by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | DE, LU, MO
Fixed among the Embers I have this widowed sense about my life, A lack of presence so profound that love Is alien. I’m like a sloughed off wife Or prayerful addict now divested of My sacred drug. The sense is I have lost A major universal law surrounding me, That...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | RI, VE
Paul and Arthur [Have you ever noticed how the writers, The critics and biographers, insist On using surnames for them? The blighters Call them “Verlaine” and “Rimbaud.” Manly mist Beclouds the truth when academics choose Those family names instead of...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | CH, LO, ST, UN
“From Thy Dead Lips” There’s just a hollowness that has your smell Around it—like an aura of the sins We never did together. This shell, Its fan form, waits, on shores where death begins (If death can righteously be said to mark A start). The light around this...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | BR, LU
Across the Desk from me in the British Library The shape of nostril is enough alone To say, “Write love about me. Write it now!” The message pierces through the central bone That holds my ribs together like a vow Of chastity that must be broken. Rip My...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | LO
Perfect Revenge Porn I want to exorcise the joy you caused, The misery, and every smell of you. Some gloating and sadistic god has paused My memories and I can’t escape that view Displayed inside my head. I need a priest To do the rituals to cleanse my nose And...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | CH, LO, ST
Sheer as an Anchorite Sacred to St. Bartholomew He came, a supplicant. His votive flame Was love. He held it up above the black Of curls he worshiped. Purity, not shame, Is what he had to proffer, nothing slack Or stained, because the black was utter. Up He...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | BU, LO
We Met at the Caledonian Hotel in the West End The Royal Mile is John Knox’s creed, Yet strict stone Edinburgh has the pinks, The lavenders, and blues which lovers need When springtime Presbyterian day winks To twilight. Grayness overawes the eyes Until the sun is...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | CH, FR, ST, TR
Lament for a Tree Surgeon .. I dip my heart in elegy and write, A pen held firmly by the hand of grief. Encyclopedic is the size and height Of this my undertaking. Turn a leaf Of it forever and my sorrow will Have just begun. A hundred trillion trees Can fall to...
