by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | FR
Charles-Maurice Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince de Bénévent, Abbé de Saint-Denis at Reims, Vicar General to the Archbishop of Reims, Member of the Assembly of the Clergy, Agent General of the Clergy, Bishop of Autun, Depute to the States General (National Assembly),...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | TR
For Charles Randall Stanfield The tall deciduous trees have not put out Their dew-struck, springy leaves. Perhaps it’s wise Of these large limbs. Perhaps they have a doubt Since winter keeps returning. Let hopes rise Inside their tempered bark once April gives A...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | KE, RI, VE
Keats, Rimbaud, Verlaine Day after day I sit and write French verse Forms, villanelles and terzanelles. At noon I leave the British Library. “Much worse Existences,” I say, smugly, “are strewn Across the urban universe.” Today I noticed from the bus Paul...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
Pure Eve and the Serpent Not one of us is wholly human. So They say. They mean that we are part divine Or that we have angelic bits, or low Down stuff in us; we’re worse than stinking swine, Yak, yak, yak, blah, blah. Blindly this ignores The obvious truth. Of...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | HU
Pure Eve and the Serpent Not one of us is wholly human. So They say. They mean that we are part divine Or that we have angelic bits, or low Down stuff in us; we’re worse than stinking swine, Yack, yack, yack, blah, blah. Blindly this ignores The obvious truth. Of...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | SA, WI
The Savagery of Human Hearts The savagery of human hearts is best When violence is banned. The pressure swells As in an autoclave when love is pressed. A pressure cooker squeezes charging cells Erupting from the vessels in our chests. Erythrocytes and leukocytes,...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | CH, FR, ST
Foggy I loved you once because you were a ghost, Or I was—who cares which? You did not scare Me, yet I frightened you. At least I boast Within my ribcage that the spectral flare Of whispering love produced subconcscious fear In your left lung—fear...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2019 | FR, JO
Poor Prince Ionathan “and wept with one another, until David exceeded” — I Sam. 20:41 The frail leaf pages open to my touch; Another century opens to my eye. I wish the sentiments were just as much In favor now as they were...
