by phillipw | Apr 23, 2023 | AN, FE, SC
Phrasikleia Kore Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It isn’t like she doesn’t know that she Is being noticed. After all she’s put On all her finest clothes. She makes a plea For us to look at...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2023 | BE, MA, SC, SI, Uncategorized
The British Broadcasting Corporation’s Prophets among Us on Civilisations and Acting like Hubble and Webb Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Those vaster minds show greater grasp of things, So, so much...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2023 | AR, DE, DI, GR, PH, SC, Uncategorized
Figuring Futilely on the Death Date of Shakespeare “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” ~ Sonnet 18 The statue still defies his death or hers Two thousands years or more beyond the grave Or urn of ashes, shaping that prefers The perfect lie that, carving, Greeks...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2022 | BE, BI, BR, MA, RU, SC, ST
Big Boy Hunk The Big Boy Hunk that isn’t Rupert Brooke On Skyros is just too, too like the false, False images built up around him, like a crook Has pulled a dirty trick but wants to waltz With you, no matter what. The Big Boy Hunk Stands towering...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | DE, JA, MY, PH, SC
Esthetic Ricochet A room with gilded sliding screens is flown Through by a swallow. It swoops in and out So swiftly that the moment makes a throne Of thrill and beauty. It is like a shout From Christ or Buddha, utter and so brief That brevity...
by phillipw | Jul 27, 2021 | FA, MY, SC
Human Nature Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The sun does not begin to rise because Of songbirds singing. Manly brains know this. The dawn begins to break because of laws Of...
by phillipw | Jul 11, 2021 | AN, AP, AR, GR, SC
Aegean Immortality Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The eye begins to wonder if the truth About Greek statues is that gods still sleep Within them, living, deep within their youth. The eye looks...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2021 | AS, CH, PH, RE, SC, TH
Yeah, Right “with God all things are possible” ~ Matthew 19:26 A semantics teacher begins his first lecture of the course with this introduction: “In English grammar a double negative produces a positive. In some languages a double negative...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, CH, DE, FI, GA, Ho, LO, MI, PO, RO, RU, SC, WO
Blue Rugby and Blue Gallipoli Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We do not think of Rubert Brooke in blue, When we remember him at all. We think of Brooke Between some pages of a volume, true To...
by phillipw | Apr 11, 2021 | RE, SC
Scientific Religion We stand upon the ebbing seashore with Our backs turned firmly on the past unless We need it in our daydreams. They are myth We build on while envisioning success Or what we think the future offers. We Imagine we can almost touch it, yet...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2021 | AL, CR, DE, ED, FA, GA, GR, Ho, SC, SM
Wandering in Warriston Cemetery “Smith contracted diphtheria in November 1866 and, although he seemed to have recovered by Christmas, was then struck down by typhus. He died at home on 5 January 1867 at the very beginning of his thirty-seventh year, and was buried in...
by phillipw | Jan 19, 2021 | ED, LO, PE, RO, SC
Embracing Dooms for His Regret The peonies’ white petals fallen on The garden ground instruct these two To part. The period for their love has gone. Just one of them attempts a passage through The muted condemnation of the flowers. The other turns his face away and...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AC, AG, DE, IM, PA, SC, TH
To the King of Greece The past attempts to speak. It tries to talk With words and other ruined things like stones That lie in heaps or carved acanthus stalk Of leaves in marble. Sometimes vellum tones Come up from opened scrolls. Occasionally Our history gives...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | IM, JA, SC
A New Heaven and Undirtied Earth For James Reis Forget the “thought” of Plato (Socrates) That stories, plays, and poetry can cope With only pasts, and now, and futures. Seize The truth instead. Create a newer scope By setting works in time that’s never been, That...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | AN, CO, HU, PO, RH, SC
I Have Looked upon the Face of Jolliness The ancient Greeks in poetry were lewd As limericks, playful, silly as a stand Up joker on a comic’s platform, rude And crude, yep, far more rude than Russell Brand. Emitted from these ancient rhythmic throats Were poems...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | BO, PA, SC
Before the Internet in the Ancient World “Hellenistic culture was of necessity a culture of the book . . . : the age of the reader had arrived, and a poet was often a man speaking to a man, not to men.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 13 The audience grew smaller...
by phillipw | Jun 19, 2020 | AL, AN, Ho, MA, SC
Imperfection as Perfection Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The eyes are white and wide. They look as spare As Orpheus’s when he lost his wife. Yet Alexander never knew such bare And sand-dune...
by phillipw | May 31, 2020 | IC, ID, SC, ST
That Other Congregation The oldest congregation lingers here, No white haired ladies with a blue rinse in Coiffures among it. Men beside this pier And that repenting middle-aged and balding sin Are not a part of this community. The congregation and the choir are...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, OR, PA, SC
Greatness Rises On February 22 the grand Fugue rose from all the instrument the first Time. Strength, complexity and subjects fanned Out through the air. The young man’s music burst Out from mere theory and ink when played By Dr Elvey. Augmentation...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SC
A Canon “Written in School” —in a Geometry Lesson? His later comment on his childhood work Remarks on one of these, a canon, that It was “Written in School.” Did he shirk His classroom duties, hiding where he sat Behind the others doing problems from A lesson...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MA, MU, PA, SC, SH, WI
With a Pretty Ding, Dong, Bell “This has a very pretty madrigalian ‘Ding, dong, bell’ ending.” ~ Emily Daymond, 77 At 15 Hubert tried his hand at straight Poetic madrigal, a Shakespeare song, In “Tell Me, Where is Fancy Bred?” The gate Of fancy is our eyes and where...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SC
Prime [I suggest you read this poem in tandem with the sonnet called “7/8” in the general Encyclopedia Sonnetica.] The first real piece by Parry, or the one He called his first, reveals through notes his clear And sweet imagination. He has...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, MU, PA, SC
Strength through Dedication At Eton Parry moved to start the task Of bettering his pieces written there, An early sign which shows that he would ask Himself to work perfection through his care And dent of work, a tough composer from The start—and strained to win at...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ED, HU, PA, SC, SP
Edmund Spenser’s Complicated Sonnet Causes a Simple Composition ‘Songs are not neglected. There are two; one, “When stars are in the quiet skies” (written August 13, 1865, and another, “Fair is my love,” (“written for Primrose, Eton, ’64-5 copied ad fin., July 3,...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, PA, SC
First Magnificat, 1864 His first Magnificat is likely to Have been the one he heard performed while He was still at Eton as a boy. True To truth he hated it—thought it was vile— When he looked back on it. He called it bad. He called it “bad.” In 1865 He looked...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | BL, EN, GR, PE, PO, SC, SH, TE, WI
Poets Are the Legislators of the Scientific World In 2011 I was reading a biography of John Keats. In the introduction Lord Byron is quoted as saying that Keats "belonged to that second-hand school of poetry" because he got his inspiration from...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AE, AN, BE, ES, GO, JE, LO, MA, PO, SC, ST
Utmost Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Perfections are perfection but just one Is perfect. This is it. Yes, even he Is stunned to musing by the thought that none, No other single truth,...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AN, AR, BA, SC
Tanagra: the Lady in Blue (Dame en bleu) Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem As stiff as any well-dressed Barbie doll This sculpture from the time before the age Of Alexander’s conquering, the small...
by phillipw | May 15, 2020 | AC, KI, SC, SH, WI
Too Good to be Academically True “For several decades, some theorists have suggested that William Shakespeare placed his mark on the translated text of Psalm 46 that appears in the King James Bible, although many scholars view this as unlikely, stating that the...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | AD, CO, GO, NO, SC
The Degradation of the Divine The gods have been reduced to ploys for ads, Cartoonish movies, and perfume campaigns For goddess-like attraction, and for fads Like PS4-ish war games. Gods’ remains Are just commercial or for trivial Stupidities. The great gods...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | BA, BO, SC, TE
Dumb Forecast That little wrinkled sack between his thighs Predicts. The contents there will make him grow Much bigger. Certain parts will spread in size, His shoulders, biceps, thicker neck. Down low Beneath his belly button, balls will swell And, yes,...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | AN, ME, SC
Medieval or Eternity The artist does not have a name. Severe With grace in stone, the sculptures look down on Us, masking his identity, a tear Not shed, a smile withheld. The brawn Of arm and shoulder, strength and talent of The hand can only be supposed. The man...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2020 | AN, GR, SC
Unexpected Metallic Mental Images Imagine being naked, turned to green Bronze, appliquéd with gold growths on your chest, And trying to look calm. The metal sheen Of gilding, coral-like, has coalesced Upon the semi-gloss of sternum, mounds Of breasts, and upper...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2020 | AN, GR, SC
An Infestation of Falsely Colored Barnacles on Thighs Like painted barnacles on bronzes from An ancient sea, our encrustations on Ideas from distant times and cultures come Between us and those statues from the dawn Of civilization. The Aegean As an emblem holds the...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2020 | AL, AN, SC
Alt Clud A darkness darker than the darkest dark Forbids it to us. We know nothing more Than guesses at its language and its stark Rapine and slaughter. Battles, battles, war, And tiny strips of peace are all that we Can stab at in the...
by phillipw | Mar 1, 2020 | LO, RO, SC
Holy of Holies Since science now explains away most things We cared about as mysteries, like love And joy, men feel that they have lost their wings, Or, rather, never had them held above Their hearts, their shoulders, and their praying heads. We...
by phillipw | Feb 20, 2020 | SC
The Undead on Vellum Fragility is what ideas are made Of. They are broken crystal or at most Pink diamonds in fire, and if their shade Were blue they’d be like waves against a coast Of monsters. They are flotsam or like spume On black beach sand. They spill...
by phillipw | Dec 10, 2019 | AC, SC
Wearing a Wedding Ring Somewhere between the Emperor’s age and youth But closer to Antinous in years, This scholar is an academic sleuth (Or wants to be). HIs hair just hides his ears With curls not quite as lovely as the lad’s That drove the ageing...
by phillipw | Dec 4, 2019 | SC
I assume you have a clear enough visual memory of Michaelangelo’s most famous Pietà and of the Roman sculpture, “The Dying Gaul.” Before the you read the sonnet below, please look again at the famous carving of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and the famous...
by phillipw | Aug 11, 2019 | MY, PO, SC
In 2011 I was reading a biography of John Keats. In the introduction Lord Byron is quoted as saying that Keats “belonged to that second-hand school of poetry” because he got his inspiration from poetry and art, not from life. Be that as it may (and Byron...