by phillipw | Feb 25, 2020 | BE, MA
He The way he makes us feel is like the vaults In high cathedrals. High and higher still They rise within our hearts with all their faults Though far above us like a sacred grille He sets out forms for irises and souls. The complications of the...
by phillipw | Feb 10, 2020 | AE, BE, BR, ES, MA
Ashurbanipal Reincarnated At a Desk in Rare Books and Music A sternness in the beauty of his nose, His eyebrows and the arch above them, Its sweeping, upward, back—these all compose An epic that should wear a diadem. Its jewels should be from Asia and the isles Of...
by phillipw | Feb 9, 2020 | AE, BE, MA
Higher Still and Higher That lower lip alone could cause us all To ponder beauty in the abstract — if The lip were not so lovely to enthrall Beyond pale intelligence. A hieroglyph For everything which symphonies desire, This fuller plumpness with its carnal...
by phillipw | Jan 29, 2020 | BE
Accidents or Cruelty The beautiful are cruel and are hard; As lovely as the slashing crescent fang A tiger shows with sabre-teeth; leave scarred Reminders of our love, a ghostly pang When we have only memories of nights. The beautiful are brutal and severe...
by phillipw | Jan 27, 2020 | BE
Sublimation ~ Xenophonic Symposium, l. 8-10 When Autolycus entered, reverence stilled The room. The men were moved as if a wave Of quiet washed through hearts and bodies, filled Them gently, cleansing. He became a nave— And worship filled it calmly. ...
by phillipw | Dec 30, 2019 | AE, BE, TR
Why Poems are Doomed to Fail Exactly why are poems doomed to fail? What guarantees the stillbirth of their hopes? Because the ones with breasts in them are pale As holograms beside those truthful slopes, The beauty that an ogee would capture, If only it could? Might...
