by phillipw | Feb 7, 2024 | JA, NI
James Points the Way to Future, Foreign Adventures My plane takes off not quite as bumpy in That flight beyond the crabgrass at the end Of runway launch as Piper Cub wings win The sunshine wind of Florida, extend Their grip and take us jostling through the air Above a...
by phillipw | Oct 25, 2021 | NI
The Road through the Gate Past Grace Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The roadway leads from nowhere on and on To nowhere. Sunset and horizon loom, Yet nothing is beyond. The road to dawn Roves,...
by phillipw | Jul 1, 2021 | DR, NI, PS, SU, UN
Unborn Worlds Our dreams unborn await us in the dark, The darkest and the deepest part of brain. Our dreams are not like honey. They are stark Like lust and stinging venom. They want stain And swelling to remain once they have left Us harmed. A bee, or...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2021 | DA, DR, ME, NI
Strata Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Our memories bring us home to more than just Ourselves, or rather to those selves that we Once were and later. Souvenirs are trussed Up in...
by phillipw | Mar 30, 2021 | DU, EV, NI, SU, TW
Pensive Radiance A melancholy glory comes while light Begins to dim. The sky and earth resume Another twilight, herald of a night Like brooding. Far too glass-like to be gloom, The early evening glows like gentle glass Designed to spread the slightly...
by phillipw | Mar 11, 2021 | BU, NI, RE
Paradox of Paranirvana lotusculpture.com My desire Is that I may die Beneath the cherry blossoms, In spring, On the fifteenth night Of the second month. ~ Saigyô Religion is the most elastic thing, Much more elastic than a rubber band Or even more elastic steel. We...
by phillipw | Mar 5, 2021 | BI, DE, NI, WR
As Strong as Steely Silk Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem No hints are held in songs of birds about How soon their death will come. The wren can sing Its aria but death will have its clout. The...
by phillipw | Dec 13, 2020 | DR, IV, NI, SI
Silence in Nested Dreams Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He suddenly and stupidly, an ox That suffers hammer blow to brain, saw he Had never heard a noise in dreams, a box So insulated that they all...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2020 | AU, GH, LO, NI, TH
Starving Phantoms Missing Thanksgiving Ghosts love to gather in the kitchens where We want our memories to be. The ghosts Are hungry. Famished ghosts would love to snare Lorena’s apple pie, the smell of roasts, Aroma of her pie when bringing slice And whipped cream...
by phillipw | Oct 23, 2020 | DI, FR, IN, LA, NI, PH, SY
Playing with Himself and the Piano Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Infernal Recurrence, more like. That Big Mind locked itself up in the bedroom of His hosts. A mad philosophical pig, He banged the...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AT, BU, CO, EL, LA, LO, NI, OL, SA, SO, SP, TH, VI
They Loved Sovereignty and Liberty Most “And the Lacedæmonians offer sacrifices to Love before they go to battle, thinking that safety and victory depend on the friendship and those who stand side by side in the battle array. And the Cretans, in their line of battle,...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, FR, NI, PH, PL
Nietzsche vs. Plato Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Nietzsche said that Plato was “the greatest enemy of art Europe has yet produced.” This Plato spoke in imagery so far Removed from Heidegger...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | CH, DA, JA, NI
Heaven’s Gate That moment when my uncle fell beneath The rearing horse, was crushed beneath its weight, Destroyed Thanksgiving and the Christmas wreath— That wrecked. Cracked bone horrors can dislocate Time, times, and the dividing of time, swell Time...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AB, CR, NI
Crepe Myrtle Armory A pink of seriousness, of solemn frills, Is roasting in the tropic sun. A breeze From hottest sultriness and languor spills Across the flowers and leaves. They are at ease Though. This is what God made them for and so They flourish in their...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | ET, FR, LA, NI
Nietzsche Negation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Steel repetition trumps. Unnerved before Men’s ecstasy, rosaries cannot deny The urge for semen, chanting still the whore. Adultery invades the...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | AN, CA, NI, VI
Safe Spaces—“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” “When the Athenians sent leaders of their philosophy schools to Rome on an embassy in 155 BC, one of them, the sceptic Carneades, pleaded on one day for justice in politics, on the next day for injustice. Cato...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | DO, GE, HE, NI, RI, TR, WA
What Really Matters Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Heroic happenings in legends bear A factuality more sacred than Plain data. The cutting of Samson’s hair Is consequential to his threatened clan...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | NI, TR
Buddhas Better than Methuselah If you become a buddha, would you know It? Would you suddenly break through the world To calm sublimity, escape the flow Of suffering and time that long has swirled Around your body and your soul and in Them? If you made this leap, would...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | AU, LO, NI
Lorena, Logic, Love, Loss The thought of Aunt Lorena crossed my mind Today while shaving. Human brains are strange Like feral cats who once were tame. Designed For logic, heads can sometimes disarrange Their purpose unpredictably. Why should My mind thinks, “Aunt...
by phillipw | Apr 3, 2020 | DO, ET, NI
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by phillipw | Mar 26, 2020 | DR, NI
Radical A dream is a reality as true As daylight drenching, scorching skin on face And throat. A dream is fact, an ultra blue As seen through telescopic sin and grace, A denseness like Magritte’s and Dali’s dreams If they were dire blue diamonds in a...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2020 | DE, FA, MO, NI, SE
Selenicereus Grandiflorus I planted night-blooming, LARGE white blossomed cacti in my white garden in Kenya overlooking the Great Rift Valley. They were planted so they could climb into trees at the edge of my Moon Garden–and the edge...
by phillipw | Mar 18, 2020 | DR, NI, SU
Subconscious The deepest part of memory is a trench, The black of seabed wound. The strangest part Is not the darkness or the tides that wrench The conscious mind. No. Claws and teeth that smart The brain convulsively come up to bite Or tear at us in...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2020 | DR, NI, SU
Night Brain In dreams impossibilities are rife. A human haunts us with his eyes, both closed And open, both at once. A faithful wife We left for fling and fun is there transposed To be our mother too. The man who raped Us as a child is kindly in abuse...
by phillipw | Feb 5, 2020 | NI
A Tropical Butterfly in an Evil Nation An asphalt colored butterfly flicks low Across the street, a little bit above The lead-like paving; gray and light gray go Afluttering in flecks as if a dove, A very tiny 2D dove with specks on specks For wings, were on its...
by phillipw | Jan 27, 2020 | NI
African Bottoms Nigeria’s the bottom food-chain place Where factory rejects are deposited, Where Chinese goods considered a disgrace Are dumped, where decent men are closeted Because they’re gay and presidents retain Their power for decades just because...
by phillipw | Dec 27, 2019 | NI
Helen and Cousin David Can you recall when “party” didn’t mean Cocaine and booze and sex? When what it meant Was frilly frocks, and hitting red and green Piñatas with giddy sticks, when kids bent Near double, giggle-screaming, over “pin The tail”? Can you...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2019 | NI
Nocturnal Resurrection The city had a daytime nightclub’s face, A stolid look like Mussolini’s brow In plaster cast. Who would have guessed this place Perceived itself the figurehead, the prow Of culture in its colonnaded past? Perhaps it thinks so still,...
by phillipw | Dec 2, 2019 | NI
Nietzsche Negation Repetition swoons powerless before Ecstasy. Rosaries cannot deny The urge for semen, chanting still the whore. Adultery invades the manly eye A hundred trillion times in every age, Relentless like the law Nietzsche proclaimed, “The past is trapped...
by phillipw | Oct 6, 2019 | CA, LE, NI
Commencement: May Day At last, the miracle comes round again: Bright blossoms, leaves are born along the bough And May Poles rise—while no one thinks of pain; Commencement, so long striven for, is now! Commencement comes, a miracle for one Among the caps and...
by phillipw | Sep 26, 2019 | DI, FR, NI
“One Soul in Bodies Twain” and Diaghilev’s “one in private life” The ocean of men’s friendships spreads too vast For those who think about it to presume To use taxonomies which tend to cast One sinkered net across love’s waves and spume, One flaring circle that...
by phillipw | Sep 18, 2019 | ET, NI
Nietzsche’s Law of the Eternal Recurrence http://norsemathology.org Repetition is powerless before Ecstasy. Rosaries cannot deny The urge for semen, chanting still the whore. Adultery invades the manly eye A hundred trillion...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2019 | AB, AE, BE, ES, MA, NI
Abel, Niels Henrik ……………………Wikipedia …..Wikd Could someone please propose equations for The beauty of a man? They must include His hair (of course) and—if divinest Thor Resembled him in any way — warm hued...
by phillipw | Aug 18, 2019 | LO, NI, SI, WI
Aunt Wilma Forces Me ..to Plant a Gardenia on Lorena’s Grave Aunt Wilma is second from the left What happens to a voice when it is dead? The vocal cords will rot, of course, the lungs Will shrivel, wither. In a coffin bed The voice will evanesce like...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2019 | BA, FO, NI
Men Lying Apart And where do you three lie now, Barraqué, Foucault, and Nietzsche? You have been removed. One lies in Vendeuvre, one far away In Trélévern, as if life disapproved And did a deal with hell. Trapped Nietzsche lies In such a tiny village that...
by phillipw | Jun 2, 2019 | NI
Poor Little Rich Kids at the British Nigerian Academy I found a little emptied pouch of sweet Milk powder on my classroom floor today. At first this puzzled me. Did someone cheat By drinking coffee and, worse, get away With this transgression during English class? But...