by phillipw | Jul 15, 2020 | PO, TR
Where? Where? Where? “Achieved poetry paints with at least one colour which can be found nowhere else.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 19 Do you know just what that color is? Gods’ Eyes must contain it—goddesses’ more so— Yet can we see it there? Perhaps it...
by phillipw | Jul 15, 2020 | PO
Personalized Epiphany “This ‘conspicuousness’, he adds ‘will later be inhabited by poetry, thus becoming perhaps the characteristic that distinguishes poetry from every other form.’” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 19 Deep poetry does something depths can not...
by phillipw | Jul 15, 2020 | AN, EN
Scorn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Enargeîs is the technical term ‘for divine epiphany: a word that contains the dazzle of “white,” argós, which comes to designate a pure,...
by phillipw | Jul 15, 2020 | AN, BO, Ho
Scholarly Blindness “Since before 450 BC there was no prose literature, our only windows on the ancient world are the poems.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 8 It only goes to show that scholars love To focus narrowly. He looked so hard At Greeks that he is...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | BO, BU, CE, SA
Sappho Wrote about Twelve Thousand Lines of Poetry Twelve thousands lines of poetry were torched By time and Christians. Piety increased The ravages, all this because she scorched With love for girls. Bishops made a feast Of male disgust that Sappho caused by fire...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | AN, AP, DE, GR, PR
Ruined Myth and Heavy Reality Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The pillars look more like some backbones stripped Of skin and muscle than Apollo’s space In Delphi and are squat and stodgy, chipped And...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | BE, EU, PO, UG
Poets, Poetry, and Women For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel. Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold, Thy face hath not the power to make love groan ~ Sonnet 131 Who thinks of blank Eurydice? None. Slack...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | PL, PO
Poets as Healers The first great poet, Orpheus, was called The Healer. Is there some great truth involved In that? Surely Plato wasn’t enthralled With poets. Plato sneered. He was resolved To say that they were more inclined to ill And that they couldn’t...
