by phillipw | Apr 12, 2024 | CR, MA, ME, VI
Damned Quixote Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When William Blake went mad, it was his soul That drove him to it. It was far too straight, As straight as light, unerring in its goal When...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2024 | EN, SA, SH, VI
Despite the Yearlong Darkness Under the Hedge Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I pass the place of violets along The little lane that leads me from the square I live in, in my red brick house. No song Is...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2023 | VI
The Vietnam Memorial on the Mall Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If I had been a sculptor way back when, The monument that I might well have sketched To win the contest with clean paper, pen And...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BR, RU, VI, WO
Skinny Dipping with Rupert Brooke, Sturdy as a Marlowe Stanza or Miltonic Ones, in a Night-time Cambridgeshire Pool Virginia Woolf had seen him. She had seen Him whole. She saw his soul, good-hearted, kind, Substantial. She had seen him leaping, clean, More clean...
by phillipw | Dec 10, 2021 | DE, FU, PA, SA, VI
Flowers and Men and Fate Palled eons hover in the space between Each falling petal, each palled eon called Eternity or death. These, each one seen As equal, spy themselves as self-same, sprawled Like vileness, black. Each falling petal floats To vacuum. ...
by phillipw | Sep 13, 2021 | BR, CH, JO, MA, MI, NU, RU, SK, SW, VI, WO
Skinny-dipping with Rupert Brooke, Sturdy as a Marlowe Stanza or Miltonic Ones, in a Night-time Cambridgeshire Pool Virginia Woolf had seen him. She had seen Him whole. She saw his soul, good-hearted, kind, Substantial. She had seen him leaping, clean, More clean...
by phillipw | May 30, 2021 | BR, DE, HE, MA, PR, VI
The Bridegroom Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He wakes up in the bridal bed. The sheets Are white but crumpled. She is slumped beside Him in a different sleep. Her throat pulse...
by phillipw | May 28, 2021 | VI
From Great Lone Hills The gales of centuries gone blow through the pines — Inivisible the wind itself — blow through The clouds of boughs and needles. Darkness shines Instead of beauty. Here no god-like blue Can be perceived. No prophet will improve The...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2021 | AU, MA, SP, VI
March Meets October The violets are deepest purple in The lane. This purple laughs as darkness there Beneath the hedge. Such purple is the twin Of brighter colors matching autumn’s blare Of orange, but the double of them just In beauty. Blooms so much...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2021 | HI, SM, VI
Our -thorps and -hams and -fords Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The oldest towns and hamlets have their time Imagined on an unseen silent dial. It almost has a moss growth. In their prime (Which...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | BL, CH, IN, JU, RE, SA, SI, ST, VI
Inspiration Our days and nights are blind like Homer, blind And seeing, deep and wide, but still inept. Time carries us through life but like a mind Confused through madness. Life remains adept At fraud, poetically and just with scales Upon its...
by phillipw | Dec 20, 2020 | FE, MA, SE, VI
Different Reactions to the Loss of Virginity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I A young man wakes, not quite as slow as spring, From love’s first night. The groggy bulb begins To swell and open in...
by phillipw | Nov 12, 2020 | DE, DI, MU, NE, SE, VI
Flies “I am a crazed dingo with fresh babies lying in a circle around me.” ~ Jaime Mathis, It Rises and Falls In Dennis Nilsen’s dreams a garland of Young men is laid out all around him for His delectation. They had wanted love (Or maybe Smirnoff...
by phillipw | Oct 26, 2020 | CH, CO, DE, FI, GO, HA, JE, PO, VI
Cormorants Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Morning twilight; in Their basket the cormorants Asleep, exhausted. ~ Shiki The poet notices the tiny things,...
by phillipw | Oct 6, 2020 | FE, LO, RO, SI, TR, VI
Closer and Closer Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Am I the vine and you the fence? I feel Perhaps it is the other way around: You vine—and I the mesh. What would appeal Most, though,...
by phillipw | Jul 27, 2020 | KA, LI, MA, NU, RE, TR, VI, ZO
Some readers may find this piece offensive. If you think you might be offended, please do not read it. “Both in the Heavens and on Earth, Visible and Invisible” ~ Colossians 1:16 Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem...
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 7, 2020 | AN, Ho, IL, VI
Homeric Similes “These similes serve to take the reader away from the battlefield for a brief while, into the world of pre-war peace and plenty. Often, they occur at a moment of high action or emotion, especially during a battle. In the words of Peter Jones,...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2020 | CU, EU, LO, PA, VI
Gay Love as Paradox Love, who is wisdom’s pupil gay ~ Euripides Euripides goes on to say that love Leads on to virtue, often. Note that one Word,: “often,” though, for love is not above Dementing men with rot-like passion. Stun Them, that is what love does,...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BE, Ta, VI
Arctictis binturong Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem By TassiloRau, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=207524 Confusingly Arctictis binturong Is called a bear and also called...
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 16, 2020 | BR, CO, JO, VI
Johnson Beharry Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “what is ideal in him is the beauty and freshness he embodies” ~ Jacob Burckhardt commenting on the ancient Greek hero...
by phillipw | May 15, 2020 | LO, VI, WI
Highest Inheritance The losers who are punished by their loss And pain are purer than the victors who Get glory. Christ upon his aching cross Is like his cousin John. Their lives, askew Across imperial realities, Are massacred. The Pharisees’ and scribes’,...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | AN, CA, NI, VI
Safe Spaces—“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” “When the Athenians sent leaders of their philosophy schools to Rome on an embassy in 155 BC, one of them, the sceptic Carneades, pleaded on one day for justice in politics, on the next day for injustice. Cato...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | IN, PR, VI
Alexander the Great Had No Inkling of Precious Christian Virtues When Burma was unknown, it furnished true Red, rubies brought to Alexander’s court. It was as if an incensed goddess threw The gems from mystery, sent gems athwart The deserts from the depths of...
by phillipw | May 11, 2020 | BR, VI
Reading about the Red-haired Priest in the British Library The lamplight’s fall across each chord-like tress, The phrase-like forehead and the eyebrows (straight) Perhaps are not that different from the stress, Though gentle, from the candle light in late Night...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | CO, DA, GE, LE, MA, OR, PE, VI
The Heart is Never Central Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The heart is never central. It is to The left and far too far above the base. The heart is not positioned for the true. It loves too much the...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | BA, HA, LO, VI
Synthesis Examine for yourself the claim that love Is noblest and the mightiest of all. Is it far better than the truth, above An iron-like honesty? Is love more tall Than mountained decency? And is not hate Sometimes required to make things work? ...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | VI
Purity What if, when books were opened, we found leaves, Not leaves of books, but autumn leaves, of elms And maples, sycamores, or fragrant sheaves Of deer tongue shoots, vanilla in their realms Of soul. What if, when volumes opened, they Revealed...
by phillipw | Apr 25, 2020 | RE, VI
Vijaya and Mary Religions are quite conscienceless. They are. They dream up anything that they can use As fodder for their faith. A special star, A vision from a desert-place recluse, And even bestiality. They said The earliest of Indian kings was...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | LO, VI
Gay Love as Paradox Love, who is wisdom’s pupil gay ~ Euripides Euripides goes on to say that love Leads on to virtue, often. Note that one Word, though: “often,” for love is not above Dementing men with a rot-like passion. Stun Them, that is what love does, like a...
by phillipw | Apr 11, 2020 | AN, RA, VI
Nude in the Gymnasium, Dressed in Modesty at Home “For the ancients, poetry socialized people; for the moderns, it reflects or promotes alienation.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 10 The ancient poets, epic poets, taught Their boys to find the maleness meant for...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2020 | VI
In a Baroque Cathedral, Counter Reformational The paintings, slick and artful as can be, Are pompous as a pope in peacock robes. Such scenes sneer at spirituality, Though that’s unclear. Our lucid thinking probes The glossy oil meaning. Saints can feel Their cloaks...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2019 | LO, VI
Meteorology, Mysticism, and Husbandry Because you were a rain that fell on long- Dried roots, resulting petals can’t forget, And since the point of vineyard flowers is strong- Intentioned harvest, you perhaps will let The lees of stirred up generosity...
by phillipw | Nov 29, 2019 | VI
Reading about the Red-haired Priest in the British Library The lamplight’s fall across each chord-like tress, The phrase-like forehead and the eyebrows (straight) Perhaps are not that different from the stress, Though gentle, from the candle light in late...
by phillipw | Nov 5, 2019 | VI
Grotesquerie: The Virgin of the Musée Cluny She meditates there, still, on her harsh stone plinth, Her bug eyes suffering from thyroid disease Above this theophany to the nth Degree. The little doll-like effigies Revealed by golden doors which form her...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | VI
…Meditation The quiet colors still remain when spring Brings out the louder choir of daffodil And jonquil voices. Darker purples sing Beneath the hedge despite the yellow shrill Of trumpets. Shadowed violets, still, give Off redolence ultraviolet to The...