by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | CH, ST
Giant The redwood hulks above the other trees Just here in Bracknell, right across the road From undistinguished houses. In a breeze The meaningless trunk looms as if to goad Some god that I am unacquainted with. It used to be that I remembered to Look...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | LO
Open The ancient Greeks believed that light beams flowed Both into eyes and out of them. If stars Poured in their lights, then stars in light streams flowed Back out. If Venus, Jupiter, or Mars Fell down through irises, then planets’ lights Shone...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | AN, GR, MA
The Truth The ancient Greeks are there. They do not hide The truth about themselves like holy priests Of papal Rome. The Greeks adored male pride And loathed it. They were not pure logic’s beasts: They gloried in their contradictions, found Them, not...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | AN
Were I to Believe in Angels’ Songs If angels, each one, had a message they Would sing to us, would each charge be the same, A Kyrie, an Adoramus te, Or Gloria? No, that would be too tame. I'm thinking everyone would be unique, Each text and melody enough to...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | BE, MA
Beauty on the Number 10, February 19, 2016 I wonder if he thinks that he is sweet, As sweet as he appears in this quick snap— Or sweeter even, maybe like a fleet Of wide sailed ships that bear across the map Of seas and move with sugar icebergs, streams As lovely as...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | PA, SE
The Unattempted Flight Somewhere beyond my mind an unmarked grave Contains a nun, or what is left of her. Somewhere beyond a chapel’s little nave, In convent grounds, the nun is now a slur Of rotted body parts and stains on bones. But even if the hole that hides her...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | GO, IN, SP
The Voice We all are waiting for the voice to speak, But how will it be spoken? Will we hear It when it whispers in an ancient Greek The severity of stone-hard Doric fear? Perhaps still, small hoarseness in a fire Will echo in the deserts of our soul When...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | OR, PO
Aegean Heat We look at Orpheus, torn on the ground. We try forgiving women and his wife For tearing at his heart and body found Among the barren olives. This one’s life Is deathless in the myth of love and sounds Discarded in eternity. We seek Forever to...
