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 | Apr 15, 2020 | AN, PO
Myths of Poetry The early words of poetry arose From darkness in the depths of throat and lungs In caves and mixed with burning air. The bows And arrows in the shadows gave the tongues That sang the blood and flesh which chanting needs. Or else out on a...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | OR, PO
Aegean Heat We look at Orpheus, torn on the ground. We try forgiving women and his wife For tearing at his heart and body found Among the barren olives. This one’s life Is deathless in the myth of love and sounds Discarded in eternity. We seek Forever to...
by phillipw | Apr 13, 2020 | PO, PR
Earliest Poetry The sunlight, bright as gods could ever hope To be, fell down on isthmus, valley, sea, On life and death, and limestone mountain slope Before mere humans. Greece, as it would be, Was meant for poetry but did not know It. Men and women and their...
by phillipw | Apr 12, 2020 | OR, PO
Victim of Women Perhaps the chest of Orpheus alone, Or half a shoulder, half a curled head Would be enough for man. They might atone Among the rocks and olives where the dead Bereaved lie torn to shreds because of love By women. There a man might pick him...
