by phillipw | Feb 8, 2024 | DR, FA, GR, NO
Creature of Compassion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Although in worlds outside of Asia some Might think that pink and green are linked to love Of softness, few think dragons might succumb To...
by phillipw | Dec 25, 2022 | CH, DR, MA, MY, WH
Modesty’s Refinement from a Winter’s Afternoon The curtains in the bedroom at the front Were Margaret’s last and accidental gift To me. Before their hanging day, death’s stunt Destroyed her. She was sucked right through that rift...
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 | May 16, 2022 | DR
The Fix that Wasn’t He made a cup of coffee, cream and mild, So mild that Chuck would not have drunk it. He Preferred it black and strong and bitter, wild As Chuck’s addiction, which was white. The glee It gave him was a feral thrill. It blocked...
by phillipw | Feb 4, 2022 | DA, DR, FA, HA, HE, PE, SE, VA
Dreaming of the Coming Spring Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem They blossom, and then We gaze, and then the blooms Scatter, and then… ~ Onitsura The tightness of the winter now is...
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 | 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 | Sep 7, 2021 | DR, ME, SE, SH
What Your Shirt Says about You Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Your shirt says that you stink inside its pits. The cut may be as classy as a new Prince undisturbed by later teenage zits, Or whoring round...
by phillipw | Sep 6, 2021 | BU, DR, HU, RO, SE
The Flowers Dream of Hummingbirds Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When butterflies fan wings while on a stone, They do not dream, or if they do, they fail To dream of us, our sadness when alone Or, more,...
by phillipw | Aug 16, 2021 | AD, CH, DR, FR, MA, ST
Vanilla Vermont I think the man I loved for many years, A druggie, lost in needles and cocaine, The man who caused so many useless tears, That man called Chuck, would find it quite inane That I am drinking coffee, milky stuff With lots of sweeteners...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | DA, DR, SA, UN
Dreams are Dreams in Dali’s World Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I dreamed of you last night, the dream set in And unknown city. Accidentally met We walked together, both avoiding sin. We went to your...
by phillipw | Jul 1, 2021 | DR, NI, PS, SU, UN
Unborn Worlds Our dreams unborn await us in the dark, The darkest and the deepest part of brain. Our dreams are not like honey. They are stark Like lust and stinging venom. They want stain And swelling to remain once they have left Us harmed. A bee, or...
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 | May 3, 2021 | DR, FL
Bloody Queen Mary Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When fed from underneath, a flame is hard To quench. The fire burns from the deepest down Domains. The hottest flame cuts like a shard...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2021 | DA, DR, ME, NI
Strata Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Our memories bring us home to more than just Ourselves, or rather to those selves that we Once were and later. Souvenirs are trussed Up in...
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 22, 2021 | DA, DR, PO, SP
Whack Humor Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When he is at his gayest, you can know That he hulks earnest in designs. To take Him at his surface meaning is to go Awry the way a moth in...
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 | Feb 28, 2021 | DR, FL, RE
Escape from Recurring Pain The water comes before, then comes the flow Of water after. Now, forever, these First lead then follow. Floods or trickles go Wherever they insist. Priests can’t appease Them. Always they repeat their sequence, force, Retreat, return. ...
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 13, 2020 | DR, IV, NI, SI
Silence in Nested Dreams Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He suddenly and stupidly, an ox That suffers hammer blow to brain, saw he Had never heard a noise in dreams, a box So insulated that they all...
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 | Dec 4, 2020 | DR, FR, SU, UN
Self-examination: Sapphire Nightmares, Indigo Ink on Pages By moving closer in my self, I learn. A dream or nightmare rises from the deeps As in the night I move in nearer, burn Their meaningless meanings from dungeon keeps Of soldered down subconscious. Sigmund...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2020 | DR, EZ, RE, SU, UN
Holiness of Rationality Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If we could ripen sleep to more than dreams And nightmares—visions verified by veiled Ezekiels, Isaiahs, or the beams Of truth from...
by phillipw | Nov 14, 2020 | DR, GO, UN
Over a Mystic River Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Aaron Wu@aaroncwu Suspended from the columns of men’s brains, Our dreams are bridges that go strong and straight To mystery though...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | AN, DR, LO, PO
Antarctica’s Dry Valley Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Extremes beyond imagining for most Are what some poets want to capture. They Want more. They strain to make their minds engrossed With...
by phillipw | Jun 12, 2020 | DR
Comedy or Tragedy: Someone Should Have Told Shakespeare Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When comedy was talked about, the thought Of Plato and his mates was that the laugh Was different from the...
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 7, 2020 | BO, DR, JO, LA, PA, PH, WE, WH, WI
Recurring, Not Forgotten Florida Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The childhood cosmos that returns in dreams Is full of butter suns, smooth, yellow, bright. The light is not like melting candy creams...
by phillipw | Apr 28, 2020 | DR, HI
Lingering Puzzles .. We puzzle out the meaning of meshed lines. We tease out riddles, reading like a sleuth. The Druids hid by keeping sacred signs Unwritten in a code that held their truth Inviolate. The spoken-only breath Of teachings, once the voices that...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2020 | DR, NI
Radical A dream is a reality as true As daylight drenching, scorching skin on face And throat. A dream is fact, an ultra blue As seen through telescopic sin and grace, A denseness like Magritte’s and Dali’s dreams If they were dire blue diamonds in a...
by phillipw | Mar 18, 2020 | DR, NI, SU
Subconscious The deepest part of memory is a trench, The black of seabed wound. The strangest part Is not the darkness or the tides that wrench The conscious mind. No. Claws and teeth that smart The brain convulsively come up to bite Or tear at us in...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2020 | DR, NI, SU
Night Brain In dreams impossibilities are rife. A human haunts us with his eyes, both closed And open, both at once. A faithful wife We left for fling and fun is there transposed To be our mother too. The man who raped Us as a child is kindly in abuse...
by phillipw | Mar 5, 2020 | DR
Depths of Everlasting Springs [This sonnet was written on St. Valentine’s Day, 2017, and finished the next day.] Love, life, and death—these are the deepest things Unless we think of dreams. Mirages in The mind have depths. Hallucination rings With white hot...
by phillipw | Feb 25, 2020 | DR, FO, ME
Mind Cankers “the realm of forgetting, that overcrowded land’ ~ Donna Leon The kingdom of forgetfulness is large, Much larger than the empire of memory. Forgetting is the way that humans charge Ahead. Our histories are just the quay That once great...
by phillipw | Jan 29, 2020 | DR
After Settling Down to Work You know the drooping. Drowsiness and lolls Take over and you find yourself asleep Or nearly there, a cousin of rag dolls On opium. A heavy-lidded sweep Of wooziness begins to take you down To forty fathom depths. You do not want It. You...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2020 | DR
The Space We Dream In The space we dream in is inside our ribs. It isn’t just inside our hearts. It takes In lungs as well. Our chests are little cribs For sleeping infants, little drowsy aches We want to be full-grown but are afraid Will turn out wrong,...
by phillipw | Jan 1, 2020 | DR
The Snowy Egret An egret stalks as slowly as a dream Dressed knowingly in feathery white, a night Dream, not a daydream, since the scaled-leg scheme Of daytime thought makes fantasies take flight, Bright reveries that aren’t so tight and slow As nightmares...
by phillipw | Dec 30, 2019 | DR
The Claws of Dreams I wonder what the claws of dreams would sound Like if recoded by some instrument That scientists can use, one that they found Abandoned in a corner of God’s tent. He didn’t need it once He learned His mind Could pry into our deepest...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2019 | DR, TE, WI
Becoming: Waking Up in the Thwarted Rêve …………………. …………..See the gif at https://imgur.com/gallery/c0yTUmw When Tennessee became my age, his brain Began to dream in color. Up till then The...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2019 | AD, CH, DR, LO, ST
Intravenous Love: A Sonnet Sequence I I take my drug in doses that must last For months—or years. Your distance now restrains Me from continuous supply. In veins Scarred caution punctures steady highs, but vast Effects on mind and soul make...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2019 | AD, DR, LO
Hoverdose Your dying in this moth-meandering way Just might destroy me more predictably Than if you pressed your earlobe (with a plea For ultimate commitment) to the stray And curly strands of sideburn by my ear, Then pulled a trigger at your other cheek...
by phillipw | Nov 29, 2019 | DR
After the Opera: A Drug-scene Tattoo “one night he kissed My soul out in a burning mist.” —Robert Browning A tenor and soprano sang among...
by phillipw | Nov 14, 2019 | DR, EL
Wish Lanterns Glow Old people harbor wishes, maybe with Their grudges. Wishes also linger from Their childhood daydreams each one like a myth Created solely for one heart. They come Back to these children made of wrinkles, stiff With memories, and these...
by phillipw | Nov 8, 2019 | CH, DR
Abandoned for Skip on Wisconsin Avenue, N.W. . I met you in a Georgetown street one day Alone among the shopping crowds, we two. We talked as if you had not left us all, Left me and others, wife and Matt, who grew Away in pain. He used to hit his mom So...
by phillipw | Nov 5, 2019 | DR
Out of Our Minds in Our Minds I disapprove the dreams I have in bed. I can’t control them. They are like a drug Injected in my brain. They’re colored dread And silliness all tangled in a fug. I cannot like my daydreams. They are far Too stupid, colored happiness...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2019 | DR
Resolution of Daydreams This year I must resolve to disregard To Do lists and the Devil. I’ll make peace With them. They’ve both tattooed me or have scarred My saffron meadows. They both blockade Greece And blue struck sunlight from a templed isle. They hate...
by phillipw | Oct 11, 2019 | DR
Trumpet Cries Our dreams are tinctured with divinity. A poet or a genius seizes them And recognizes their affinity To dawn. A lover leans to touch the hem That passes by her in her crippled need. Philosophers, Hypatia-like, reveal Inherent beauties like a knowing...
by phillipw | Oct 8, 2019 | DA, DR, MA, RE
I Wake and Find my Life Was Dreaming My dreaming makes reality unreal— The dreaming makes my daily life more dream Than actuality. Then daydreams feel More vibrant than my life and make it seem A vanishing mirage, pastel and pale, Like watercolors spread...
by phillipw | Oct 7, 2019 | DR, MA
We Wake and Find our Lives were Dreaming Our dreaming makes reality unreal— The dreaming makes the universe more dream Than actuality. Then daydreams feel More vibrant than our lives and make them seem A vanishing mirage, pastel and pale, Like watercolors spread...
by phillipw | Sep 21, 2019 | DR
A Message from the Grave of Jim Morrison 0 Perhaps the boring facts in life are drugs. At least that was my own experience. I settled young to suckling at the dugs Of Using Druggish Momma, had no sense About how brilliant my mind was without That shit, and so I popped...
by phillipw | Aug 12, 2019 | AD, AL, DR
Outside the British Museum Of course I cannot speak. I’m crammed with drugs And all the shit that comes with them. I’ve turned Intelligence to stupid drawl. The dugs Of chemical addiction leave my burned Synapses tottering. They’re like a man...