by phillipw | Jun 17, 2020 | MI, OR, RE, TR
Invisible Ivory Music Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. ~ John Keats Herus Pamphilius claimed that Orpheus’s drifting soul, destined to be incarnated anew in some other physical form after he had died, elected to be born a swan so that he...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | AL, GO, HY, RE
And Lifted Up If poets and composers failed to come, Then who would write the hymns for Venus, Mars, And Jupiter? Our race would be a numb Excuse for souls. If none could look at stars Through telescopes, or build an altar, then Existing would become a...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | AN, MU, RE, SA, WI
A Tenor in the Choir His face is like a student I once taught; Not just the pupil’s eyes, the brightness, too, And humor in the face, with freckles fraught, A gratifying galaxy, a slew Of them across his cheeks, his brow, his nose. It seems as if each stipple...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | FO, RE, SA, WH
February Fox Last night the fox we feed in bowls behind Our house came just at twelve. His long, thick tail Was bushier than last time and defined By flakes that fell and fell within the veil Of cold for whitest hours. He, taking out His chunks of chicken one...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | DA, ME, RE, WH, WO
Antechambers My father’s residence was memories As if a chambered nautilus turned back To find in older shapes a lustrous ease As snug in paradox, as neat in tack As any yacht that sails against the wind. He found his comfort in a smaller place When he, an...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AD, DA, LO, RE
A Plea from Sodom and Gomorrah Please return to pain and bruising, not scars With numbness in the tissue. Trauma gives A certainty at least. Those dense armoires Of pale cicatrice commemoratives Might be, you think, better than current harms That sting, then ache,...
