by phillipw | Feb 17, 2020 | BR, FA, JO, KE
The Jewel a Bright Star Gave Him . The lover holds carnelian between His thumb and finger (far too late to write More poetry), then palms it there to lean Against his lifeline. If the stone is white Or red like blood that turns away from life Is well beyond God’s...
by phillipw | Feb 15, 2020 | DI, EM, JO, KE
Unfinished Symphonies All lives are incomplete, not just the life Of Keats—or Emily in Amherst locked In circumstance. Chance wields the palette knife And even genius finds its choices balked By limitations of the oil paints That fate provides. The colors on...
by phillipw | Feb 15, 2020 | JO, KE, SE
The Final Leg of John Keats’ Journey to Death [John Keats, in case you didn’t know already, died of TB when he was very young. In a desperate attempt to save his life, his friends subscribed money to send him to live in Italy. This ploy failed and he died...
by phillipw | Feb 9, 2020 | AD, DA, JO, LO, RO, UN
When I Wake Up, I am Absent from Thee ‘As ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.’ 2 Corinthians 1:7 Two continents and long tides far away You live alone now and we sleep apart. The beauties of my high spec life hold sway,...
by phillipw | Feb 7, 2020 | JO, KE
The Entry into the City of English Poets We see him heated, agitated, full Of passion as a poem fills a page, As stern as Christ with money changers; skull Not visible but there as if a rage Resents the hair and flesh and skin And mouth, the opening between the bones,...
by phillipw | Feb 6, 2020 | AD, DA, JO, LO, RO, UN
The Rest is Silence A vacuum-like presence fills my veins, My arteries, my heart, yes, mostly in My chest. These vessels for my blood have stains Still where pulse used to course. Each ulta-thin Tattoo that love has mottled on their walls Is ugliness made up...
