by phillipw | Jan 17, 2024 | AU, FA, PA, PR
Heroic The autumn brings the woods to life at last, The life of splendor made of God and light, The light and colors dreamed of though more vast Than men imagine even in a rite Of Orthodox and patriarchal sheen Of silk, embroidery. The...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2023 | AR, AU, JE
Photographs as Conquerors She languishes beyond the portraits made, Aligned above the keyboard and then on Her dressing table. In the one with shade Below the left eye rests a darker dawn Which, if we might have known its meaning first, Would maybe have required...
by phillipw | May 29, 2023 | AU, SI, WH, WI, WO
Aunt Wilma Singing “The Holy City” in the Tiny White Concrete Block Church in Sabbath Titusville Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem What feelings would my father have enjoyed While sitting in the elder’s...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2023 | AU, DE, EN, SP
Changing Changelessly Will Meet Its Fate Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Mountain cherry blooms Fall. Petals scatter over Water-wheel and brook. ~ Chigetsu (Englished by Phillip Whidden The water wheel...
by phillipw | Aug 22, 2022 | AU, FA, WI
Autumn Wind The autumn wind has never found its shapes. October sends it through the yellow leaves, The orange ones and the red ones. Wind escapes, Not ceding any clue. Each leaf receives A hint about the contours of the wind But does not...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | AU, BR, GO, RU
So What? “a Rugby athlete” “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” ~ Oscar Wilde If we reduce the man to what he was On Rugby playing fields, back when a lad Who might have...
by phillipw | Feb 10, 2022 | AU, ET, SA, ST, TI
Ex Nihilo is a Joke Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “. . .it starts with an empty universe” ~ Stephen Fry, Cosmos, vii An empty universe is paradox. In such a boundless space there’d be no...
by phillipw | Feb 9, 2022 | AU, FA, HA, SI
Silence Beyond Silence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The quietness; A chestnut leaf sinks Through the still water. ~Shōhaku When all the world is hushed, the quietest sounds...
by phillipw | May 17, 2021 | AU, UN
The Swing on Aunt Ruby’s and Uncle Hubert’s Porch in Georgia Twilight Slow days passing, accumulating– How distant they are, The things of the past. ~ Buson The slow days come and go, but creeping, so Drudged they seem to be going back. ...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | AU, FA, LO, ME, NO, RO
The Month of Dying Beauty The month of dying beauty made of leaves That bleed with scarlet, crimson, and the flash Of orange, hurtful yellows and bright sheaves Of golden, sickled hay revealed a gash. A wound in present time was opened by My finding of a cache of...
by phillipw | Mar 29, 2021 | AU, FE, GR, Ho, JO, SA, SE, ST
The Four Evils to be Overcome According to Saint John of the Cross: Joy, Hope, Fear, Grief The springtime brings her yellow joy on top Of green stems flaring. Then come pink and white Along the happy trees. We will not stop, They promise, even in...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2021 | AU, FA, NO, OC, OX, PA, SE
Perfect Paradoxes, October’s Oxymorons The point of fall is melancholy joy. The oranges, yellows, and the reds are breaths Of autumn but in parallel destroy. Their bright solemnity a trillion deaths Entails. The oranges are calmly rife With gorgeouness of gloom. ...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2021 | AU, MA, SP, VI
March Meets October The violets are deepest purple in The lane. This purple laughs as darkness there Beneath the hedge. Such purple is the twin Of brighter colors matching autumn’s blare Of orange, but the double of them just In beauty. Blooms so much...
by phillipw | Feb 18, 2021 | AE, AU, BE, ES, PH
Sumptuous Fabric with Bl♦ck Di♦monds Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A copper-breasted pheasant shifts from claw To claw up on the autumn branch. The cold Of evening settles down upon him. ...
by phillipw | Feb 7, 2021 | AU, FA, FU, MU, Uncategorized
Curve, Raggedness, and Tininess Squared Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The thusness of the mushroom is increased By one orange leaf which falls upon it, so, An autumn colored cloth a Druid priest...
by phillipw | Jan 5, 2021 | AU, BU, EP, KO, MO, MY, PA, RE, SA
“Autumn Revelations”; “Monistic Meditation”; and, “Comprehension”: a Trio of Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Samaras wirble down. One hits the pond. The silence and the ripples...
by phillipw | Dec 21, 2020 | AU, BL, CL, FA, PE, PU, SI
Physics and Metaphysics Clean Water and Black Hole Scars Shizukasa wa kuri no ha shizumu shimizu kana The quietness; A chestnut leaf sinks Through the clear water. ~Shōhaku The simple, clear, transparent, and the pure Are summed up in the...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2020 | AU, GH, LO, NI, TH
Starving Phantoms Missing Thanksgiving Ghosts love to gather in the kitchens where We want our memories to be. The ghosts Are hungry. Famished ghosts would love to snare Lorena’s apple pie, the smell of roasts, Aroma of her pie when bringing slice And whipped cream...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2020 | AU, CO, GA, Ho, TR
To the Right The sign instructed, “to the right.” It said, “Go right.” The right had sapphire eyes and wrote With clarity for fate. A blond male head Conceived the sign. Pale whiskered meanings bloat Beneath the notice for the damned. They walk...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2020 | AU, CO, DA, EM, FA, HE, Ho, MA, NE, RA, TH, TR
Mystics of Concord Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem New England thinkers mixed autumnal views With leaves from Homer, also Dante’s leaves. That blinded poet managed to suffuse The thoughts...
by phillipw | Oct 10, 2020 | AU, CH, DE, GR, MO, ST
Forget the Graveyard’s Darkness and that Urn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Imagining that you are in the sky Above Antarctica or up beyond The Arctic’s ice consoles my heartbeats, high Among excited...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | AC, AU, NO, PA
Metaphysical Meteorology The dead surround us like a Northern Lights Display above blue waters, seas as blue As Patroclus’s eyes in tented nights Beside Achilles making love as new And strong as sapphire blades, above the green Of greenest waters, greener than the...
by phillipw | Jun 11, 2020 | AU, SI, WH, WI
Woodrow and Wilma Recalled in a Mystic Setting “and scream among thy fellows” He walked at night inside a dream along The sands of Cape Canaveral, the shore Woodrow is in the dungarees Beside his father’s boyhood. A song Had touched it long ago, a song much...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | AN, AU, BA, CH, HU, IN, JO, LU, MU, PS
Psalm 130 From out of depths of sorrow came the sounds Of Parry’s anthem (first of all) “In my Distress.” The music came from deep chest wounds Und Bach and Luther. Anguish reaches sky And heaven only when the music climbs From sources such as...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AU, CO, VE
Comet 46P/Wirtanen to Be Viewed from Venezia, Serenissima Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A glowing circle smudge of aqua light Sails through the constellation Taurus with An icy pinprick at its heart....
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AU, CH, FA, FU, MO, OA, SP
Skywriting Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The well-shaped maple on the hilltop spreads Its leaves and limbs like rhythmed lines and rhymes. It is a sonnet that in autumn sheds God’s colors...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AU, CO, FA, FI, LA, OX, RE, SP
The Knighthood of the Countryside Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Genteel, the hills of Oxfordshire are clothed With farm fields at their feet, brocades of trees On shoulders and their chests. The...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | AU, DE
The Fall I think that I will be an autumn leaf In dying. I will turn to blowing red And glowing amber. Yellow’s autumn grief Will sublimate me like a glistening dread. October skies of vivifying blue And indigo November afternoons Will only serve to...
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 | May 6, 2020 | AU, BE, CA, DE, DO, ED, FA, RO, WI
A Seal Upon my Heart Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My lingering rose, the lightish purple one, Has failed to open. It is still a bud In late November. Though the autumn sun Indulges it, the rose will...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AT, AU, FA
October Conviction Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The bird lifts up its wings to soak up fire’s Orange warmth, its orange and yellow heat. The wings Spread wide to soak up more. The black aspires...
by phillipw | May 2, 2020 | AU, NE, VE
Vermont Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A white wood house defines the slope. The trees Have gone to red and flame. A field beyond Is spread with grass and granite rocks at...
by phillipw | Apr 26, 2020 | AU, DI
Ever and Always Death is Their Final Pathetic Option “It is therefore necessary to give orders, not only to poets,but also to all artists and craftsmen, that they should portray the image of goodness in their works and avoid everything that is ugly and bad…”. ~...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | AU, LO, NI
Lorena, Logic, Love, Loss The thought of Aunt Lorena crossed my mind Today while shaving. Human brains are strange Like feral cats who once were tame. Designed For logic, heads can sometimes disarrange Their purpose unpredictably. Why should My mind thinks, “Aunt...
by phillipw | Mar 12, 2020 | AU, GR, MO
The Rim Falls written on the edge of orange leaves, Upon the curling crest of surfer’s waves, On Violetta’s lashes as she grieves, The falling salt of love, salt eyes by graves— Are stunning all. They lame the heart and lung, These autumns peer...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2020 | AU
Pastels and Mists are not the Heights of Mystery The air of brilliant autumn days here in Vermont has something unexplained to say. New England has a revelation twin To mystery. Heavy with a light of day This revelation’s sense is not revealed. The mystery is...
by phillipw | Feb 14, 2020 | AU, FA
Royal Fields and Horizon, Windsor: Crown, Orb and Swaying Sceptre The gentle foliage arc the hill provides Because of autumn limbs held up to touch The blue curved sky, this two-greened arch, divides The earth from heaven and then joins up much Besides. The dual bow...
by phillipw | Dec 27, 2019 | AU
Morning After Rains They plant their roots for firmness in the earth. They do not think of death but plan for pods And seeds. Their blueprints are for birth. They have a strong disdain for lightning rods, For what is living for except for heights? They...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2019 | AU, FA, SP, TR
Tree Fates When trees begin to pale with hints of bling The first effect seems like a gauze-glove haar, A tailored fitting from the hidden spring Which spins this morning mist, distinct and far Removed from gloom. It corresponds with dawn. Yet...
by phillipw | Dec 2, 2019 | AU
High, High Above High, high above the heavenly robes in crèpes Of purple swathes and borealis green, A meteor’s white streaks behind the drapes Hung blowing in the sky. Some say the scene Results from geomagnetism’s acts On molecules and atoms of N2 And...
by phillipw | Dec 2, 2019 | AU
A Single Tree A single tree among the untouched green Of others sacrifices arms of leaves; A crucifixion set in autumn’s scene Conflated with the fire of yellow, cleaves To God-like death in slow motion. A golden cross, as high as resurrection,...
by phillipw | Nov 22, 2019 | AU, WI
Hills I like that hills are taught by autumn how To mean and learn from leaves what orange warns. Hills take their definition from fall’s now And from its sharpened hoariness of horns. I like how hills are taught by castles, walls And forts what...
by phillipw | Oct 30, 2019 | AU
November 3, 2015, Bracknell, Ascot and Windsor Great Park A boredom colored gray has settled on The unsuspecting morning. Gray invades The brighter colors grubbied by this dawn. Not even that reddish pub front evades This slumped power. This murk has a smell like...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2019 | AU, CO, PA, SI, SY
Burdens of Light The silences of country life are more Like shades than sounds. So quiet that they seem Like pastel tints in watercolors or The light beneath acanthus leaves we dream. Those silences are more like mist at dawn Above a pond than like a lack...
by phillipw | Oct 2, 2019 | AU, LO
Bright Month Epiphany The light fell on the green, or rather greens Of leaves inside the autumn air of street And garden there among the city scenes, Kaleidoscopic in September suite Of urban beauty and variety. The trees of Kensington spread out their arms To...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2019 | AU, LO
Lustrous Breakfast Time My Aunt Lorena comes to me in dreams— And when I’m eating breakfast. That seems odd Until you know that sometimes she poured streams Of milk on Ruskets, fond with cream from God At camp meeting, inside her canvas tent. When Aunt Lorena...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2019 | AU
This Season Has a Sharpened Sweetness This season has a sharpened sweetness. Air Approaches lungs like maple syrup ice Shards, crystals softened so they almost flare Inside the nostrils though not quite concise Enough to stab with twinge. The atmosphere instead Is...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2019 | AU
Glowing Canvas Mild autumn fields look turned to warmth by plough And sun as if a hazel-colored scene Were caught by some new Constable who now Arises in burnt orange, blond and green— While nutshell brown comes, from a brush which toils As newer Turners might, if...
by phillipw | Sep 8, 2019 | AU
Her Lips In early autumn maples start to take On colors of the pyre, abandon green, Hold out their limbs like Cranmer at the stake, Their frantic gestures searching for a sheen More desperate than innocence. A breath Of chilly breezes mixes with the sun, Prepares...
by phillipw | Sep 8, 2019 | AU
October Maples, Slough How tepid autumn is when rain and gray Embrace it with their girzzled arms. Their hands Contaminate the fall, tarnish the gay Leaves, yellow and orange, make them into glands Secreting disappointment, suppressing Fervent suicide with hormones...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2019 | AU, FR
How Green the Autumn Is How green the autumn is… true, oranges, reds, High yellows do their shouting thing; the greens Just hum along, as if on calming meds. Photographers scout round for fevered scenes To print with glossy flair. The subtleties Of varied shades of...
by phillipw | Jul 31, 2019 | AU
The Calmer Autumn Colors Range The calmer autumn colors range along Wide walkways of the city parks. The greens Predominate. We forget that their strong Insistence is the background to the scenes That poets paint about the season. Bold Explosions of a brigher...