by phillipw | Mar 17, 2024 | CA, FL, SI, WH, WI, WO
As Dead As Sabbath-keeping Saints Columba and Patrick on Their Long Lost Shores Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I cannot quite call back to mind and heart My father’s voice, not even when he told...
by phillipw | Jun 23, 2023 | WO
The World of their Father’s Purity “The blue walls of the firmament, No cloud above, no earth below,— A universe of sky and snow!” ~ “Snow-bound” ~ John Greenleaf Whittier His family fled Chicago storms of snow And settled on a cape of...
by phillipw | May 29, 2023 | AU, SI, WH, WI, WO
Aunt Wilma Singing “The Holy City” in the Tiny White Concrete Block Church in Sabbath Titusville Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem What feelings would my father have enjoyed While sitting in the elder’s...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2023 | GR, RA, WO
The Young Soldier with a “Whimsical Stammer” “Good-bye to all music for ever,” wrote The poet, Siegfried. This was how his friend, His fellow officer and friend, caused throat In Siegfried, Heldentenor-like, to bend Towards tears because of the piano played By...
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 | Oct 5, 2022 | FO, HA, SA, SI, Ta, WO, WW
The Fox Hunter Flushes Out the Fritzies Single-handedly with Bayonet and with the Same Fingers that Wrote His Poetry Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He loved his poetry and music, such Like things,...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2022 | BA, CA, WH, WO
Canaveral Olympic Sport The Splashothrills In Response to Wordsworth and the Daffodils The brothers and the sisters set a race Of sorts. They go out to the little dock And brace up on that sunlit wooden space, Banana River space. Some lift up frock...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2022 | CA, WH, WO
Dance Floor Wonder, Wow! Canaveral in the 1920s stood For ultra boondocks-ness. A band made up Of ukulele and a shiny wood Guitar and small accordion played up For tiny audiences in the hall. Still, people simply have to make do with The stuff to hand. But then a...
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 | Mar 9, 2022 | PH, WH, WO
Parthenogenesis Paternal If I were only Woodrow’s son, yes, just His son, not his and Helen’s, then my heart Would sing with dreams and poetry, gold dust Of life. My mind would separate apart The pettishness of daily living from The mountain clouds of Florida...
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 | Nov 8, 2021 | CH, DO, FA, HE, IV, PA, PH, WH, WO
There Wasn’t Any Hill in Brevard County, Florida, but There Were Songbirds The oatmeal made with milk and honey . . . and With mother love . . . was eaten with the sound PATTI PAGE – Mockin’ Bird Hill（1951）with lyrics – YouTube Of “Mockingbird Hill”...
by phillipw | Oct 18, 2021 | BR, LO, MA, ME, RU, WO
Rupert Wanted Surrender “Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate. Love sells the proud heart’s citadel to fate.”~ Rupert Brooke Would women be as likely as a man To write such sentiments, to think of love As breaching walled in strength, as Æthelstan...
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 | Jul 28, 2021 | FA, IV, MO, OB, PH, SI, WH, WO
Single Perspective Single Perspective Single Perspective All All All Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The single-hearted skylark calls to mind My brothers and my father and my true, My truest self. Our...
by phillipw | Jul 24, 2021 | WH, WO
An Object Lesson for the Brevard County Church Elder Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He works beneath relentlessness of sun And sweat of air above him and around. It’s true that later clouds will form...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2021 | DE, MO, PA, PH, SA, WH, WO
Grave Offering Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He breaks the burst of blossoms off the tree, The spray of life in blooms, and hauls it to The back part of the car. Cemetery Rows wait. He...
by phillipw | Jun 5, 2021 | CH, FI, GA, OW, WI, WO
Boy Soldiers, not Toy Soldiers Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Wilfred Owen He’s cuter than the photo that they show So often, more a smiling kid and not A solemn soldier or a poet, no...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, CH, DE, FI, GA, Ho, LO, MI, PO, RO, RU, SC, WO
Blue Rugby and Blue Gallipoli Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We do not think of Rubert Brooke in blue, When we remember him at all. We think of Brooke Between some pages of a volume, true To...
by phillipw | Mar 31, 2021 | CH, GA, ST, TH, WO
The Brief Gate into Ecstasy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He raised his hands and wrists to Christ and all The world was changed. The evening worship paused As if no God existed. I, like...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2020 | FA, HU, MO, PO, WO
Woman You slip away in poems that you wrote, In songs composed, in paintings painted by Your lust and fingers. You turn out the vote For candidate and then learn just how sly He was, or muster funding for the cause— And win—but then the circumstances...
by phillipw | Oct 29, 2020 | AN, FE, HE, JO, LA, PA, PR, TH, WH, WI, WO
Presence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The past is never past, is more than ghost Or Undead creature. Passed away the past Is not. It lives within. Its whispered boast Inhabits mental...
by phillipw | Sep 14, 2020 | AN, BR, CH, DA, DI, PI, RO, WI, WO
All’s Right with the World Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Nature … in the very act of labouring as a machine is also sleeping as a picture.” Canon J. B. Mozely, University Lectures, sermon on...
by phillipw | Sep 13, 2020 | BR, JA, JO, MO, PO, TH, WI, WO
Thoreau in His Worst Freudian Nightmares Could Not Have Imagined Pollock or de Kooning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Thoreau says nature does the better part Of work oak carpenters get credit for,...
by phillipw | Aug 23, 2020 | FE, HE, ME, SE, ST, WO
How Men Feel about Women Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We feel that they are hostesses. That’s best. That’s how they are at best. They have long hair (At best) but short will do. We like the...
by phillipw | Jul 26, 2020 | OR, RE, TR, WO
Orpheus and Male Reincarnation When Orpheus decided that he craved Escape from women utterly and so Desired migration of his spirit saved From birth to any of them and to go Instead into the beauty of a cob, The poet did not try to fly away To some escape from further...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AN, DA, HE, IC, PH, TH, WH, WO
With Straight Gold Bars I sat beside my mother as the sale Was made, the purchase of The World Book Encyclopedia. I loved the pale Cream, knobbled leatherette, the noble look Of deep maroon square placed on spine of each Restrained and heavy volume, glossy...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | BE, FL, HE, WH, WO
Deer-tongue The smell of deer-tongue came to me today From decades past. I mean the fragrance of The dried out leaves, as dried out as the splay Of decades since my father taught us love, His sons, beneath the Florida sun, leaves That called up beauty...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | DI, FO, TW, WO
Twinned They dig to make foundations for a steel And tall glass building, but then come upon Rock hardened claw prints and a dragon heel Bone. Eons held in darkness of the dawn Of death (which we call life) rear up in stone- Made stillness. We encounter...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AR, DO, IV, PH, WH, WO
Under the Florida Son On Wilson’s first Inaugural Day A “man” was born. His father always called Him “Man.” For instance, Archibald might say, “Go do your hunting, Man.” Archie’d been galled To have so many females in his life, Was thrilled to have...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | DA, ME, RE, WH, WO
Antechambers My father’s residence was memories As if a chambered nautilus turned back To find in older shapes a lustrous ease As snug in paradox, as neat in tack As any yacht that sails against the wind. He found his comfort in a smaller place When he, an...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | CH, EN, PO, WI, WO
Sweetness on the Desert Air Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If you retreated to provincial Kent, Were banished there from London’s buzz to rot Among the hops and bees where things are meant To be...
by phillipw | Apr 1, 2020 | WH, WO
Woodrow Wilson Whidden, Senior My father did not smell of manly sweat. He smelled of loyalty. He smelled of faith And dedication. His idea of debt Was what he owed to family, wife, love, faith, And sons. An elder in a tiny church, He sat behind the pastor and did...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2020 | VE, WO
Wokingham and Venice (Petrarchan and English sonnets) In Wokingham where charming little red Brick houses decorated with cream stone Maintain the quintessential, modest tone Of English towns, a quiet A to Zed Of quaintest understatement, I just found A book about...
by phillipw | Dec 19, 2019 | WH, WO
He Kept the Seventh-day Sabbath My father, Woodrow, had a thing for goats. When on Canaveral as a boy his dream Was having them as pets. Friends wanted boats, Or guns, or cars. Young Woody didn’t deem These trinkets worth consideration. Nope. He wanted kids, and...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2019 | CA, WH, WO
Woodrow (born on Woodrow Wilson’s 1st Inaugural Day) with His Wife, and Wilma (Half Sister)—All Homestead Pioneers on the Cape Who Had Their Homes Taken Away from Them for Building the Space Center—Watches the Launch of Apollo 11 Woodrow on the far right of the group...
by phillipw | Nov 22, 2019 | IN, WO
Cast White the Net There’s nothing you can’t find there on the web Unless it’s innocence. You type in “pure” And up comes pure cocaine and some celeb (A swinish, big tit party epicure) Who’s snorted far too many thrilling lines. You key in “innocent” and up...
by phillipw | Nov 11, 2019 | WO
Elegant Shyster Scams The promises come shining on the screen In prophecies of perfect website charms As easy as the morals and the sheen Of lipstick on a whore. But then the harms Come, shocks of jargon and refusal to Allow real progress in creation of The blog...
by phillipw | Oct 21, 2019 | WH, WI, WO
Father’s Voice I can’t remember what my father said Except when he was storytelling, or Declaiming poetry, or when his head Was full of politics or God. His store Of beauty came in tales, or ringing lines Of loveliness and joy, and plots he spun, And...
by phillipw | Jul 30, 2019 | VE, WO
Venice and Wokingham Where Wokingham has charming little red Brick houses decorated with cream stone, Where little of old English charm has fled Away, I find a volume on the blown Glass gracefulness Venetian lungs have made For centuries. Italian lips have forced An...
by phillipw | Jun 5, 2019 | WH, WO
Under the Florida Son Under the Florida Son On Wilson’s first Inaugural Day A “man” was born. His father always called Him Man. For instance, Archibald might say, “Go do your hunting, Man.” Archie’d been galled To have so many females in his life, Was thrilled to...