by phillipw | Aug 23, 2020 | CA, CO, JE, KH, ME
More a God-like Tease Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Imagine if the murdered victims, all Of them, in ethnic cleansing, had their names Carved in a frieze in heaven on a tall Throne, high as...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2020 | CO, DE, FU, ME, MO
Rites When undertakers take the body, pimp It up to please its final lover, stretch Its limbs to that position while still limp And use mascara and lipstick to etch A long-time disposition for the lips To welcome death, do hands attempt to call Up...
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 16, 2020 | AP, DI, GO, LI, ME, MU, PO, RH
The Cavern Leading to the Muses When Linus first invented rhythm with A melody in song, the beauty came Ideal — so lovely that a sacred myth Could not compete. Apollo could not tame A thing so perfect, so he had to kill The poet. Deity must never lose With humans,...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | CO, GO, JA, ME, OD, PE, SA, SO, WI
The Big Exceptions The women move in caged in places both In life and plays. In poetry they are Curtailed to Sappho and Corinna. Troth Constricts Penelope. It hems. No spar To take her seas away, she sits at loom, Is trapped at night unpicking her trapped work,...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | JA, MA, ME, MU, OR
Dissonance in Early Poetry Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse The primal poet sang at Jason’s feast, At Jason’s wedding to Medea. Gods Are vile: the marriage’s allure deceased As Orpheus’s melody, at odds With fate, began to fill...