by phillipw | Mar 21, 2020 | MU, PO
Cacti and Porcupines “fixing emblazoned zones and fiery poles” ~ Wallace Stevens in “The Idea of Order at Key West” If I composed in music, I would fix Its tones like amber set on fire and launch The rhythms into space. The notes would mix With flames at...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2020 | MY, OL
Gravity: the Greeks and the Old Testament How Hitler-like and heavy is the past, How wonderful and marble-like its weight Upon our brains and guts. The Greeks loom vast; … The Hebrews, too. Their fires in myth frustrate. We can’t escape to newness. We are...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2020 | AN, GR, PO, SA
Seance from Vellum “When we listen to the verse phrases and whole poems that have made that hard journey through time, space and language, … we are enthralled as much by what we cannot know as by what we hear.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets We read...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2020 | GO, SM, TH
The Larger Picture At Oxford Artie took a First, then went To teach in Kenya. There he sat out on His little porch and taught us what is meant By dedication. His unruly lawn Was near the Great Rift Valley as he stretched Young minds in mathematics. One to...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2020 | DE, FA, MO, NI, SE
Selenicereus Grandiflorus I planted night-blooming, LARGE white blossomed cacti in my white garden in Kenya overlooking the Great Rift Valley. They were planted so they could climb into trees at the edge of my Moon Garden–and the edge...
by phillipw | Mar 18, 2020 | AN, GR, SO, TR
He Won More Victories, With Hammering More Hard . . . and Better The greatest playwright of them all loved boys. https://www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/collection/13481 Competitors loved prostitutes. Their whores Were high-class (mostly). Still their slippery joys...
by phillipw | Mar 18, 2020 | RO
The Void An emptiness so empty it contains Almost nothing, emptier than outer Space, lives inside me now. It makes blank stains On blanknesses. It is like a doubter In heaven’s streets, a vacuum that blots Out color. Atoms, clear not white, send...
by phillipw | Mar 18, 2020 | DR, NI, SU
Subconscious The deepest part of memory is a trench, The black of seabed wound. The strangest part Is not the darkness or the tides that wrench The conscious mind. No. Claws and teeth that smart The brain convulsively come up to bite Or tear at us in...
