by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | LO, RI, VE
[This one is written from the viewpoint of Verlaine. Rimbaud composed a prose poem that seems to be written in the voice of Verlaine thinking about Rimbaud, “He wants to live life as a sleepwalker” (Deliria I.) Here I have turned that prose poem on its...
by phillipw | Jan 22, 2020 | AB, RI, VE
I Do not Think the Boy I do not think the boy will ever leave me, But if he does, I’ll sleepwalk through the rest Of time with Holy God’s dark rosary In hand and fumble beads to make the best Of days and nights and years and decades lost To...
by phillipw | Jan 22, 2020 | LO, RI, VE
Uncertainty Leading to Certainty The London fog was lush, more lush than French Fogs anywhere, more plush than Paris fogs At least. It bordered on the louche, its stench A prophecy of LA’s stringent smogs. Verlaine remarked that London’s murk was worse, That...
by phillipw | Jan 22, 2020 | RI, VE
In Despondent Mood “in despondent mood” ~ Verlaine, “Birds in the Night,” Romances Sans Paroles The Anglo-Saxons said that life was bleak As one bird flying in a stormy night Which enters through a window like a streak And out the other window of the bright Hall...
by phillipw | Jan 22, 2020 | RI, VE
How Something Solid as this Man “The shadow of the trees in the misty river dies like smoke” ~ Verlaine, Romances sans Paroles How something solid as this man beside Me there dissolved to nothing more than smoke Mixed in with shadows of a willow, oak, And hulking...
by phillipw | Jan 22, 2020 | RI, VE
James 3:5-8 The greatest writer in the history Of modern poésie française was slapped Because he mocked his only devotee. Rimbaud mocked Verlaine and Verlaine snapped. He smacked the boy across the face with lunch. The fish he’d bought for them to eat...
