by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | MA, OR, SI
Direction If you were on a ship and needed song To urge you, would you want the Sirens or The voice of Orpheus to make you long? If you were on an ancient ship, what shore Would you desire, a cove with killer rocks Prepared by gorgeous women prodding...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | DE, PO
Dim Imprecision: Ambiguity and Clarity “Poetry could reflect on itself, acknowledge its dim imprecision, and know itself to be interpretation and not a window onto pure truth.” ~ http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/plato-and-the-poets/ True poetry is dim and like a torch...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | EU, HA, OR, PL, RO
That Supreme Nazi, Plato, Sounded Off about Orpheus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse He takes the poison of his courage and His love. He does not try to dazzle death With poetry: Romeo is not bland Like that. He gulps down. ...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | DE, DI, OR
Desperate Measure Eurydice, she knew the gods too well. She knew that they would find a way to harm Herself, her lover, and her love. Lost hell Was where that Pluto lived forever. Charm Him? That was possible. The poet had Done just that. She had witnessed...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | DE, DI, EU, HA, LO, OR
Did We Really Think that They Would Give Her Body to Him? Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse Eurydice was dead. Come on. Just soul Is all she was by then. So why would he Expect some wonder from the deepest hole Of anywhere, that...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | AC, DA, GA, HE, Ho, MA
David and Jonathan, Achilles and Patroclus, Alexander and Hephaestion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse Hephaestion, lover of Alexander the Great We heroize male anger, all the way From David’s chopped Goliath to the...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | AN, IN, MA, MI, MU
Daedalus and Icarus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The natural rhythms of Greek [poetry] tend ‘downward,’ falling” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 14 How strange it is to think that ancient...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AN
Earliest Poetry Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poetry modern verse The sunlight, bright as gods could ever hope ….. To be, fell down on isthmus, valley, sea, On life and death, on limestone mountain slope Before...