by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | RI, VE
Difficult to See Intimations of Immortality We ride past, jostling on the bus, and can’t Make out the wording on the plaque; so close, And yet importance can be missed. We pant To make connection and to get a dose Of greatness or at least of meaning. Paul Reached...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | RI, VE
Séance Verlaine was more a séance poet than A seer or prophetic voice. He saw The vestiges of love, a phantom man When love was gone, and souvenirs, not raw And brutal facts. Paul called up from his past Misshapen memories. He did not want To...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | OE, PR, RI, VE
The Deaths of Mad Queens The heroines in Racine’s tragedies Are monsters, dignities destroyed by heat Of passion harder than a marble frieze, Rock lust for man or boy. Queens’ hearts replete With rage and love, this royalty is blind As Oedipus’s eyes with jelly...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | RI, VE
[Verlaine describes Rimbaud in London] His Eyes, His Hair, the Seasons in London The overarching springtime blue in May Was set with bluebell darker tints in flecks. Those irises were perfect in the way A nearly purple paragon respects The imperfection of the...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | RI, VE
Merry Go Round Glamor A large, significant proportion of The gay and bi community today Is desperate for the story of the love Of swirling Rimbaud and Verlaine to bray Out gaily as bright carousel horses’ Tunes, twirling like calliope pipes with Glee. This ignores...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | RI, VE
Emancipation Proclamation “You’re free alone with me,” the tyrant wrote To Paul when he had made his cowardly Decision and had fled by pettish boat. “I, only, offer you your liberty.” This freedom was la liberté of slaves, Though. La égalité was not discussed, Nor...
