by phillipw | Sep 18, 2022 | BE, DE, EL, MO, QU
cows two days before a funeral Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Proverbs 26:11 When Queen Elizabeth is dead, brown cows Will, still, be lying in the Windsor fields. The autumn fields will hint...
by phillipw | Aug 6, 2022 | EL, FE, JO, SM, WH
Godly Stones Crying Out “to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness” Leviticus 16:10 The prophet’s tongue is loose. It waggles, this Direction, that. It solemnizes truth, Then censures it. It gives Jehovah’s kiss But then his condemnation. God...
by phillipw | Mar 13, 2022 | BR, ED, EL, RU
“Legendary Beauty” and “Rugby and Eton”–A Foursome of Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Legendary Beauty “Incredibly, inordinately, devastatingly,...
by phillipw | Sep 28, 2021 | BR, EL, GR, Ho, KE, LU, MO, PR
Elizabeth Taylor Never Managed Bangles to Compete with THAT Though class means one thing in Great Britain, class Means something else in Hollywood. It’s glitz There, glitz with gilding. Briefly, it means crass With Cadillacs and white fox fur with tits Concealed,...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2021 | EL, LU, MA, MO, OS, PR, Ta
A Skin-deep Sea in a Fake Heaven The depths of shallowness are what the stars Dive into. Starlit deeps make slickness glow Like Barbarella dressed for sex-grooved Mars, Or Marilyn with one leg raised to show The blue pool has not killed her yet. Like Wilde...
by phillipw | Aug 12, 2021 | EL, RO, SU, WA
Nocturne Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem …………………….. ” Where joy and sadness are forgotten or Have never been, just there...
by phillipw | Apr 25, 2021 | DA, EL, HE, RO, SE, SP, ST
Repeat PerforMANce Repeat PerforMANce Repeat PerforMANce Repeat PerfoMANce…. Robert Sparks They danced in discos. That was not the point. The one was just a usual kind of bloke, Not gorgeous and not plain. He had the joint For humping in...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2021 | CH, EL, OA, ST, TR
English Trees in Innocence For Charles Randall Stanfield The broad-limbed trees of perished English years And centuries are witnesses to realms Long gone. A duke or princess disappears While tallest peerages, the oaks and elms, Continue in their reign. They spread...
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 26, 2021 | EL, Ta
A Prophetess’s Eyes For Charles Randall Stanfield Her eyes were deep clairvoyant blue but streaked With selfishness, a kind of hate, that stabbed The hearts around her. They were like the beaked Face eagles have when talons have just grabbed Their victims. ...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2021 | EL, ME, SE, SU, Uncategorized
Who Needs the Islamic State? Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Severed heads: The green and orange Elysia marginata sea slug is capable of decapitating itself when its body becomes infected with...
by phillipw | Dec 18, 2020 | AG, EL, OL
Two Souls in One Body With me an extra self comes. He is gray, Not blond, just like a Troy Donahue Has been grayed out. The PC’s bright array Goes dim as if a mist damped down the view Of Surfside 6. This self hulks, wrinkled, in The background or takes over...
by phillipw | Oct 7, 2020 | EL, PO, SS, ST, SW, TR
Translations of Poetry Are Not Like Translations of Saints to Heaven Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Elijah Translators kiss a piece of writing to Another language. Does the piece survive This...
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 19, 2020 | BU, EL, LO, MO, RE
The Voice Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 1 Kings 19:11-12 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | AL, CH, EL, KI, PH, PR, WI
Simian Wound to Greece “The new Greek king, Alexander, … was out walking his wolfhound, Fritz … and the dog was attacked by a tame Spanish monkey. While trying to release the monkey from Fritz’s teeth, the king was attacked by its mate and severely bitten...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
The Poet Passes through Surrey while Reading Young Prince Philip More like a colt than other creatures, born A colt with slim limb beauty and with lock Of blondness down his forehead to adorn It, princely maleness made those near him gawk. He was not a Greek god or a...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
The Foal Who Might Have Been an Untamed Stallion A prince was just a swimming boy once (Though destined for the polo course), but still A little lad like others . . . and no dunce About controlling nannies. He was shrill In his refusal to be bossed around There on...
by phillipw | May 23, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
Philip, Prince of Greece and Great Britain — a sonnet sequence within the larger sonnet sequence, The Encyclopedia Sonnetica Simian Wound to Greece “The new Greek king, Alexander, … was out walking his wolfhound, Fritz … and the dog was attacked by a...
by phillipw | May 23, 2020 | EL, MA, PR, QU, SE
H.R.H. Prince Philip His limbs have shrunk. The skin is slack And wrinkled like his balls have always been Though it is paler, thinner than that sack. The hairs that used to stick out from each shin Evaporated years ago and yet She still remembers him hunching...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | EL, EU
The Power of Poetry “Lysander spared Athens from destruction, moved by the beauty of the chorus in Electra.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, p. 416 A single chorus sung saved Athens from Lysander’s havoc. “Level Athens,” urged A Theban officer. “Let it...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | EL, MA, PR, QU, SE
H.R.H. Prince Philip His limbs have shrunk. The skin is slack And wrinkled like his balls have always been Though it is paler, thinner than that sack. The hairs that used to stick out from each shin Evaporated years ago and yet She still remembers him hunching...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | EL, JU, MA, MO, Ta
Cleopatras Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, won The love of Roman rulers. Mythic in Her force to ravish first the older one And then seduce the younger man,...
by phillipw | Apr 8, 2020 | AN, EL
Hoot Elegies “Initially the elegy was not restricted to laments. On the contrary, there was the erotic elegy (brilliantly taken up by the Latin poet Ovid)” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 11 In long gone centuries elegies were hot With sex. The...
by phillipw | Jan 29, 2020 | AN, EL
Magnificat He stands upon a giant gallstone. Why Is not explained. Around the painting small Ones are deployed in clumps to hurt the eye. Perhaps the purpose is to hint, as tall And stretched as possible, the pain...
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 | Sep 16, 2019 | EL, PH
A 0.000000000000000000000000001cm Deviation ‘Perfect Round: The electron is almost a perfect sphere, a study has found. The elementary particle—a basic building block of matter—deviates from absolute roundness by less than 0.00000000000000000000000001cm. If the...