by phillipw | Dec 22, 2023 | FE, MA, RO
Masculine Self-reliance ~ Know Thyself Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The fact we do not think about when, BANG, The climax happens (male) or comes and comes And comes if in the woman, when nerves clang...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2023 | AN, FE, SC
Phrasikleia Kore Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It isn’t like she doesn’t know that she Is being noticed. After all she’s put On all her finest clothes. She makes a plea For us to look at...
by phillipw | Oct 27, 2022 | CA, FE, LO, PE, PR
Fast I lay my hands against his fur. Its black Glows, glossed, on light green of our duvet top, The counterpane. My fingers warm his back And side. They warm me, too. My cat’s gone plop To sleep in black and white and green. This calm...
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 | Aug 30, 2021 | CA, DO, FE
Waking Honesty Our cats are not like us. They sleep the sleep Of focused soldiers, dreaming dreams that we Would never dare. Cats’ drowsing isn’t deep But deep enough. They live hyperbole Or, at the least, intensity. They curl Around,...
by phillipw | Jun 8, 2021 | FE, HE, MA, SE, TH, TR
It Takes One Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Henry David Thoreau writes of Chaucer, “We are tempted to say that his genius was feminine, not masculine. It was such feminineness,...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | BL, FE, MA, SE, SU
Mastery The first dream morning brought, on honeymoon To start his life together, he smiled, yawned, And stretched, and then he moved himself to spoon Against that back and hips. It slowly dawned Inside his brain that he could grin and keep This...
by phillipw | May 4, 2021 | AR, DA, FA, FE, GE, GR, MA, SE, SO, SP, UN
Armpit and Genital Hair on the Masculine Anima Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The armpit hair of spirits is too dark For women. Females do not like to think Of it or get a glance of it as stark As...
by phillipw | May 1, 2021 | AE, BE, DA, ES, FE, MI, PL, ST
The Data of Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I met Miss Universe when I was just A boy of seventeen. I’ve never quite Recovered from that moment. I was thrust By accident to grasp...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2021 | FE, MA, RO
Romanticism The truth is that romance is not romantic In being Polynesian, scented with Chanel, Hermès, Yves . . . not necromantic, Not in the least unusual. That myth That it’s romantic is stupendous in Its chutzpah. What romantic really is Is more a...
by phillipw | Mar 29, 2021 | AU, FE, GR, Ho, JO, SA, SE, ST
The Four Evils to be Overcome According to Saint John of the Cross: Joy, Hope, Fear, Grief The springtime brings her yellow joy on top Of green stems flaring. Then come pink and white Along the happy trees. We will not stop, They promise, even in...
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 | Dec 25, 2020 | AL, AN, CH, FE, KI, MU
The Cambridge Christmas Choir Trinity The beauties vary. One young man whose throat Appears to have no voice box sings high Inside the chapel. Melodies devote Themselves from him like angels in the sky Above sopranos and the trebles. He Turns into miracles the...
by phillipw | Dec 20, 2020 | FE, MA, SE, VI
Different Reactions to the Loss of Virginity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I A young man wakes, not quite as slow as spring, From love’s first night. The groggy bulb begins To swell and open in...
by phillipw | Oct 29, 2020 | AN, FE, HE, JO, LA, PA, PR, TH, WH, WI, WO
Presence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The past is never past, is more than ghost Or Undead creature. Passed away the past Is not. It lives within. Its whispered boast Inhabits mental...
by phillipw | Oct 23, 2020 | DE, FE, FR, PH, PS, SI
Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness Sigmund Freud: “There is nothing instinctual in us which responds to a belief in death.” Freud also says, “This may even be the secret of heroism.” Our hearts refuse to nod to death. No, more Than that, they fail to hear it...
by phillipw | Oct 6, 2020 | FE, LO, RO, SI, TR, VI
Closer and Closer Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Am I the vine and you the fence? I feel Perhaps it is the other way around: You vine—and I the mesh. What would appeal Most, though,...
by phillipw | Aug 23, 2020 | FE, HE, ME, SE, ST, WO
How Men Feel about Women Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We feel that they are hostesses. That’s best. That’s how they are at best. They have long hair (At best) but short will do. We like the...
by phillipw | Aug 11, 2020 | CA, DO, FE
The Satin Play Pretty They play. They play at slaughter. That is why Huỳnh Tấn Hậu Unsplash Community Their faces look so solemn as they claw, The Sphynx beneath a pharaonic sky. They sneer in silence at the thought that awe For life in creatures that they...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AD, AN, FE, GL, HI, Ho, KY, ME
Were I to Believe in Angels’ Songs If angels, each one, had a message they Would sing to us, would each charge be the same, A Kyrie, an Adoramus te, Or Gloria? No, that would be too tame. I’m thinking every one would be unique, Each text and melody enough to...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2020 | AB, FE, FO, GE, PO
I Don’t Know which e-Company Tried to Abort my Poem, but I Won Anyhow (the Complacent Bastards) Today I found a sonnet I’d mislaid. In some brief crisis of a laptop sort. I’d e-mailed lines to me because afraid That in a crash a system glitch would thwart The still...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | FE, GE, GR, HI, MI
Orpheus Sings Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “he sings to distract his shipmates from the irresistible lure of the Sirens onto the rocks” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 32 The Sirens...
by phillipw | May 31, 2020 | AD, EM, FE, TE
Black Light was not Needed I used to wear my heart a little wet With Day Glo blood, and pumping, on my sleeve, A pulse of adolescent scarlet, jet, Throb, jet in all directions. No steel greave Protected it politely in this show. Beats warbled as a sobbing gospel...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | BE, FE, LO, LU, MA, SE, Uncategorized
The Highest of the High Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I tried to sing of politics and stuff Like that, the serious matters I’m supposed To write about. But that was not enough, No, not enough...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AE, BE, EM, ES, FE, FR, HA, LO, PO, RA, Uncategorized
Haydn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A poem does not need to be about Emotions, yours or anyone’s. Instead A sonnet may avoid a tear or shout. Indeed the lines could be about your...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | CA, DO, FE, KI
That Always Love Modern poetry ...
by phillipw | May 15, 2020 | AN, FE, MA, SE, TE, WE, WR
Male and Female Negated Men weep. That’s true, but when they weep, their tears Are not for little things or just to win An argument—unless they’re actors. Sneers Come easier to men than crying. In A rage they show their masculinity. Hurt men do anger best, far...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | FE, ME, MU, RI, RO, WA
The Descent from the Scottish Highlands and Luzern Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The melodies that go on long and fine, And long and long, without a gap or pause Streamed out from Mendelssohn. An...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2020 | FE, LE
[When this sonnet was written, Patrick Leigh Fermor’s trilogy of books about his walk from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul (which he refused to call Istanbul) had still not been finished. Indeed, it never was. The third volume was called appropriately The...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2020 | FE, LE
A Wintry Gift According to Leigh Fermor, Keats was found In rooms filled up with antlers in a schloss Which Patrick visited. A Horace bound In gilding and in green he took across The continent—a sixteen hundreds book. It was a baron’s volume handed to...
by phillipw | Oct 16, 2019 | FE, MA
Academic 501s With features so refined they almost preach Of sweetness, he requires those whiskers to Proclaim his maleness. Pastel bristles reach Out towards a girliness, though they are true To masculinity in thickness and Conviction. Heaviness of eyelids...