented as a...