by phillipw | Jun 25, 2020 | CO, FR, MO, TR
Defeat in Battle ………. True beauty is allowed to lapse to make Some room for what is novel, just the new, As if by definition modish ache Is better than the perfect pain. This skew Along to holiness of fashion runs The flopping risk of...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2020 | AR, FR, GE, GH
Smooth Contours are the Best Smooth contours are the best things in the world, The universe in fact. Who wants the straight When you can have the circular, the curled, The bent and curved? That box would be a crate (The Taj Mahal) without its graceful domes. If...
by phillipw | May 31, 2020 | CH, FR, GE, PA, Ta
Talleyrand by François Gérard: a Crippled Sonnet ……………~ commonswikimedia.org He isn’t looking quite askance at us From oils and frame. The gilt surrounding trim, The mouldings, desk, rectangle-rimmed canvas) Are as close as...
by phillipw | May 28, 2020 | CH, FR, MA, MI, Ta
French Cuisine There’s nowt like sour grapes to put men’s teeth On bitchy edge and that would do a lot To clear up why Talleyrand was beneath The others in the heap. He was warm snot– Or worse—to those he bested, if it’s right To use a word...
by phillipw | May 28, 2020 | AR, BI, CA, CH, DU, FR, MA, RA, Ta
Feline Thoughts on Pedigree The English, as usual not nonplussed By foreign aristocracy, impressed No, not at all by noble, upper crust, Unbishoped Talleyrand, were not hard pressed To sneer at Duc de Biron. After all, Detesting frog and wog, Brits would snigger At...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, FR, JE, MA
Barraqué, Un Homme Piquant comme Moi Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The newer teacher didn’t know me long Before he asked, “You are a tetchy friend, Aren’t you?” Mais oui, I think that it is wrong...
