by phillipw | Dec 15, 2022 | AL, AT, HI
Raising Civilization Ten thousand years ago men took to ploughs To train wild grass to flourish tame and fat. Men didn’t know that drilling seeds would rouse The walls of cities, brewing hops in vat, And stewing barley (whisky). Men grew drunk Not just...
by phillipw | Jul 11, 2022 | AT, CA, HI, MA, NA
Dispensation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem What falls from heavens here upon the earth Brings mornings set with richness and with flux. A fullness settles, once with grief or...
by phillipw | Feb 24, 2022 | CA, FL, HI, LU
The Heavenly Choir after It Fell on Florida The spider web comes Hot against his face; August In damp Kulaqua. In Florida humidity comes full On like a curse. A thunderstorm comes down In swashing curtains made of wet warm wool. A coolness follows but then comes...
by phillipw | Jul 18, 2021 | HI, LO, SE
Avoid Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Avoid his eyes, too beautiful and deep, Or plunge in, from Olympic height, from high Dive love. The risk is higher yet, yes, steep But...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2021 | AR, HE, HI, MA, SE, SM, TH
An Unsuitable Boy His arms are almost prominent in this Pic taken of him at Baringo. They Are hairy but of course the gorgeous Miss Rejected him. Their bedroom play Revealed his back was even hairier And that was more than she could bear. That hair on shoulders...
by phillipw | Mar 18, 2021 | CO, DR, FR, HI, PO, SO
Distant Hits The writing of vague truths in sonnets to Those readers you will never know takes on An almost holy redolence. You brew Up draughts of hormones and of nights long gone, And other steams of psychedelic drugs, And somewhere far away,...
by phillipw | Mar 16, 2021 | EA, ER, HA, HE, HI, LO, MA, ME, SE, ST
Recollections Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Dawn comes and wakens up inside my core The reminiscences that sleep inside The past, that sleep there, stowed subconscious lore That...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2021 | HI, SM, VI
Our -thorps and -hams and -fords Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The oldest towns and hamlets have their time Imagined on an unseen silent dial. It almost has a moss growth. In their prime (Which...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, ES, GE, HI, Ho, IS, JU, TR
Vicars of Esthetics Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Triangular like God the flowers are shown Against a boring green of lawn. Arrayed In righteous revelation now full blown Their holiness of...
by phillipw | Dec 19, 2020 | AN, DA, GA, HI, Ho
Viral Sentiment like Off-white Satin His glinting seed attempts to scatter in His partner. It is poison like a snake’s Injection, not like love, for it is sin. It spreads as far as semen can. It stakes Out manly claims inside the victim. Gold Is what it prospects...
by phillipw | Oct 11, 2020 | BO, CR, HI, IN, LI, MO, PO, TE, WR
A History of Upswelling Poisons Unintended Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem e plants some seeds, some sentences and words In rows. What might become of clauses, verbs, And paragraphs he cannot know. ...
by phillipw | Sep 14, 2020 | AC, AN, HI
Not the Greeks Achaeans, Argives, and Danaans, not The Greeks, surrounded Troy. We simplify The facts of history and cause a blot On truth. Such dumbings down exemplify The weight of arrogance and laziness And all our slavehood in their train. We might Be...
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 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 | Jun 24, 2020 | AL, GA, HI, IS
Sacred Incenses The fragrance of the orange groves comes down From paradise, whatever God you know. A Christ, Ganesha—or an Allah frown . . . Yes, even that—must carry with it glow Of perfect redolence from heaven. White Perfection flows out from the...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BR, CH, ED, HI, Ho, HU, MU, PA
Holy Innocence We wonder if the organist who spelled Out basic counterpoint and how to write Down harmony knew that this later swelled To eight-part glory in a music bright As heaven’s capital with streets of gold And gem foundations. Highnam’s Edward...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | BU, CH, HI, Uncategorized
Exilium Vita Est—Life is Exile Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Christians have it that our lives are ways Of pilgrimage to take us on to where Souls yearn to be. We stumble through a maze Art of JR...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | BU, GA, HI, ME, MY, PA
Siddhartha “and things stable by unceasing mutations” ~ Thomas Taylor, 1792 The glacier is ever changing, still And not still, frozen, flowing, fixed and not, Yes, like Jehovah’s unperplexing will, And whitened like a purpose not forgot. Crevasses...
by phillipw | Apr 28, 2020 | DR, HI
Lingering Puzzles .. We puzzle out the meaning of meshed lines. We tease out riddles, reading like a sleuth. The Druids hid by keeping sacred signs Unwritten in a code that held their truth Inviolate. The spoken-only breath Of teachings, once the voices that...
by phillipw | Mar 30, 2020 | HI, KI
Art Critics Speak As if we might be able to forget What Freud has foisted on us, artist Hirst Thrusts serpents and his monsters full of threat Up front and most are thick with penis thirst As anything that mental patients might Purvey. The female...
by phillipw | Mar 30, 2020 | HI, KI
Depths and Shallows The Hirst exhibits were, he claims, sunk down Beneath the Indian Ocean’s waves. Once deep In waters their shallowness makes us frown. He left them there to dream of corals, sleep Among the lichens of the seas, and grow Worm casts. At least...
by phillipw | Nov 22, 2019 | BU, CH, HI, IN
Xuanzang: Observations on Assam, Bihar, Kasmir, the Peninsular and Punjab We meet dismay when pondering histories Far foreign from our time. Many amassed Cross-pollinated facts become mysteries, As when a Chinese traveler in the past So distant that we have no...
by phillipw | Jul 22, 2019 | HI
The Legends and the Gods, the Victors and Obliterations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-2khcTHIgs The flow of cosmic history through this mote We call the world has always been a rush, Not slow like muddy streams but more a bloat Of rivers gorged with spate of...
by phillipw | May 31, 2019 | HI
It’s Like a Fever It’s like a fever, undetectable, So calm its toxins slither round and hide. Its weaponry is not deflectable If once deployed past walls and gates inside The city that is you. Your love, though large And true, cannot defend your marrow, vein, Or blood...
by phillipw | Apr 22, 2019 | HI
The Highest of the High 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 at all. I reached out, closed My laptop, and employed a fountain pen To make me set down those much...