by phillipw | Apr 9, 2024 | CO, PU, SN
Meaningless in French Restaurants With grace in every part the snail moves, fast Like all perfections, fast in nature, form And beauty. Snails do not want meanings vast And mystical. The snail is not a warm Enlightenment from Zen, sparrows picked By Christ for...
by phillipw | Jan 9, 2024 | CO, ER, HA, Ho, MA, PE, RU, SE
The Haunt of Manly Dreams Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A tingling in his skin with hairs makes nubs Rise up. They pop up from connections to His heart, nerve wires. His left-hand searches,...
by phillipw | Sep 27, 2023 | CO, GA, LO, PI, RO, SA, SI, ST, TE, Uncategorized
Harlequin in Guise of Tuberculosis Hovering When love is played in luscious settings, clowns Are needed. Sad or comic they can be But never tragic, really, dressed in gowns That do not give the game away. We see Them loving like doom’s humans, threatening clown Just...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2023 | AN, BR, CO, GR
Hemmed in by Their Beards The only women Greeks respected with The type of honor they accorded males Were Amazons. Though whether these were myth Or fact, or both, the sagas offered tales To teach young men that they should not forsake Ideals of manhood. When...
by phillipw | May 27, 2023 | CO, DE, PO
My Treatment of You is Far Worse Supposing that you wrote a new computer tongue, String codes, a new computer language, whole, From start to finish new, completely strung Out like a spider’s web from you, its scroll From nowhere else but from your mind—and you Then...
by phillipw | Jan 29, 2023 | BR, CO, DO, Uncategorized
Bree and Dawn The nine year old boy, Curving butterflies zig zag Before and behind. ~ Phillip Whidden The only perfect human beings are . . . Our nine-year olds. They’ve learned the sweetness we Had longed...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2023 | CO, LA
A Sort of Living Doubt “A sort of living doubt” ~ John Clare, “The Landrail” Take notice how it walks as if it fears Its foot will step upon a circle in the hell Of Dante. Pacing shy (unlike Shakespeare’s Wide eagle lines) the corncrake...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2023 | CO, DE
Yet Enough A sonnet is not much in little but Enough in little. Cosmic, no, yet small Is how the universe began. A hut With kings’ and shepherds’ rhymes involves a sprawl. The form explodes inside itself, its shell The force of...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2023 | BR, CO, FI, TR, WA, WO
Grotesqueries Military Cross given to Siegfried Sassoon for his “conspicuous gallantry during a raid on the enemy’s trenches.” Imagining the worst might happen, Brooke Writes out a letter to his mother who Is gung ho for the war. His fears unhook...
by phillipw | Sep 4, 2022 | CO, DE, JO, KE, PO, RO, SP, TU
Autumn and the Spanish Steps Though waiting for the wind so long, the leaves Know patience, or at least they know no dread. The autumn wind is patient, too, perceives Their stoicism wearing orange and red, October yellow even, brighter in Their bravery. ...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2022 | AR, CO, JA, ME, PA
Cherubim Etched in Gilding Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Back then world was filled with gold, gold skies. The angels’ wings were tiny, but they flew. Two cherubim in gold attract our...
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 | Feb 18, 2022 | BU, CO, EN, SA
Satori Glory Despite Gray Feathers Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My childhood home where The face of the little snail Was like the Buddha’s own. ~ Issa My cockatiel named Cocky had a...
by phillipw | Feb 12, 2022 | BR, CO, CR, PA
Creation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The universe that wasn’t . . . just . . . got . . . bored. It yawned and burped out big time. From the yawn And belch...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2022 | BO, CO, FI, HA
Tears of Melancholic Glee The lost child crying, Crying, crying. Even so . . . Catching the fireflies. ~ Ryusui The twilight darkens like a threat. The boy Wipes eyes and suddenly he sees a flash Which floats across the air. It’s like a toy That he has dreamed of,...
by phillipw | Dec 1, 2021 | BU, CO
Green Cove Springs for Bucky Coggins Green stands for living; no, for life, for all That life can offer, far beyond what minds Can dream of. Green is like the cosmic caul Of birthing. Green is more than that. It winds Behind and through the brimming universe. A...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2021 | CO
He Once Had Coffee in a Little Container in Havana that Was so Thick a Spoon Might Have Stood Upright in the Cup Black coffee is delectable if you Can torture it enough. Add something sweet To start with. Then add more. Then add a slew Of it, perhaps in several...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2021 | AD, CO, DR, HE, LO, PA
Ingredients That photo of the man, his little son, And summer sunlight on their cuddling skin Has disappeared. It was the only one Jill had and most importantly no sin Could be detected in it. But it’s lost. Jill wonders if Ray...
by phillipw | Aug 15, 2021 | BO, CO, MI, SE
And Moaning about How We Can’t Go Get a Sunburn on the Costa Blanca As calm as Eisenhower after war While playing golf with Mamie left behind, We turn ourselves away to things much more Enjoyable. Ignoring earthquake grind Of human flesh and souls in Haiti, we Get on...
by phillipw | Aug 10, 2021 | CO, FO, FR, WI
Advice for Living Do life the way a worker honeybee Approaches living, but without the fault Of filling life without wild liberty. Stretch up. Attend to life as if pole vault Maneuvers at their height were done without The flexing strength that...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | CH, CO, DO, RE, SE
The Holy Roast “peace on earth, good will toward men” I’m having distant arguments without Connection to the ones I’m fighting with. I write my brutal points because I doubt My brothers will consider them. The myth Of brotherhood is only that, a tale...
by phillipw | Aug 3, 2021 | CO, LA, SK
Coded by Broad Daylight, Lost in Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Why hide in night, when you can hide in day? God hides in His effulgent, banging light That kills if you should see its...
by phillipw | Jul 27, 2021 | BR, CO
Generosity is Gorgeous in a Georgia Morning Aunt Ruby never pulled an orchid from Her water well. Its bucket never raised Camellias up. What farmhouse buckets plumb For isn’t beauty. Water in them gazed At her and what she saw was her reflection on Its surface. ...
by phillipw | Jul 22, 2021 | CO, ER, FU, PE, SE
Precious Hardness, Precious Black Wood The leopards love the manly flesh of thighs With hair, the humid meat of men. Fangs love The bone of flesh hard maleness sings and size Of satiation that men give. Above These basics, though, the leopards want a feast Of gold...
by phillipw | Jun 22, 2021 | CO, CY, PH
Love Administered by the Local Council The little beauties disappear. We walk Past those for season after season, year On year. The world’s brownish evils stalk Them, though. A pretty pinkish, purplish cheer They give, the cyclamens that grow beside Each other just...
by phillipw | Jun 6, 2021 | CH, CO, DR, RE, ST
Loose Needlework The sage walks round in circles. Blessings burn. The blessings burn farewell. They burn the facts. They never matter. They are there to turn To incense all your scarred up faithless acts Against your wife, and son, and Jesus, too, Those...
by phillipw | Jun 2, 2021 | CO, GU, ME, NE
Phantom A special shadow might reveal much worse, Much more than just a silhouette of shade That trails you. It might cast a hex or curse That clings because of sly mistakes you made So long ago you thought that you should not Be punished for them, or the...
by phillipw | Jun 1, 2021 | CI, CO, HE, TH, VE
“Resistance to Government,” the Tract that Wrested India from Britain and Led Martin Luther King, Jr., to the Lincoln Memorial Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Maine A natural Sabbath brings a...
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 1, 2021 | CO, FU, PE, SE
Heavenly Bodies Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The sunlight on the moon is sunlight, not Sad moonlight. Get that straight. If I want you, I want you having me inside you, hot, More...
by phillipw | Mar 31, 2021 | CO, DE, JO, KE, ST, TU
Sovereign Keats Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem To bear all naked truths, And to envisage circumstance, all calm: That is the top of sovereignty. Hyperion II 203 To accept all With...
by phillipw | Mar 29, 2021 | CO, MU, SO, SY
The Music for Saints’ Ears The snow is like two perfect music realms. It came in perfect purest notes as flakes All night and now the vision overwhelms. In dark it manifested white as lakes Turned first to ice, then covered with true white. High symphonies first...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2021 | AD, CO, DO, DR, EL, FA, MA, PA, PR, RE, SE
There to Efface Himself in Ecstasy Religious? There to efface himself in Ecstasy he flailed about. Yes, he tried Cocaine at first and, lolling in that sin, He won election victory as he fried His brain that way. Of course he used plain Ole dope as well but somehow...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2021 | CO, KO, MU, SI
“in music out of sight” Korean courts heard music long ago And watched silk dancing, swirrrrrƏls of silk sleeves. These musics and these patterns were aglow In royal eyes and ears beneath tiled eaves Of palaces but now the motions, notes, And melodies are so far...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2021 | CO, JO, MA, NE, NO, RA, TE, TV
Forget About Your Duties, Journalists Not everything must be about the spiked Coronavirus. Tell the media And they would laugh. You see that they are dyked Up, blocked bowels. Encyclopedia Materials imply ten thousand things That could be focused on instead, but,...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2021 | AN, CO, DE, DI, FA, FE, FU, HE, KE, PE, SE, SK
Coffin, Bed, Whatever He used to have a black nacrotic ____ But now, because of you, it swells again. It pulses and is desperate to _____ Out words and symphonies so full of pain That laughter is the only option. ____ Is there if you desire it in your throat. If...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2021 | CL, CO, CU, FU, IN, OR, PE, SE
Priming Your Pump at the Well Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Just one slight push and he slips into you. Unspoken is this love, for who needs love In words when there is love to spew? You want a...
by phillipw | Mar 18, 2021 | CO, DR, FR, HI, PO, SO
Distant Hits The writing of vague truths in sonnets to Those readers you will never know takes on An almost holy redolence. You brew Up draughts of hormones and of nights long gone, And other steams of psychedelic drugs, And somewhere far away,...
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 14, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, CO, ES, MO, SO, TR
The Sonnet in Its Little Room The sonnet, much too like a tight cocoon, Encased inside its silk-like threads is far Too tiny and too strict but not immune To mystic grandeur. It is not a czar Upon a dais seat raised up and vast Of gold, but more a derringer...
by phillipw | Mar 5, 2021 | CO, EN, RU, TO
Not Far from Dremeford Though painted by the sunset, streams have no Awareness of the western sea. The graves Beneath the castle have no knowledge, though They face towards the dawn. Aflame like naves At Easter, children’s eyes compete with glass In sunward...
by phillipw | Jan 15, 2021 | AE, BE, CO, ES, PE
Sotōba’s “bijin” Applied Not to a Perfect Confucian Man Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The peony adorns the bed, a piece Of heaven settled down in earth. The blooms Themselves are heaven. ...
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 26, 2020 | BO, BR, CO, DR, EX, GE, IO, JU, VU
Victors in Dream Geography Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We want to conquer dreamers’ landscapes, sweep Through them triumphantly, explore each dream And make it ours. We want to fathom deep...
by phillipw | Dec 20, 2020 | AR, BE, CO, IM, LU, RO
Hearing Deafly Romantics are like oceans, deep, disturbed, And wide. Unfathomed parts of them require Attention for this art. Their depths, perturbed Like Christ’s Bethesda or by coal mines’ fire, Impact the darkness and are meant to treat Our...
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 9, 2020 | CO, DE, DI, GH, MA, OR, PE, RE, SO, SP
Reincarnation The spirit wishes it could look back to Its body, not the rotted one, and see The firm young form with hair and holy blue Of Mary’s robe in clear young eyes still free Of intimations of their death. The hair, The blond head...
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 | Nov 2, 2020 | CO, CY, GE, Ho, MU, NA, PO, PR, ZY
Zyklon B The darkness hangs so heavy it might make A sound if struck. The darkness is like black So weighty nightmares might begin to shake If they encountered it. Hearts might attack It. Hearts are only hearts, though. They are made Of blood and...
by phillipw | Oct 28, 2020 | BR, CO, JA, PO, RO
MENSA I have a lack of knowledge that is quite Encyclopedic when it comes to “pop” (Pop culture stuff). I like more erudite And highbrow matters. Tracks like “Lollipop, Oh Lollipop, Oh Lollie! Lollie!” can’t Appear on radar screens for me. Some lines From...
by phillipw | Oct 26, 2020 | CH, CO, DE, FI, GO, HA, JE, PO, VI
Cormorants Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Morning twilight; in Their basket the cormorants Asleep, exhausted. ~ Shiki The poet notices the tiny things,...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2020 | AU, CO, GA, Ho, TR
To the Right The sign instructed, “to the right.” It said, “Go right.” The right had sapphire eyes and wrote With clarity for fate. A blond male head Conceived the sign. Pale whiskered meanings bloat Beneath the notice for the damned. They walk...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2020 | AU, CO, DA, EM, FA, HE, Ho, MA, NE, RA, TH, TR
Mystics of Concord Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem New England thinkers mixed autumnal views With leaves from Homer, also Dante’s leaves. That blinded poet managed to suffuse The thoughts...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | AN, BY, CO, GR, PO
Snake Intestines in the Royal College’s Library of Constantinople Inked lines of Homer quilled inside a roll, One hundred twenty feet of words along A parchment made of serpent folds, a scroll From fabled serpents’ innards, softly strong, Was laid as almost...
by phillipw | Oct 4, 2020 | CO, DA, EM, GR, OS, PU, WI
Who Cares about Mere Language? “Every word was once a poem.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson in “The Poet.” Greek graffitos put the letter V and the letter M on walls during Greece’s occupation by Nazis. V = Vinceremo (we will win). M = Mussolini Merde. Any graffitos...
by phillipw | Sep 16, 2020 | AN, CO, Ho, IL, PO, Ta, TR
Taironan Troy See “Mucho más que libros,” Semana, 4 June 2001, Bogatá “At the time of the conquest, the Tairona had different cultural practices than Modern Native American populations. Ethnographic sources highlight freedom to...
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 2, 2020 | CO, DE, FU, ME, MO
Rites When undertakers take the body, pimp It up to please its final lover, stretch Its limbs to that position while still limp And use mascara and lipstick to etch A long-time disposition for the lips To welcome death, do hands attempt to call Up...
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 28, 2020 | BR, CO, PO, ST, TE, WE
Dagger-like and Sword-like Will Notwithstanding The tears do not comply with lines in skin. They course along outside the ditches, rude Though silent in belligerence. These thin Trails cannot hold the pain when it is skewed Away from tracks that time has dug. ...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AT, BU, CO, EL, LA, LO, NI, OL, SA, SO, SP, TH, VI
They Loved Sovereignty and Liberty Most “And the Lacedæmonians offer sacrifices to Love before they go to battle, thinking that safety and victory depend on the friendship and those who stand side by side in the battle array. And the Cretans, in their line of battle,...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2020 | BR, CO, GA, Ho, LO, SP, TH
The Night before Thermopylae— “The Hot Gates” “Phaedrus’s praise for erôs (love) as a precondition for courage employs poetic quotations from poems that in fact state that wisdom is the true precondition, and that erotic passion without thoughtfulness leads to...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | CO, GO, JA, ME, OD, PE, SA, SO, WI
The Big Exceptions The women move in caged in places both In life and plays. In poetry they are Curtailed to Sappho and Corinna. Troth Constricts Penelope. It hems. No spar To take her seas away, she sits at loom, Is trapped at night unpicking her trapped work,...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | CO, EU, FL, HA, HE, OR, PL, RO
That Supreme Nazi, Plato, Sounded Off about Orpheus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He takes the poison of his courage and His love. He does not try to dazzle death With poetry: Romeo is not bland...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | AN, CO, HU, PO, RH, SC
I Have Looked upon the Face of Jolliness The ancient Greeks in poetry were lewd As limericks, playful, silly as a stand Up joker on a comic’s platform, rude And crude, yep, far more rude than Russell Brand. Emitted from these ancient rhythmic throats Were poems...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2020 | CO, FR, LO, RO, TR
France, the Ancient Place of Love “In the mid-fifth century [B.C.], however, a Greek at the Cap d’Antibes inscribed two verses on a black stone shaped like a penis: ‘I am Mister Pleaser, the servant of the holy Goddess Aphrodite.’” ~ Robin Lane Fox, The Classical...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2020 | CO, FO, PO, TR
Formal Poetry against Free Verse Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Plato in “inventing some extraordinarily powerful images of his own” came up with “notably the poet as Corybant”. ~ Penelope...
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 30, 2020 | AN, CO, TR
Comedy or Tragedy: Someone Should Have Told Shakespeare Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse When comedy was talked about, the thought Of Plato and his mates was that the laugh Was different from the groan. A playwright ought To write...
by phillipw | Jun 25, 2020 | CO, FR, MO, TR
Defeat in Battle ………. True beauty is allowed to lapse to make Some room for what is novel, just the new, As if by definition modish ache Is better than the perfect pain. This skew Along to holiness of fashion runs The flopping risk of...
by phillipw | Jun 16, 2020 | AN, CO, Ho
A Second-Century B.C. Homer Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem...
by phillipw | May 31, 2020 | BR, CH, CO, DE, Ta
Trinkets The atheistic Charles de Talleyrand Had all the little perquisites a man Could hope for (with the exception of brawn In leg). Whatever his luck didn’t span, The women in his life took action to Correct. The Countess de Brionne...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | BR, CO, MA, RA, SY
Musical Rightness in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room The space between his eyebrows is so wide It might contain nine symphonies, and all The works of Mozart, or the whole deep tide Of oceans that we label music. Tall Conceptions captured in long swelling bars...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | CO, PO, TI, TS, VO
The Legends and the Gods, the Victors and Obliterations Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The flow of cosmic history through this mote We call the world has always been a rush, Not slow like muddy...
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 | AL, AN, BO, CO, DO, GI, OS, PE, RO, WI
The Ultimate Chamber of Silent Adoration Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “When Robbie Ross died, […] he triumphed over both Bosie and Constance, by having his ashes interred in Oscar’s tomb.” ~...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | CO, FL, LO, LU, PA, PL, RO, SE
The Purpose of the Cosmos Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Dawns come and go. The twilights blaze and fade. The phases of the moon go round and round In slivers and in spheres. Sea days are made...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | CH, CO, DI, OE
Red Cultural Revolution M modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “And arte made tung-tide by authoritie” ~ William Shakespeare, sonnet 66 (1609 Quarto) The landscape of the Chinese world, with art...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AL, CO, IS, RE
Uranium Rods and Synergy “no proud dreams and no proud lusts” ~ H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds The swelling and the force of men is like The power of God, Jehovah at his best, Or Allah at his fiercest, or, more the spike In Mercury’s performance, gods...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AU, CO, VE
Comet 46P/Wirtanen to Be Viewed from Venezia, Serenissima Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A glowing circle smudge of aqua light Sails through the constellation Taurus with An icy pinprick at its heart....
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | BR, CO, JO, VI
Johnson Beharry Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “what is ideal in him is the beauty and freshness he embodies” ~ Jacob Burckhardt commenting on the ancient Greek hero...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AU, CO, FA, FI, LA, OX, RE, SP
The Knighthood of the Countryside Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Genteel, the hills of Oxfordshire are clothed With farm fields at their feet, brocades of trees On shoulders and their chests. The...
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 12, 2020 | CO, DE, DR, LO, RO
I was a Prophet without Mouth and Tongue “skin redolent with unspoken kisses” ~ Jaime Mathis, “Passion,” It Rises and Falls His skin and veins were pocked. Cocaine had left Its scab-like potholes and ruined entry Attempts like craters, scarred up ones. The heft Of...
by phillipw | May 12, 2020 | BE, CO, ZY
Zyzzyva Ztanding Out “While there are 250,000 described species of plants, 12,000 described species of roundworms, and only 4,000 described species of mammals, there are over 350,000 beetle species described, with many more beetles yet to be discovered!”...
by phillipw | May 11, 2020 | CO, SU
Memory A farm’s green pond is still. There is no air; The trees, in harder green, are moveless, too. The morning’s laundered clouds lie on the bare Wet skin of water where a white canoe Which brothers left looks green in brighter dawn. A little...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | CO, DO, PL, ST
Whither Modern Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem n verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A golden dome has disappeared. A blue One glimmers high with...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | AD, CO, GO, NO, SC
The Degradation of the Divine The gods have been reduced to ploys for ads, Cartoonish movies, and perfume campaigns For goddess-like attraction, and for fads Like PS4-ish war games. Gods’ remains Are just commercial or for trivial Stupidities. The great gods...
by phillipw | May 7, 2020 | CO, GE, PE
Big Time Censorship Perhaps you’ve noticed how the statues leave Out any sight of god Apollo’s junk. The artists think that we are too naïve To know the god, presented as a hunk, Had no enraged erection in the scene. They always put a piece of fabric or His...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | CO, DA, GE, LE, MA, OR, PE, VI
The Heart is Never Central Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The heart is never central. It is to The left and far too far above the base. The heart is not positioned for the true. It loves too much the...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AR, CO, PO
Formal Poetry against Free Verse Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Plato in “inventing some extraordinarily powerful images of his own” came up with “notably the poet as Corybant”. ~ Penelope Murray,...
by phillipw | Apr 17, 2020 | CO, NE, UN
NecroPhillipa I can’t afford the kind of perjury To make me young and beautiful again In this life: the best of plastic surgery Is well beyond my grasp. Besides the pain Is more than I could bear. Perhaps I could Afford a burial arrangement, though,...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | AR, CO, PA
A Long, Long Way from classical Greece at the Bottom of the Indian Ocean I’m curious about what women peek At as the men fixate on tits. Do gals Examine buttocks and their swollen, sleek Bronze dullness? Are women’s, visual pals The bulging abs or maybe hulking...
by phillipw | Apr 2, 2020 | CO, GE, SE
Sacred Barrel, Sacred Target, Sacred Ammo He lines it up. It’s softness has gone hard And it at least knows perfectly its need. It’s like an aching, pulsing, fevered shard That’s full of its intelligence and greed. It knows one thing, and that’s enough. That’s all...
by phillipw | Mar 3, 2020 | CO, DA, DI, LO, RO
eatrice Portinari In fear consume my heart. The flames you cause Inside it and around it should spark fright Because their fierceness ought to give you pause. Be brave, though. Let your mouth and heart find might To overcome the flame-shaped, tongue-shaped dread....
by phillipw | Feb 16, 2020 | CO, ZY
Annunciation While we are still inside the womb, mites, specks Of protein, not much more, our mothers host Mere little flakes of spirit, tiny flecks Of would-be souls, each one a proto-ghost Though prescience of sweat and death we lack. This long before...
by phillipw | Feb 10, 2020 | CO, ER, MA, PE
[This poem may cause some offence in some readers. If you think you may be offended, please do not read it.] Homo Erectus What stimulus is needed in a man To search for what Christ really wants of him? He knows already what his pulsing span Requires. Inside...
by phillipw | Jan 28, 2020 | CO
Goal! I wrote my love along a napkin on A restaurant table. Others watched a match On artificial turf. They watched brawn, And I wrote poetry, though just a smatch Of it, a sonnet meant to be about That thing men worship when they’re not Involved with...
by phillipw | Jan 22, 2020 | BR, CO, RO
The Last Rose of Winter … November presses on in coldness, wind And cruel light exposing death around The garden. Life and beauty have been skinned, The greens and pinks and whitest petals browned To desolation, but one bush holds out. It holds up high its...
by phillipw | Jan 8, 2020 | CO
The Counter Tenor …………..“Higher still and higher” High singing in the gothic arches high Above is asthe fan-like vaulting, spread And strong in its complexity. That sky Of stone divisions is at one with red And gold bright...