by phillipw | Oct 2, 2019 | RI, VE
As on the Smoked Walls of Lascaux “To judge simply by their writings, Verlaine and Rimbaud had not an active political idea to juggle between them—‘I don’t read the French papers any more,’ Verlaine wrote to a friend in June 1873. ‘But what harm in that?’ If they were...
by phillipw | Oct 2, 2019 | RI, VE
Beyond Empire’s Docklands When Britain led the world in child abuse In factories and in prostitution streets, Two poets, lovers weaned from their chartreuse Addiction, had to settle for small treats Like beer. The two were starving, nearly, in The filthilopolis...
by phillipw | Oct 2, 2019 | RI, VE
The Beckoned Coming “Come, dear great soul. We await you; we desire you.” ~ Paul Verlaine “vile, vicious, disgusting, smutty little schoolboy whom everyone is in raptures about.” The centuries previous to ours were full Of raptures, real, predicted, and absurd....
by phillipw | Oct 2, 2019 | RI
Nostalgia Ain’t Wot it Used to Be The adolescent brilliance finds itself Entrapped once more in Charleville. He finds His genius brusquely returned to the shelf Of mère and provincialisme. This blinds Him so much that he cannot see his way To anything...
by phillipw | Oct 1, 2019 | LU, SE
Admission When Lucifer kneels down upon the earth His knee is heavy with that might, the length Arched downward in his thigh. Its muscled girth There bends. A fullness sexual in strength And weight extends itself beside a shape Created for his...
by phillipw | Sep 30, 2019 | AN, CU, FA, LU
God’s Love An angel sought to be like God, better Than Him. This Lucifer was hurtled down. He wanted only to break the fetter Of abject devotion. A fiery gown Enveloped him. He wears it still. It’s Hell. Eve tasted fruit. The curses came like snake...
by phillipw | Sep 30, 2019 | A, FA
Bereft I like his armpit hair. It shows, a dark Assertion, that the angel is a full, Male entity. This exclamation mark Beneath his shoulder gives the eye a pull Towards blackness and deep masculinity. Contrasting with it are the pinions white Against his back. ...
by phillipw | Sep 29, 2019 | JO
Severn and Tennyson as Memorialists Let us now praise famous friends. We begin With Joseph Severn, brushing time away With immortality in John Keats’ chin As poetry lay dying. In the sway ……………. John Keats on his deathbed Of brush the...
