by phillipw | Mar 5, 2024 | EN, SA
After Prolonged Dark Moving Hours His life is opened by the sight of dawn, One dawn unlike the others as the sun Predicts itself before the sunrise drawn By something more than splendor, night outrun By waking in eternity of sky, A realm that never knows horizon or A...
by phillipw | Feb 29, 2024 | MO, NE, SA, Uncategorized, UR
Tiny Moons of Neptune and Uranus in Humans’ Unimagined Years-long Hours Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The news is that “new tiny moons” have been Discovered near far giant planets made Of gas, past...
by phillipw | Feb 23, 2024 | EN, SA
In the Woodland This moment, then another, cherry trees Experience a lifted limb, their blooms Go up and down. A blast of wind, or breeze As gentle as the blossoms sees their tombs Implied. “Is this enlightenment?” spring asks. In Maytime forests here...
by phillipw | Jan 29, 2024 | CH, FO, HE, ME, SA, UN
No, Not Really The Christ will not ascend to heaven while One sinner screams in hell or close His gates. This absolute is known, or, if not, vile That Gospel truth of love since hellfire waits Forever and forever forcing God, Omniscient, to feel the...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2024 | EN, SA, SH, VI
Despite the Yearlong Darkness Under the Hedge Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I pass the place of violets along The little lane that leads me from the square I live in, in my red brick house. No song Is...
by phillipw | Jan 20, 2024 | AG, CE, SA
Love Makes All Things Equal Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My wants are arms alone. My rest is war; My bed long lasting woes, Sleep unending vigil. Don Quixote, first part, chapter II Suppose we do...
by phillipw | Jan 20, 2024 | CA, FA, SA
Insatiable Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Insatiable, your death creates a hole That sucks, a vacuum, a vortex made Of solar wind without a sun. No coal Was ever black as this. No...
by phillipw | Dec 20, 2023 | MY, SA
Jesus Smashes Saul to Blindness with Vision Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “the only pure mystics are brutes” ~ George Santayana One mystic that I know who lives with me Is Prospero. He...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2023 | JA, SA, Uncategorized
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Japan has gods. They know their place. Their place Lies set in leaves and flowers, in anger’s sea. These gods all know one law of Stoic face And steel, as rigid as those...
by phillipw | Sep 27, 2023 | CO, GA, LO, PI, RO, SA, SI, ST, TE, Uncategorized
Harlequin in Guise of Tuberculosis Hovering When love is played in luscious settings, clowns Are needed. Sad or comic they can be But never tragic, really, dressed in gowns That do not give the game away. We see Them loving like doom’s humans, threatening clown Just...
by phillipw | Sep 14, 2023 | JO, KE, SA, SI, ST, TE
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “…very witty and intelligent and divinely beautiful….But, alas, very fragile.” Siegfried Sassoon writing to Henry Festing-Jones...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2023 | AB, LO, RO, SA, SE
Sanctity in the Dawn I wake up in the first light, launched to love. I wake up fraught as if the Holy Ghost Filled both my lungs and hovered just above Each vein and artery and bone, engrossed Me everywhere inside my soul. Of course It is not God who rams...
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 | Jan 11, 2023 | AR, KY, OL, SA, SO
Some Things Don’t Need Recollection An old man takes his time to wrap around His sag of flesh the armor. This care’s not Because he fears the fight or battle ground. It’s just because his joints are are stiff and fraught With aches. One younger...
by phillipw | Dec 13, 2022 | CH, GO, LA, NA, SA
The Lamb “And suddenly there was with the angel a heavenly host saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” ~ Luke 2:14 The lamb looks up and sees a light, a star Or something heavenly, a...
by phillipw | Oct 17, 2022 | CH, ME, SA
Etudes and Sounds as Frozen Colors Echo from the Stone So let your left hand play your melody. Shake hair above the keyboard and the rules. Fill twilight holy air. Let music be The sacrament (in aisles) spilled out like jewels A ghost remembers, or the calving ice,...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2022 | FO, HA, SA, SI, Ta, WO, WW
The Fox Hunter Flushes Out the Fritzies Single-handedly with Bayonet and with the Same Fingers that Wrote His Poetry Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He loved his poetry and music, such Like things,...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BR, DE, IN, RU, SA, ST
Not Religion but Death At first church fame held up his lines to heights Near immortality. Saint Paul’s robed Dean Had read “The Soldier” in the lectern rites Of Christ’s domed space before the altar screen. It seems that Brooke knew this. ...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2022 | BR, RU, SA
England Incarnate—The Bass in the Choir of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle More beautiful than Rupert Brooke (the same God gossamer presumption in his style) He carries off the colors, tints of tame Pastels that suit a blond and makes us smile— For Christ is in...
by phillipw | Feb 18, 2022 | BU, CO, EN, SA
Satori Glory Despite Gray Feathers Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My childhood home where The face of the little snail Was like the Buddha’s own. ~ Issa My cockatiel named Cocky had a...
by phillipw | Feb 10, 2022 | AU, ET, SA, ST, TI
Ex Nihilo is a Joke Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “. . .it starts with an empty universe” ~ Stephen Fry, Cosmos, vii An empty universe is paradox. In such a boundless space there’d be no...
by phillipw | Dec 10, 2021 | DE, FU, PA, SA, VI
Flowers and Men and Fate Palled eons hover in the space between Each falling petal, each palled eon called Eternity or death. These, each one seen As equal, spy themselves as self-same, sprawled Like vileness, black. Each falling petal floats To vacuum. ...
by phillipw | Oct 11, 2021 | DA, DO, ET, SA
“Something Evermore to Be” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Yes, something evermore to be awaits, Or we await it. It is promise or Recurring prophecy. Sublimest gates Are opening. This truth is at the...
by phillipw | Sep 29, 2021 | BU, DE, HU, JA, MI, SA
If macho stars are doing sex with men, That must be covered up. Mere Vaseline Across the lens won’t do. It’s cock and hen That’s right for Hollywood. Shut down the scene If Marlon Brando kisses Dean and/or The other way around. Rock Hudson’s Day Is just for show. ...
by phillipw | Sep 9, 2021 | GA, SA
Slickest Electronic Ignorance There is no sin but ignorance. ~ Christopher Marlowe He said that he was interested in things Of Japanese tradition. Having doubts, I asked him, “So…like cherry-blossom springs?” Well, no. He was thinking Samurai clouts In...
by phillipw | Sep 6, 2021 | EN, IS, RE, SA
No Separation from the Holy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The soul becomes disturbed when it returns From ecstasy. Ask Saint Teresa or Saint Francis. Spirit memory still burns Like coals that touch...
by phillipw | Aug 17, 2021 | AQ, SA, ST, SU, TH
The Wealth of Logic and of Knowledge For Brian who has a mathematical mind A wealthy heather robes the royal fields. That purple is presented wide and high On hills. They take the flowering as it wields Its majesty then upward to the sky As Thomas raised theology...
by phillipw | Aug 10, 2021 | BO, RE, SA
Vision as Daybreak Like white cloud samples brought right down to earth By Buddha as a guide to finding death Inside his blank Nirvana, they bring birth To sacred thoughts, these insights. They bring breath To bodhi. When they come, they come like...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | DA, DR, SA, UN
Dreams are Dreams in Dali’s World Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I dreamed of you last night, the dream set in And unknown city. Accidentally met We walked together, both avoiding sin. We went to your...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2021 | BU, CH, SA
Never Mind Nirvana An aching earthquake chasm has more weight Than filled perfection ever gains. The death Of Christ impaled is useful to berate The evils in the world much more than breath Of Buddha, mystic in his musings, thought Beneath a Bodhi tree, his...
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 12, 2021 | EA, EN, SA
Truth He feels the unity of everything, A moment as eternity unchanged By being brief. This loneliness on wing Is also fullness, emptiness arranged As richness in a vision sent along Wide valleys. It is like a breathing out That is a breathing in; a...
by phillipw | Jun 28, 2021 | BO, EN, EP, HA, IN, RE, SA, UN
They Hold their Hats in Deference in their Hands Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Two men are bowing at the crossroads to Each other. Though already distant they Grow fainter even as they set off...
by phillipw | Jun 18, 2021 | RO, SA, SH, TI
The Weight of Time is Felt Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Some times are felt as weight. The Sabbath of The Jews or Christians settles on the soul Sabbath Day Lake Like Florida’s humidity...
by phillipw | Apr 29, 2021 | CH, DA, MI, SA, SI
Occult Messaging on Holy Saturday [If you are reading this sonnet on a mobile phone, it will look best if you read it in landscape view, but maybe you should turn it to portrait view to see the painting by Salvador Dali at the end.] Modern poetry modern verse ...
by phillipw | Apr 12, 2021 | ME, PS, SA, SE, TH
Saint Sebastian Sans the Sacred Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Most memories cannot be kept close, not near, Not near enough to scar, unless the scar Is of a tribal kind gouged in by fear Appearing...
by phillipw | Mar 29, 2021 | FA, IS, MA, RE, SA, ST
Righteous Believers Stop their Ears When Stephen, dragged for stoning, knelt at last, The Middle Eastern mob predicted our Times. Vicious truths lived, brutal, in the past And live outrageously. Their hour Is near, unending in that hateful realm. This hatred...
by phillipw | Mar 29, 2021 | AU, FE, GR, Ho, JO, SA, SE, ST
The Four Evils to be Overcome According to Saint John of the Cross: Joy, Hope, Fear, Grief The springtime brings her yellow joy on top Of green stems flaring. Then come pink and white Along the happy trees. We will not stop, They promise, even in...
by phillipw | Feb 11, 2021 | BO, MO, ON, PE, SA
“Zen” * and Ichinyo (如) Aikiya The brief and long are similar — the same, Says Buddha. Bonsai in its little dish And Peony in vase have both one aim. This goal is much, much more than just a wish. Both items are the same, Gautama says. He knows the blossom has been...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, EN, ES, PE, SA
Circumstantially Separated from Satori Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The blossoms hidden by the hedge in dark Of mid-May twilight still are seen from where I sit. Their perfect pink is light,...
by phillipw | Jan 18, 2021 | AE, AN, BE, GR, MO, PE, SA
Rectitude and Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Matthew 6:28 The ant, a Puritan in black, moves right Across the petal’s purity. The black One works, works,...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2021 | AE, BE, DA, EN, ES, MI, PE, SA
Unfathomable in Meditation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The peony made Him measure it with his fan, The daimyo’s fan. ~ Issa [A haiku expanded by Phillip Whidden] Some things are large. Some things...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2021 | EN, EP, PE, SA, TR
Insights The pint-sized Jamie held his arms out wide To show how big the peony had spread Those petals. “Big like this!” he smiled. He tried Hyperbole the first time. He had shed Mere factuality for larger truth. Young Yank, he aimed for...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, AR, BE, EN, ES, MO, NA, PE, SA
No Divisions Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Tokonama no Botan no yami ya Hototogisu ~ Shiki The darkness of the alcove Where the peonies are; A hototogisu...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PE, SA
Bright Pastel Beatitude Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem As darkness deepens in between the hedge And me, the peonies grow dim but do Not disappear. They hang just by the edge Of nothingness. ...
by phillipw | Jan 11, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, EN, ES, PE, SA
Circumstantially Separated from Satori Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The blossoms hidden by the hedge in dark Of mid-May twilight still are seen from where I sit. Their perfect pink is light,...
by phillipw | Jan 8, 2021 | BU, GI, SA, WI
The Ancient Evergreen Did Not Become a Buddha Hotoke to mo Narade uka uka Oi no matsu. The ancient pine-tree Not yet being wise Buddha Is idly dreaming. ~Issa An ancient redwood lived its slowest youth So long ago that nothing else recalls It. Redwood mindlessness...
by phillipw | Jan 7, 2021 | MO, MY, SA
The Known Unknown Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Izuko yori Tsubute uchikomu Natsu kodachi The summer grove; my Mind is struck by a small stone That came from somewhere. ~ Buson The green of...
by phillipw | Jan 5, 2021 | AU, BU, EP, KO, MO, MY, PA, RE, SA
“Autumn Revelations”; “Monistic Meditation”; and, “Comprehension”: a Trio of Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Samaras wirble down. One hits the pond. The silence and the ripples...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | BL, CH, IN, JU, RE, SA, SI, ST, VI
Inspiration Our days and nights are blind like Homer, blind And seeing, deep and wide, but still inept. Time carries us through life but like a mind Confused through madness. Life remains adept At fraud, poetically and just with scales Upon its...
by phillipw | Dec 23, 2020 | AN, JA, ME, SA, ST, Ta
Fabulous Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The ancient Japanese sword-makers bent Bent, coaxed their steel, more thousands of plies, than Rehearsing swordsmen slashed their blades. ...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2020 | AL, CA, LA, LI, MY, SA, ST
Lost Legends Long Before the Vedas and the Iliad Go far enough in time and all becomes Strict mists and stone. Fire circles heard the tales So long forgotten now that tribal drums Are recent evolutions, compared. Trails Do not exist to take us back to spells And...
by phillipw | Nov 23, 2020 | AR, GA, Ho, PA, RI, SA, SE, VE
LONG YEARS Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “You can be free only with me, and I swear to you I will behave in the future. I am sorry for my part in the wrong. My mind is clear at last. ...
by phillipw | Nov 4, 2020 | Ho, PR, RE, SA, SE
Who is Healed? “I stand up to see thighs covered in blood and semen and sweat, and I heal. I heal.” ~ Jaime Mathis, It Rises and Falls The sight transfigures. It ennobles. Eyes Become the prophets of a sainthood’s view. A holiness of liquids comes in...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2020 | AN, GA, HA, Ho, LO, PR, SA
Innocent Intentions in Love Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He chose a love perpetual those years Ago. His kind of love has been around Since men began to fall in love with tears. He knew, but did...
by phillipw | Oct 10, 2020 | AN, BO, DE, HE, IS, OX, PO, SA
Dead Sea Scrolls and Caves Discovered Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The words remain on pages and on scrolls Through centuries and millennia. On dark Cave walls the long lost paintings left by...
by phillipw | Oct 4, 2020 | CH, LO, SA, SO, TR
Na + Cl A purity, a silver white, desires To bond with yellow-greenish chlorine; salt Appears in crystals. Far away from fires, The point of this affair adorns a vault In darkness in a cavern. Blackness blanks It out. A wish becomes a zeal that...
by phillipw | Aug 6, 2020 | AS, FR, LE, SA
Refuse and Refuse Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The refuse after war is what he had Become. The refuse after battle with His father but first the trash, the bad Boy, as the refuse after war. ...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AN, BU, FA, IL, LI, OB, SA
Where Cleanest Vaulting Beauty Flies Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Youths and maidens all blythe and full of glee, carried the luscious fruit in plaited baskets; and with them there went a boy who...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, BO, BR, CA, CR, GA, HA, HE, KA, MA, NE, PA, PR, SA
Troy in New Orleans, Manhattan, or London Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So I found “Helen” sitting in a streetcar; the Dionysian revels of her court were transferred to a Metropolitan roof garden...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AL, FR, SA, TH, UN
Thucydides: Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Because of the Human Thing” We forecast both the worst and best because The human thing is settled in the crux. Set there like...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AT, BU, CO, EL, LA, LO, NI, OL, SA, SO, SP, TH, VI
They Loved Sovereignty and Liberty Most “And the Lacedæmonians offer sacrifices to Love before they go to battle, thinking that safety and victory depend on the friendship and those who stand side by side in the battle array. And the Cretans, in their line of battle,...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | CO, GO, JA, ME, OD, PE, SA, SO, WI
The Big Exceptions The women move in caged in places both In life and plays. In poetry they are Curtailed to Sappho and Corinna. Troth Constricts Penelope. It hems. No spar To take her seas away, she sits at loom, Is trapped at night unpicking her trapped work,...
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 14, 2020 | BO, BU, CE, SA
Sappho Wrote about Twelve Thousand Lines of Poetry Twelve thousands lines of poetry were torched By time and Christians. Piety increased The ravages, all this because she scorched With love for girls. Bishops made a feast Of male disgust that Sappho caused by fire...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AN, GR, PO, SA
Murmurs/Purling Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem [“Lo! I divine through murmurs borne The subtle thread of voices old” ~ Paul Verlaine, “Je divine, a travers un...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AN, AT, BO, CA, CL, CO, CY, HE, IS, PI, SA
Treasures from the Wreck of the Unrecoverable Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse “Athenaeus quotes more than ten thousand lines of verse in it, many not preserved or attested elsewhere.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets Ten...
by phillipw | Jul 3, 2020 | AN, OX, SA
Buried Fruit Egyptian desert places are the most Productive in our search for classic fruit. The ruins near the Memphis desert coast Were planted with a sowing absolute. There near the Serapeum was a pot Of books, their texts the earliest so far To come to us...
by phillipw | Jul 1, 2020 | SA, ST, TH, XE
Centuries and Utterness Separate Them Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse Salonika, where Paul and Xerxes stood, Affords a long Aegean view across To Mount Olympus. One took on his hood Of holiness and one took on a loss Staggering in...
by phillipw | Jun 13, 2020 | PA, SA, ST, XE
Centuries and Utterness Separate Them Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse Salonika, where Paul and Xerxes stood, Affords a long Aegean view across To Mount Olympus. One took on his hood Of holiness and one took on a loss Staggering in...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2020 | AG, DI, GR, SA, SO
The Central Singularity The blood of sadness is reality. The real stands far away from bloodless veins And not in shadows. No duality As Zarathustra saw it swells or strains Inside the marrow of the universe. Inside its bones where quantum physics seethes The...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BL, CH, HU, MU, PA, SA, WE
Inklings “We hear of his composing chants and hymn-tunes when he was about eight”. Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1928), 55 Some chants and melodies for hymns at eight Gave childhood hints, yet first among the strong To forge him...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SA, TW, WE
Early Sprinkling by Samuel Sebastian Wesley From Twyford deeper waters start to flow. At least that is the place where Wesley poured The priming of the well. The master’s glow Went down into the learner’s core. The chord Struck then could not be banished by the will...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, JO, LU, MU, PA, SA, WE
The Music Historian “Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (1909), [was] rated by The Times as his most important book” ~ Wikipedia Nobility and grandeur at the height Of music, that is what the boy was taught By Wesley. ...
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 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 | PU, SA, SI, ST, TR
The Truth Exposed Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “…in Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell, §178; after he has described the garments of the angels, some of which glow with flame, some of which...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | Ho, MY, RA, SA, SE, ST, TE
Ad Augusta per Angusta— to Elevated Goals through Narrow Paths Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A vision of the narrow path to high Perfection, highest pitch of tenor goals, With something like a throat...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | BU, EN, SA
Solomon in All His Glory, Ignored “What is worse, every day, and many times in the day, we are enlightened, we are Buddha, a poet,–but do not know it, and remain an ordinary man.” ~ R. H. Blyth, Preface, Haiku, Summer-Autumn, Volume 3, p. 644. A moment opens...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | BU, EN, IC, SA
Ichneumon Religion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “All things around us are asking for our apprehension, working for our enlightenment.” ~ R. H. Blyth, Preface, Haiku, Summer-Autumn, Volume 3 of...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | AN, RE, SA
The Sacredness of Steak A rite of sacrifice and hunting kill Were when an ancient Greek could gnaw some meat. At other times he had to have bean stew or grill Some fish or octopus the local fleet Hauled in. The local lord, who served as priest To tribal gods,...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | CH, GO, LO, MA, SA, ST, TH, TR
Storm in the Friday Night Love Feast Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He raised his blue-veined wrists in notes to God The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The last Force was to come, bolts to the...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | BU, DI, EM, EZ, JO, KE, KH, OM, OR, PE, PO, RA, RO, SA
The Bones of Orpheus, the Hair of Keats Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If we collected poets’ body parts And put them in glass cases, would the world Adore them there like saints? Pickled hearts Of...
by phillipw | May 7, 2020 | AN, GR, PO, SA
There’s Old and Old “Sappho (/ˈsæfoʊ/; Greek: Σαπφώ Sapphṓ; Aeolic Greek Ψάπφω Psápphō; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos.” ~ Wikipedia “Most of Sappho’s poetry is preserved in manuscripts of other ancient writers or...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AS, CA, CH, ME, NE, PO, SA, ST
“Like Some Clean Beast” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “In the evenings at Streonshalh . . . farm labourers gathered to play the harp and to sing. Caedmon . . . was in the habit of withdrawing to his...
by phillipw | Apr 21, 2020 | AS, FR, IN, SA, ST
Intercessory Prayer and St. Francis of Assisi …………. I tried to hide my hands but God was more Manipulative than my ploy. He zapped Around with holy beams. He loved the gore, I guess. He thought that while my mind was rapt In mystic trance...
by phillipw | Apr 21, 2020 | OR, SA
Plagiaristic Christianity Saint Francis was derivative of long Lost Orpheus, though Orpheus has not Quite died, not ever. Symbol of the song, His haunting and the myths of him have brought Him through millennia. He caused the beasts To fall in love with lyre and...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | BU, EN, SA
How to be a Buddha Just walk along and pay attention to The brutal facts around you. Notice them. Enlightenment is waiting in the stew Of life. If Jesus passes, touch his hem. If not, take note of ordinary things And see if they will cure you. They just might. A...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | DU, GE, SA
Long after Chopin’s Death George Sand, It Seems, Destroyed 200 Letters Returned to her by Chopin’s Sister, Letters Sand had Sent to Him The problem with bone china is how heart- Breaking in its loveliness it tends to Be, the beauty of the finest fragile part Of...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | AN, SA
Sappho Wrote about Twelve Thousand Lines of Poetry Twelve thousands lines of poetry were torched By time and Christians. Piety increased The ravages, all this because she scorched With love for girls. The bishops made a feast Of male disgust that Sappho caused by fire...
by phillipw | Apr 11, 2020 | SA
The Most Secret Poetry “Haydn whose decidedly un-musical wife apparently used his manuscripts as hair curlers” Try not to think of all the poems lost In time. Eternity must hold them in Some hidden and immortal bank, not tossed Away completely. Yet for us the twin Of...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | SA
Sappho of Eressus: Where Poetry Comes From “There is a variety of dialects, and this is one reason it was always considered important to give a poet, almost as a patronymic, his or her town of origin, and why Didymus’ pedantries in seeking the actual birthplaces of...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2020 | AN, GR, PO, SA
Seance from Vellum “When we listen to the verse phrases and whole poems that have made that hard journey through time, space and language, … we are enthralled as much by what we cannot know as by what we hear.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets We read...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2020 | AS, BU, CH, JE, SA
Petaled Salvation An emperor or any man must grope His mumbling way if he would go as pure As Buddha or as Christ. The slightest hope Is offered. Jesus holds out just one sure Path forward into holiness. “Go sell All, all you have and give it to the...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2020 | AR, PA, RI, SA, VE
“Operating Live on Poetry” —Delahaye in Divagations So. Just another boozing, druggy day. That’s how French poets’ love affairs are spent. They sit with friends in an ivre café, And Rimbaud says, “Try an experiment, Hommes. Put your hands on the table.” ...
by phillipw | Mar 3, 2020 | SA, ST
Chopin, Played in the Oldest Church within the Walls of Ancient Paris How sad to think of those who lived before Romantic music, those who never knew Strained longing, melodies that seem to pour Unendingly, that seem to yearn out through Eternity, stretched out,...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | JU, MA, ME, SA, VE
Rock and Gas Giants Five planets rise to shine in white and red Above. The springtime sky becomes divine. They all are gods, though one of them is dead, Slaughtered by his son. Night-sky gods align Themselves with nothing. Is this an omen? Astrologers...
by phillipw | Jan 7, 2020 | FU, OL, SA, SI
Olimpio Fusco ~ Olimpio Fusco by John Singer Sargent An agony of beauty is this head, His hair, his throat. The shadowed neck alone Is hurtful to the heart. This thoroughbred Has hardly grown his Adam’s apple. Shone In their perfection are the...
by phillipw | Jan 3, 2020 | LO, SA
Dessicated Wounds Our ancient poets often whisper in Slivers only, as dumb as crescent moons, But then are hardly mute. The centuries’ sin Is degradation of their voices. Dunes Against destruction have been washed across The manuscripts and yet now only glints And...