by phillipw | Dec 20, 2023 | MY, SA
Jesus Smashes Saul to Blindness with Vision Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “the only pure mystics are brutes” ~ George Santayana One mystic that I know who lives with me Is Prospero. He...
by phillipw | Dec 4, 2023 | GO, MY
Gautama and Māra Iniquity is starlight in the wrong Location or the purest atom gone Awry, a darkroom with a delving song Of light inside it, thinking in its dawn. The sin is not the light itself. Its height Is not the evil, black the background not Its...
by phillipw | Dec 25, 2022 | CH, DR, MA, MY, WH
Modesty’s Refinement from a Winter’s Afternoon The curtains in the bedroom at the front Were Margaret’s last and accidental gift To me. Before their hanging day, death’s stunt Destroyed her. She was sucked right through that rift...
by phillipw | Feb 16, 2022 | MY
A Light that Never Was from Angels Bright and Dark Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A light that never was on sea and land Is seen by those who search for wonder. Mere Auroras and a dawn without...
by phillipw | Nov 21, 2021 | AN, MY
Absent Orange and Blue Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “ ‘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 | Aug 24, 2021 | CH, MY, ST
Paler than See-through Vellum Decorated with Medieval Leaves and Gospel Writers Perhaps he stands among the Celtic saints As mystical as they with trees he killed. They stand together, he, and trees, and haints In chosen superstitions. Acorns tilled By eons are a...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | DE, JA, MY, PH, SC
Esthetic Ricochet A room with gilded sliding screens is flown Through by a swallow. It swoops in and out So swiftly that the moment makes a throne Of thrill and beauty. It is like a shout From Christ or Buddha, utter and so brief That brevity...
by phillipw | Jul 27, 2021 | FA, MY, SC
Human Nature Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The sun does not begin to rise because Of songbirds singing. Manly brains know this. The dawn begins to break because of laws Of...
by phillipw | Jun 11, 2021 | MY
Japanese Epiphanies Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Sardines have sunlight shining their eyes And, from the scales along their sides, the light Is light as from divinity. Each dries Here hanging...
by phillipw | Jun 10, 2021 | CH, JU, MY, RE
144,000 Thrones Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My childhood little church, that concrete block One painted white with ziggurat-like face, Was filled with mystic preacher salesman talk So...
by phillipw | Jun 9, 2021 | GO, MY, RE, SP
“the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ... We live with those bright beings long ago And far away inside our bones and mind....
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 | Jan 3, 2021 | EP, MY, RE, TR
Who Can Know? Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It seems that God (or gods) goes moving through The dawn invaded by exhaustion in The night. The hormone tentacles construe The twilight...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2021 | GI, MY, SE
At Least among the Redwoods “Man is somehow out of place in ‘the brotherhood of venerable trees’[1] Yet they are meaningless without at least his absence.” ~ R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Autumn – Summer, volume 3, p. 842 Wallpaperup.com Among the brotherhood...
by phillipw | Dec 2, 2020 | AN, BA, EU, HA, JA, LY, ME, MU, MY, OR
Lyrical Light and Annihilation The harp is not of heaven alone. Its strings Have been to Hades on the saddest trip. A gilded harp may seem to have the wings Of Hermes. It may ride an Argo ship Which has one eye to see its way to fleece And gold, to beauty’s...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2020 | AL, CA, LA, LI, MY, SA, ST
Lost Legends Long Before the Vedas and the Iliad Go far enough in time and all becomes Strict mists and stone. Fire circles heard the tales So long forgotten now that tribal drums Are recent evolutions, compared. Trails Do not exist to take us back to spells And...
by phillipw | Oct 24, 2020 | BO, BU, EN, ME, MY
The Harvest of a Quiet Eye “The harvest of a quiet eye” ~ John Richard Vernon Ignore the razzmatazz, and sex, and stuff. Just look around you in the dawn and see A crack in God’s eternity, enough To show the mystical, mystery In twilight. Take an old, old book...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AE, AN, FR, GO, GR, JA, MY, PO, TH
Three Thousand Years before Apple and Three Thousand Years after the iPad I carry in my knapsack poems by The ancient Greeks, the eldest ones, the best, The best of elders. They are still as spry As dolphins’ arcs by the Argosy’s quest. Lines wait within the safety...
by phillipw | Jul 18, 2020 | EP, HE, MY, TR
The Poetic Kind of True Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The stories begin in kinds of truth. As events recede in time, they grow not smaller but larger in language. The ancestor who fought...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | GR, MI, MY, OR, PR
Some Myths are Far More Real “Orpheus is a hero, not a god, and a hero more valuable than most gods, just as Prometheus was.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 21 The gods are less than Orpheus of Thrace. Gods loomed up large but they were never real. Majestic for a...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | AN, CE, EU, HA, IX, MY
Poetry Makes a Different Exploration of the Realm of Death No poet thinks about the path the wife Of Orpheus took down to Hades. Not One poet ever writes about how harshly rife That journey was. The poisoned bride’s death lot Was just the same as anyone’s. The path...
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 | May 18, 2020 | Ho, MY, RA, SA, SE, ST, TE
Ad Augusta per Angusta— to Elevated Goals through Narrow Paths Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A vision of the narrow path to high Perfection, highest pitch of tenor goals, With something like a throat...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | BU, GA, HI, ME, MY, PA
Siddhartha “and things stable by unceasing mutations” ~ Thomas Taylor, 1792 The glacier is ever changing, still And not still, frozen, flowing, fixed and not, Yes, like Jehovah’s unperplexing will, And whitened like a purpose not forgot. Crevasses...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | AD, AN, AP, AR, HE, IN, MA, MY, SE, VE, VU
Primitive Sophisticated Truth Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ….…… When Greeks believed that nature’s aspects moved As gods and goddesses, as wind and fire, Then Bóreas came...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN, DA, GR, MY
Icarus: When Cleanest Beauty Flies https://dd28.deviantart.com/art/Mourning-for-Icarus-294532709 When young men make mistakes, they still get all The glory. Here he is with nothing wrong About his body. It’s as if the fall Has killed him theoretically. This strong One...
by phillipw | Apr 29, 2020 | MY
The Greatest Mysteries of All I’ve never understood why people eat (Taste, chew, and swallow) Oreos. They’re vile. And here are other mysteries, complete Ones. Why do men drink beer? What can beguile A person to submit to drinking stuff As foul as that? It smells...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | MY, TH
When Gods were Real We used to meet divinity inside Our guts. Gods wrenched the bowels, or heart, or lungs With flushing presence, left our sternum dyed With holiness, and filled with praise numbed tongues. Direct, they haunted us in fire and smoke We breathed...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | MY, RE, TH
Moses, Saint Francis, Saint Teresa ….. Gods used to come. We felt a sudden gust. A moment came, somewhere, somehow, at dawn Or in the twilight. Daybreak caused a thrust Of deepest recognition, then withdrawn. A twilight apparition might remain A fraction longer...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2020 | AN, GR, MY
We Innocents, Maidens, and Virgin Lads Waiting for the Minotaur More than slightly puzzled in a distant way By artefacts from long-gone cultures, we React as people always do when they can’t say Exactly what the ancients then could see In their religions and their...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2020 | MY, OL
Gravity: the Greeks and the Old Testament How Hitler-like and heavy is the past, How wonderful and marble-like its weight Upon our brains and guts. The Greeks loom vast; … The Hebrews, too. Their fires in myth frustrate. We can’t escape to newness. We are...
by phillipw | Mar 3, 2020 | CH, MY, ST
Broadmindedness Touching Electric Fences He thought himself a mystic, though I don’t Believe he knew strict meanings for that word. He had these fuzzy notions: he was wont To stretch and blend. His holiness was blurred. B’hai was far too cut and dried for him, I’m...
by phillipw | Feb 20, 2020 | MY
“The Mystery of Iniquity” This tale looms large, that Lucifer conceived His God was like himself, a sort of twin, An elder one, a massive tree that leaved And fruited long before the swell of sin Began to bud inside the angel’s brain, An aching more...
by phillipw | Dec 11, 2019 | MY, TH
For the Eternity Being One morning when they’d stayed up all night long While moving house, he stepped outside with one Last box of stuff, including hymn and song Books–and Dillard’s Pilgrim. Dawn, just begun, Radiated through clear...
by phillipw | Sep 23, 2019 | DE, DI, GO, HE, MY
Translucent Demigods The heroes of the past are god-like strong. Their loins are near pellucid in their power And beauty. Irridescent thighs are long In loveliness of maleness as they tower Above their plinths. These calves and biceps glow With inner force as marble...
by phillipw | Aug 20, 2019 | BL, MY
Sand Grains: Blake’s Universe [Grains of sand under a light microscope] https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2011-photomicrography-competition/sand I walk along a tropic beach of sand And feel the sun’s heat in the grains, wonder If, counting my...
by phillipw | Aug 11, 2019 | MY
Why fuck with myths and legends? Why not let Them be? Why try to modernize the Flood Or Cain’s red fratricide, Pandora’s threat? The likelihood is that we’ll get more mud Than blood, attenuated menace, and Some other watered down effects. Clark...
by phillipw | Aug 11, 2019 | MY, PO, SC
In 2011 I was reading a biography of John Keats. In the introduction Lord Byron is quoted as saying that Keats “belonged to that second-hand school of poetry” because he got his inspiration from poetry and art, not from life. Be that as it may (and Byron...