by phillipw | Jan 2, 2023 | BR, CO, FI, TR, WA, WO
Grotesqueries Military Cross given to Siegfried Sassoon for his “conspicuous gallantry during a raid on the enemy’s trenches.” Imagining the worst might happen, Brooke Writes out a letter to his mother who Is gung ho for the war. His fears unhook...
by phillipw | Dec 6, 2021 | AL, BR, FI, RU, SE, WA, WO
The War Poet “a rich nature … fighting eagerly towards the truth.” “I have a rendezvous with death At some disputed barricade” ~ Alan Seeger Alan Seeger Not all war poets are the same as Brooke. Not all are like a cabinet display Of...
by phillipw | Sep 26, 2021 | AE, DE, EM, PR, RA, WA, WH
Barbaric Yawp His “poetry” is not so much a thing Of barbarism as it is like Greek Or Roman oratory. In its ring It has the sound of bombast. No, not sleek, But more like overstated prose tricked out As verse on pages. Rhetoric high-flown Quite...
by phillipw | Aug 12, 2021 | EL, RO, SU, WA
Nocturne Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem …………………….. ” Where joy and sadness are forgotten or Have never been, just there...
by phillipw | Jun 27, 2021 | BR, DE, PO, RU, WA
The Soldier Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem In Skyros’ grove of olives, olive leaves Are brought to death by being torn from trees. The party carries him in death and grieves To lay his...
by phillipw | Jun 20, 2021 | CH, EA, WA
Sempiternity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The chambered nautilus goes pulsing through Dark depths. It pulses underneath the waves For eons rocking gently, steady, true Enough to last. ...
by phillipw | May 28, 2021 | ES, RI, SE, WA
Thine Own Self This river takes a beam of light straight through Itself, right through it to its lowest part If clear enough. The current is still true To water’s self. The water does not start To break its molecule or try to be Some other element, say...
by phillipw | Mar 11, 2021 | AP, BE, SP, WA
Memory of a Tree Surgeon Season Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem One spring he knew stretched on — on and on — like Suns rising as eternity insists They should. It was as if an April dyke...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2021 | AE, AR, BA, GR, MO, SH, WA
Simplicity and Complexity The modern Scandinavians and chairs By Shakers have their meaning just because Of life’s complexity. The Cubist squares And glossed rectangularity give pause Like Philip Johnson’s house of cleanest glass. The house by Gropius in Lincoln...
by phillipw | Feb 23, 2021 | DE, ET, SP, SY, TY, WA, WI
Wind and Water Cleave and Cleave Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem .. We know that wind is spirit life. The wind Is God in symbol, and the angels, too, And demons, angels with God’s demons twinned....
by phillipw | Dec 27, 2020 | CH, DI, FR, GA, Ho, LO, MA, SP, WA
When Washington Created Lasting Love on M Street, Georgetown Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You sum up everything I lost, An April made unending since we shared The cherry blossoms as in Pentecost,...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | AN, DO, ED, FA, PA, WA, WI
Edward Wilson’s Uncompromising Painting in the Face of Doom … It is as if the realm of ghosts and shades Were painted in a watercolour of Pale blues and soft frost blacks, or like charades Performed behind auroras from above Antarctic twilights. ...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2020 | OL, PO, WA
The Luxury of Peace Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Long centuries before the growth of hate...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AN, AR, BA, WA
Metallic Heroes Did not Dare to Turn their Backs Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Bronze swords, and shields, and helmets with their crests They wore while slicing men with wounds and death....
by phillipw | Jun 30, 2020 | AL, BY, GE, Ho, IS, JO, KE, LO, WA
Crippled Poets Among the earliest of lines to spring And linger utterly till now are long Ones drawn from blinded eyes. The verses sing Like prophets’ spirits which must see. A song Of guts, the gods, and marrow-spills came out From manly depths behind the...
by phillipw | Jun 12, 2020 | BY, GE, GO, HA, Ho, IS, JO, KE, PO, WA
Crippled Poets Among the earliest of lines to spring And linger utterly till now are long Ones drawn from blinded eyes. The verses sing Like prophets’ spirits which must see. A song Of guts, the gods, and marrow-spills came out From manly depths behind the...
by phillipw | Jun 5, 2020 | AR, BL, CH, EA, HA, HE, Ho, MA, WA, WH
Backside Gas in that Jar Called Yale One Harold Bloom says modern verse began In 1890—or about then. That Is what one venerating friend claims. Can That be? Only an academic prat Could be so arrogant and blinkered. I Say modern verse began at least as far Back...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BE, BR, EA, MA, RA, WA
Death Defied in the British Library I sit across from Wayne, but decades on And much improved. Not only young again, But cuter nose, and lips more cushion drawn, More velvet-shaped—too lovely, these, to deign To pray or sing a Sabbath verse. The hair Is lovely,...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | FE, ME, MU, RI, RO, WA
The Descent from the Scottish Highlands and Luzern Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The melodies that go on long and fine, And long and long, without a gap or pause Streamed out from Mendelssohn. An...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | DO, GE, HE, NI, RI, TR, WA
What Really Matters Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Heroic happenings in legends bear A factuality more sacred than Plain data. The cutting of Samson’s hair Is consequential to his threatened clan...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | AN, OL, PO, Uncategorized, WA
Poetry is Not the Lever and Fulcrum of Archimedes Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The full-flowering Scottish tradition of Henryson, Dunbar and Douglas was defeated when Scotland was defeated.” ~...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, LO, RA, UG, WA
Remember, Remember Not Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pause. Think of all the beauty lost in time, The beauties are hidden in the loss of days We never think of, beauties lost by crime, Like...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | WA
Time, the Wild Part of Eternity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A platinum machine to measure out A mystery, a gold device to frame God’s epiphenomenon sensed, sure, out In space, a cage which...
by phillipw | Mar 12, 2020 | DI, WA
Royal Reveries I never daydreamed I would be like Di, Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, Or live to be The Queen, or even try To be unhappy with love that impales A woman’s guts with unfaithfulness. (See The Husband Prince’s.) Overhearing on The...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | WA
Corporal Jake Hartley Jake Hartley, Killed in a Warrior Armoured Vehicle What quirk of luck resulted in that tilt of head Before the camera clicked? What circumstance Made Jake do that slight slant, add tad of dread Or sadness to that handsome face, askance At just...