by phillipw | Apr 17, 2023 | BA, TE
Baudelaire and Lord Alfred: “from out our bourne of Time and Place” If Baudelaire were right, the body buys Its way straight through to immortality By strict improvement. Ladies’ made-up eyes Rise artfully from mere banality To something like subliminal...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2022 | BA, CA, WH, WO
Canaveral Olympic Sport The Splashothrills In Response to Wordsworth and the Daffodils The brothers and the sisters set a race Of sorts. They go out to the little dock And brace up on that sunlit wooden space, Banana River space. Some lift up frock...
by phillipw | Oct 19, 2021 | BA, BR, J, RU
“Mythical Land of the Ever Young” “I can’t help feeling that he has been smothered and castrated, and there he is, quite different, and memorable, could we disinter him.” ~ Virginia Woolf “They shall grow not old, as we that are left...
by phillipw | Sep 20, 2021 | BA, LU, MA, MO, NO
The Minx and Sacrifice The reason Marilyn appealed to both The men and women was because she meant A dual thing and not just beauty. Too loath To say that, though, they melted to her scent Composed of victimhood and vampishness. They, deep gods, or...
by phillipw | May 30, 2021 | BA, JA, PO, ZE
Sado Island Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A haiku does not aim for beauty. In The essence of the poem beauty waits. A prima donna stays behind the thin Wing curtains. ...
by phillipw | May 17, 2021 | AD, BA, CH, CR, EV, JE, TE
Fingering of Instruments So, we are made of dust; at least we men Are. God created us from dust. He bound The dust together with some liquid. Then He made us breathe. Between our thighs two round Or oval things he hung. He must have meant For us to use...
by phillipw | Apr 25, 2021 | AN, BA, BE, BO, CH, FI, MI
Michael Barham Antiques at the Top of the Portobello Road The shops are multi-coloured on their fronts, The pink ones and the gold ones and the grey (Lead blue). Yet then a true blue one confronts Your vision. [Other shoppers wander. They Don’t have a clue. ...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2021 | AE, AR, BA, GR, MO, SH, WA
Simplicity and Complexity The modern Scandinavians and chairs By Shakers have their meaning just because Of life’s complexity. The Cubist squares And glossed rectangularity give pause Like Philip Johnson’s house of cleanest glass. The house by Gropius in Lincoln...
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 | Dec 2, 2020 | AN, BA, EU, HA, JA, LY, ME, MU, MY, OR
Lyrical Light and Annihilation The harp is not of heaven alone. Its strings Have been to Hades on the saddest trip. A gilded harp may seem to have the wings Of Hermes. It may ride an Argo ship Which has one eye to see its way to fleece And gold, to beauty’s...
by phillipw | Nov 14, 2020 | AR, BA, IR
Bāneh The Zagros Mountains hold the city near In beauty. In the sun it opens like A sunflower, bright and rich. In winter clear Light shows the buildings. Snow-sped sunbeams strike It into greater loveliness beneath Ice peaks. In spring...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | BA
The Eternal Cry of Women about Men and Love “Your thoughtlessness in love, Orpheus, has wrecked us both.” ~ Virgil, in Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, p. 93 They never know, these men, including when They get the clearest orders. Even gods Are useless: Pluto gives...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AN, AR, BA, WA
Metallic Heroes Did not Dare to Turn their Backs Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Bronze swords, and shields, and helmets with their crests They wore while slicing men with wounds and death....
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 7, 2020 | BA, CE, TY
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…”. ~ Penelope Murray, Plato on...
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 | 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 | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, JO, LU, MU, PA, SA, WE
The Music Historian “Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (1909), [was] rated by The Times as his most important book” ~ Wikipedia Nobility and grandeur at the height Of music, that is what the boy was taught By Wesley. ...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, HU, JO, MU, PA
At the Solitary Age of Twelve— Seven and Twelve Being Holy Numbers The first of seven early music books Reveals a boy methodical as Bach. He studies Bach’s first 48. He looks In detail, analyzing. “Let us talk,” He seems to say, “Just you and I alone. You...
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 26, 2020 | BA, CH, HU, MU, PA
O Head Full of Blood and Wounds Before his fourteenth year the boy wrote down A melody like Bach’s “O Haupt voll Blut Und Wunden,” but the sixth note did not frown. Instead it mounted up. It took a route More positive. Prophetic nearly, one Might say, when looking...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | BA, PH, PR, WH, WI
The Little Prince Who Grew Like me he grew up slim and sturdy, blond As Greece or Florida in sun. He crawled And stood up. Women around us were fond Of gold smiles, Philip and Phillip. They mauled Us with their cuddling kisses. We were fine, Right through it all,...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, CO, FO, GA, JE, LU, MU
Foucault Addresses Barraqué After his Death Invisible inside sapphiric blue, Pale beauty was the hidden man. Your need To hide–conceal yourself, seek to subdue All revelation of your soul, impede Not only others but your mouth and hand From searching out your...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, FR, JE, MA
Barraqué, Un Homme Piquant comme Moi Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The newer teacher didn’t know me long Before he asked, “You are a tetchy friend, Aren’t you?” Mais oui, I think that it is wrong...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, FO, GA, Ho, JE, LO, MI
Barraqué Breaks Off Their Love The breaking off of love is not a small Affair. It’s not like breaking off a limb That’s hanging from a tree. It’s not at all Like breaking off the singing of a hymn Because the practice isn’t going right. It’s more like sacrilege,...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, FO, GA, Ho, JE, LO, MI
Julian the Apostate Proclaimed Emperor Near Notre Dame Cathedral Mais où sont les neiges d’antan! ~ François Villon In 1952 Jean wrote his first Great opus. Barraqué of Notre Dame Became the lover with a champagne thirst For Foucault. After that,...
by phillipw | May 19, 2020 | BA, JE
“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.” My love for you is like unceasing verse, Immortal poetry in endless lines Consumed by never ending flames. Disperse It like the incense burned in pagan shrines, But beauty of this sort...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AN, AR, BA, SC
Tanagra: the Lady in Blue (Dame en bleu) Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem As stiff as any well-dressed Barbie doll This sculpture from the time before the age Of Alexander’s conquering, the small...
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 9, 2020 | BA, BO, SC, TE
Dumb Forecast That little wrinkled sack between his thighs Predicts. The contents there will make him grow Much bigger. Certain parts will spread in size, His shoulders, biceps, thicker neck. Down low Beneath his belly button, balls will swell And, yes,...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | BA, HA, LO, VI
Synthesis Examine for yourself the claim that love Is noblest and the mightiest of all. Is it far better than the truth, above An iron-like honesty? Is love more tall Than mountained decency? And is not hate Sometimes required to make things work? ...
by phillipw | Apr 7, 2020 | BA
Coherent “Anacreon[2] (a native of Teos in Asia Minor) sings that his barbitos only gives out erotic tones.[1] ” Wikipedia, “Barbiton” ………. More delicate, pastel in sound than lyres, The barbitos was songstress Sappho’s harp And...
by phillipw | Apr 6, 2020 | BA, DI, EM
Little Blues Packets Thomas Wentworth Higginson reported Dickinson’s comments about sweets in a letter to his wife: “‘People must have puddings’ this [was said] very dreamily, as if they were comets—so she makes them” (L342a)...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2020 | AM, BA, DI
Slanted Raising Agents When Emily abandoned schoolwork, she Assumed the baking in her family home. She turned away from the formality Of thinking of philosophers. Her dome Became the kitchen ceiling. Still, the view Outside that house took in the graveyard...
by phillipw | Jan 26, 2020 | BA, DI
[I suspect that few people who know anything about the wine and party god, Dionysus/ Bacchus, and the female Bacchanalian worship of him, know that he was a god of prophecy as well, sufficiently respected to share prophesying duties with Apollo at the cave of Delphi.]...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | BA, BI, VE
Verlaine on la Poésie “a composer is someone who desires, as a male desires” ~ Jean Barraqué A poet is a man who knows desire, Desire as love, affection, and as lust, Devotion as a spirit’s candle fire, Aflame as silently as men who must Refrain from...
by phillipw | Dec 15, 2019 | BA, DE
Rimbaud Wrote, “We are in the months of love” No. Poets are the mouths of love. That kid Was wrong from early on. He sent that line To Théodore, who early saw the skid This lice-filled fiend would slide down. Evil swine, Archangel eyed, his lips snagged only one...
by phillipw | Dec 15, 2019 | AR, BA, DE, RI
The Months of Love On May 24, 1870, Rimbaud wrote a letter from Charleville to Théodore de Banville, leader of a group of poets in Paris. Maybe each intense blueness is eternal, even if only for the season of love. “Dear Master, We are in the months of love And...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | BA, FO
La Musique de Sade The mathematics of your music were combined With jouissance, jolts of physics known as sound. Your love and compositions were aligned With calculations and the most profound Depressions, melancholia and drink—...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | BA, FO, SE
The Origin of the Dead Sea The music sears, romantically intense, As well it might because it is a sea On fire. It is a sparseness that is dense With utteration of severity. The darkest wine dark ocean set to flame Sings out like pain’s eternity in time. It is an...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2019 | BA, FO
Foucault Addresses Barraqué After his Death Invisible inside sapphiric blue, Pale beauty was the hidden man. Your need To hide—conceal yourself, seek to subdue All revelation of your soul, impede Not only others but your mouth and hand From searching out your...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2019 | BA
Barraqué Breaks Off Their Love The breaking off of love is not a small Affair. It’s not like breaking off a limb That’s hanging from a tree. It’s not at all Like breaking off the singing of a hymn Because the practice isn’t going right. It’s more like sacrilege,...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2019 | BA, FO, NI
Men Lying Apart And where do you three lie now, Barraqué, Foucault, and Nietzsche? You have been removed. One lies in Vendeuvre, one far away In Trélévern, as if life disapproved And did a deal with hell. Trapped Nietzsche lies In such a tiny village that...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2019 | BA, FO
Julian the Apostate Proclaimed Emperor Near Notre Dame Cathedral Mais où sont les neiges d’antan! ~ François Villon In 1952 Jean wrote his first Great opus. Barraqué of Notre Dame Became the lover with a champagne thirst For Foucault. After that, Jean...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2019 | BA
Aleatory Melodies Are sonnets chancy music pieces, fey, More like a mistress in a corset when Victoria reigned? Do they lead astray As some silk-corseted comedienne Embarrasses with innuendo or Their saucy message. Are they like twelve-tone Sonatas rigidly...