by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | TH, Uncategorized
The God of Gods The god of gods appeared on earth today. He settled on a springtime tree—a crown Of whitest pink and petals came straight down From heaven. There they murmured silent whims Of glories that no mortal eye has seen. They chanted without sound...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | RI, VE
Blackest Star “Poetry is a Destructive Force.” ~ Wallace Stevens “Panteurs cruelles” ~ Arthur Rimbaud, “Voyelles” A hurricane’s extremest blast is like The force of Rimbaud. Alexandrines fell Like Poland’s cavalry when the Third Reich...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | RI, VE
The Terrors of the Earth “Discussing, between moves, iamb and spondee, Anacoluthon” ~ Conrad Aiken, Preludes for Memnon, LVI Wild Christ will have revenges on you both That all the world shall — God will sear your things Till charred...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | LA
An Early March Morning Near Windsor The calmer tints of colours are the way Of English landscape. Turner got it wrong. He seemed to fail to see the huddled grey That lurks behind the hues, whether in long And sweeping sunsets or in golden views. “The Hay Wain” and...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | RI, VE
Distant Intervals “It is the distant dramas of friends that are hardest to conjure up.” ~ Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts, 239 “And it’s only at distant intervals that I see the friend to whom I’ve given all my affection” ~...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | LO, RI, VE
[This one is written from the viewpoint of Verlaine. Rimbaud composed a prose poem that seems to be written in the voice of Verlaine thinking about Rimbaud, “He wants to live life as a sleepwalker” (Deliria I.) Here I have turned that prose poem on its...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | JU, MA, ME, SA, VE
Rock and Gas Giants Five planets rise to shine in white and red Above. The springtime sky becomes divine. They all are gods, though one of them is dead, Slaughtered by his son. Night-sky gods align Themselves with nothing. Is this an omen? Astrologers...
by phillipw | Jan 23, 2020 | WA
Corporal Jake Hartley Jake Hartley, Killed in a Warrior Armoured Vehicle What quirk of luck resulted in that tilt of head Before the camera clicked? What circumstance Made Jake do that slight slant, add tad of dread Or sadness to that handsome face, askance At just...
