by phillipw | Apr 8, 2024 | AN, GR, JA, MO, RO
I Canali, un Pranzo, il Arsenale Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Romans, Japanese and Greeks once had A reverence, religious in a calm Way, quiet, for the clockwork things, the sad (The...
by phillipw | Feb 29, 2024 | MO, NE, SA, Uncategorized, UR
Tiny Moons of Neptune and Uranus in Humans’ Unimagined Years-long Hours Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The news is that “new tiny moons” have been Discovered near far giant planets made Of gas, past...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2024 | MO
Unending Length and Strength Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If Buddha be correct that everything Is One, the universe, the cosmos, Soul, That all be unity and all these sing In unison, not harmony,...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2024 | AE, AR, BE, CH, ES, MO, underarm hair
Microbes’ Excretion in the Priests’ Hair Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I ask you, what’s the use of beauty if It’s undermined by nuns and monks at prayer, Their hands unknown to you that have a whiff...
by phillipw | Nov 30, 2023 | MO
Bound No dirty atom or electron can Exist. No dirty god can reign supreme Since that would not be deity. A man Cuts off another person’s leg. Does gleam Of goodness come from that, or bad Come pulsing from it? What if he has cut It as...
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 | 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 | Jun 28, 2023 | MO, TR
The Poetry of the Triune God: a Cord of Three Strands Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” tttttt Eternal gyres together one times three. The...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2023 | FL, MO, PE, RO
Nursing Nutrition on Your Knees Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When humans scold you, turn to flowers and vines. Combine them. Morning glories are ideal As therapy or zazen. Blooms are mines For...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2023 | AR, BL, MO
Unlike Us Who Shrivel Separately The morning glories Brandish side by side and then They wither, wither. ~ Hokushi (Englished by Phillip Whidden) It is as if the vines and tendrils grow Because some God thinks He has made...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2023 | MO, RE
By the Stone Path The morning glories do not have to pray Or chant a sutra in a scarlet voice In sunlight, do not even need a sway From breezes. They are holiness, no choice Or sacred regimen, the sort that monks Or nuns indulge required. Blooms’...
by phillipw | Sep 18, 2022 | BE, DE, EL, MO, QU
cows two days before a funeral Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Proverbs 26:11 When Queen Elizabeth is dead, brown cows Will, still, be lying in the Windsor fields. The autumn fields will hint...
by phillipw | Jun 5, 2022 | DE, DY, MO
Sleeping On top, a pale, thin blanket, gray; below A plain white sheet, and next a pink, strong pink And white-striped nightie, then the scratched up dough Of old-age flesh, no use to try to prink Her up with wig or Positano clothes She...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2022 | DE, DY, MO
At Last “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world” ~ Edgar Allan Poe Although her hair has not been tinted or Recolored, it has lavender inside It, peeking out toward death’s wide...
by phillipw | Mar 31, 2022 | EA, MO, OL
Earendel Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem This morning star exploded in the dark Of ancient space, exploded, formed and shone Before the orbs that we have known, a...
by phillipw | Mar 24, 2022 | AN, MO, OL
Uhtceare . . . . .l He lies awake and not, awake but not In decent consciousness, more nightmarish His bed. He feels entrapped inside a slot Of evils, waking worries, angst, garish In coldest heat. This looms, sorrow before The dawn, in darkness...
by phillipw | Feb 6, 2022 | MO
Stillness Gloriously Interrupted by Intimations of Immortality Why the Mockingbird Sings : And Why at Night, When Most Birds Sleep? – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com) The mockingbird soars up through song at night. The darkness swells with music suddenly Or sound...
by phillipw | Feb 6, 2022 | BR, FL, Ho, MO, TI
A 1950s Florida Day and July 20 and 21, 1969 Winged ants fly From a small house At the foot of Mount Fuji. ~ Buson The clapboard house shines white in afternoon Brevard in sunlight. There in front are green And orange from the flame vine. There’s no moon Above...
by phillipw | Jan 14, 2022 | AD, KE, MA, MO, PE, RO, RU, TH
Archangels in the Moon Garden on Christmas Morn The flowers in whitest rows set forth their white Perfume beside the Great Rift Valley on The day that Christ was born. A rose’s might Is all that they can muster in this dawn Of Kenya. That is strong...
by phillipw | Dec 25, 2021 | CH, GR, MO, Uncategorized
Archangels in the Moon Garden on Christmas Morn The flowers in whitest rows set forth their white Perfume beside the Great Rift Valley on The day that Christ was born. A rose’s might Is all that they can muster in this dawn Of Kenya. That is strong enough,...
by phillipw | Dec 13, 2021 | MO, UN
Empty Preservation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “To the loose stones that lay upon the highway, ...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2021 | FR, MO, SE
I Wrote my First Poem about Her When We Were Teens She made her way from seventeen to be At mother’s funeral, a long time on That journey. In between those years debris Of life had separated us. Yvette had gone To black men in her bed, a husband—then The sex god...
by phillipw | Sep 28, 2021 | BR, EL, GR, Ho, KE, LU, MO, PR
Elizabeth Taylor Never Managed Bangles to Compete with THAT Though class means one thing in Great Britain, class Means something else in Hollywood. It’s glitz There, glitz with gilding. Briefly, it means crass With Cadillacs and white fox fur with tits Concealed,...
by phillipw | Sep 24, 2021 | GA, GR, LU, MA, MO
Feeling Like Eternity and Not Just the Golden Era That halo light from Hollywood shines down Across the decades. Garbo’s eyes still glow And Marilyn enwrapped in glitter gown, The sequins spangled, neckline cut so low The breast bone almost passed between those...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2021 | EL, LU, MA, MO, OS, PR, Ta
A Skin-deep Sea in a Fake Heaven The depths of shallowness are what the stars Dive into. Starlit deeps make slickness glow Like Barbarella dressed for sex-grooved Mars, Or Marilyn with one leg raised to show The blue pool has not killed her yet. Like Wilde...
by phillipw | Sep 20, 2021 | BA, LU, MA, MO, NO
The Minx and Sacrifice The reason Marilyn appealed to both The men and women was because she meant A dual thing and not just beauty. Too loath To say that, though, they melted to her scent Composed of victimhood and vampishness. They, deep gods, or...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2021 | LU, MO, PR
Elizabeth Taylor Never Managed Bangles to Compete with THAT Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When class means one thing in Great Britain, class Means something else in Hollywood. It’s glitz There, glitz...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2021 | DE, HU, MO, MU
Butterflies Sing with the Tongues of Zen and Angels Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Let’s say that butterflies could sing. What songs Would come from them? Perhaps their first Would be selected from the...
by phillipw | Jul 28, 2021 | FA, IV, MO, OB, PH, SI, WH, WO
Single Perspective Single Perspective Single Perspective All All All Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The single-hearted skylark calls to mind My brothers and my father and my true, My truest self. Our...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2021 | DE, MO, PA, PH, SA, WH, WO
Grave Offering Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He breaks the burst of blossoms off the tree, The spray of life in blooms, and hauls it to The back part of the car. Cemetery Rows wait. He...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2021 | CA, ME, MO, RE
What is the Meaning of Life? He asks what meaning life has. It is life. The question does not have a purpose. No Reply is needed. Answers just cause strife. Philosophy is like a blizzard, snow Opaque and countless thoughts of white that pile Up beautifully, but...
by phillipw | May 20, 2021 | MO
Eclipse You keep on looking for the moon. It fails To show itself. At times the afternoons Destroy the view with heavy crumpled veils More like a burkha made of godless dunes Those scores of million centuries before Mohammad’s Allah was...
by phillipw | May 1, 2021 | BL, DE, MO, ON, UN
A Stretched Out Oneness Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When flowers bloom we blossom in them, too, Inside their petals and their pinks, inside Electric yellow touched with orange. The blue...
by phillipw | Apr 21, 2021 | AR, FR, MO, PO, RI
Rimbaud’s Tiny Kisser Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem …….. It’s worse than that unsmiling mouth implies. It’s more a grimness, executioner Made flesh and teeth. If he were...
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 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 | Mar 26, 2021 | AR, GA, MO, PA, RI, VE
Irradiated Irises Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem His eyes were deep clairvoyant blue, and blue Of lighter kind, both present in his face At once for Paul to fall in love with. True To...
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 14, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, CO, ES, MO, SO, TR
The Sonnet in Its Little Room The sonnet, much too like a tight cocoon, Encased inside its silk-like threads is far Too tiny and too strict but not immune To mystic grandeur. It is not a czar Upon a dais seat raised up and vast Of gold, but more a derringer...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2021 | AE, AR, BA, GR, MO, SH, WA
Simplicity and Complexity The modern Scandinavians and chairs By Shakers have their meaning just because Of life’s complexity. The Cubist squares And glossed rectangularity give pause Like Philip Johnson’s house of cleanest glass. The house by Gropius in Lincoln...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2021 | AB, AE, AR, BE, CU, ES, MO
Picasso! Don’t look at nature after art to slight The art. The point of art is not to ape But thinking. Artists target to incite, Not prettify, but cause the mind to gape. To criticize a painting for a lack Of slavishness to facts is silliness Akin to faulting...
by phillipw | Feb 24, 2021 | EA, GR, MO, TI
Shifting Knowledge “Know thyself” ~ the temple at Delphi The earth is slowing down its turning on Its axis; so it seems, at least. The tides Have been impeding spinning since the dawn Of oceans and the sphere. Our planet rides Through vastest vacuum of...
by phillipw | Feb 16, 2021 | EV, MO
Grave Beyond the light the morning star provides Are depths and distances behind, around, And promising. They are eternal tides, Eternal only as such light is bound By borderlands of physics. Morning star Illumination reaches from the dawn Of...
by phillipw | Feb 11, 2021 | CA, LO, MO, RO
Love’s Lunge at Long Last The moon in near remoteness, when compared With sun, and stars, and planets, makes its slow Fast way above us after being snared By gravity like weighty love below It, heft of earth’s devotion countless years Ago, four billion years ago...
by phillipw | Feb 11, 2021 | BO, MO, ON, PE, SA
“Zen” * and Ichinyo (如) Aikiya The brief and long are similar — the same, Says Buddha. Bonsai in its little dish And Peony in vase have both one aim. This goal is much, much more than just a wish. Both items are the same, Gautama says. He knows the blossom has been...
by phillipw | Jan 30, 2021 | DA, JA, MO
Phases Fading Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The passing rain is Drying on the day-glory Which will die tonight. ~ Shiki The rain takes little care while dropping on The blossoms of the...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2021 | MO, O, RO, UN
The Creed of Unitarian Roses and Unitarian Wind Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The roses move, though in their nature they Are stillness all, except in growth and death. They vary in their colors. ...
by phillipw | Jan 19, 2021 | AE, AN, BE, ES, JE, MO, PE
Red Peony Petals Fallen on a White Windowsill The fallen red lies still as it is weak And strong. The petals lie as still as prayer By Buddha in serenity. A Greek Simplicity is called to mind. An air Of Classicism rules the scene, restrained. Yet scarlet does not...
by phillipw | Jan 18, 2021 | GR, MO, ON, PE, PR, UN
Monism Teaches Oneness 一如 (Ichinyo) Shirobotan aru no tsuki ni kuzurekeri The white peony; At the moon, one evening, It crumbled and fell. ~Shiki Translations are quite tricky things. They ask For huge commitment from the ones who try To make them. Those...
by phillipw | Jan 18, 2021 | AE, AN, BE, GR, MO, PE, SA
Rectitude and Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Matthew 6:28 The ant, a Puritan in black, moves right Across the petal’s purity. The black One works, works,...
by phillipw | Jan 14, 2021 | AE, KI, LE, ME, MO
Meager Medieval Males and Meager Modern Males Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We wonder if they honestly deceived Themselves with legends told as histories. Were decorated prose and rhyme believed As...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, AR, BE, EN, ES, MO, NA, PE, SA
No Divisions Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Tokonama no Botan no yami ya Hototogisu ~ Shiki The darkness of the alcove Where the peonies are; A hototogisu...
by phillipw | Jan 10, 2021 | IL, LE, MA, ME, MO, TH
Medieval Razzmatazz in Le Morte d’Arthur Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Than he com on so faste that his felyship semed as blak as inde.” ~ Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur Let’s...
by phillipw | Jan 9, 2021 | DE, LO, MO
Vanishing Truth Each meeting is the start of parting. Who He might become or who she might become, No matter what, what finally comes through Is vacuum. Each beauty will succumb. Your newborn son will grow and go away— And he will die. Perhaps you will...
by phillipw | Jan 7, 2021 | MO, MY, SA
The Known Unknown Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Izuko yori Tsubute uchikomu Natsu kodachi The summer grove; my Mind is struck by a small stone That came from somewhere. ~ Buson The green of...
by phillipw | Jan 5, 2021 | AU, BU, EP, KO, MO, MY, PA, RE, SA
“Autumn Revelations”; “Monistic Meditation”; and, “Comprehension”: a Trio of Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Samaras wirble down. One hits the pond. The silence and the ripples...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | DE, MO
Remaining with Them is Like Losing Them To hold on to the dead is to forsake Them. Holding on is like a woman in Denial when divorced. The pulse of ache Will not decrease no matter what his sin Was. Hoping for his love again will shove Him even farther into...
by phillipw | Dec 28, 2020 | DE, MO
No Combination Code for the Vault All roads can lead you there but no road back. You call the stillness beauty and full peace But at a distance it seems threat as black As deathless fate. Seek nothing of caprice Where these paths go. This destination serves One...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2020 | FA, HU, MO, PO, WO
Woman You slip away in poems that you wrote, In songs composed, in paintings painted by Your lust and fingers. You turn out the vote For candidate and then learn just how sly He was, or muster funding for the cause— And win—but then the circumstances...
by phillipw | Dec 24, 2020 | CH, FU, JU, MA, MO, RO, RU
Death Sneers Silently at Services We sing to dead ones. That is how we pray. We sing the hymns and requiems. We chant The kaddish and the words of fate. We sway In robes the living wear. The pious rant Which sounds more beautiful than death, unless The timbre is of...
by phillipw | Dec 24, 2020 | CH, DE, FR, LO, MA, MO, PH, WH
Doppelgängers Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You almost smell despair of men alone When they have lost that one friend, that one near They found they loved as if a holy clone Had...
by phillipw | Dec 23, 2020 | AC, AN, EP, Ho, IL, ME, MO, PO
Absence Forbidden by Anamnesis Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pure absence is unknown—as long as mind Retains the memory, absence is denied. An ancient poet, wandering and blind, Can see that fact. ...
by phillipw | Dec 15, 2020 | CA, CE, CO, DE, FU, GR, MO, SM, TI, TO
Artless as L. S. Lowry A Rembrandt darkness falls upon us, they And me. I cannot see them now except As figures draped in richest robes. The prey Of time (called death) they’ve worn brocade and slept In sand beneath the ground, each separate plot Concealing...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2020 | AN, CH, EG, EM, GR, MO, ST
Ritual of Something Too like Vacuum As ignorant as light that streams from rooms Where love has been, we think of you. Alone Now, more like air within the pharaohs’ tombs, We try to fill the dark with more than bone And skin of memory. Your flesh recalled In...
by phillipw | Dec 6, 2020 | AC, DA, GO, Ho, MO, SH, TE, TH, VO
Curly Top and Dimples Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You might want to watch this before reading this sonnet: Shirley Temple – On The Good Ship Lollipop.avi – YouTube I never ...
by phillipw | Nov 11, 2020 | AR, CH, DE, MO, PA, ST, WE
Painting as False Prophet in Acrylic Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The image in the bedroom looks out through The window, artwork gazing out As if a seer. It does not see blue Of...
by phillipw | Oct 27, 2020 | CH, DE, FR, GR, MO, ST
Memorial Maple A piercing red shouts out. The border’s end Is painful to the organs, heart, and mind, And eyes. It calls, “Forgotten is your friend, Forgotten through the year until I blind You with my raucous scarlet autumn leaves. You pass me every day...
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 | Oct 10, 2020 | AU, CH, DE, GR, MO, ST
Forget the Graveyard’s Darkness and that Urn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Imagining that you are in the sky Above Antarctica or up beyond The Arctic’s ice consoles my heartbeats, high Among excited...
by phillipw | Oct 8, 2020 | BL, BR, DE, GA, Ho, HU, JE, LE, MO, UN
The Song for the Statue of Liberty Sing out your foreign song. Sing out your truth. Sing out the way that you are different from The rest. Chant out from in your Succoth booth Or from your monastery. Let songs come From pink brown Harlem lips. Involve the...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | BI, HA, IG, LO, ME, MO, PE, ST
Madness of Musical Men Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The work is characterized by the so-called Petrushka chord (consisting of C major and F♯ major triads played together), a bitonality device...
by phillipw | Oct 4, 2020 | FI, MO, OB, RE
Conspiracy Theories and Pop Psychology The history we avoid is what comes back. A son abhors obsessions in his dad And then becomes a monomaniac. A daughter who found mother’s ways too sad Drives daughters of her own to turn out poor In spirit, sozzled drunkards. ...
by phillipw | Sep 13, 2020 | BR, JA, JO, MO, PO, TH, WI, WO
Thoreau in His Worst Freudian Nightmares Could Not Have Imagined Pollock or de Kooning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Thoreau says nature does the better part Of work oak carpenters get credit for,...
by phillipw | Sep 9, 2020 | CU, GR, MO, PA, PI
When Voices are Replaced by Squared Up Bars A watercolor, or some paintings made Of oils, or photographs in black and white Are all like Cubist art but with truth’s blade, Not brush. The forms, the shadows, and the light In images of island Greece, are grand...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2020 | AS, MA, MO, OP, ST, SU
Compassionless The radiation that we think about Most often is bright light we see. The moon And sun embrace each other as they shout Their opera duet, their brilliance strewn Across the nights and days of bowing we Have always done. The stars have bit parts...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2020 | GR, MO, SO
Radioactive Requiems Grief, long and slow as radiation from The ancient rocks beneath us, does not fade. Instead it sends out pulses in a thrum Of rays reduced to an angstrom glissade Inside all protons dancing on the stage Expected to exist as long as stars. If...
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 28, 2020 | AT, DE, HE, MO, PE, PO, VE
Their Painted Desert Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem They wait. They wait beneath. They wait below Us, we who live. Some wait in mud like Peat Men sacrificed for long lost reasons. Woe Is far...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | CA, IL, MO
A Strangely Shaped Medieval Codex His mind is like a sky-shaped border on The upper arc inside a vellum book, A circle-shaped one with a scene of dawn Enclosed within it like a sidereal hook, A scene aurora-like but from a monkish mind Producing manuscripts with hues...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | BE, BR, CH, FR, JE, LO, MO, PH, PL
Presumption Who teaches us what love is, what it means? Who? No one. Many try, but none of them Succeeds. Some say it’s like quick benzedrines Without inhalers needed. Bethlehem Is touted as another meaning of This principle or feeling—whatever....
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | BU, EL, LO, MO, RE
The Voice Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 1 Kings 19:11-12 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | DE, IM, MO, OR
Orpheus, Once Torn Limb from Sturdy Limb Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ………. Orphée by Raoul Dufy Long after he was...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | DE, IM, MO, MY
Orpheus Died Several Times and Could not Save Himself Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Intent is feeble like a hyacinth In rocks along a mountain path where feet Can crush. Intent is not a marble...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2020 | AN, ET, LI, MO
Esthetic Wistfulness as Obscenity “The two greatest poems of western man are still, in many eyes, the two oldest. And the grace and sanity of Greece are not so common in the modern world that we can afford to forget them.” ~ F. L. Lucas in Greek Poetry Does ancient...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AN, ET, MO
Coldblooded Aegean “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 “ ‘Why did the whole Greek world exult over the combat scenes in the Iliad?’ asks Friedrich Nietzsche. We modern readers do not even...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AR, ET, MO
Ancient Art Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse “the ancients had not that conception of beauty separated from goodness which forms the basis and aim of aesthetics in our time” ~ Leo Tolstoy A moral pillar rises from...
by phillipw | Jul 4, 2020 | CH, DE, MO, ST
That Other Universe and Sublimated Mercury Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Telepathy with realms beyond, beyond, Beyond, which understand blank secret deaths Made up of see through hieroglyphs and...
by phillipw | Jul 3, 2020 | AL, AR, CH, MO, ST
Bitterer than Blue Dreams Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse I sleep with one black perfect curl beneath My pillow. It belongs to love. Below My blond, blond head this curl is like a wreath Of mourning. Blackness almost has a...
by phillipw | Jun 25, 2020 | CO, FR, MO, TR
Defeat in Battle ………. True beauty is allowed to lapse to make Some room for what is novel, just the new, As if by definition modish ache Is better than the perfect pain. This skew Along to holiness of fashion runs The flopping risk of...
by phillipw | Jun 16, 2020 | AN, ET, MO
Coldblooded Aegean “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 “ ‘Why did the whole Greek world exult over the combat scenes in the Iliad?’ asks Friedrich Nietzsche. We modern readers do not even...
by phillipw | Jun 13, 2020 | AL, CH, DE, GR, MO, ST
Bitterer than Blue Dreams Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse I sleep with one black perfect curl beneath My pillow. It belongs to love. Below My blond, blond head this curl is like a wreath Of mourning. Blackness almost has a...
by phillipw | May 29, 2020 | AD, CH, FL, GO, HE, MO, PR, RO, SE, ST, Ta
Talleyrand & Gouveneur Morris Crippled Twinning “Your character is such that you destroy Unhappiness much faster than can fate Create its sadnesses,” said Monstesquiou To Adelaïde, who had the lovely trait Of being charming Countess de Flahaut— Which meant that...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | AR, CH, HU, MO, PR
A Common Prayer for Honesty Psalm 52:1 ‘an anthem in five parts, “Why boasteth thou thyself,” the second section adding a solo quartet, making a good nine-part work (1865).’ ~ Emily Daymond This criticism of himself becomes The context of his later anthem, “Why...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | DE, LI, MO
What Matters Really is Only the Text Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem [This is a poem that is as fouled up as modern literary theory. The poem fails to be a sonnet.] What matters really is only THE...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | FO, GR, IM, MO, SE
Vacuum Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem His father died and Tony’s body dried Up, its oases withering to dunes Of numbness. Something shriveled deep inside. Bright pools of sexuality are...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | MO
Think Like a Mountain Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Think like a mountain. Think where time, the past And future meet. A mountain’s past is long It’s future even longer if at last Its...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | DE, FA, MO
Mother and Father in Death Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He dreamed about his mother—then reached out To touch her, but his hands came up against A marble wall of blackness. In a pout...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | CH, DE, MO, SE, ST
The Lake Your eyes grow deep as galaxies for me, Much deeper than the sky at dusk, as high And deep as midnight and serenity Reflected on the surface like the cry A swan sends echoing—all this because Of death. Old memories include your head, My lap,...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | MA, MO
Marilyn The radio announced that she was dead As flatly as a Stock Exchange report. My heart turned satin and began to shred And leaked out doom and beauty. In the court Of Heaven Gabriel reached up to wipe God’s eye and Jesus hid his face behind The...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | DI, ET, FR, LA, MA, MI, MO
The Best Kind of Friend Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “ ‘Happy is the man who has dear children and sound horses and hunting hounds and a friend abroad…’ Solon, F23 (West)” ~ Robin Lane Fox,...