by phillipw | Jul 10, 2020 | AP, BI, LO, TR, UR, VE
Plato’s Ideal For Denise/Josh and Rachel/Robert Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem [Uranus, the god of the heavens, is both father and mother to the goddess Aphrodite in Plato’s Symposium.] The...
by phillipw | Jul 9, 2020 | AN
The Primitive Polyphemus before the Strangers’ Attack But then again we do not always need The total poem. Au contraire. We guess The substance missing. Hurt lines also bleed. The rips and blots allow us to say yes To meanings we imagine. Deletions Free up the mind...
by phillipw | Jul 9, 2020 | AN
Lopped and Crippled Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So little full-limbed poetry survives The ancient Greeks, we’re left to deal with things Grammarians have saved for us—and lives Of poets put on...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | HE, JO, OR, PL, TH
Invisible Ivory Music Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. ~ John Keats Herus Pamphilius claimed that Orpheus’s drifting soul, destined to be incarnated anew in some other physical form after he had died, elected to be born a swan so that he...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | AL, BA
Instinct and Alexander the Hateful Achilles, after many years of war, And after losing Patroklus to death, Reacted vilely, more like smelly whore Than man of Greek-sky principles. Blue death And anguish overwhelming him like sea Wave, catastrophic, made by monsters,...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | AL, EU, OR
Imperfection as Perfection Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The eyes are white and wide. They look as spare As Orpheus’s when he lost his wife. Yet Alexander never knew such bare And sand-dune...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | EU, JA, OR
If Orpheus Had Not Looked Back Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If Orpheus had not looked round, his wife Would not have fallen back to death. He would Have had her all his unheroic life. The Argosy...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2020 | AN, CO, HU, PO, RH, SC
I Have Looked upon the Face of Jolliness The ancient Greeks in poetry were lewd As limericks, playful, silly as a stand Up joker on a comic’s platform, rude And crude, yep, far more rude than Russell Brand. Emitted from these ancient rhythmic throats Were poems...
