by phillipw | Mar 17, 2024 | CA, FL, SI, WH, WI, WO
As Dead As Sabbath-keeping Saints Columba and Patrick on Their Long Lost Shores Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I cannot quite call back to mind and heart My father’s voice, not even when he told...
by phillipw | Jan 20, 2024 | CA, FA, SA
Insatiable Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Insatiable, your death creates a hole That sucks, a vacuum, a vortex made Of solar wind without a sun. No coal Was ever black as this. No...
by phillipw | Oct 2, 2023 | CA
Love Always Leads to Let Down My Prospero has changed to jumping up And settling down in comfort on my lap. I move my palm and fingers, making cup Of love around his rump. He moves to nap The way that cats do, circling with pink paws And winding down with nose...
by phillipw | Jul 9, 2023 | AG, CA
Vacuum Filled by Lavishness Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ...
by phillipw | May 1, 2023 | CA, DE, PE
We Had a Dog Once We had a dog once whom (?) my brother killed. This little doggie should have lived a long, Long time because she was so small. She filled My mother’s heart with little warmths like song Despite the high-pitched barking, barking...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2023 | CA, LO
After the Regicide The cats scream out soprano, tenor love And desperate alto love beneath. They know A deeper meaning, one of passion, shove And claws we humans have forgotten. So Intense their hatred which they wrap up in Their wooing that we feel...
by phillipw | Oct 27, 2022 | CA, FE, LO, PE, PR
Fast I lay my hands against his fur. Its black Glows, glossed, on light green of our duvet top, The counterpane. My fingers warm his back And side. They warm me, too. My cat’s gone plop To sleep in black and white and green. This calm...
by phillipw | Sep 4, 2022 | CA, GA, JU
Elio and Oliver During and After How meaningless the road ahead is when It doesn’t lead to him and love. The stretch Is straight, or slightly bent, when two young men, Who stepped outside the hedging, made a sketch Of other love, and parted, then are...
by phillipw | Aug 19, 2022 | CA, DO, DR, SL
Unleaping He lies there in a leap, or so it seems. He lies there on the bed as if propelled In hunting. Maybe in his twitching dreams He saw a mouse or bird and felt compelled To grasp it in those whitest sleepy paws Though in a dream they couldn’t...
by phillipw | Jul 11, 2022 | AT, CA, HI, MA, NA
Dispensation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem What falls from heavens here upon the earth Brings mornings set with richness and with flux. A fullness settles, once with grief or...
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 | Apr 5, 2022 | CA, WH, WO
Dance Floor Wonder, Wow! Canaveral in the 1920s stood For ultra boondocks-ness. A band made up Of ukulele and a shiny wood Guitar and small accordion played up For tiny audiences in the hall. Still, people simply have to make do with The stuff to hand. But then a...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2022 | CA, PR
Clarity and Confusion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He shows contentment with his claws. A paw In whiteness stretches out and claws curve out Of white and pink. The curves of...
by phillipw | Feb 24, 2022 | CA, FL, HI, LU
The Heavenly Choir after It Fell on Florida The spider web comes Hot against his face; August In damp Kulaqua. In Florida humidity comes full On like a curse. A thunderstorm comes down In swashing curtains made of wet warm wool. A coolness follows but then comes...
by phillipw | Sep 9, 2021 | CA, DR, SL, TW
Cat Snap The cat sinks slowly into sleep but not Too deeply. Holding onto surface wit Enough to settle in its cardboard cot, A box lid, furred, unfazed, it starts to knit Together dreams and life until its tail Stops swaying slightly at its tip...
by phillipw | Aug 30, 2021 | CA, DO, FE
Waking Honesty Our cats are not like us. They sleep the sleep Of focused soldiers, dreaming dreams that we Would never dare. Cats’ drowsing isn’t deep But deep enough. They live hyperbole Or, at the least, intensity. They curl Around,...
by phillipw | Aug 16, 2021 | CA, LO, PE, PR
Self-envy I suffer from that rarest illness, called Self-envy. Everyone, it seems, but me Is desperate, as if they each are walled Up in a prison or are like a quay That no ships come to, ever, but my days And nights are full. I have a cat who...
by phillipw | Aug 8, 2021 | CA, SL
Drowsing Comfort Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Why is it that a dog asleep is not Endearing as a cat curled up to nap? That isn’t logical. A doggy ought To be as cute. A poochie on your lap...
by phillipw | Aug 5, 2021 | CA, LO, ME, RO
Cats and Men Winn wasted love, romantic life, on men And cats like men. The men walked round as proud As only cats (and men) can be and then They left. Sometimes the men and cats allowed Some stroking of their hairy bodies for A little while and...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2021 | CA, ME, MO, RE
What is the Meaning of Life? He asks what meaning life has. It is life. The question does not have a purpose. No Reply is needed. Answers just cause strife. Philosophy is like a blizzard, snow Opaque and countless thoughts of white that pile Up beautifully, but...
by phillipw | Jul 9, 2021 | AE, BE, CA, ES, SP
Tacit Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Where mountains aren’t, the world is still the world. There may not be the white of peaks or harsh Escarpments, but the streams of spring...
by phillipw | Jun 28, 2021 | CA, DU, HE, LO, MA, ST
Cleaving on an Island Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The house on Merritt Island stood alone On sand. No doubt the sand had sandspurs set Among the weeds. Like a ramshackle throne It ruled...
by phillipw | Jun 21, 2021 | CA, CH, FA, IN, PI, PR, RE, RO, SU
Miraculous Bunkum The minds of pilgrims plod along because They lack the gifts required to see without A relic. Hunkered there inside its gauze Of cloth of gold as if in holy pout, It waits for priests to open up its box Or gate, the reliquary encrusted with ...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2021 | CA, CO, ME
Grieving in the All but Lost Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Our memories are retrieved by golden chains That reach, reach, reach until they hook a jewel From cavern depths. The caves are in our...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2021 | CA, CH, GR, Ho, ME, TO
Not as Certain as Dim Marble in the Nave We pause beside those tombs, the ones with white Carved marble hands in praying firmness there On chest and breast. They look to be contrite And will be ever so. The lordly prayer Is undermined since also there beside Him is...
by phillipw | Apr 3, 2021 | CA, FR, JU, PH, PS, SI
Panicky Purity The phantoms of the heart and brain are drugs From soul and not from science. They are like Some sort of dreamlike but effective plugs Created for our therapy. A dyke Holds back the floods… and heart holds back the brain And rigid...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2021 | AE, AL, AR, CA, DE, ES, SO
Libation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Solutrean bison – By Museo de Altamira y D. Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 3.0 I sprinkled my best wine with dust from tombs, Presuming that...
by phillipw | Mar 4, 2021 | CA, SY, TR
Concealment or Revelation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If minds could play the instruments of mist, Sopranos sing the songs of unheard souls, And treble boys in choirs sing amethyst Magnificats,...
by phillipw | Feb 11, 2021 | CA, LO, MO, RO
Love’s Lunge at Long Last The moon in near remoteness, when compared With sun, and stars, and planets, makes its slow Fast way above us after being snared By gravity like weighty love below It, heft of earth’s devotion countless years Ago, four billion years ago...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2021 | AE, BE, CA, CH, ES, MI, OR, RO
Milele in His Temple Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Beijing cat, a silvery chevron on His head, between his ears, in fur as white As whitest peony, the chevron drawn As Chinese artists with...
by phillipw | Dec 30, 2020 | CA, FR, GR, LO
“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He wasted love. He took and gave it all Around and wasted it. He took as much As anyone (almost) would...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | CA, CO, IL, ME, PA, PS
Devotion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A fictive leaf of ink, or paint, or gilt On vellum is perfection brushed there small But large in love of utterness. The...
by phillipw | Dec 15, 2020 | CA, CE, CO, DE, FU, GR, MO, SM, TI, TO
Artless as L. S. Lowry A Rembrandt darkness falls upon us, they And me. I cannot see them now except As figures draped in richest robes. The prey Of time (called death) they’ve worn brocade and slept In sand beneath the ground, each separate plot Concealing...
by phillipw | Dec 7, 2020 | AN, AR, CA, DR, FA, GA, LU, PR
Gabriel or Lucifer? My cat is like an angel when he dreams, An angel from the furry realms of God. It is as if he more than merely seems To be archangel-like, a cat who’s awed By holy visions twitching in his paws, And lies angelic in his twitching calm. His...
by phillipw | Nov 29, 2020 | CA, PR, ST, SY
Conjurors versus Christians The caves are sacred everywhere. Their dark Prepares us for epiphanies, obscure Pronouncements, and a sibilant remark Wrapped up in mystery. The caves immure The unimagined as on painted walls. The buoyant deer and horses floating...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2020 | AL, CA, LA, LI, MY, SA, ST
Lost Legends Long Before the Vedas and the Iliad Go far enough in time and all becomes Strict mists and stone. Fire circles heard the tales So long forgotten now that tribal drums Are recent evolutions, compared. Trails Do not exist to take us back to spells And...
by phillipw | Nov 11, 2020 | CA, CO, DE, DO, Ho, PE, SE
The Cat Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem That cat will lie on what you want or walk Where you would go. He curls round and round As if developing his om to mock Your zen-less...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2020 | CA, GO, PE
Psalm 139:12 “for darkness is as light to You” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A moment comes when coal becomes a piece Of heaven, pure and diamond in strength. A moment comes when wooden matters cease...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | CA, FA, SO
The Point of Greens Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The scents are green in golf. They are the green Of grass, and hope, and promise, and of rest. Perhaps they are the green of youth as seen...
by phillipw | Aug 23, 2020 | CA, CO, JE, KH, ME
More a God-like Tease Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Imagine if the murdered victims, all Of them, in ethnic cleansing, had their names Carved in a frieze in heaven on a tall Throne, high as...
by phillipw | Aug 11, 2020 | CA, DO, FE
The Satin Play Pretty They play. They play at slaughter. That is why Huỳnh Tấn Hậu Unsplash Community Their faces look so solemn as they claw, The Sphynx beneath a pharaonic sky. They sneer in silence at the thought that awe For life in creatures that they...
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 23, 2020 | CA, IL, MO
A Strangely Shaped Medieval Codex His mind is like a sky-shaped border on The upper arc inside a vellum book, A circle-shaped one with a scene of dawn Enclosed within it like a sidereal hook, A scene aurora-like but from a monkish mind Producing manuscripts with hues...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, BO, BR, CA, CR, GA, HA, HE, KA, MA, NE, PA, PR, SA
Troy in New Orleans, Manhattan, or London Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So I found “Helen” sitting in a streetcar; the Dionysian revels of her court were transferred to a Metropolitan roof garden...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AN, AT, BO, CA, CL, CO, CY, HE, IS, PI, SA
Treasures from the Wreck of the Unrecoverable Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse “Athenaeus quotes more than ten thousand lines of verse in it, many not preserved or attested elsewhere.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets Ten...
by phillipw | Jun 12, 2020 | AN, CA, PU
Costumed Judgment Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The royalty and myths and heroes of Those eras far removed in masked up time Produced the primal tragedies. The love In them, the hate, and...
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 21, 2020 | CA, DO, IR, TO
Delights of Owning Cats The joys of owning cats or being owned By them are many, multifarious. Your house is eau de cologned With tomcat sprayings from the various Invaders through the cat flap, neighbourhood Intruders for widened territory. Humans who love the added...
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 18, 2020 | BU, CA, KI
The Eye Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The lines of kitten loveliness themselves Are beautiful as she is, almost, there, But not. A rapt, assessing gaze that delves The vision sleeping on the...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | BE, CA, MI, TO, Uncategorized
Milele Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Tranquillity, despite his tiny size, Rests strong in him as if a tiger’s dream Has come to dwell behind his calm blue eyes Because it chose to sleep...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | BU, CA, KI
Ocean Fish Reverie Two cats are sleeping near me, one stretched long Across the velvet easy chair. Her nose Lies pressing pinkly there. A lilting song Of tiny snoring, muffled by the pose, Is nearly all absorbed in plush gold pile— A fitting, soft recipient...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | CA
Ever Ready Reverie The way a cat sleeps shows the way we need To live. It lies there certainly and calm, A firmness in its purpose, like a seed Prepared for any chances like a palm Or oak, a sunny palm tree curved in grace With strength, a younger oak...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | CA, PR
Prospero Between my Legs My cat is lying on my duvet just Between my spread out thighs and calves and knees. That means he loves me or that he can trust Me. Earlier he did it, not to please Me but for pleasure for himself. He got Excited, though. The situation...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | CA, DO
The Venus-like Sexiness of Cats Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Egyptian Mau cats How velvet arrogant our cats would be If only they could know how lovely they Are visually. If only they could see...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | CA, DO, FE, KI
That Always Love Modern poetry ...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | CA, DA, KO, LE, LO, RO, SE
Only Lovers Cannot See Ahead Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem All kinds of lovers? Do we mean the sort Who love because of hot testosterone? Then maybe that is true. Such hormones thwart. The kind of...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | AN, CA, DO, GI, PR
Salvation for the Calvinist Fanatic Who Did not Know Yet that He Was a Lover of Boys; the Doctrine of Double Predestination? Christ’s zealot, Gide, was taken on a trip To London by a friend. This duo went A-slumming, spiritually . . . took a sip Of...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | CA, FO
Prospero Protecting his Hoard My kitty growls when he is given food He loves. He can’t control himself. Nope. He Curmurs and hisses. Really he is rude To those who feed him, goes into a spree Of crude expletives, hunkers down and grabs A mouthful just in case I...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | AN, CA, NI, VI
Safe Spaces—“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” “When the Athenians sent leaders of their philosophy schools to Rome on an embassy in 155 BC, one of them, the sceptic Carneades, pleaded on one day for justice in politics, on the next day for injustice. Cato...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | CA, SE
Turbulent March and Hot July In Rome the god of war and youth was Mars. This nodded to the young men who would die From March and onwards, or who grasped hard scars And heroism. That god might imply Far more since he could not resist the charms His sister, Venus,...
by phillipw | May 8, 2020 | CA, PR
Food Vincit Omnia Today as Prospero came bounding in When he was called for breakfast, his black tail Was whanged out wide. He clearly thought a sin Had been committed, that some other male Had dared to enter our cat’s little patch Of territory, or...
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 | AS, CA, CH, ME, NE, PO, SA, ST
“Like Some Clean Beast” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “In the evenings at Streonshalh . . . farm labourers gathered to play the harp and to sing. Caedmon . . . was in the habit of withdrawing to his...
by phillipw | Apr 20, 2020 | CA
Cages for Oddities of the Animal World The time will come someday because of genes, And all that stuff, when whites will be in zoos. Pale skins will be presented in droll scenes And normal people then will form up queues To point and giggle, laugh, and shake their...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | CA, CH, KI
Animalerie Vilmorin, 8 quai de la Megisserie, Paris The kitten, gray and striped with black, sat on Her haunches as she kneaded in the fur Of sister’s side. The sister gave a yawn And tried to suckle. If there was a purr We couldn’t hear it through the glass. The cage...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | CA
Smeared Where Kipper went we do not know. He left. That’s all. He went out through his cat flap. Then He disappeared. He roamed into the cleft Of blank eternity, that region when There’s everything and nothing. He just slipped Out. We were heedless....
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | CA, MO, RO
Meaning through Cosmic Hush like Unheard Throat Singing ‘If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss gazes into you.’ ~ Friedrich Nietzsche The positive and negative commune. The cloven orange canyon strata yell In silence, paralyzed agony hewn And made of...
by phillipw | Apr 13, 2020 | CA, PR
Peace Accord He doesn’t, if he understands and knows His master is not angry. He has learned We do not want him through that door. He goes To stare out longingly. Romeo burned Less fervently for Juliet than our Pet, Prospero, desires to use that front Way. Still,...
by phillipw | Apr 4, 2020 | CA
Shàn in Abundance I know a woman in Beijing who cares. She cares for cats. She rescues them the way The Buddha might. She takes them in and shares Her tiny income with them. People flay And eat them in the south of China. She Protects abandoned...
by phillipw | Apr 3, 2020 | CA, FL
Falun Gong Forbearance at the Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, Florida The Spanish in Saint Augustine knew well That some day France’s warships would loom Near. Cannons would attack. Attempts to quell Disaster were required to meet the boom Of French...
by phillipw | Mar 12, 2020 | CA, KI
Black and White Uncompromisingly in Every Attitude For Prospero the world is black and white. It’s true he’s got green eyes—though, yes, pink nose And paw pads—and he wears fluorescent bright Green lights to warn birds that his stalking pose Looms close to...
by phillipw | Feb 25, 2020 | CA, DO
Flopsy, Mopsy, and Forgotten Tail Cats sleep all out. They have this genius. Flop They go. It’s as if Mohammed Ali Has knocked them loose and lifeless as a mop, Or sent their souls to Allah’s heaven. “Gee,” They seem to say, “I’ll just conk out right here, My...
by phillipw | Feb 21, 2020 | CA, PU
Dido and Aeneas The Queen of Carthage sings that “he is gone” In white-smoke pain. Purcell gives smoke-white tongue To those who lose their men. She acts as pawn; He swells her aching throat and tortured lung With passions of the flames that fill her,...
by phillipw | Feb 18, 2020 | CA, WH, WI
Aunt Wilma’s Voice Aunt Wilma’s voice had wings within it. They Were all the species she had known on Cape Canaveral—and others. The array Included hummingbirds, their whirring shape, The shimmer of the nightingale and lark. In church her...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2020 | CA, KI
The Spiritual Meaning of Kittenhood She plays with plastic bags until she knocks Them down from off the easy chairs, and spills The contents, loudly, clattering (the box That held the Christmas cookies) and she thrills To see the spreading chaos. “This is what Life’s...
by phillipw | Jan 31, 2020 | BU, CA, KI
The New Purrusalem My kitten steps across my flooring tiles And even though they are the blandest bland, A space of beige like wedding chapel aisles, Tiles turn transparent gold, become the strand Of Heaven leading to the throne of Him Who made her beauty with a...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | CA, KE, ST
Keats Walked Here The mountainside outshines the twilight force Above the highway and its cars. Their glass And chrome presumably reflect the gorse, Dark green and yellow, from the mountain pass Back up, but weakly; colored echoes are Too feeble. Bog plants made...
by phillipw | Jan 21, 2020 | CA, NE
The Present Morning Nekko sleeping I woke up with a whisker on my bed, A long, white, bendy one. My Nekko sleeps In curled up stripes and back and tail and head. He almost never leaves me gifts but keeps His perfect whiskers to himself. So fine Because of...
by phillipw | Jan 3, 2020 | CA, GL
New Use for a Hive Tool https://images.app.goo.gl/TWPvPDBoGjhcxmJLA I cannot recommend an afternoon In bee yards—sun, sweat, stink of carbolic Fumes, not to mention hotness of harpoon Stings, each delivering vitriolic Intensity of hatred, or the stench Of burned...
by phillipw | Dec 30, 2019 | CA
A Form of Meditation My cat is trying to express a deep And lovely thought. Her Buddhist methods for This mystic message are purring and sleep. She sometimes dozes in the corridor With chin (propped on a brick from a building Site in Dongzhimen) the hue of...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2019 | CA
Burlington He makes the heart’s beat change into a purr By doing simple things like lapping milk, And kneading rugs, and wearing knitted fur That rubs against the leg like hungry silk; The way he sleeps, contorted like a slur Of laziness across the...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2019 | CA, KI
Kipper He masters life by learning how to fall. From heights he lands with four white feet just right. When drowsy all he does is form a ball Of stripes —and falls into a furry night Made up of twitch and sleep. And if from grace He falls...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2019 | CA, PR
Prospero’s Priorities: He Goes Straight Out the Door My cat believes that he should be a cat. He knows that he’s conflicted in this thing: He thinks he’s tip top, an aristocrat, And so deserves each comfort I can bring Such as a heated mat and that his man Should...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | CA
Nimmy A cat has ways of lying that dogs can Never match. Cats catch a wink just about Anywhere—on a chair; beside the man Whom they’ve converted from dawg-loving doubt; In front of banks of books that they don’t care To notice. The...
by phillipw | Dec 13, 2019 | CA
Remembrances Canaveral dawns disclosed a light as clear As ospreys’ irises. Bald eagle’s claws Came grasping down on nests constructed near To God. Atlantic sand as smooth as gauze From stratospheric heaven saved the prints Of sandpipers. Pending lace and...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2019 | CA, WH, WO
Woodrow (born on Woodrow Wilson’s 1st Inaugural Day) with His Wife, and Wilma (Half Sister)—All Homestead Pioneers on the Cape Who Had Their Homes Taken Away from Them for Building the Space Center—Watches the Launch of Apollo 11 Woodrow on the far right of the group...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2019 | CA, DE, LO
Treats for Tall, Tall Dougie He had a wide-faced heart and it was warm As if it too were wrapped in his thick fur. When he came running up, it caused a swarm Of love to swirl around the soul, a blur Of bright affection, since of course we knew How welcoming...
by phillipw | Nov 18, 2019 | CA
Milele Tranquility, despite his tiny size, Rests strong in him as if a tiger’s dream Has come to dwell behind his calm blue eyes Because it chose to sleep encased in cream- And-grey striped cranium of fur. Of course He dozes almost all...
by phillipw | Nov 14, 2019 | CA
Canaveral from the Early Twentieth Century Till 1969 The cape, a manta ray with ribbons strung Out, trails them back from north and south away From ocean depths, a landscape left unsung By poets who want mountains or the play Of...
by phillipw | Nov 13, 2019 | CA, FL, TI, WH
Woodrow Wilson Whidden, Sr. 1913-1999 ; 1:32 in the Afternoon, July 16, 1969 Khonsu; wikimedia commons He had a lion childhood made of shoves And tumbles, little nips, and blinks, there by The sea of Florida with sisters’...
by phillipw | Oct 6, 2019 | CA, LE, NI
Commencement: May Day At last, the miracle comes round again: Bright blossoms, leaves are born along the bough And May Poles rise—while no one thinks of pain; Commencement, so long striven for, is now! Commencement comes, a miracle for one Among the caps and...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2019 | CA
The Tortured Mouse The tortured mouse lies curled along the tiles. It did not know that it would be laid out In state on beige linoleum. The wiles Of feline hunting placed her little snout Against my floor. She never knew that claw And tooth would pierce her life...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2019 | CA, PE
Pelops The dish that Tantalus served up to gods And goddesses degraded every gift Presented since, to anyone. The odds Of ever matching it were cut adrift By knives inside his kitchen. How compete With such a present? Even South Sea tribes Don’t serve their...
by phillipw | Aug 20, 2019 | BR, CA, DO
New Use for a Hive Tool I cannot recommend an afternoon In bee yards— sun, sweat, stink of carbolic Fumes, not to mention hotness of harpoon Stings, each delivering vitriolic Intensity of hatred, or the stench Of pine needles infilthtrating the air. And then . . . the...
by phillipw | Jul 31, 2019 | CA
Delights of Owning Cats The joys of owning cats or being owned By them are many, multifarious. Your house is eau de cologned With tomcat sprayings from the various Invaders through the cat flap, neighbourhood Intruders for widened territory. Humans who love the...
by phillipw | Jul 29, 2019 | CA
Unsentimental 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 rime-trimmed saplings cannot gad About in frolics, move in mourning or Have feelings harbored in their swaying hearts...
by phillipw | May 31, 2019 | CA
The Eye The lines of kitten loveliness themselves Are beautiful as she is, almost, there, But not. A rapt, assessing gaze that delves The vision sleeping on the easy chair Of gold velour can’t help but dwell upon The colors, too, not just the breathing lines....
by phillipw | May 28, 2019 | CA
Ocean Fish Reverie Two cats are sleeping near me, one stretched long Across the velvet easy chair. Her nose Lies pressing pinkly there. A little song Of tiny snoring, muffled by the pose, Is nearly all absorbed in plush gold pile— A fitting, soft recipient of her...