by phillipw | Jan 27, 2024 | GA, Ho, KA, LO, LU, MA, NE, RO, UN
Unlike You and Him There seemed a time (if time can merely seem) When we soared parallel, so did not touch, The lack of touching sinful as a dream (Though close the lack of touching hurt too much And so I had to comment face to face With little gifts of...
by phillipw | Jan 22, 2024 | LO
Ancient Trees without Freud Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The longest living trees don’t daydream while They live for several thousand years in drought. This lack of dreams might mean that...
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 | Nov 24, 2023 | LO, RO, YA
Genesis 1:2-3 Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When losses rise, not anything can fill The void excepting you. The paradox Resulting from these losings makes...
by phillipw | Nov 12, 2023 | AB, GA, LO, RO
Alchemy’s Golden Paradox in Heaven’s Streets of Transparent Gold Love, I am full of lead. ~ Antony in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, III.11.76 His heart was made of lead, its poison, weight And darkness till he met the one, that one Who mattered only, only,...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2023 | CH, LO, MO, Uncategorized
More Lovely than a Golden Spiral Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The chambered nautilus propels his shell Through nighttime waves. He sails much longer than His cousins, octopus and squid. The swell...
by phillipw | Oct 8, 2023 | GA, Ho, LO, MA
Fraught and not Fraught [Today, October 7, 2023, I bought Abhishek’s wedding ring.] Where only black and gold are, gods will lie In wait. The black ones are uncountable, The gold ones only three. The black ones fly Around and in us, unsurmountable The...
by phillipw | Sep 27, 2023 | CO, GA, LO, PI, RO, SA, SI, ST, TE, Uncategorized
Harlequin in Guise of Tuberculosis Hovering When love is played in luscious settings, clowns Are needed. Sad or comic they can be But never tragic, really, dressed in gowns That do not give the game away. We see Them loving like doom’s humans, threatening clown Just...
by phillipw | Sep 25, 2023 | LO, UN
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He has a lover who refuses him The things he hopes for, clearest texts from love And frequent prompts as if a holy hymn Were being sent, a hymn as if...
by phillipw | Sep 24, 2023 | CH, LO, RO, UN, Uncategorized
Wide and Narrow in Their Fate Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Aurora borealis touches dreams Of men and poets as they wander through The realm of loving, hopeful planetary streams Of matter from the...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2023 | LO, RO, UN
The Fingers of a Believer Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Disciple Thomas thrust his fingers in The slit. Did he feel blood and warmth, a squish Of slickness, flesh, fulfilment, or just sin Of...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2023 | AB, LO, RO, SA, SE
Sanctity in the Dawn I wake up in the first light, launched to love. I wake up fraught as if the Holy Ghost Filled both my lungs and hovered just above Each vein and artery and bone, engrossed Me everywhere inside my soul. Of course It is not God who rams...
by phillipw | Jun 22, 2023 | LO, RO, UN
Loves Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “My old dreams disappeared when you arrived.” ~ La Bohème Nine thousand million people, even more, Have known those operatic karats in...
by phillipw | Jun 18, 2023 | LO, ME
Memories as Lasting as a Christmas Tree Dumped on a Heap Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Mind, even Christmas Days can be denied Their memories. Lost for decades now a pic Resurfaces. (A special day...
by phillipw | May 31, 2023 | AI, DO, GR, LO, OS, WI
Painting as Sacred Seduction Lord Alfred Douglas would have loved to sit For Basil Howard. Even more this lord Would certainly have forced his Wilde to quit The field of fever known as love and board The field of bankrupt slavery to pay The painter for the...
by phillipw | May 29, 2023 | AL, BO, DO, LO, OS, WI
BruteBitchBastard Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “like murdered singing birds” Lord Alfred turned to singing something worse Than that monstrosity, that attic room Abomination. He became...
by phillipw | May 27, 2023 | LO, RO
Twenty-four Carat Ecstasy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Envisage that you turn his eyebrows gold As Eros’ bow the moment just before He shoots. Another heart is forced to fold In agony of love. ...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2023 | BU, FL, LO, RE
Incapable Beauty The best thing that the poet pointed out Is that wise roses never know that all Are shriveling, young. The flowers never pout In sympathy with us. They never brawl With gods for us, to spare us from some fate We do not know awaits us. ...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2023 | CA, LO
After the Regicide The cats scream out soprano, tenor love And desperate alto love beneath. They know A deeper meaning, one of passion, shove And claws we humans have forgotten. So Intense their hatred which they wrap up in Their wooing that we feel...
by phillipw | Oct 27, 2022 | CA, FE, LO, PE, PR
Fast I lay my hands against his fur. Its black Glows, glossed, on light green of our duvet top, The counterpane. My fingers warm his back And side. They warm me, too. My cat’s gone plop To sleep in black and white and green. This calm...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2022 | LO, UN
My heart became like smoke or Saturn’s air, A heart that wind can pass through made of mist. My heart took on this life, a demon’s prayer, As dead as that, a glowing demon’s fist. My heart sailed out to find a little ait Where sheep were...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2022 | LO, UN
The Pole Religion of Lustred Love Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It blew straight through his bones like snow through air, Antarctic night. He thought that it was warm Or even hot like black...
by phillipw | Jul 22, 2022 | LO, VE
The Goddess of Love Stands Distinct from Ecstasy The temple is love’s stone sonata made Of marble and of space. Its pillars rise In fluting. They are made of light and shade Or more like melodies which goddess eyes Can hear. Between the columns shadows fail...
by phillipw | May 11, 2022 | CY, GA, Ho, LO, MA, PH, RO, Uncategorized
Someone Special Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Who has to be a special someone when He knows that he is loved? Perhaps some sun God loves him. Maybe he knows more than men...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2022 | CH, FI, LO, SE, ST, UN
April, August, Autumn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We both flirt April with each other, you And I, at first. The clouds, if any, rise In white and seem not tinged except with blue, Perhaps...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | BR, CH, GA, Ho, LA, LO, RU
Wider Still and Wider from the Earth “And in that Heaven of all their wish, there shall be no more land, say fish.” ~ Rupert Brooke The fancies of that young one, Rupert Brooke, Were wider than “just” girls and women. He Liked those—and more. The autumn hair that...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | BR, JA, LO, NO, OL, RU, ST, UN
Trinity’s Anchorite in Gentle Agony James Strachey, lacking goldsmiths’ stunning hair, Sat by his non-gold fire alone inside His Cambridge room and felt the flare Of shrined romance within his ribs. It dyed His arteries and veins the color of A soul in...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | BR, CH, LA, LO, RU, UN
The Genius of Love and the Jock Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Of course it doesn’t matter that we don’t Know just how beautiful Lascelles was: he Was not a poet. Rupert Brooke was wont To think...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BR, CH, LA, LO, RU
Squares and Triangles “male society, cloistered rooms, and the works of the classics” ~ Jacob’s Room, Virginia Woolfe A cloistered room can be concocted in An ordinary bedsit. Cambridge rooms Are not required. You sit and rest your chin On loneliness. Love’s...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BR, CH, GA, LA, LO, RU, UN
Rugby Love Reduced to Black and White in Cambridge Love That love continued into Cambridge days. One Rugby beauty took another in A frame and kept him in his room to gaze At eyes, at stalwart auburn hair, and chin, Not just in daytime, either, but in nights Of...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BE, BR, GA, LA, LO, MA, RO, RU, UN
On the Rubbish Heap of Time . . . The one he loved the most was Charles Lascelles. We have to take Brooke’s word for it that he Was beautiful. As Rugby tower bells Rang out the hours, a passion rhymed with glee Pumped hard inside the future poet, hard...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2022 | BR, DE, GA, LO, RU, SE
Denham and his Thoughts while Being Fucked by the Poet Rupert Brooke–a Threesome of Sonnets Pain While Playing Games We talk at first as though we do not know Why we are there. Of course he knows. I sort Of know and hope, as always. A slow And...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2022 | AM, BI, BR, DE, GA, LO, RU, SE, Uncategorized
Denham Alone Since He Alone was Not Alone– A Foursome of Sonnets Outside and Finally In “A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out all the years.” ~Rupert Brooke Each year he finds a new one he can love. The first (and last) was Denham...
by phillipw | Feb 4, 2022 | BR, DE, FI, HA, LO, SE
The Secret Life of Things For the space of a foot, The firefly’s light goes out: Loneliness. ~ Hokushi The firefly floats along in darkness, light, Dark, light. The floating is revealed alone By flashing, though the blinking is so slight That only...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2022 | DE, FI, HA, LO, MA, SE
What Comes After Every Beauty How easily it Glows. How easily it goes Out, the firefly’s green. ~ Chine-jo The green is very faint but still is green. The flash is very brief but still a glint. Then after every blink comes dark, between The promise and the living,...
by phillipw | Feb 1, 2022 | FI, HA, LO, SE
Calmest Sex Electrified The firefly Gives light To its pursuer. ~ Ōemaru Enlightenment it might be, no, not Satori. Certainly this winging bug Is only looking coolly for a hot Encounter with a lady fly, to hug Her briefly, hunchingly, and put slick life Inside...
by phillipw | Jan 28, 2022 | HA, LI, LO
Looking for His Love The first firefly! It was off, away,— The wind left in my hand. ~ Issa The firefly lands by chance upon my hand And flashes there, blink, blink in twilight green. In growing darkness little glows expand,...
by phillipw | Jan 27, 2022 | LO, RO, SE
Leaving Sentimentality Behind in a Hurricane Eons from Now in a Parallel Cosmos Joshua 10:12-13 Love isn’t possible but there you are Beside me in the morning, lashes, eyes All closed to me and love. Romance is far Away, like galaxies beyond surprise In some...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2022 | CH, DE, LO, RO, ST
Laid Asleep “we are laid asleep In body, and become a living soul.” ~ William Wordsworth If laid asleep beside each other, we Might find some rest at last. We never laid In doubled love. Love’s serendipity Was...
by phillipw | Nov 18, 2021 | BR, GA, Ho, JA, LO, RO, RU, ST, UN
A Solitary Fire In bobby socks the teenyboppers used To sigh or scream about a baritone, Or tenor, or falsetto voice. Amused, Their objects of desire jived through a zone Of smugness like a phoenix on its pyre. Before these screeching fans, young...
by phillipw | Nov 12, 2021 | LO, RO
Opera in the Crystal Ball An opera in a crystal ball is what He should have viewed and heard and felt, yet, no, His veins sensed only limerance and hot Rushed serotonin. It produced that glow Like phosphorescent joy, though not as pale Or brief as...
by phillipw | Nov 7, 2021 | CH, FR, LO, PH, PU, WH
Elementary Love He didn’t notice that the yard in front Was small. At ten he thought that it was big, Or large enough. The two of them could hunt A hiding place beneath the Turk’s Caps, dig For doodle bugs, and daydream play. Both he And Brian...
by phillipw | Oct 18, 2021 | BR, LO, MA, ME, RU, WO
Rupert Wanted Surrender “Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate. Love sells the proud heart’s citadel to fate.”~ Rupert Brooke Would women be as likely as a man To write such sentiments, to think of love As breaching walled in strength, as Æthelstan...
by phillipw | Oct 17, 2021 | LO, OB, RO, UN
Unrequited Love in Men “All the little emptiness of love!” ~ Rupert Brooke Gigantic love alone is one small space Inside the mind and guts of just one guy. It’s like a complicated interface, But tiny, ganglia trapped in a sky Of bruise enormous in its hurt...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2021 | AD, CO, DR, HE, LO, PA
Ingredients That photo of the man, his little son, And summer sunlight on their cuddling skin Has disappeared. It was the only one Jill had and most importantly no sin Could be detected in it. But it’s lost. Jill wonders if Ray...
by phillipw | Sep 12, 2021 | BR, CH, GA, LA, LO, RU
Auburn Love Maleness Maleness Maleness The way a twilight in the autumn turns To unsung colors, so the chapel light Inside the service changes from the burns Of orange to a brown with red so slight It slinks away as suns go down. The red Is almost memory, not real,...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2021 | AG, DI, ET, GO, HE, IM, JE, LO
The Immortality of the Trinity’s Adoration of Lost Souls The bliss of all the saints in Heaven is Piss poor when set against the searing pain Of those in Hell. God loves and loves. Gee Whizz, Though, what about the agony, that stain, Eternal filthy stain upon that...
by phillipw | Aug 23, 2021 | BR, LO, RO
Forever and Forever What makes a sunlight moment settle in The mind? And does it matter? Turning of An eye makes heartbeats leap and grin Because of Gwen or Lance. But is it love And does it matter? On the beach his arm And shoulder fix themselves,...
by phillipw | Aug 16, 2021 | CA, LO, PE, PR
Self-envy I suffer from that rarest illness, called Self-envy. Everyone, it seems, but me Is desperate, as if they each are walled Up in a prison or are like a quay That no ships come to, ever, but my days And nights are full. I have a cat who...
by phillipw | Aug 13, 2021 | LO, MI, RO
Granting What sages and the rest must say at last Is only love is high. The evils through The world don’t matter. Yes, those things are vast, But finally the wisest think more true. No, not the love of men and ladies in The novels sold at...
by phillipw | Aug 5, 2021 | CA, LO, ME, RO
Cats and Men Winn wasted love, romantic life, on men And cats like men. The men walked round as proud As only cats (and men) can be and then They left. Sometimes the men and cats allowed Some stroking of their hairy bodies for A little while and...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2021 | LO, MA, PE, SE
“Men coming and going on the earth” ~ Rupert Brooke Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Men come and go in love and death beside The heart and in our beds: the red-haired ones With that strange skin and with...
by phillipw | Jul 22, 2021 | AG, LO, SE
Giving and Forgiving pexels-lion-247502 “I need lions in gilded cages; it’s awful, after human flesh, lions love gold, and no one ever gives it to them.” ~Oscar Wilde Who would put his lion in a cage of Lead rubbed with gilding foil? Not lead...
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 15, 2021 | LO
A Year of Hairless Yearning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If you could take your lover out just one Time every year, how fresh would he seem each Unveling from his box? Would beauty stun You like...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2021 | DA, FA, LO, PA
Penumbra around the Male Heart Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The father picks it up, the doll, and grins. He thinks of her, his daughter. She will love It, he decides. His happy moment spins Around...
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 | CA, DU, HE, LO, MA, ST
Cleaving on an Island Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The house on Merritt Island stood alone On sand. No doubt the sand had sandspurs set Among the weeds. Like a ramshackle throne It ruled...
by phillipw | Jun 24, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, GA, LO, RO, RU, SE
An Evensong at Rugby School Chapel Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The service is devoted to Saint John The Baptist. Then when prayer comes, “Lord, now let,” I think of peace and one plain tomb upon...
by phillipw | Jun 15, 2021 | LO, RO, SE
Gone Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A smouldering in the core of ribcage bones Is what his heart is causing. Blood does not Allow an outbreak, flames of red. The zones Of marrow in...
by phillipw | Jun 14, 2021 | LO, RO, SE, UN
Relief The roses come. He does not think of you. Their pinks are far too delicate, their reds Too overwhelming, and their whites too true. He does not think of you and cuts their heads. The peonies arrived. Their petals are Too perfect, fine, and...
by phillipw | Jun 10, 2021 | BI, GA, HE, Ho, LO, RO
Ganymede Has Auroras Glowing in His Captured Air The largest moon of Jupiter is male, Much larger than the female ones. Its weight Is less than Mercury’s but then the scale Of Ganymede is larger. Zeus’s mate Forever clings around his greatest god And spins forever...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, CH, DE, FI, GA, Ho, LO, MI, PO, RO, RU, SC, WO
Blue Rugby and Blue Gallipoli Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We do not think of Rubert Brooke in blue, When we remember him at all. We think of Brooke Between some pages of a volume, true To...
by phillipw | Jun 1, 2021 | FI, LI, LO, MA, SE
The Y Chromosome Inside the Tiny Holy Grail All day the firefly Folds in his glow beneath grass Waiting for twilight. ~ a found haiku; original words adjusted by PhillipWhidden; encountered in Henry David Thoreau’s A Week on the Concord...
by phillipw | May 27, 2021 | AG, GO, LO
God Loves God loves with all the discrimination Of hurricanes and tidal waves. He loves Creating . . . and watching the castration Of child molesters, and He loves the shoves Of penises inside their victims. He Loves victims, too. God loves the...
by phillipw | May 21, 2021 | CH, FR, LO, MA, RE, RO, SP, ST, UN
Tightly Closed in Open April during the Cherry Blossom Time Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Remembering sapphire air, I think of you. We shared a cut gem spring which lasted long And long because the...
by phillipw | May 20, 2021 | LO, LU, SE
Men as Objects of Desire The myths have got it right about the males And females. Males are hunters in each myth. They go out stalking victims in these tales And tragedy results. The females, with A sudden craze, are forced to fall in love With men who love to...
by phillipw | May 14, 2021 | FU, LO, RO, SE
Midas Touch He wants to make his lovers glow like gold, Except that gold is tame. He wants to make them Glow, gold eternity, that makes them scold The lesser beauties. He will lift the hem Of death since it is only thin gold rags And find beyond it...
by phillipw | May 4, 2021 | LO, RO, SE
Black Regrets–Sénanque Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He holds a postcard in his hand. The view Is of an abbey high in chalky hills (Provençe). The abbey there of...
by phillipw | Apr 25, 2021 | LO
Spontaneous Combustion .Modern poetry odern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I mastered it. It mastered me, became The fire, and it became the whole of me. A moment just before was calm, but flame Exploded. You were...
by phillipw | Apr 25, 2021 | CH, LO, RO, ST
What the Pharaohs Commanded in Looking Glasses Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He lives inside the past. Back then he filled A tiny room, but now it glows. The walls Are echoed glass. My spinal...
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 | Apr 21, 2021 | HE, LO, PA, RE
Galumphing Patriotism The worst of patriotic people’s verse Is halting lineage of “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” Two lanterns would disperse (Or one) the orders that were set to guide The rider. Lucklessly, no one offered Such guidance to the poet. He...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | LO, RO, UN
Love in England I even sent you stupid things like pics Of guards in London backed with notes about The mayflower being in bloom. The tricks I pulled were quite pathetic. Rave and shout Was just about the only method left Untried. The sonnets, longer...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | LO, RO
No New Place for Love From Stratford-Upon-Avon I sent: “This is” Shakespeare noted,”the monstrosity Of love, . . . that the will is infinite,” bliss Is huge, but though its existence is free, The “execution” is...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | LO, RO, Uncategorized
Both Sad and Calm On the back of a post card I quoted from The Queen of the Damned: “The morning would come and he would be sad but calm.” Both sad and calm cathedral beauties are. The picture on the card of Salisbury glows With stillness. It was taken from...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | AU, FA, LO, ME, NO, RO
The Month of Dying Beauty The month of dying beauty made of leaves That bleed with scarlet, crimson, and the flash Of orange, hurtful yellows and bright sheaves Of golden, sickled hay revealed a gash. A wound in present time was opened by My finding of a cache of...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | LO, ME, RO, SO
Recovered? Recovered? Covered once with scars, before That with the Mylar we call love, my heart Deals gingerly with this collection. More Reflective sonnet talents in the art Of poetry and love have run ahead Of my discovery of little gifts Forgotten in...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | LO, RO, WH
Promises and Lies I send a card with animals–a mare And foal, a badger, and a fox and fawn– Facetiously upbraiding you. “Unfair!” I claim. It seems that you were sick and wan, Had promised you’d “bounce back” by...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | LO, RO, UN
Petaled Appeal Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I send you all of me that bows, both built To last and doomed to fade, endure and fail, As flowers that have colors which will wilt, As...
by phillipw | Apr 18, 2021 | BE, ID, LO, PE, PU, SI
The Two Domes on the Gurdwara Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The dome of gold is higher than the white One. Both are perfect. “Innocence,” says one, “Is perfect, flawless, like a rigid rite.” Yet...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2021 | LO, ME, MO, SO
Lunar Loneliness Don’t the Moon Look Lonesome? ~ Sonny Rollins The moon has been too visited by rocks, Celestial bodies and all sorts of bits And pieces from deep space. Yet frequent shocks Of such communication are just hits Of loneliness, again,...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2021 | LO, RO
Crossing Out Bars Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Our love had never settled into notes Or melded into melodies. The heat Grew high enough, but flaming seas burn boats Instead of making...
by phillipw | Apr 13, 2021 | CH, LO, RO, ST
As Thermonuclear as Sodom Miraculously clouds of that hot sort That swirled around us, you and me, embraced Us. Arms like these do not allow retort. They hug as hot as those Elijah’s raced To heaven suffered. Yet then unlike those Our clouds held us together all...
by phillipw | Apr 9, 2021 | EG, GO, LO, RO, SE
Golden Tongue Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Ancient mummies with golden tongues unearthed in Egypt – BBC News If I were buried with a tongue of gold, Would I still be a poet, or,...
by phillipw | Apr 4, 2021 | CH, DE, LO, ME, MO, ST
Submerged City You lie, a city now, beneath the clear Depths. You are still but we can see you move Because we knew you when you filled the sphere We call the past now. Memory can prove An old existence: archeology Can bring perfection up from underneath...
by phillipw | Apr 2, 2021 | CH, LO, RO, ST
24-carat Dreamscape Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When dining off gold plates, I think of you, Yes, not of Greek ambassadors around The tables of the Persian court. Peru Might spring to mind where...
by phillipw | Apr 1, 2021 | CH, LO, RO, ST
Prophecy from the Future Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You flew, the prophecy the future sent To me. You levitated up above My present and my past. My space/time bent Around you. This is...
by phillipw | Mar 30, 2021 | AT, IC, LO, NE
Young Hearts upon a Massachusetts Plane More beautiful than ghost-like, they are real, The skaters on the winter pond at night. They swerve around and skim about on steel, On circle (pond), make ovals as in flight, December birds whose wings are skates along The...
by phillipw | Mar 24, 2021 | DE, HE, LO, PA, RO, SE
Carving Out the Measure of Devotion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You hardly know the truth of passion till You put it in the context of its doom. It seems as hot as sun spots or the spill Of lava...
by phillipw | Mar 20, 2021 | CL, FU, LO, OR, SE
No Separate Peace “. . . it should have been true. So I didn’t argue.” ~ John Knowles, A Separate Peace When we have finished all the passion, sweat, And dripping body fluids; when we reach The pounded climax to that final threat That comes with deep...
by phillipw | Mar 20, 2021 | CL, CU, FU, LO, OR, SE
Spewing in the Depths to Heights, Rule-breaking Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When I go into you, I know what he Felt up in heaven, Lucifer, in love With liberty, or more love’s anarchy. I know...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2021 | CR, LO, QU, SE, TH
Queen Mary Had Only a Tumor as her Phantom Pregnancy We all know what the phoenix is about. It glories in the flame like Dido burned Upon that throne. That passion has a clout. It has its flame, it is the flame, flame turned Upon itself, flame causing us to die And...
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 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 7, 2021 | AD, GA, HE, Ho, LO, ST
It’s May! It’s May! The Month of “Yes, You May” Traditions here are moss grown, very green And healthy. Ordered ways have not gone down. The white dressed cricket teams can still be seen Though players’ skins may well be black or brown As maybe distant centuries...
by phillipw | Feb 27, 2021 | GU, LO, PA, RO
Le crème The mouth would speak. The poem disappears. The heart desires to love. Sweat fades away, Though. Passion lasts for moments, not for years. He sits alone, Parisian café Amour around him where he used to sit With more than newsprint words. ...
by phillipw | Feb 27, 2021 | LO, RO, SE
Leave it Unnamed It never is created by mere speech And silence cannot penetrate it. Deep It always is. It has a wounded reach Too often with a name, sometimes, in sleep But in the waking hours the names that come To it are shallow, like a shallow pond. No...
by phillipw | Feb 24, 2021 | CH, LO, RO, ST
A True Love Will you be tracing the scars on the fair Skin? (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme…) Will You rub limbs (herbals to cure)? Black curls, hair, And strongness of nostrils—now you must spill Like blood the therapies. Resurrection...
by phillipw | Feb 19, 2021 | LO, RO, UN
Vacuum Love Because I cannot reach and touch you with My hand or lips, my love remains the gray Of ashes and of cancelled god-filled myth. Divinity is elsewhere like the spray Of neutered tomcats, visible only To queen cat noses. It is that perfume That...