by phillipw | Feb 2, 2026 | UN
Moons and Hermits Have No Wings The scent and color Of pale wistaria seems Distant from the moon. ~ Buson [Englished by Phillip Whidden The moth has now rejected petals of The cherry tree and wants instead a sky With evening crescent moon. Desire and love Are far...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2026 | HA, OR, PE, SH
Poem Interpretation Examining three Thousand haiku carefully, The two persimmons. ~ Shiki The reader, far too Western, so it seems, Blinks, flummoxed by the haiku. He or she Can’t grasp how two fruit spheres, unless in dreams Of Japanese imagination, see Their way...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2026 | Uncategorized
Storm Troopers and Presidential Persecutive Order Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The peacock’s tail spreads open with its gold In iridescence. Bird of little brain, This bird sports gilded penis so...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2026 | DI, MY, PE
The Ideal Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Perfection can’t be found in man-made things, Her mother held. She could have stopped with “man” And stopped her insight there. The bees with stings Are far...
by phillipw | Feb 1, 2026 | Uncategorized
Turning, Turning, You Come Round Right Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If you can turn the tables, you can win. Turn panic into Caribbean calms Or, rather, let the panic turn its sin To something...
by phillipw | Feb 1, 2026 | PL, SO, WR
Don’t Put Obstacles on the Tracks Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporar The writing of a sonnet comes like train Adventures. Board a train. You then sit down. The sonnet rides along, click, click, no strain. The...
by phillipw | Feb 1, 2026 | PA, Uncategorized
The Past, the Past, the Past . . . Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The past, the recent past, is so far gone That it and other pasts are mist-pale spheres Unborn, and spheres that never were, a dawn That...
by phillipw | Feb 1, 2026 | BU
The Methods of the Buddhist Monks’ Bakery and Buddha’s Lips like Horizontal Slugs Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If God’s archangel were a slug or frog The Japanese might write a haiku on God’s glowing...
