by phillipw | Oct 30, 2019 | LO, RI, VE
What We Learn in the Great College Street of Knowledge The worst conclusion to a crimson bout Of love is truth. We sniff the smell of facts And they are ugly mumbles. With his snout The poet gets the scent. His heart reacts Like pack hounds to the trail an orange...
by phillipw | Oct 17, 2019 | RI, VE
Three Septembers September 1871, September 1872 Septembers are the fateful months for falls. Septembers, not quite autumn yet, will start The way. They do not mean to hear the calls Of destiny, but there it is. They part The summer from its certain leaves and oaths...
by phillipw | Oct 17, 2019 | P, VE
Lucien Viotti, Arthur Rimbaud, and Lucien Létinois ‘armes lentes’ ~ Paul Verlaine Paul always was a child prodigy when It came to slow, slow tearfulness about Those ones he loved, especially young men. Paul specialized in slowed rubato pout When...
by phillipw | Oct 16, 2019 | VE
The Friend Who was Wise to Escape Early into Prussian Strength “ephebic body’s exquisite proportions” ~ Verlaine commenting on his long dead Lucien Viotti ….. Verlaine was like a bomb who injured those Around him, starting with the one who...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | RI, VE
…….Paradox The rupture caused by Rimbaud, alcohol, And green absinthe destroyed fatherhood And Holy Matrimony. Like Saint Paul Struck down (but not by Jesus) Verlaine could See nothing till the scales fell from his eyes. Before that boy Verlaine had...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | RI, VE
Romances sans la Pitié Uncertain like a compass suffering pull From two strong poles, or like a planet near Two tugging stars, Paul mirrored a saint full Of doubt while standing on the streets of sheer Bright gold in heaven but consumed by lust To fall to hellfire...
