by phillipw | Dec 24, 2020 | CH, FU, JU, MA, MO, RO, RU
Death Sneers Silently at Services We sing to dead ones. That is how we pray. We sing the hymns and requiems. We chant The kaddish and the words of fate. We sway In robes the living wear. The pious rant Which sounds more beautiful than death, unless The timbre is of...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2020 | AT, FU, LO, RO, SP
That Hot Embrace Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He cannot ever run or swim without Romance the power in his sinews, sweat, And dreams. He does not let the sunshine doubt His future,...
by phillipw | Dec 15, 2020 | CA, CE, CO, DE, FU, GR, MO, SM, TI, TO
Artless as L. S. Lowry A Rembrandt darkness falls upon us, they And me. I cannot see them now except As figures draped in richest robes. The prey Of time (called death) they’ve worn brocade and slept In sand beneath the ground, each separate plot Concealing...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | BU, DE, FU, Ho, IL, MA, NE
In Every Culture, that Golden Vanity “I am the cup of Nestor, a joy to drink from” A twelve year old in Magna Graecia lay Inside his tomb. Beside him was a cup Of gold interred there. Wanting to convey Sad hope, his family wanted him to sup From it in afterlife...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2020 | CO, DE, FU, ME, MO
Rites When undertakers take the body, pimp It up to please its final lover, stretch Its limbs to that position while still limp And use mascara and lipstick to etch A long-time disposition for the lips To welcome death, do hands attempt to call Up...
by phillipw | Jul 1, 2020 | AN, DE, DI, FU, PO
Centuries before Sappho Praised Men and Women Pre-echoes of that verse, ancient Greek In poetry, go back so far that lost Verbs, Indo-European ones, can almost squeak Through Sappho. It is like they are embossed Behind the papyrus and her inked lines Were...
