by phillipw | May 7, 2020 | BO, CY, GA, Ho, JE, LO, SY
How the Cypress Came to Be Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Sylvanus loved the boy and gave a gift To Cyparissus, gave the boy a doe. He doted on it. Then the truest shift Occurred. Sylvanus killed it...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | GA, HE, JE, SE
Wife Beating: Gore and Poetry The Greeks came up with a quite a novel cause For beating wives. The men of Thrace attacked Their wives because they whacked a poet. Claws (Well, jealous fingernails) tore up and hacked To death the world’s greatest singer. They Were...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | GO, JE
Divinity Jehovah hovers, prying with that eye, All-seeing gaze, omniscience. Worse than That sideways eyeball of Egyptians, Spy- In-Chief, He’s always seeing if He can Trip up and punish. He comes down in the cloud And fire on Sinai and writes on stone With...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2020 | AS, BU, CH, JE, SA
Petaled Salvation An emperor or any man must grope His mumbling way if he would go as pure As Buddha or as Christ. The slightest hope Is offered. Jesus holds out just one sure Path forward into holiness. “Go sell All, all you have and give it to the...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | CH, JE
The Long-haired One The long-haired man, the trouble-maker in A pose, yes, always; ever in those clothes That none of us would wear . . . he has that chin Held there too strong (as if he could depose Our ways with just his attitude) Or much too low (as if...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2019 | JE
Constipation Jealousy is not smooth and isn’t green Either, not at all like a garden pea; Rather, like rotten vanilla, obscene, Emetic—palatable as the Dead Sea. Manageable till it conquers the veins, Yet savage and wild, too, it lurks in wait &...