by phillipw | May 4, 2020 | AS, GO, RE
Circumsised Sentiment “The famous love story of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala in the Mahabharata…became the theme of Kalidasa’s (c. fourth-fifth centuries CE) play Abhijanashakuntala, which brings love to life in the way that the best drama does. Unluckily,...
by phillipw | May 4, 2020 | AN, GR, Ho
The Blinded Poet Sang The ancient Greeks were heartless beasts. They loved The slaughter in the Iliad, the rape Of women captured and subdued. Greeks shoved Themselves between those thighs and hips agape For domination by triumphant men. They gloated in...
by phillipw | May 4, 2020 | AN, DI, GR
Nuances in Curves “The Diadoumenos” in Daniel Schwartz, Metamorphoses/Greek Photographs, Thames and Hudson, London and New York, 1986 The light falls, slant. It falls in shadowed, dim, And subtle patches. It is like the gods Who sometimes hide...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN, AS, HU
Ashokan Amnesia “While the memory of Ashoka having set up stone pillars persisted, what his epigraphs recorded was entirely forgotten. The pillar at Niglihawa, while recognized as Ashokan, is said to have been engraved with “the record of the...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | VI
Purity What if, when books were opened, we found leaves, Not leaves of books, but autumn leaves, of elms And maples, sycamores, or fragrant sheaves Of deer tongue shoots, vanilla in their realms Of soul. What if, when volumes opened, they Revealed...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | MA
Convenience pexels-photo-3197885 Behind the mask, beneath the clothes a man Is lurking. Hairiness of skin on chest (Perhaps) presents a layer on that span Inside his sweatshirt. Farther down a nest Of tighter hair is waiting for a hand (Your touch),...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN, DA, GR, MY
Icarus: When Cleanest Beauty Flies https://dd28.deviantart.com/art/Mourning-for-Icarus-294532709 When young men make mistakes, they still get all The glory. Here he is with nothing wrong About his body. It’s as if the fall Has killed him theoretically. This strong One...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AM, SY
Calculated Haze How modern is the notion that the pen And keyboards on machines should write out clear Communications? Ancients, writing men, Preferred elastic meanings. Like a wier Their words held back their welling meaning, deep, Or dark, or playful,...
