by phillipw | Oct 8, 2020 | BL, BR, DE, GA, Ho, HU, JE, LE, MO, UN
The Song for the Statue of Liberty Sing out your foreign song. Sing out your truth. Sing out the way that you are different from The rest. Chant out from in your Succoth booth Or from your monastery. Let songs come From pink brown Harlem lips. Involve the...
by phillipw | Oct 8, 2020 | AM, DO, PO, SU, TR, UN, US
Would-be Dictator, a Reptile-like Surinam Toad The President begins to sip his tea. He holds the cup, not daintily. His firm Two fingers grip the handle. His decree Has just been tweeted. Those who start to squirm Are not considered. Gazing out beyond The roses in the...
by phillipw | Aug 29, 2020 | AT, RE, UN
Cleaving Like iron filings you were trapped against My heart. It drew you to its outer flesh And tried to suck you inward. You were fenced: Your dark male filings harshly made a mesh, A metal net to hold off my desire. It turns out softened, hardened...
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 7, 2020 | UN
Gravity: the Greeks and the Old Testament How Hitler-like and heavy is the past, How wonderful and marble-like its weight Upon our brains and guts. The Greeks loom vast; The Hebrews, too. Their fires in myth frustrate. We can’t escape to newness. We are crushed...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | BR, UN, WE
Sterile I throw my rice on you, small handfuls of White wishes with husks rubbed off. Grains catch there In your hair, a few, the ones that know love And its meaninglessness. That’s what they share With God, that clinging whiteness and a...
