by phillipw | Jan 31, 2023 | BI, GA
Acrobatic Zest In zest that never fails, though pause it must, The flittering and flapping in between The hedges, shrubs, and roses, swoop adjust Themselves in sunlight, changing to a keen Ballet or modern dance, or more trapeze Performance never...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | AM, BI, DE, DO, RU, SE, Ta
Taatamata and Denham Russell-Smith The evidence, it seems, implies that stuff With women caused him greatest grief, except For Taatamata. Mother was enough To force him to desire control. She kept Him on the tightest lead as best she might And love for Ka produced a...
by phillipw | Mar 13, 2022 | AM, BI, BR, BY, GE, RU
Not Just Fame Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Sherril Shell’s Byronesque reproduction of Brooke’s own devising (the one his friends thought revulsive enough to dub ‘Your...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2022 | BI, BR, PR, RU, Uncategorized
Empty Charms Replaced His Stunning Charm — Two Sutured Sonnets The media in ignorance gets in The way of people’s understanding of The truth. They put a glossy glamor spin On heroes and then shy away from love That falls outside the types that Christians would...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2022 | AM, BI, BR, DE, GA, LO, RU, SE, Uncategorized
Denham Alone Since He Alone was Not Alone– A Foursome of Sonnets Outside and Finally In “A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out all the years.” ~Rupert Brooke Each year he finds a new one he can love. The first (and last) was Denham...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2022 | BI, BR, CO, KA, RU, SE
Blending Until the centuries come and blur away, Until they come and go like spirits, or Like ghosts, let us, together, come and sway As one, if that be possible. Let each one’s core Become the other’s by a blending of Our souls and...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2022 | BE, BI, BR, MA, RU, SC, ST
Big Boy Hunk The Big Boy Hunk that isn’t Rupert Brooke On Skyros is just too, too like the false, False images built up around him, like a crook Has pulled a dirty trick but wants to waltz With you, no matter what. The Big Boy Hunk Stands towering...
by phillipw | Feb 21, 2022 | BI
White Notes on Black No matter how you, blackbird, sing, the night Will come. The flow of beauty from your beak, Like fluid as if streaming from the height Of hillsides or from mountain’s midday peak, Will not give pause to coming of the dark. No...
by phillipw | Jan 10, 2022 | BI, PE, RO
The Spirit of the Peony is Spring The spirit of the peony is spring. The summer finds itself inside the rose. In May the petals, red and pink, both sing A colored fugue in fragrant ratios. The garden birds have gathered. Great tits leap As through the grandest...
by phillipw | Dec 13, 2021 | BI, DI, JU
Primordial Beaks Before Our Daybreak The songbirds hop among the flowers, upon The ground, and on the branches of the trees And branchings of the roses. In dark dawn They wake to turn their heads and search through breeze And whispering sunrise for their early...
by phillipw | Dec 12, 2021 | BI, RO, SI
The Last Rose of Summer Not Alone Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Joan Sutherland – “Last Rose of Summer” (1963) – YouTube [Turn down the volume on this old recording or...
by phillipw | Sep 29, 2021 | BI, BU, RA, RO
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The 1960s weren’t exactly right For stars who touched each other in the way That audiences hated. Lovers might Endeavor to keep journalists at bay, But Robert Benevides...
by phillipw | Sep 14, 2021 | AM, BI, BR, GA, RU, SE
Taatamata and Denham Russell-Smith The evidence, it seems, implies that stuff With women caused him greatest grief, except For Taatamata. Mother was enough To force him to desire control. She kept Him on the tightest lead, as best she might, And love for Ka produced...
by phillipw | Aug 6, 2021 | BI, LA, SK
Music with Percussion Wound In “Bound each to each” ~ William Wordsworth The skylark’s music phrases are a part Of nature’s symphony, but only some Of it. A harmony weighs at the heart Of wide concerns. Some sounds are like a drum. Percussive notes break...
by phillipw | Aug 6, 2021 | BI, LA, SK
Victory Ode The skylark sings. The skylark sings in rain Beside dark woods. It sings as rain falls down Around it. Everywhere is his domain. He sings his way to triumph. Weather’s frown Is useless in his life. The mist comes, so He sings. ...
by phillipw | Aug 6, 2021 | BI, LA, SK
Reverence An ordinary little bird, but, then, He calls like angels fired by Satan, Christ, And Atlas booster engines. Like a wren Though larger, larks are mystically enticed To singing, lilting, praising in the air And carry melodies of hymning...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2021 | BI, LA, MU, PA, SK
Apassianato The skylark’s struggle is its fluttering Or so it looks. The skylark’s flying seems To be a form of airborne stuttering At best upon on the slightest breezy streams Of air, yet even so near halting moves And swoops predict a victory...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2021 | BI, LA, MU, SK
A Shimmering Coronet Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Like ripples in the clouds the skylark’s song Strikes ever changing in its slants and shades. Since such a tiny throat could be so strong That it...
by phillipw | Aug 3, 2021 | BI, LA, SK
Microscopic Nearly The three, the island, lark, and farmer ride In smallness in the scene. The island set Within the ocean and constricting tide Is nearly lost in blue. A constant threat Surrounds it, swelling, ebbing ever, though It shores...
by phillipw | Aug 3, 2021 | BI, FA, LA, MU, SK
Cleaving Above Upon the smaller island even there A skylark lives and sings. It lives and sings And rises to the highest heights through air. The rapture of the lark swells up and springs To levitate so far above the farm And farmer that his...
by phillipw | Aug 3, 2021 | BI, LA, PR, SK
Cosmic Encryption Broadcast Wide as Bach The mounting skylark sings the song of world Religions everywhere. The leap from ground To piercing toward the stratosphere is swirled With incandescent notes. The lark has found The meaning of the universe and sets Itself...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2021 | BI, LA
The Longest, Tallest Whole Notes Ever “Seen melodies are sweet but those unseen are sweeter.” The eyeless melody rains down. The sky Seems filled with music—and the space beneath The blue demands the listening grateful eye Should search above the...
by phillipw | Aug 1, 2021 | BI, MU, RA, SK
Invisible Music Made Opaque The rain falls down as if in chords, as if A symphony in quietness, playing on The quietest of instruments as stiff As thin percussion ones with brushes drawn Across them, metal brushes on a drum. The only notes we hear as notes...
by phillipw | Aug 1, 2021 | BE, BI
The Skylark Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The skylark sings in darkness and in light, Away down there just at the edge trees, And then away beyond them, in its flight, And from the...
by phillipw | Jul 29, 2021 | BI, DA
Serenade, Intensive Intermission, Concert The birds begin their songs before the light Begins to tinge the sky and hide the stars. These early voices start to banish night: They are the dawn’s commanding feathered czars. They carry on their chorus till the day...
by phillipw | Jul 29, 2021 | BE, BI, MU
Through a Skylark “Things more true and deep” ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley The skylark rises up, up, up as straight As winds allow. Straight, straight, straight, straight his air As well except that its bright curling spate Is ever changing like all...
by phillipw | Jul 26, 2021 | BI, BL, SO
Throbbing Out Music in March Japanese Bush Warbler song ウグイス 鳴き声 信越の高原 7月上旬 野鳥4K 空屋根FILMS#1078 – Bing video Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem In winter in the bushes near the ground The uguisu...
by phillipw | Jun 24, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, GA, LO, RO, RU, SE
An Evensong at Rugby School Chapel Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The service is devoted to Saint John The Baptist. Then when prayer comes, “Lord, now let,” I think of peace and one plain tomb upon...
by phillipw | Jun 17, 2021 | AM, BI, BL, WI
Black and White Lambs Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Black And White Lambs by Pat Scrap on Pixabay If I were just a little lamb in spring, I think that I would want to be both...
by phillipw | Jun 10, 2021 | BI, GA, HE, Ho, LO, RO
Ganymede Has Auroras Glowing in His Captured Air The largest moon of Jupiter is male, Much larger than the female ones. Its weight Is less than Mercury’s but then the scale Of Ganymede is larger. Zeus’s mate Forever clings around his greatest god And spins forever...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, CH, DE, FI, GA, Ho, LO, MI, PO, RO, RU, SC, WO
Blue Rugby and Blue Gallipoli Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We do not think of Rubert Brooke in blue, When we remember him at all. We think of Brooke Between some pages of a volume, true To...
by phillipw | May 3, 2021 | AM, AN, BI, GA, GR, ME, RA, SE, ZE
iOvid Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem What Ovid did two thousand years ago, The World Wide Web has lately caught up with. He did it many, many times. The slow Web has, at last,...
by phillipw | Apr 20, 2021 | BI, HU, OS, PH, Uncategorized, WH, WI
Hyperthymesia, , William Louis Hunter V, SRA Reading Lab, and Oscar Wilde Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Bill is in the white cardigan. I’m in the dark sweater in the center. My boyhood...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2021 | AL, BE, BI, CO, DU, HE, PO, RH, TH
Binfield’s Baddest Bantam Boy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Pope devised heroic couplets, they Were like the weapons of the day men walked With by their thighs. Their rapiers’ display Was...
by phillipw | Mar 5, 2021 | BI, DE, NI, WR
As Strong as Steely Silk Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem No hints are held in songs of birds about How soon their death will come. The wren can sing Its aria but death will have its clout. The...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2020 | BI, CH, EA, GR, IC, OR, TR
Declines and Declining Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The wood that makes the icons’ boxes lacks The holiness that throbs, still, through these saints And sacred ones. Despite the inner cracks...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | BI, HA, IG, LO, ME, MO, PE, ST
Madness of Musical Men Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The work is characterized by the so-called Petrushka chord (consisting of C major and F♯ major triads played together), a bitonality device...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2020 | BI, CH, DE, GO, IS, JU, KO, LE, OL, QU, RE
Dead Sea Salt, not Caves “Many soul-destroying things/In folded tablets” ~ T. S. Brandreth, The Iliad of Homer, 1816 I know those soul-destroying things, those things In ancient texts on parchment, vellum, or Papyrus, rolled or folded. Suffering...
by phillipw | Jul 29, 2020 | AR, AS, AV, BI, CO, MI, ST
Occult Forces Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Blue bioluminescent gardens guide Credit: Kris Williams To shore some birds which otherwise might die. The currents and the winds make creatures...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | BI, CA, DO, EA, FL, MI, OS, PE, PO, WH
The Cape Consider what the cape desires. It wants to see The clouds of birds that used to fly above It in their immemorial paths, sea And sea and sea beneath their search for love And nestlings. Cape Canaveral wants the white And white and white...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | AM, BI, GA, LE, LO, LU, RO, SE
The next sonnet may offend some readers. If you think you may be offended, please do not read it. Plato Hated Poetry, Poor Thing First Sappho catalogued the symptoms of Tsunami wave emotions. Sickness like This malady has been treated as love By writers ever since. ...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | BI, BO, GA, HE, JE, JU, LO, MA, RA, ZE
The next two sonnets may offend some readers. If you think you may be offended, please do not read them. Painless Pleasure: Two contradictory versions of the myth of Ganymede “to be very eager in the pursuit of pleasure is to go hunting for pain…. ...
by phillipw | Jul 11, 2020 | AM, BI, LO, SE
Love as Sung by Alexis “He is not foolish, nor yet is he wise; But he is made up of all kinds of quality, And underneath one form bears many natures.” From the Phaedrus of Alexis, In Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae Alexis steps away most...
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 6, 2020 | AM, BI
Some readers may find this next sonnet offensive. If you might be offended, do not read it. Double-edged He lies beside a man tonight. It means He looks for love. Another night he lay Beside a woman. His discarded jeans And boxers mean one thing. That...
by phillipw | May 28, 2020 | AR, BI, CA, CH, DU, FR, MA, RA, Ta
Feline Thoughts on Pedigree The English, as usual not nonplussed By foreign aristocracy, impressed No, not at all by noble, upper crust, Unbishoped Talleyrand, were not hard pressed To sneer at Duc de Biron. After all, Detesting frog and wog, Brits would snigger At...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | AM, BI, DA, GA, SH, TH
Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ……. A friend of Constable said Virgil’s sense He gained from culture drove him to presume That prime boys were “the...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BI
Unsentimental Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The frozen tarn, so dark below, so bright Across its surface, can’t be happy, sad, Or feel emotion, either black or light. Above it...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BE, BI, CA, KI
Buso No miracles are needed when kittens Abound. Their stripes and spots and blotches say Enough. Mine has all of these and mittens Of white as pure as Baby Jesu’s soul away On ox’s straw, as white as light from eyes Of ass and angels looking lost in...
by phillipw | May 15, 2020 | BI, KI
The Greatest of These Authoritative, bevelled, and complete The language of the King James Bible speaks. It knows, conflation at its height, replete With meaning and beyond, displays antiques Behind pure glass, antiques of beauty like Clean gilded china, glazed...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | BI, CO, CR, UN
Splendor Exploding outwards now, the universe Is ever an expanding tidal wave, A circle of catastrophe, a curse. It is an ever-living deathly grave For all that it gives birth to, hexing life Produced in its calamities. It sears Its breath across...
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 12, 2020 | BI, KI, MO, MU
What Understanding Does: a Pair of Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Son of man, can these bones live?” ~ Ezekiel 37:3 When faith is in retreat, then scripture reads More beautifully,...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | BI, SP, TR
He Might As Well Have Written Obscure Poetry So Socrates believes not just that Soul exists But is bipartite and tripartite, both. He postulates a mixed up nature. He twists And turns, an ancient Greek as mental sloth, Since this is contradictory at worst And badly...
by phillipw | Feb 16, 2020 | BI
Why Hen Birds Don’t Warble Among the leaves, the limbs and branches birds Are singing. Everywhere these creatures perch Cocks make their sounds. The pulsing throats send words To others of their kind, from oak and birch And fence and hedgerow, saying, “Stop! This...
by phillipw | Feb 11, 2020 | AS, BI, LO, RO, ST, TW
SR PW Two stars that give off light unlike the light Of other stars, so different from their rays That creatures on far distant planets, bright As it might be, cannot hope to see our blaze, We circle in our gravity around Each other, close, so close...
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 | Jan 1, 2020 | BI
Pining in an Upper Room “I flame distinctly,/ Then meet and join” Ariel For Bill I’m in an upper room. My longing fills The air above my scalp, above the roof, A hovering power, strong as Heaven’s hills...
by phillipw | Dec 3, 2019 | BI, FR
Sad Substitute Those eyes, that mouth reminded me of Glenn, My friend of forty years now gone. The hair, Though, wasn’t crinkly thick. This specimen Was balding on the top, the strands too spare And thin to be a substitute for my Young man of fourteen...
by phillipw | Sep 16, 2019 | BI
On Suave India Paper . My mother’s mother gave to me a fine Blue King James Version of the Bible. Blue Morocco leather, subtle blue, benign With tastefulness (as if refinement drew More power to truth) bound up a classic book In cultured holiness. The...
by phillipw | Aug 19, 2019 | BI
Our Scientists are Wrong CSWA_DawnVornholt_Birdshare Our scientists are wrong about the songs Of birds. Their singing is about the leaves They sing among, these shapes that each one longs To seize upon in notes. This task bereaves Them sometimes since their melodies...
by phillipw | Aug 13, 2019 | BI, PH, TI
No Time for Thoughtless Guessing The modern, scientific concept that No time existed till the Big Bang flashed Is just about as stupid as a hat Without a brain beneath it. First, the smashed Down kernel, though unimaginably Dense, small and tense, was hunkered there,...