by phillipw | Feb 6, 2022 | BR, FL, Ho, MO, TI
A 1950s Florida Day and July 20 and 21, 1969 Winged ants fly From a small house At the foot of Mount Fuji. ~ Buson The clapboard house shines white in afternoon Brevard in sunlight. There in front are green And orange from the flame vine. There’s no moon Above...
by phillipw | Feb 4, 2022 | BR, DE, FI, HA, LO, SE
The Secret Life of Things For the space of a foot, The firefly’s light goes out: Loneliness. ~ Hokushi The firefly floats along in darkness, light, Dark, light. The floating is revealed alone By flashing, though the blinking is so slight That only...
by phillipw | Dec 6, 2021 | AL, BR, FI, RU, SE, WA, WO
The War Poet “a rich nature … fighting eagerly towards the truth.” “I have a rendezvous with death At some disputed barricade” ~ Alan Seeger Alan Seeger Not all war poets are the same as Brooke. Not all are like a cabinet display Of...
by phillipw | Dec 5, 2021 | BE, BR, FL, Ho, OR, TI
Enamel Trees Longing Ago The orange blossoms fill my native place. They fill it every year with white perfume. The scent has piquant yellow at heart’s space, The hearts held out bouquet-like, as a plume On green wing branches where the mockingbird Might...
by phillipw | Nov 30, 2021 | BR, HE, RU, SE, ST, Ta
Brown Beauty and Others Left Behind “more tourist still than soldier” ~ Rupert Brooke America and Canada, their spine Of Rocky Mountains, called across the sea, Their men and women waiting, near supine Already. Rupert left behind debris Of men and women who had seen...
by phillipw | Nov 18, 2021 | BR, GA, Ho, JA, LO, RO, RU, ST, UN
A Solitary Fire In bobby socks the teenyboppers used To sigh or scream about a baritone, Or tenor, or falsetto voice. Amused, Their objects of desire jived through a zone Of smugness like a phoenix on its pyre. Before these screeching fans, young...
