by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | PO
Transmigration for the Spirit “poetry—that most portable of arts” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 13 The most portable of arts, a poem rides The waves and centuries, right across our hearts And in them, through them. The oceanic tides Are what they sometimes feel...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | AN, PO
Heroes, Victims, and Poseidon The metre of ancient Greek poetry succeeds in “achieving a length and complexity that are unusual in the heroic verse of other literature.” ~ Michael Grant, The Rise of the Greeks, 325, as quoted in Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 16....
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | AS, RO
The Paltry Importance of Royal Families: Ashoka’s Abhisheka Why mention families in carvings on Your stele, or other unimportant things Like genealogy, your father gone To be among his ancestors, those kings Not worthy of your note? The high shaped rock...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | RA
Rapping in Ancient Greece If only rappers spoke in ancient Greek, We wouldn’t have abominable rhymes A mile a minute, everything too sleek And slick and sick, full of sexual crimes. If only rappers spoke an ancient tongue In which the notion of rhyme, rhyme, rhyme,...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | BR
Paradox The beautiful young scholar here today Is suffering from a cold. He has to stop And wipe his nose and sniffles to allay The itching, slimy, irritating drop, Drip, drop of mucus. Strong but fragile there Behind his books and laptop, he prepares...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | SP, SU
The Good Side of Death: Oracular Pre-echoing The Delphic good to come from spring buds’ deaths Is roses’ resurrection from their stems. The early summer flowers take their breaths In May’s bright air. Their petticoats and hems Begin to spread for the summer heat. They...
by phillipw | Apr 9, 2020 | DE, MO, PO
Centuries before Sappho Praised Men and Women Pre-echoes of that verse, ancient Greek In poetry, go back so far that lost Verbs, Indo-European ones, can almost squeak Through Sappho. It is like they are embossed Behind her blond papyrus. Her inked lines Were written...
by phillipw | Apr 9, 2020 | PO
A Purpose of Poetry “For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d” The hands of poets are encircled by A ring of gold—or rings of gold and life. Such hands know much of wrinkled clouds and sky, Of thorns, and of the after rains of strife. The...
