by phillipw | Nov 26, 2023 | IN, LO, UN, Uncategorized
Lunar Martyr Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He thought of just this one, this one, this one — Again — Again — AGAIN — as if insane With love, or something, powerfully as a gun That blasts away...
by phillipw | Aug 29, 2023 | IN, MA, MO
Helen as Pathetic 1950s Florence Nightingale A mother nearly stumbles in beside The beds, each boy in misery of flu As if in torture chambers. They have cried Themselves to whimpering sleep like kittens mew When dying. Husband also mashed down, slammed In fever,...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2023 | IN, OR, PO, RE
Among the Stench of Abasement, a Sonnet for Good Friday Where poetry is from is far away Or cavern deep, or both, or just a girl Who passes on the sidewalk, hair a-sway, Or even one full man whose hair is curl, And curl and curl persuading in their black, As black as...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2023 | AN, GH, IN
Oppositional Productivity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Emotion is as difficult to free From poetry as cultures’ deepest faiths From superstition. It will have its spree Inside...
by phillipw | Dec 19, 2022 | BE, IN, PH
Imported Curvaceousness Times Itself from India The pheasant came from Rome, the Normans, or From who knows where? The feathers of its coat Say they were from an Indian king, and ore From Rajasthan. Cock pheasants almost gloat With beauty from the golden copper of...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BR, DE, IN, RU, SA, ST
Not Religion but Death At first church fame held up his lines to heights Near immortality. Saint Paul’s robed Dean Had read “The Soldier” in the lectern rites Of Christ’s domed space before the altar screen. It seems that Brooke knew this. ...
by phillipw | Feb 23, 2022 | DI, GO, IN
Like Mystics Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It isn’t strange that men draw us to God, That women, children, boys and girls require The heart to think divinity, not odd...
by phillipw | Dec 6, 2021 | AL, AR, GL, HA, IN, QU, WI
Magnanimity: Mourning Gladstone Finally Offers a Peerage to Tennyson and Finally the Mourning Poet Accepts It Arthur Henry Hallam William Ewart Gladstone Alfred, Lord Tennyson Forget the jealousy between two men in love. Forget what beardless envies that in youth...
by phillipw | Sep 26, 2021 | AI, IN, PA, SE, SM, TO
Not “Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres are the first Europeans to observe smoking. It was on Cuba and Jerez becomes a staunch smoker, bringing the habit back with him to Spain. History of Tobacco in...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, IN, JU
White and White and Blue and Blue Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Some otherwhere the snow is lingering on The ground between the bark of oaks or pines, Perhaps beneath a peak awaiting dawn. Mount...
by phillipw | Jun 30, 2021 | CH, IN, LO, RO, ST
The One is Always First: Einstein’s Theory of Time Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The man who once was seen and now cannot Be seen is one. He never will be seen Again and yet he still is there. ...
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 21, 2021 | CA, CH, FA, IN, PI, PR, RE, RO, SU
Miraculous Bunkum The minds of pilgrims plod along because They lack the gifts required to see without A relic. Hunkered there inside its gauze Of cloth of gold as if in holy pout, It waits for priests to open up its box Or gate, the reliquary encrusted with ...
by phillipw | May 3, 2021 | IN
Reflection Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The flowers shout, “Bloom!” and we inside begin To blossom although others cannot see This. Deep within us opens up a twin Pink peony of...
by phillipw | Apr 22, 2021 | FU, IN, LO, SE, UT
Predicted before Midnight We make the world anew at night in bed. I make it in you and you take it in You deeply, and you take it deeper, spread Yourself to take it deeper than the sin That Eve and Adam shared. You take it’s deep And turn it into newness there...
by phillipw | Mar 22, 2021 | GO, IN, LI, ME, PO
Four Corners Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Earth was said to have four corners when The Bible first appeared in Jewish minds. My mind has just four corners. Its amen Is...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2021 | CL, CO, CU, FU, IN, OR, PE, SE
Priming Your Pump at the Well Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Just one slight push and he slips into you. Unspoken is this love, for who needs love In words when there is love to spew? You want a...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2021 | FA, IN, LO, MA, MO, PR
Love’s Predestination The baby Cain asleep upon the breast Of Eve with Adam looking fondly on Would be enough to make the sight arrest Unease in anyone. At that white dawn Of motherhood with Eve as God designed Her lovingly, her man as beautiful In her fond...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2021 | IN
Infatuation I think that you could once have reached to take The sun down from the sky and put it in Your bedroom. I, a new Sir Francis Drake, Would not have thought it any sort of sin To lay my heart down there beside that sun For you prop your...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, EV, IN, PE, PU, SU
White Petals and Yellow Pollen Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem This, then, the open face we wish that we Could see throughout the universe, the pure, The innocence are utter. We would see These...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | BL, CH, IN, JU, RE, SA, SI, ST, VI
Inspiration Our days and nights are blind like Homer, blind And seeing, deep and wide, but still inept. Time carries us through life but like a mind Confused through madness. Life remains adept At fraud, poetically and just with scales Upon its...
by phillipw | Dec 21, 2020 | IN, PR, RE, SU
Moanasteries, More Like Most prayers are cramped things. They are far too full Of names, though mostly just the one, your name. Prayers think that childishly their words may pull A loveless god (or God) to feel some shame For not observing our exactest...
by phillipw | Nov 11, 2020 | AL, BR, GO, IN, JE
Harvest and Outside Harvesting 1 Kings 8: “Then spake Solomon: “The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.” First Samuel 22: “He made darkness pavilions round about Him, dark waters.” Psalm 18:11: “He made darkness his secret place.” The harvesting...
by phillipw | Oct 23, 2020 | DI, FR, IN, LA, NI, PH, SY
Playing with Himself and the Piano Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Infernal Recurrence, more like. That Big Mind locked itself up in the bedroom of His hosts. A mad philosophical pig, He banged the...
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 13, 2020 | IN, PU
Why White is White Confusingly (?) the explanation why (In phyics) white is white is that the hue Includes all colors; and another high, Bright commonsense thought is . . . white tends to skew Away, proclaiming white’s the absence of All colors. Prisms break up...
by phillipw | Aug 10, 2020 | BU, DA, IN, MI
Danaus plexippus Flocks Remember a Prehistoric Everest The butterflies recall an ancient slope. The Monarchs flew for eons past a peak Too high for them. Those insects had no hope Of scaling it, this black and orange clique, So huge and gorgeous that the angel cloud...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2020 | AN, GA, Ho, IN, KE, PR, RE
Some readers may find this piece offensive. If you think you might be offended, please do not read it. Conversion at the Cliff Edge of the Great Rift Valley Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Beyond...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | DI, IN, PH, PL, PO, SO, TI
Spells and the Thoughts of Tiresias “Halliwell’s basic argument is that Socrates admits the Book X arguments to be insecure and open to defeat. He calls them ‘spells’ rather than philosophical knowledge, and he asserts that he must use them [those arguments]...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | IN, JO, KE, PL
Sing in Me, Rational Muse! Plato’s “descriptions of poetic inspiration occur over a long period of time, ranging from his earliest works to his latest, and there is considerable uniformity in what he says. Throughout P.’s work the mental state of the inspired poet is...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | AR, IN, MU, NO, PA, PO, TI, TS
Piéria Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “the Muses’ ancient home between the roots of Olympus and the sea; to where ‘Pēneus rolls his fountains Against the morning star’.” ~ F. L....
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | AN, IN, MA, MI, MU
Daedalus and Icarus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The natural rhythms of Greek [poetry] tend ‘downward,’ falling” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 14 How strange it is to think that ancient...
by phillipw | Jun 13, 2020 | IN, PH, PO, Uncategorized
Brain Matter or Bone Marrow Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse “Stefan Büttner (‘Inspiration and Inspired Poets in Plato’s Dialogues’) acknowledges the frequency with which Plato accepts the possibility of inspiration and admires its...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | AN, AU, BA, CH, HU, IN, JO, LU, MU, PS
Psalm 130 From out of depths of sorrow came the sounds Of Parry’s anthem (first of all) “In my Distress.” The music came from deep chest wounds Und Bach and Luther. Anguish reaches sky And heaven only when the music climbs From sources such as...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AL, DA, IN, PA, PU
A Gay Ole Time in Daisy-Circle Hell “Why does your vision linger there below Among those lost and mutilated shades?” He asked. I stared at him. Was he so slow? “It’s obvious. None living in the glades Of heaven or in Purgatory now Is nearly so...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | IN, MA, PE
6, 28, 496, 8128 . . . Perfection is a state devoutly sought, Evinced alone in mathematics, though. Reach out for it in other realms, there’s naught For seekers of this purest state. There’s no Escaping it: the sciences and art Collaborate against perfection,...
by phillipw | May 15, 2020 | IN, LI, PO
Literary Inspiration from on High “The gods arranged all this, and sent them their misfortunes in order that future generations might have something to sing about.” ~ King Alcinous in the Odyssey at the end of Book VIII The question of our poets’ impulse, long Ago...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | AR, IN, MU
The Vanishing Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A perfect poem that a poet knew (Or nearly knew) attempted to escape From in his ribs and mind. It almost grew. He got a glimpse of it, its shining...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | IN, PR, VI
Alexander the Great Had No Inkling of Precious Christian Virtues When Burma was unknown, it furnished true Red, rubies brought to Alexander’s court. It was as if an incensed goddess threw The gems from mystery, sent gems athwart The deserts from the depths of...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | AD, AN, AP, AR, HE, IN, MA, MY, SE, VE, VU
Primitive Sophisticated Truth Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ….…… When Greeks believed that nature’s aspects moved As gods and goddesses, as wind and fire, Then Bóreas came...
by phillipw | May 7, 2020 | AN, BE, DA, IN, KI, UZ
God Hardened the Heart of Pharaoh Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The goodness of their God in which He hid The death of men awaits believers. They Will still believe. Their doubt has truly slid To...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AN, BO, HE, IN, LO, MU, RO, ST
Never Land Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Ordinarily, romantic love is a popular theme in ancient India’s epics as well as in numerous plays that revolve around the romances of...
by phillipw | Apr 28, 2020 | IN, PL, PO, SO
Mixed Race Divinity and Humanity Go to the link: https://images.app.goo.gl/afEGMDrkc96exuSm7 Socrates “builds up a picture of the poet as ‘a light, winged, holy creature’, who cannot compose until he is out of his mind and possessed . . . . The god takes away the...
by phillipw | Apr 27, 2020 | AN, IN, PR
Disc World: Soapstone Discs Found Thousands of Years Later in a Dried Up Watercourse Millennia ago, before CDs And DVDs, artistic discs were made In India with carved motifs to please Their owners. Birds were set into a braid With animals around the edges. ...
by phillipw | Apr 27, 2020 | IN, PL, PO
Sing in Me, Rational Muse! Plato’s “descriptions of poetic inspiration occur over a long period of time, ranging from his earliest works to his latest, and there is considerable uniformity in what says. Throughout P.’s work the mental state of the inspired poet is...
by phillipw | Apr 21, 2020 | AS, FR, IN, SA, ST
Intercessory Prayer and St. Francis of Assisi …………. I tried to hide my hands but God was more Manipulative than my ploy. He zapped Around with holy beams. He loved the gore, I guess. He thought that while my mind was rapt In mystic trance...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | IN, PO
Socrates versus Sappho One wonders if poor Socrates might just Have been much happier if he had made Up poems, not philosophy. A gust Of inspiration from Apollo swayed The poets into a rhapsody of thrill. While lost in love for some young person’s hair, The writers in...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | IN
Brain Matter or Bone Marrow “Stefan Büttner (‘Inspiration and Inspired Poets in Plato’s Dialogues’) acknowledges the frequency with which Plato accepts the possibility of inspiration and admires its benefits. The experience of inspiration is in some way part of nous,...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | GO, IN, SP
The Voice We all are waiting for the voice to speak, But how will it be spoken? Will we hear It when it whispers in an ancient Greek The severity of stone-hard Doric fear? Perhaps still, small hoarseness in a fire Will echo in the deserts of our soul When...
by phillipw | Mar 5, 2020 | IN, MA, MU
Progressive Mathematics as Stanzas When poetry was mathematics back In distant, ancient India, the lines Were full of meanings that our poems lack Today. With sinuousity of vines Instead of straight or angled equals marks And long equations on the smoothed out...
by phillipw | Mar 4, 2020 | IN, WE
A Trillion Gigabytes of Verity Tonight the news is worried that a search On Google hints that being gay is wrong— A sinful illness. The Web’s a broad church And if you key in “holocaust,” the strong Impression is that lots of people think That it’s a fiction, hoax,...
by phillipw | Feb 18, 2020 | IN, PO
Vermont and Quebec: Syrup Harvesting in the Spring Just how does poetry escape from men? It’s too simplistic if we say it thrums Out from the skull, though, yes, it is just when It’s rising that it coalesces, comes Out through the pregnant cracks in bone, Or maybe...
by phillipw | Feb 5, 2020 | IN, MO
Landing Stages for Angels and the Morning Star The morning glories, white or purple, bloom Upon the hedge as innocent as dawn The morning Eve was made. The sun their groom, They open, virgins all, their faces drawn To upward angles, wishing for the stir Of flying...
by phillipw | Jan 6, 2020 | IN, ME
The Internal Space Station You’ve seen those places advertising what They call “Self-storage” lockers. Well, I’ve had One over sixty years. It’s not a hut On our back green. It doesn’t have a pad- Lock, isn’t just a cubicle inside A...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2019 | IN
Coming Down from Heaven Grand spaces are supposed to make us feel The world is wonderful, like symphonies Presume to capture skies and make us kneel Before the universe. Large symmetries, Like Khufu’s pyramid, or Newton’s squared Principia, or like the...
by phillipw | Nov 22, 2019 | IN, WO
Cast White the Net There’s nothing you can’t find there on the web Unless it’s innocence. You type in “pure” And up comes pure cocaine and some celeb (A swinish, big tit party epicure) Who’s snorted far too many thrilling lines. You key in “innocent” and up...
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 | Oct 17, 2019 | IN
Otherwise You do not meet your own desires in those You love. You cannot find yourself in men Or women, even women who transpose Your feelings into mountain and braw glen With mist that rivals healing of the bone, Or men who stroke emotion in your veins....
by phillipw | Aug 25, 2019 | AE, AL, BU, FL, IN, LO, ME, NO
Erde und Himmel: a Sonnet The picture on the page (this photo in the ad) was not of you. It looked like you, though. Can it be that something quite so thin and boring as casually leafing through an in-flight magazine might bring this...
by phillipw | Aug 20, 2019 | DA, IN
and with the music pasted in HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPca88LPARI Evensong in Edinburgh: the Cauld Alliance I trudge to the cathedral to contend With flu. I’ve taken drugs, of course, before I started out. I’m hoping that the blend...
by phillipw | Aug 11, 2019 | CO, IN
Twenty-four Carat Turing They’re on the way to building techy brains With nano wires of coated silver. Gold Might do, but maybe not, since leaving strains Of greed would be too human. Strands enfold A new creation of electrics which Exists in nanospheres...
by phillipw | Jul 31, 2019 | IN
Awkward Repeatedly I’ve seen you do a dance, A little travesty of happiness. It is a dance but doesn’t give a chance To sentiment or Hallmark sappiness. Those steps are more a mockery and brief. They really only say, “Don’t look at...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2019 | HE, IN
A Gay Ole Time in Daisy-Circle Hell “Why does your vision linger there below Among those lost and mutilated shades?” He asked. I stared at him. Was he so slow? “It’s obvious. None living in the glades Of heaven or in Purgatory now Is nearly so...