by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | PA
Manifesto for the Past We try to write a manifesto for The past; not history—the Past. We want To mold those things they call the facts, and more Then that we wish to change what men can vaunt As for triumphs in their greed and realms have gone by. Men must not...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | AN, GR, PO
Daedalus and Icarus “The natural rhythms of Greek [poetry] tend ‘downward,’ falling” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 14 How strange it is to think that ancient Greek In poetry inclined to downward flow. We think that the trajectory was sleek In upward movement...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | ZO
Zoroaster Speaks with Lips Sewn Closed by Paradox Another myth as founder of a faith, Old Zoroaster comes to us through mists As long as eons. He is like a wraith More strange than countertenors with their wrists Concealed in robes religion hides them in. The prophet...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | LO
Spells and the Thoughts of Tiresias “Halliwell’s basic argument is that Socrates admits the Book X arguments to be insecure and open to defeat. He calls them ‘spells’ rather than philosophical knowledge, and he asserts that he must use them [those arguments]...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | IN, PO
Socrates versus Sappho One wonders if poor Socrates might just Have been much happier if he had made Up poems, not philosophy. A gust Of inspiration from Apollo swayed The poets into a rhapsody of thrill. While lost in love for some young person’s hair, The writers in...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | PH, PL, PO
The Ion, the Phaedrus, the Republic When someone else is all mixed up, we tend To sneer at what they have to say, so why Not Plato? Must we allow him to bend And contradict his arguments? Is high Philosophy supposed to work like that? He has the voices in two...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | FO
Middle-class, Clean, and Not Our teachers disappear. They mostly fade Entirely into wings beside our stage Like actors with bit parts. They enter shade And deeper darkness. Our minds turn the page And most of them are gone forever. Few Remain as vivid as they were at...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | DU, GE, SA
Long after Chopin’s Death George Sand, It Seems, Destroyed 200 Letters Returned to her by Chopin’s Sister, Letters Sand had Sent to Him The problem with bone china is how heart- Breaking in its loveliness it tends to Be, the beauty of the finest fragile part Of...
