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Phillip’s Place for Poetry

Phillip’s Place for Poetry I have a place for poetry, right here. It is not straight although the laptop screen Demands its squared-off angles. Like a weir That holds it shining waters, this leaved scene Is set among reality, among Realities, a bit of nuanced pink And...

Daedalus and Icarus

    Daedalus and Icarus “The natural rhythms of Greek [poetry] tend ‘downward,’ falling” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 14 How strange it is to think that ancient Greek In poetry inclined to downward flow. We think that the trajectory was sleek In upward movement...

Socrates versus Sappho

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 a rhapsody of thrill. While lost in love for some young person’s hair, The writers in...

The Ion, the Phaedrus, the Republic

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...

Dim Imprecision: Ambiguity and Clarity

Dim Imprecision: Ambiguity and Clarity “Poetry could reflect on itself, acknowledge its dim imprecision, and know itself to be interpreted and not a window onto pure truth.” ~ http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/plato-and-the-poets/ True poetry is dim and likes a torch Concealed...