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 1, 2020 | SI
When Portraits Were in Silhouette When portraits were in silhouette, they told The truth. Sliced outlines filled with black reveal The human situation. Seldom gold- And sterling-leaf were rubbed on to conceal Our inner murkiness. Of course if they Had been applied,...
by phillipw | Nov 15, 2019 | SI
Mute Choruses and Chanting Some silent kings in silent eras long Before the thought of history arose Have left lacunae like some torn lost song Or tuneless chants of silence. Joys and woes Of royalty lie deep in neutered times Among unwritten blanknesses. We guess...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2019 | AU, CO, PA, SI, SY
Burdens of Light The silences of country life are more Like shades than sounds. So quiet that they seem Like pastel tints in watercolors or The light beneath acanthus leaves we dream. Those silences are more like mist at dawn Above a pond than like a lack...
by phillipw | Sep 24, 2019 | DA, JO, SI
Yawn No messages (or meaninglessly brief Ones) make romantic oceans dry to salt. The tree that first proclaimed a heart-shaped leaf Withers. The swift-hoofed race comes to a halt, The red stallion stumbling, breaking a leg. The killing isn’t murder,...
by phillipw | Sep 21, 2019 | Ho, SI
The Torn Shirt Morning 0 Your stream of frank sincerity has talked Him out of love—of loving you, I mean— Attempts at sentiment too often blocked By honesty from you. The desperate, keen, Pathetic fire he fanned inside his heart Was doused and doused and doused...
