by phillipw | Apr 19, 2024 | CH, CR, RE, RO, TH
Gargoyles Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The gargoyles were created to display Some truth and not to ward off evil things. Perhaps grotesques were fashioned to betray The evils of the Church, the...
by phillipw | May 30, 2023 | T, TH
The Prime and Ultimate Composition That moment comes when music turns to bliss, No, something stretched beyond that, more like space That heaven strains to make, the stars’ abyss Of height and depth where angel ranks abase Themselves and also rise up singing,...
by phillipw | Jul 26, 2022 | TH
“By the Word of the Lord Were the Heavens Made” Far less than March’s breeze upon the flowers That have not sprouted yet, far less than weight Of sound in death, far lighter than the showers Of manna in the land of Sin, or hate Of Romeo for Juliet, a thought Goes...
by phillipw | Feb 17, 2022 | HA, HE, TH
Hesitating, Hesitating, Slowly, Slowly A tiny snail, this, One horn long, one much shorter . . . What troubles his heart? ~ Buson Uncertainty is unattractive in A man but in the little creatures it Can be endearing like a lonely grin At twilight where the new...
by phillipw | Jan 14, 2022 | AD, KE, MA, MO, PE, RO, RU, TH
Archangels in the Moon Garden on Christmas Morn The flowers in whitest rows set forth their white Perfume beside the Great Rift Valley on The day that Christ was born. A rose’s might Is all that they can muster in this dawn Of Kenya. That is strong...
by phillipw | Nov 20, 2021 | CH, FR, GO, TH
Free Will Jehovah was the first to think of Free Will. Maybe He pulled back from thinking then. This one divinity went on a spree Of wide creation, making light and men, A trillion galaxies and globes, with no More cogitation. Clearly he was...
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 | Jul 8, 2021 | AR, HE, HI, MA, SE, SM, TH
An Unsuitable Boy His arms are almost prominent in this Pic taken of him at Baringo. They Are hairy but of course the gorgeous Miss Rejected him. Their bedroom play Revealed his back was even hairier And that was more than she could bear. That hair on shoulders...
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 8, 2021 | FE, HE, MA, SE, TH, TR
It Takes One Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Henry David Thoreau writes of Chaucer, “We are tempted to say that his genius was feminine, not masculine. It was such feminineness,...
by phillipw | Jun 1, 2021 | CI, CO, HE, TH, VE
“Resistance to Government,” the Tract that Wrested India from Britain and Led Martin Luther King, Jr., to the Lincoln Memorial Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Maine A natural Sabbath brings a...
by phillipw | May 26, 2021 | CH, ST, TH
Dixieland Death in the Shenandoah I sleep each night with Charles in my bed. Not quite the whole of Charles’, but his hair Lies underneath my pillow near my head And not so near my heart. A sad affair You might well think, and that is true, except A beauty lingers...
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 31, 2021 | CH, GA, ST, TH, WO
The Brief Gate into Ecstasy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He raised his hands and wrists to Christ and all The world was changed. The evening worship paused As if no God existed. I, like...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2021 | PA, TH
Wakes and Contrails Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Away, Far, far behind, is all that they can say. ~ Arthur Hugh Clough, “Where Lies...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2021 | CR, LO, QU, SE, TH
Queen Mary Had Only a Tumor as her Phantom Pregnancy We all know what the phoenix is about. It glories in the flame like Dido burned Upon that throne. That passion has a clout. It has its flame, it is the flame, flame turned Upon itself, flame causing us to die And...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2021 | AL, BE, BI, CO, DU, HE, PO, RH, TH
Binfield’s Baddest Bantam Boy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Pope devised heroic couplets, they Were like the weapons of the day men walked With by their thighs. Their rapiers’ display Was...
by phillipw | Mar 13, 2021 | TH, TR, UN
Heartwood Needing Treatment Love feeding on itself will waste away No matter how enamored. If it sucks Its Valentine-ish marrow, sickly gray Disease will follow. Suffering deluxe Is suffering nonetheless. If he or she Does not return the hungry love, the gloom Is...
by phillipw | Feb 17, 2021 | HE, JO, SN, TH, WH
“A universe of sky and snow!” Philosophy can’t clip an angel’s wings. At most it might pluck out one pinion white As purity in Jesus. Thoreau sings, Denies that he and God were in a fight— I didn’t know we’d ever quarrelled— speaks The dying man. He loved a...
by phillipw | Jan 10, 2021 | IL, LE, MA, ME, MO, TH
Medieval Razzmatazz in Le Morte d’Arthur Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Than he com on so faste that his felyship semed as blak as inde.” ~ Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur Let’s...
by phillipw | Dec 27, 2020 | AE, DE, GR, TH
The Darkened Sea Imagine, then, that salt waves draw the soul Of hyacinths, their purple fragrance down, The fragrance of high lilacs from rock knoll, And cliff, and pathway of an island’s crown To blue Aegean stretches. Purple falls To salt and blue. The...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2020 | ME, TH
Psychotherapy Prognosis Your history can’t be cured. It only goes To something like remission lacking hope. Your past remains. Its presence, fungal, grows In X-rays probing memories. You can cope If you are drugged enough with commonplace Forgetfulness and don’t...
by phillipw | Dec 6, 2020 | AC, DA, GO, Ho, MO, SH, TE, TH, VO
Curly Top and Dimples Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You might want to watch this before reading this sonnet: Shirley Temple – On The Good Ship Lollipop.avi – YouTube I never ...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2020 | AU, GH, LO, NI, TH
Starving Phantoms Missing Thanksgiving Ghosts love to gather in the kitchens where We want our memories to be. The ghosts Are hungry. Famished ghosts would love to snare Lorena’s apple pie, the smell of roasts, Aroma of her pie when bringing slice And whipped cream...
by phillipw | Oct 29, 2020 | AN, FE, HE, JO, LA, PA, PR, TH, WH, WI, WO
Presence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The past is never past, is more than ghost Or Undead creature. Passed away the past Is not. It lives within. Its whispered boast Inhabits mental...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2020 | AU, CO, DA, EM, FA, HE, Ho, MA, NE, RA, TH, TR
Mystics of Concord Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem New England thinkers mixed autumnal views With leaves from Homer, also Dante’s leaves. That blinded poet managed to suffuse The thoughts...
by phillipw | Sep 13, 2020 | BR, JA, JO, MO, PO, TH, WI, WO
Thoreau in His Worst Freudian Nightmares Could Not Have Imagined Pollock or de Kooning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Thoreau says nature does the better part Of work oak carpenters get credit for,...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AN, DA, HE, IC, PH, TH, WH, WO
With Straight Gold Bars I sat beside my mother as the sale Was made, the purchase of The World Book Encyclopedia. I loved the pale Cream, knobbled leatherette, the noble look Of deep maroon square placed on spine of each Restrained and heavy volume, glossy...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AE, ES, PA, PL, TH
Widescreen, 3D, Surround Sound, Buttered Popcorn and Icy Coca-Cola® “It follows from the fact that poets do not have knowledge of that about which they speak, but aim to seem as though they do, and some listeners do not realize that poets lack knowledge.” ~...
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 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 20, 2020 | AE, AN, FR, GO, GR, JA, MY, PO, TH
Three Thousand Years before Apple and Three Thousand Years after the iPad I carry in my knapsack poems by The ancient Greeks, the eldest ones, the best, The best of elders. They are still as spry As dolphins’ arcs by the Argosy’s quest. Lines wait within the safety...
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 19, 2020 | AC, AP, LO, TH, VE
The Sacred Fire Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Thespians of Greece in ancient times Upheld the god of love, devout as saints Have ever been. Deep lovers’ paradigms Are never quite as true...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2020 | BR, CO, GA, Ho, LO, SP, TH
The Night before Thermopylae— “The Hot Gates” “Phaedrus’s praise for erôs (love) as a precondition for courage employs poetic quotations from poems that in fact state that wisdom is the true precondition, and that erotic passion without thoughtfulness leads to...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | BE, EY, LI, PI, TH
Pindar on Theoxenus The poet Pindar focuses on love Derived from burning rays from flashing eyes Of young Theoxenus. They are above All others. Love in any other guise Is dimness at its best. The sun can melt The wax of bees, can sting it with its heat....
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | HE, JO, OR, PL, TH
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 | Jul 3, 2020 | LI, PL, TH
But What if I, when Speaking in my Own Voice, Make a False Representation of Myself? Elementary, My Dear Plato It seems that Plato means that if I speak Or write in poetry, but in my own Persona and my voice, that is not weak And dodgy like mimesis. In this clone Of...
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 | May 22, 2020 | AM, BI, DA, GA, SH, TH
Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ……. A friend of Constable said Virgil’s sense He gained from culture drove him to presume That prime boys were “the...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | AL, CE, GE, SP, TH
String (Strung Out) Theory Stop! Not so fast, guys! Einstein’s shocked white head Apparently opined not that the rate Of light was swiftest, but nowt could be sped Up quicker than light, could accelerate To be more fleet than it. His crucial thought, That...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | BL, BR, CH, DE, ST, TH, TR, Uncategorized, VI
Inhalers Created for Chuck one day before the anniversary of his birth. “When her doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw “the tree with the lights in it.” It was for this tree I searched through the...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | GR, MI, OC, TH, WI
The Second Great Discombobulation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Put on your robes. Ascension comes, is nigh. The final time of Judgment’s mighty power Is looming. Turn your eyes towards the sky....
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 9, 2020 | DE, GO, RE, TH
Dangerous Theophany When Gods appear, we dare not look at them. We turn our heads and eyes. We stare at ground Or lower gaze and dare not touch a hem As robes go swirling by. A holy sound Comes haunting, muffled even. It brings awe. If Gods have curly hair, it...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2020 | TH
Lordosis The gods “‘do not appear in all their fullness [enargeîs],’ Calasso writes.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 19 Jehovah shows his backside to the eye Of Moses in the fire and smoke and cloud. We wonder if that eye was sideways, sly,...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | MY, TH
When Gods were Real We used to meet divinity inside Our guts. Gods wrenched the bowels, or heart, or lungs With flushing presence, left our sternum dyed With holiness, and filled with praise numbed tongues. Direct, they haunted us in fire and smoke We breathed...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | MY, RE, TH
Moses, Saint Francis, Saint Teresa ….. Gods used to come. We felt a sudden gust. A moment came, somewhere, somehow, at dawn Or in the twilight. Daybreak caused a thrust Of deepest recognition, then withdrawn. A twilight apparition might remain A fraction longer...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2020 | GO, SM, TH
The Larger Picture At Oxford Artie took a First, then went To teach in Kenya. There he sat out on His little porch and taught us what is meant By dedication. His unruly lawn Was near the Great Rift Valley as he stretched Young minds in mathematics. One to...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | TH, Uncategorized
The God of Gods The god of gods appeared on earth today. He settled on a springtime tree—a crown Of whitest pink and petals came straight down From heaven. There they murmured silent whims Of glories that no mortal eye has seen. They chanted without sound...
by phillipw | Dec 11, 2019 | MY, TH
For the Eternity Being One morning when they’d stayed up all night long While moving house, he stepped outside with one Last box of stuff, including hymn and song Books–and Dillard’s Pilgrim. Dawn, just begun, Radiated through clear...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2019 | PI, TH
Theoxenos of Tenedos A happy legend sets his [Pindar’s] death in the theatre, in the arms of Theoxenos of Tenedos, for whom he had written a dazzling, unambiguously erotic encomium.[….] Pindar was eighty, dry kindling. The flame of desire burst forth and...
by phillipw | May 31, 2019 | TH
Growing Up Most teenagers are boring in the mind. The geniuses, those yet to be, as much As all the rest. It is as if they’re blind To utterness unless it has a touch Of hormones in it. Once I searched the old Card catalogue at Harvard and I found There Henry...