by phillipw | Sep 26, 2021 | AE, DE, EM, PR, RA, WA, WH
Barbaric Yawp His “poetry” is not so much a thing Of barbarism as it is bad Greek Or Roman oratory. In its ring It has the sound of bombast. No, not sleek, But more like overstated prose tricked out As verse on pages. Rhetoric high-flown Quite...
by phillipw | Aug 18, 2021 | DO, ED, EM, Ho, OL, RA
The Range of American Letters Including e e cummings The English language in the farther west Can be as harsh as sneering Ambrose Bierce Or roaring Robinson Jeffers. The zest Appears in Marquis’s tomcat Bill, fierce Beside Mehitabel and Archie. Calm Was English in...
by phillipw | Mar 12, 2021 | EM, PO, RA, TR
Sexual Torture The phrase in Japanese “comes smelling out” Becomes just “wafted.” What a letdown such Attempts result in, only a Girl Scout Translation. Poetry deploys a crutch When being forced across from foreign tongue To foreign tongue. When...
by phillipw | Feb 25, 2021 | EM, MA, PH, ST
The Tonic of Thought from Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Not all of thought is good, but thinking heals, Or offers therapy. The thinkers past Give guidance in their...
by phillipw | Dec 31, 2020 | AL, DO, EM, TR, WH
The Innocence of Snow Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Wherever snow is, it is always just Like snow in other places. Snow in Rome And Paris lies just like the holy dust Of manna in the desert,...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2020 | AN, CH, EG, EM, GR, MO, ST
Ritual of Something Too like Vacuum As ignorant as light that streams from rooms Where love has been, we think of you. Alone Now, more like air within the pharaohs’ tombs, We try to fill the dark with more than bone And skin of memory. Your flesh recalled In...
