by phillipw | Mar 5, 2024 | EN, SA
After Prolonged Dark Moving Hours His life is opened by the sight of dawn, One dawn unlike the others as the sun Predicts itself before the sunrise drawn By something more than splendor, night outrun By waking in eternity of sky, A realm that never knows horizon or A...
by phillipw | Feb 23, 2024 | EN, SA
In the Woodland This moment, then another, cherry trees Experience a lifted limb, their blooms Go up and down. A blast of wind, or breeze As gentle as the blossoms sees their tombs Implied. “Is this enlightenment?” spring asks. In Maytime forests here...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2024 | EN, SA, SH, VI
Despite the Yearlong Darkness Under the Hedge Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I pass the place of violets along The little lane that leads me from the square I live in, in my red brick house. No song Is...
by phillipw | Oct 18, 2023 | BO, EN, Uncategorized, ZE
Tuesday as Spiritual Breakthrough Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The master teacher of the Zen monks tells One monk to jump to foaming whirlpool waves. He jumps and finds himself in no deep wells...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2023 | AD, EN
Serendipity Almost Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A mother in Japan advised her son With haiku words. He planned to see The capital. Perhaps he wanted fun, A palanquin and social silk degree,...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2023 | AU, DE, EN, SP
Changing Changelessly Will Meet Its Fate Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Mountain cherry blooms Fall. Petals scatter over Water-wheel and brook. ~ Chigetsu (Englished by Phillip Whidden The water wheel...
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 | Sep 9, 2021 | EN, ME
A Butterfly Rests upon the Chapel Bell Inside the young monk’s mind a butterfly Has settled on the monastery bell. The novice has been trained to use his eye, His spiritual pupil, let it dwell On just one image for an insight in His room. The hermit settles on a...
by phillipw | Sep 6, 2021 | EN, IS, RE, SA
No Separation from the Holy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The soul becomes disturbed when it returns From ecstasy. Ask Saint Teresa or Saint Francis. Spirit memory still burns Like coals that touch...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2021 | EA, EN, SA
Truth He feels the unity of everything, A moment as eternity unchanged By being brief. This loneliness on wing Is also fullness, emptiness arranged As richness in a vision sent along Wide valleys. It is like a breathing out That is a breathing in; a...
by phillipw | Jun 30, 2021 | EN
Ten to the One Hundredth Power Years from Now* When all has turned to nothing more than rays Of radiation, and, not even that, Just radiation not in glowing ways That people think of light, the final splat Will be unthinkably enormous, stretched Out trillions and...
by phillipw | Jun 28, 2021 | BO, EN, EP, HA, IN, RE, SA, UN
They Hold their Hats in Deference in their Hands Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Two men are bowing at the crossroads to Each other. Though already distant they Grow fainter even as they set off...
by phillipw | Jun 7, 2021 | EN
Where We Ought to Be Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem At times we feel like God. At times we feel Like us, just humans, men and women, not Like God. At times, though this is quite surreal, We...
by phillipw | Mar 24, 2021 | BE, DE, EN
Off and Off, or On and On Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So . . . everything will die, disintegrate, Be lost, and atoms will be less than mist. So what? The poets have remarked this fate For...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2021 | AM, BO, BR, CH, EN, FL, MA, PL, RU, SM
International Geographic The tawny boys run through the woods and streets Wherever they are raised, in rural realms Of citrus Florida, where sunshine meets Them under orange grove trees or under elms In England—everywhere. They build their dykes Or dams, their...
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 24, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, EN, ES, PE, SA
Circumstantially Separated from Satori Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The blossoms hidden by the hedge in dark Of mid-May twilight still are seen from where I sit. Their perfect pink is light,...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2021 | AE, BE, DA, EN, ES, MI, PE, SA
Unfathomable in Meditation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The peony made Him measure it with his fan, The daimyo’s fan. ~ Issa [A haiku expanded by Phillip Whidden] Some things are large. Some things...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2021 | EN, EP, PE, SA, TR
Insights The pint-sized Jamie held his arms out wide To show how big the peony had spread Those petals. “Big like this!” he smiled. He tried Hyperbole the first time. He had shed Mere factuality for larger truth. Young Yank, he aimed for...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, AR, BE, EN, ES, MO, NA, PE, SA
No Divisions Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Tokonama no Botan no yami ya Hototogisu ~ Shiki The darkness of the alcove Where the peonies are; A hototogisu...
by phillipw | Jan 11, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, EN, ES, PE, SA
Circumstantially Separated from Satori Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The blossoms hidden by the hedge in dark Of mid-May twilight still are seen from where I sit. Their perfect pink is light,...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2020 | A, CL, ED, EN, MU, NO, PE, PH, PI
“Orpheus with his lute made trees” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem For Philippe Entremont What use is music lacking fingers, strings, And tremolo, the purity of voice Of flute in Grieg’s concerto,...
by phillipw | Oct 24, 2020 | BO, BU, EN, ME, MY
The Harvest of a Quiet Eye “The harvest of a quiet eye” ~ John Richard Vernon Ignore the razzmatazz, and sex, and stuff. Just look around you in the dawn and see A crack in God’s eternity, enough To show the mystical, mystery In twilight. Take an old, old book...
by phillipw | Oct 12, 2020 | AN, EN, FR, GO, Ho, LO
Rulers without Culture and Without a Blind Poet “When a Prince lacks a Homer, it means that he is not worthy of having one.” ~ François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon “He knows the application of the book But not who wrote it; shuts it like a shot. Rather than read...
by phillipw | Jul 15, 2020 | AN, EN
Scorn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Enargeîs is the technical term ‘for divine epiphany: a word that contains the dazzle of “white,” argós, which comes to designate a pure,...
by phillipw | May 27, 2020 | BO, CH, EA, EN, FI, GA, HU, LI, PA, RO
Earl Grey in Old Imari Porcelain He could have stayed behind his desk. He could Have signed stock-trading bonds. He could have stayed Not writing symphonies. Each night he would Have travelled home to comfort. Hubert strayed. He could have travelled home each...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | BL, EN, GR, PE, PO, SC, SH, TE, WI
Poets Are the Legislators of the Scientific World In 2011 I was reading a biography of John Keats. In the introduction Lord Byron is quoted as saying that Keats "belonged to that second-hand school of poetry" because he got his inspiration from...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AN, BL, DE, EN, NO, NU, VO
No One When you are dead, the violets will bloom In quiet purple or in white. The years Will pass, will pass to centuries, and winters loom With blossomed frost on window panes. The spheres Above this world will spin and sweep until Eternity...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | BU, EN, SA
Solomon in All His Glory, Ignored “What is worse, every day, and many times in the day, we are enlightened, we are Buddha, a poet,–but do not know it, and remain an ordinary man.” ~ R. H. Blyth, Preface, Haiku, Summer-Autumn, Volume 3, p. 644. A moment opens...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | BU, EN, IC, SA
Ichneumon Religion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “All things around us are asking for our apprehension, working for our enlightenment.” ~ R. H. Blyth, Preface, Haiku, Summer-Autumn, Volume 3 of...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | CH, EN, PO, WI, WO
Sweetness on the Desert Air Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If you retreated to provincial Kent, Were banished there from London’s buzz to rot Among the hops and bees where things are meant To be...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | EN, GR, WE
Two-edged Politics of Envy The denizens of public housing hate The people who support them paying tax At higher rates, who fund the welfare state. Recipients loathe winners to the max. The big time earners hate the ones who fail To make enough to pay their own way to...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | EN, PL, VA
Plato was Wrong The world we know is not those shadows. We Are shadows, less than shadows, faded by A darkness. Shadows laid on shadows, free Of any weight or substance, we are shy Of meaning since we die, and since the stars And everything will vanish. ...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | BE, EN
The Beginnings and the End Why is it that the dark is at the start, Like bats in caverns, always? “Let there be Light” presupposes black. The human heart Is desperate and wicked. (Who can see That? Everyone who thinks.) The sperm that made You came from darkness...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | BU, EN, SA
How to be a Buddha Just walk along and pay attention to The brutal facts around you. Notice them. Enlightenment is waiting in the stew Of life. If Jesus passes, touch his hem. If not, take note of ordinary things And see if they will cure you. They just might. A...
by phillipw | Apr 11, 2020 | EN, SE
Fade We try to make our mark and leave a scar Or stain the color of a would-be ghost. We leave a remnant like a moon or a star In galaxies spluttered, their only boast Smooth blackness stretched. We are the light of moons Forgotten, or of stars...
by phillipw | Apr 8, 2020 | BU, EN
Blankness for Sale as Enlightenment The Buddha stands in golden skirts with sight Of toenails underneath. Above his waist Black’s lacquer torso brings the dynamite Of revelation. He has been erased Not just by gold and lacquer darkness: he Is broken. There below...
by phillipw | Feb 17, 2020 | EN, RU
The Onion Dome in Western London, Weather, and the Orthodoxy of Entropy Subdued by rain and twilight and the gray Of sky, the blue shape holds its own, unchanged Despite these dull vicissitudes. The way It holds its gilded stars up high, arranged In formal pattern so...
by phillipw | Jan 3, 2020 | EN
At Last Supposed to be impressed by countless stars And planets, moons, by comet, asteroid— These globs of gas and rock in numbers far Exceeding grasp—I feel instead the void, The void, the void they streak and swerve through. The one important...
by phillipw | Dec 17, 2019 | EN
The Pyramid of Cheops “And God said, Let there be light.” The pyramid of Cheops thinks it’s still. In one sense that is true. It is still there, But not completely. Just like any hill It rose and it is crumbling. Wear and tear Attack the...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2019 | EN, PH
Entropy Dreary A scattering of snowflakes, each a little dawn Of pattern frittering itself away Across the morning air, is scrawled and drawn By gravity—or some much darker sway In modern cosmological theory. The physicists love thinking of a force In...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | EN, PH
After the Promise is Fulfilled Eternity is dawn forever, dawn Across a sky without horizons: light Is never tinged by night or darkness. Fawn Eyes deepen in their beauty and their sight Among immortal branches, bringing new, Fresh...
by phillipw | Dec 4, 2019 | EN
A View among English Hills “about the woodlands I will go” ~ A. E. Housman He stands beneath a live oak tree. It wears Its leaves and bark. Sheep wear white wool. The wolds Are clothed in fields and trees. They all are stairs To heaven. Under them he firmly...
by phillipw | Nov 2, 2019 | EN
Buddha with Acne Imagining the Buddha as a thing Of ugliness might help. Any insights Then might be less lovely. They might not sing Like anthems in a chapel full of lights In polished candle holders. Beauty would Become beside the point. Revelation Would be...
by phillipw | Sep 19, 2019 | EN
Tulips in the Night An ordinary darkness covers them. It’s just the night. And they . . . they are only Tulips. It’s not like death has dragged her hem Across them. Why not let them be lonely In their detachment from the sun? But no, I have to take...
by phillipw | Aug 12, 2019 | EN
Jerusalem His face is mild, as mild as Elgar chords Set down on paper, or a late June day In Gloucestershire, as mild as sleeping lords In Parliament. His young beard’s a display Of masculinity, or maybe just A statement of his academic bent. That’s more...