by phillipw | Jan 21, 2024 | AB, AE, BE, DE, ES, PH, Uncategorized, YA
Awe of the Heavenly Bodies Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The moon would kill to have a face the shape And beauty that yours shows, the smoothness, force, The splendor of your dazzle with escape...
by phillipw | Aug 6, 2023 | BL, PE, PH, SO, WI
Bliss’s Obsidian Wand Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Maleness is magic, the potent principle of universal creativity.” ~ Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae, 40 A warlock holds his...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2023 | AN, FR, PE, PH, VA, YO
Orange Penetrates so Intense that It Throbs as Purple Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Why bother with bare beauty when deep sex Comes offered in the package? Canyons etched With liquid bearing scree...
by phillipw | May 11, 2023 | PH, SA, SI
The Opposite of a Pastel Rainbow If you were god Apollo, you could tell The sun hawks, “Bring adventure to me here In form of youth and let the man expel Opponents of the notion that male fear Is part of worship and of love. Let him Hold bravery in himself...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2023 | AR, DE, DI, GR, PH, SC, Uncategorized
Figuring Futilely on the Death Date of Shakespeare “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” ~ Sonnet 18 The statue still defies his death or hers Two thousands years or more beyond the grave Or urn of ashes, shaping that prefers The perfect lie that, carving, Greeks...
by phillipw | Jan 5, 2023 | BU, FL, PH, RE
Sacred and Profane Buddhas The meaning of the Buddha is in all Things, not just sacred lotuses or trees Saints sit beneath. Secular flies let fall Their droppings on the painted frieze Brushed onto white rice paper on a screen, Or watercolor painted on...
by phillipw | Dec 19, 2022 | BE, IN, PH
Imported Curvaceousness Times Itself from India The pheasant came from Rome, the Normans, or From who knows where? The feathers of its coat Say they were from an Indian king, and ore From Rajasthan. Cock pheasants almost gloat With beauty from the golden copper of...
by phillipw | Aug 25, 2022 | AS, BL, MU, PH
The Music of the Sphere Known as a Black Hole https://twitter.com/Phoenix22555220/status/1562149765839732740?s=20&t=D3UNCn1z5-0dtrIopqEVRg Beyond the realm of Seven Sisters, sound Reverberates away from total death. The hole That makes this seethe is like a giant...
by phillipw | May 30, 2022 | AR, HE, HU, PH, PR
Bright Young Men Know Better The sun god sits in golden light upon A golden throne and sends out golden beams. The robe he wears is purple prinked at dawn With rose gold frets, Greek frets. His presence streams From in his palace in the farthest east, An east beyond...
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 | May 4, 2022 | AE, BE, ES, HE, JU, LI, MA, PH
Junge Männer, a Sonnet Sequence on the photographs in Herbert List’s Junge Männer [Each sonnet is about at least one of the sonnets in List’s book. Before the title of each sonnet is the number of the photograph the poem is about, as in (#1). Often (or...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BR, PH, PO, RU
Poetry Saved by Photographs and Words of Memory It hardly matters if his verse is great, Carved lines, bronze poetry, immortal stuff, Or not. Brooke’s like a surfer on the spate Of swollen wave tops. Killing beauty’s tough. It lingers on in culture’s core. His face...
by phillipw | Mar 11, 2022 | CH, PH, WH
Ultraterrestrial Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My brothers’ lives are alien and far Away from mine. The wives float, quite . . . unknown . . . Along with foreign things like...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2022 | PH, WH, WO
Parthenogenesis Paternal If I were only Woodrow’s son, yes, just His son, not his and Helen’s, then my heart Would sing with dreams and poetry, gold dust Of life. My mind would separate apart The pettishness of daily living from The mountain clouds of Florida...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2022 | HE, PH, WH
Parthenogenesis Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If I were only Helen’s son, my heart Would be direct, or more direct, as straight As Queen Medea in her hate. Apart From planning, I would be as...
by phillipw | Nov 22, 2021 | EV, GA, PH, SE
Early Polling of Intentions Who wouldn’t want it if a giant snake Proposed deep mouthfuls that you thought were out Of reach? The woman’s throat began to shake. The woman’s heart fled fast from fussy doubt. She knew she wanted all he offered up. He...
by phillipw | Nov 8, 2021 | CH, DO, FA, HE, IV, PA, PH, WH, WO
There Wasn’t Any Hill in Brevard County, Florida, but There Were Songbirds The oatmeal made with milk and honey . . . and With mother love . . . was eaten with the sound PATTI PAGE – Mockin’ Bird Hill（1951）with lyrics – YouTube Of “Mockingbird Hill”...
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 | Nov 6, 2021 | BO, DU, GA, Ho, MU, PA, PH, SE, SI, ST, WH
Jalousie in Natural Light—Avant la Rêve For Mrs. Pat Silver and Bob Stubbs She chose a piece called “Jalousie” for flute And keyboard that was strange to both the boys, But then the both of them were teens. To suit The ceremony “Jalousie” had poise But sounded...
by phillipw | Aug 13, 2021 | MU, PH
Countryside Composition The russet sun selects the pheasant’s tail. It shines more gold than copper in that light From heaven in the evening though more pale. The sun strikes more than that. It wants to write A poem or a nocturne for the dark To come,...
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 | Aug 7, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PH
Gemmed Jeremiah Vituperating in Japan The pheasant screeches on the village roof. The startled hamlet is transformed, not by The gorgeousness or by his squawk; the proof That transcendental beauty needs the cry Of ugliness to set a splendor far Apart is shown by this...
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 8, 2021 | AS, CH, PH, RE, SC, TH
Yeah, Right “with God all things are possible” ~ Matthew 19:26 A semantics teacher begins his first lecture of the course with this introduction: “In English grammar a double negative produces a positive. In some languages a double negative...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2021 | AR, CH, ON, PA, PH, RE
Perspective Without perspective we can live in white Infinity, far longer than the space In Leonardo. Chinese painters’ sight Swerves larger like an Orthodox choir’s bass In search of certain formlessness. Their blanks Loom almost misty like...
by phillipw | Jun 22, 2021 | CO, CY, PH
Love Administered by the Local Council The little beauties disappear. We walk Past those for season after season, year On year. The world’s brownish evils stalk Them, though. A pretty pinkish, purplish cheer They give, the cyclamens that grow beside Each other just...
by phillipw | Jun 16, 2021 | PH
Twilight, Midnight, Morning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The sunset settles on the copper breast, Its black point speckles, and the cascade fall Of dark enamel down the sunlit chest. The first to...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, CH, MA, PH, RE, ST
No Hypocrisy or Self-deceiving in Esthetics Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Jesus speaks, the monasteries chant And convents count their beads. On Georgia’s roads His words are...
by phillipw | Apr 30, 2021 | AE, ES, PH, PL, SE
Escapism = Carnevale Claptrap Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Religion, fantasy, pornography And science fiction, even pink, pink verse Are merely magic. Hearts’ geography Is what they master. They...
by phillipw | Apr 20, 2021 | BI, HU, OS, PH, Uncategorized, WH, WI
Hyperthymesia, , William Louis Hunter V, SRA Reading Lab, and Oscar Wilde Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Bill is in the white cardigan. I’m in the dark sweater in the center. My boyhood...
by phillipw | Apr 3, 2021 | CA, FR, JU, PH, PS, SI
Panicky Purity The phantoms of the heart and brain are drugs From soul and not from science. They are like Some sort of dreamlike but effective plugs Created for our therapy. A dyke Holds back the floods… and heart holds back the brain And rigid...
by phillipw | Mar 3, 2021 | PH, PO
Symphonies or Aristotle Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A poet opens up his lips. We want A poem from them, not wisdom. A sage Pronouncement we can do without. The font Of clear philosophy...
by phillipw | Mar 1, 2021 | GI, IL, ME, MU, PH, SY
lluminated Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The secret bird refuses to be known. Its color is a flavor still unnamed, More like a smell than scarlet, a tone, An oboe’s voice perhaps. It...
by phillipw | Feb 27, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, ES, PH, PL, SW
Solemnity The swan reflects the water. Water’s light Shines off the grace. It moves like moon-drawn flow Up rivers. Streaming feathers claim the white Of foam on ocean waves. The feathers go Where God would go if he were mortal in A world devoid...
by phillipw | Feb 25, 2021 | EM, MA, PH, ST
The Tonic of Thought from Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Not all of thought is good, but thinking heals, Or offers therapy. The thinkers past Give guidance in their...
by phillipw | Feb 18, 2021 | AE, AU, BE, ES, PH
Sumptuous Fabric with Bl♦ck Di♦monds Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A copper-breasted pheasant shifts from claw To claw up on the autumn branch. The cold Of evening settles down upon him. ...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2021 | DI, NO, ON, PH, UN
Diversity Does Not Equal Ontological Division Since all are different, they are all the same. If there were some exceptions to this rule, Just two would do, then these two sames would shame The thoughts of Monism. This ridicule By sameness would destroy the doctrine,...
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 15, 2020 | CH, EP, FL, FR, JO, OT, PH, RO, SP
Epiphany not Abruptness A mamba crosses paths with you. A shark Fin heaves to view in nearby waves. A plague Ramps out across the world. A winging lark Explodes from cover at your feet. No vague, Uncertain certainty like fate explains The threat, the...
by phillipw | Nov 29, 2020 | AL, AN, DE, EP, GR, HE, IS, LU, MA, PH, PL, SE
Healthy Hedonism; and, Holy Hedonism, Paired Sonnets Healthy Hedonism Tattoo upon yourself this perfect law— The sacredness of pleasure is above The other, puny principles. The awe That it deserves, like God in love, Confirms that thrills, inviolate and...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2020 | CR, DO, GO, ME, MU, PH, SP, SU
Still God Amphibole Tremolite-121232. By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10140515 Suppose that God could resurrect you whole, By quarks and hadrons, nth particle by Nth...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2020 | A, CL, ED, EN, MU, NO, PE, PH, PI
“Orpheus with his lute made trees” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem For Philippe Entremont What use is music lacking fingers, strings, And tremolo, the purity of voice Of flute in Grieg’s concerto,...
by phillipw | Nov 8, 2020 | EX, GY, MA, PH
Curvatures They sign up for the gym together, both For different reasons, but that’s how a man And woman are. They both desire some growth Of sexiness. He wants to spread the span Of manliness. She wants to make her form More feminine. Of course...
by phillipw | Oct 23, 2020 | DE, FE, FR, PH, PS, SI
Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness Sigmund Freud: “There is nothing instinctual in us which responds to a belief in death.” Freud also says, “This may even be the secret of heroism.” Our hearts refuse to nod to death. No, more Than that, they fail to hear it...
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 | Oct 22, 2020 | AN, CH, DA, GR, HE, IS, JU, PH, RE
Darwin and Heraclitus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Homer should be turned out of the canon and whipped. He was wrong in saying : ‘Would that strife might perish from among gods and men!’ ...
by phillipw | Oct 9, 2020 | AN, BU, GE, PH, RE
Our Choice of Ancestors What we think, we become. Buddha Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | AE, ES, Ho, ID, PH, PL
Plato Alludes to and Quotes from Homer 331 Times Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A thinker who can’t think attempts to be Philosophy’s Big Name. He blames those who Write poetry since they lead...
by phillipw | Sep 9, 2020 | GH, LO, ME, PH, PI
Some are Even Stored in a Sealed up Barrel in a Garden Shed The family albums brim with pictures held In off-white stasis turning yellow, stained With busy carelessness. They have been quelled By years of disregard. The snaps, constrained Inside the pages, huddled,...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2020 | BE, EA, LI, MU, OR, PH, PO, SO, Uncategorized
Initiations “Every word was once a poem” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, “The Poet” “A single letter was a matter of life and death.” ~ Anne Michaels The alphabets came late, like virgins to A wedding feast. The clauses, words, and grunts Of love were...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AN, DA, HE, IC, PH, TH, WH, WO
With Straight Gold Bars I sat beside my mother as the sale Was made, the purchase of The World Book Encyclopedia. I loved the pale Cream, knobbled leatherette, the noble look Of deep maroon square placed on spine of each Restrained and heavy volume, glossy...
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 20, 2020 | PH, PL, PO, SO, WI
What We Drink Who wants thick wisdom first in poems? It Is ours for chewing in the pleasures of The scrolls of Plato, thinkers who permit The thought that pleasure proves the point of love, And stern philosophers with guts to kill All weakness, straight. The...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AD, AE, AL, AR, BO, LO, PA, PH, RO, SE
The Venerable, Ancient Need Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “And Socrates the philosopher, who despised everything, was, for all that, subdued by the beauty of Alcibiades; as also was the venerable...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AR, HE, Ho, NA, PH, PL, PO, XE
The Truth about Ancient History, Plato, and Poetry “Socrates says in the Republic that he and Plato’s brothers might have to inform poetry about the ancient quarrel between it and philosophy. Glenn Most (“What Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry?”) argues...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2020 | PH, PO, SE
The Poet! “light, winged, holy creature” ~ The words of Socrates to describe a poet, as quoted in Penelope Murray, Plato on Poetry, 8 That’s always how I’ve thought about myself, Yup, yes, of course, at least when I have thought Of me as “poet”—surely...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | PH, PO, SA, SO
Socrates versus Sappho One wonders if poor Socrates might just Have been much happier if he had made Up poems, not philosophy. A gust Of inspiration from Apollo swayed The poets into rhapsody of thrill. While lost in love for some young person’s hair, The writers...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | DI, IN, PH, PL, PO, SO, TI
Spells and the Thoughts of Tiresias “Halliwell’s basic argument is that Socrates admits the Book X arguments to be insecure and open to defeat. He calls them ‘spells’ rather than philosophical knowledge, and he asserts that he must use them [those arguments]...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | AN, PH, PL, PO
Sovereignty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Is it simply that people who philosophize think that people who produce, consume, or appreciate poetry (the philopoiêtai) have the wrong...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | AE, AN, BE, CH, ES, PH, PL
Philopoiêtai, Poetry Lovers from Time Immemorial “Plato’s Symposium shows how Plato deploys dramatic irony to undermine the philopoiêtai’s use of poetry. Elizabeth Belfiore (“Poets and the Symposium”) argues that the dialogue’s first five symposiasts, in their poetic...
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 | Jul 3, 2020 | PH, PO
Brain Matter or Bone Marrow Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse “Stefan Büttner (‘Inspiration and Inspired Poets in Plato’s Dialogues’) acknowledges the frequency with which Plato accepts the possibility of inspiration and admires its...
by phillipw | Jun 25, 2020 | AN, NA, PH, PL
Cave versus Agora That Plato thug looms; just pathetic, though, Pretending that he’s thinking straight about Ideals. He doesn’t have a clue. The glow Of solitary thought, that drought, Is all he cares to focus on. Supreme And dictatorial his brain but in A...
by phillipw | Jun 16, 2020 | AN, PH
An Ancient Greek Trinity In Athens Love was placed in honor by Athena. There beside chaste wisdom, love Was set up on a plinth. The Greeks placed high In their gymnasia that god above Their bodies practicing for ideal power. Accompanying love there in that place...
by phillipw | Jun 13, 2020 | IN, PH, PO, Uncategorized
Brain Matter or Bone Marrow Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse “Stefan Büttner (‘Inspiration and Inspired Poets in Plato’s Dialogues’) acknowledges the frequency with which Plato accepts the possibility of inspiration and admires its...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | AL, CH, EL, KI, PH, PR, WI
Simian Wound to Greece “The new Greek king, Alexander, … was out walking his wolfhound, Fritz … and the dog was attacked by a tame Spanish monkey. While trying to release the monkey from Fritz’s teeth, the king was attacked by its mate and severely bitten...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | BA, PH, PR, WH, WI
The Little Prince Who Grew Like me he grew up slim and sturdy, blond As Greece or Florida in sun. He crawled And stood up. Women around us were fond Of gold smiles, Philip and Phillip. They mauled Us with their cuddling kisses. We were fine, Right through it all,...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | AR, FO, HE, LO, PH, PR, QU
Arcachon, Summer, 1923, White-Blond Hair “quite too adorable for words, a perfect pet, so grown up & speaks quite a lot & uses grand phrases. He is the sturdiest little boy I have ever seen & I can’t say he is spoilt.’ ~ Louise, Queen of Sweden,...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | PH, PR
Lighthearted in Italy: Beginnings of British Insouciance At eighteen months the Attic prince was laid Inside a fruit crate on the ship that took His family into exile with a maid Or two and valet. Nanny calmly shook A blanket over him that winter...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
The Poet Passes through Surrey while Reading Young Prince Philip More like a colt than other creatures, born A colt with slim limb beauty and with lock Of blondness down his forehead to adorn It, princely maleness made those near him gawk. He was not a Greek god or a...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | PH, PR
What Comes from Having a British Housekeeper He, raised on Scottish porridge in the land Of ancient Greeks, on tapioca, rice, And other British blandness, grows a gland Enlarged enough that it can thrust and slice Its way to royal climax in a queen. That phyllo...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | PH, PR
Even as an Actor in Macbeth Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He wore a white gold crown wherever he Was living, Denmark, Greece, and also here In Scotland and in England. Like a spree Of happiness, he...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | CR, GO, HR, PH, PR, Prinice Philip, QU
Queen Mary & the Governess: Ho Hum Hussies The queen of England met the young Greek prince. She said he was quite nice and had blue eyes. Her Majesty flunked the test to evince The slightest insight. That is no surprise. Queen Mary was just a bloody...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | HR, PH, PR
Battered Porphyry ‘The eldest girl, Ria, was in plaster up to her hips for four years as a result of a bad fall, and Hélène [Foufounis] later described how Philip would sit for long periods next to her [Ria’s] bed talking to her, refusing to be lured away by the...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | PH, PR
Sneakiness and Bravery The prankish prince observed, but not too well. His friend and he had seen the Arabs ply Their Persian carpets on the beach. To sell Some, Philip and Ianni had to shy Examples from the house and then both tried To hawk them door to door. It...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | AL, KI, PH, PR
More than Just Blue Eyes His family was as full of grief as most Extended ones, blue of flowers more Like purple though. While on the Baltic coast With Alexandra sporting on the shore Perhaps he temporarily forgot Along with her King Alexander’s death. They played in...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | PH, PR
Prince of Pigs ……………….. Who needs an enemy when kinfolk will Suffice? Close kin are guaranteed the best Assassins of your character. They spill The pigsty beans. That’s one great litmus test Of families. Princess...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
The Foal Who Might Have Been an Untamed Stallion A prince was just a swimming boy once (Though destined for the polo course), but still A little lad like others . . . and no dunce About controlling nannies. He was shrill In his refusal to be bossed around There on...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | PH, PR
He Would NEVER Have Been that Mean What turns a selfish, show-off boy to just Another henpecked husband? Upside down This Philip always had a childish lust For getting quick attention like a clown By standing on his head when guests arrived. At Villa Georges the...
by phillipw | May 23, 2020 | AL, AN, PH, PR
Mother’s Unhinged Love, Father’s Unrepentant Loves A blond much raised without his parents through His early years may be quite different from A brown-haired boy whose blood is far less blue. Instead of royal meals he got a crumb Or two from palace tables. Father had...
by phillipw | May 23, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
Philip, Prince of Greece and Great Britain — a sonnet sequence within the larger sonnet sequence, The Encyclopedia Sonnetica Simian Wound to Greece “The new Greek king, Alexander, … was out walking his wolfhound, Fritz … and the dog was attacked by a...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AR, DE, GA, Ho, PA, PH, PO, RI, SA, VE
Verlaine Agonistes “for me Rimbaud is an ever-living reality, a sun aflame within me, a sun that will not suffer eclipse” ~ Paul Verlaine long after Arthur’s death The Philistines bored out the strongman’s eyes With iron-cold...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AR, BE, BR, DE, JE, PH
Jeanette Black and White Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Her eyes cast down as if ashamed of style And beauty, she is captured. She is held Forever in the falseness. All the while This image has...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AR, DO, IV, PH, WH, WO
Under the Florida Son On Wilson’s first Inaugural Day A “man” was born. His father always called Him “Man.” For instance, Archibald might say, “Go do your hunting, Man.” Archie’d been galled To have so many females in his life, Was thrilled to have...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | EP, KN, PH, PO
Seldom Pure and Never Simple: Fawlty Thoughts There’s freedom in the speaking of the truth. I know we’re not supposed to think that such A thing exists. It’s stylishly uncouth, Post-Modernism says, to use the crutch Of common sense. Too many minds...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | Ho, NA, PH, PL
Actuality vs. Philosophy without Armpits Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem How troubling that some strangers from our past Are still alive. They keep on grasping throats And minds like zombies. Souls...
by phillipw | May 7, 2020 | BO, DR, JO, LA, PA, PH, WE, WH, WI
Recurring, Not Forgotten Florida Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The childhood cosmos that returns in dreams Is full of butter suns, smooth, yellow, bright. The light is not like melting candy creams...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | HE, PH, PL, PO, SO
What We Drink Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Who wants thick wisdom first in poems? It Is ours for chewing in the pleasures of The scrolls of Plato, thinkers who permit The thought that pleasure...
by phillipw | May 2, 2020 | LO, PA, PH, PO
Just Plato? “But a man who has nothing more valuable than what he has composed or written, who has spent his time twisting words, sticking them together and pulling them apart is rightly called a poet or a speech writer or a maker of laws.” ~...
by phillipw | Apr 30, 2020 | PH, PL, SO
Wisdom or Wonder “…if Homer and the poets…had knowledge of the truth when they wrote, and could defend their words in conversation, they would deserve to be called lovers of wisdom.” ~ Penelope Murray, Plato on Poetry, 11 Put up your hand if you...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | PH, PL, PO
The Ion, the Phaedrus, the Republic When someone else is all mixed up, we tend To sneer at what they have to say, so why Not Plato? Must we allow him to bend And contradict his arguments? Is high Philosophy supposed to work like that? He has the voices in two...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | PH, PO
Sovereignty “Is it simply that people who philosophize think that people who produce, consume, or appreciate poetry (the philopoiêtai) have the wrong priorities, and the proponents of poetry think the same of the philosophers?” ~...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | PH, PL, PO
The Truth about Ancient History, Plato, and Poetry “Socrates says in the Republic that he and Plato’s brothers might have to inform poetry about the ancient quarrel between it and philosophy. Glenn Most (“What Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry?”) argues...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2020 | AL, PH
Potidaea and Delium There was a time philosophers and those They taught were men on battlegrounds. They fought Together, side by side. There was no pose (About butch fortitude) in fancy thought— They did it sword and shield and spear and brawn. And if they...
by phillipw | Mar 3, 2020 | PH
Ontological Problem Solved We bless the darkness first, if we are true To life. We come from darkness in the womb. We live in darkness half our lives. The blue Stars in the sky above us speak of doom Because, like us, they spend their essence far Too fast. In...
by phillipw | Feb 17, 2020 | CH, PH, ST, WH
Your Echo Comes from Long Lost Time ……. …………….. Your echo comes, reverberating from Lost hours, those twenty thousand days betrayed By absence, nights whose sweetness will not come Now, never be redeemed. Not even grayed Out...
by phillipw | Feb 6, 2020 | HE, ME, PH, WH
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose Today I chew the peanut butter, sweet Grape jelly, white bread sandwich which she made For me those sixty years ago. I eat Not just a memory refusing to fade But actually the groundnut spread and dark Fruit layer in between the...
by phillipw | Feb 4, 2020 | PH, PL
Plato’s Path to Enlightenment Serene Ideas are the Truth beyond The things our senses show to us. What we see And smell and taste and touch and hear are fond Impressions but are not the Truth. To free Ourselves from mere impressions, we must break Away, dismissing...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2020 | PH, WH
His Hair [The infant Phillip sleeping under a Florida fan] The air blows just above his brow. Hair lifts And falls like thought inside an angel’s brain While drowsing. Curls like these are gentle gifts From heaven. Silks like these can know no...