by phillipw | Oct 16, 2019 | VE
The Friend Who was Wise to Escape Early into Prussian Strength “ephebic body’s exquisite proportions” ~ Verlaine commenting on his long dead Lucien Viotti ….. Verlaine was like a bomb who injured those Around him, starting with the one who...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | IS
Allah’s Conquering, Heroic, and Hallowed Religion He proves that Sacred Islam must exult. The One True God has destined it to gloat In triumph over weaker faiths. Its cult Is Holy Strength. If it must cut the throat Of infidel and sacrilege, its boasts...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | CO
The Boxing Ring in the Grand Ole Opry Just how would you react if someone told You some unbearable new truth about Your mother, that she dreamed of that fool’s gold, Yep, country western stardom? Far too stout To be a stellar triumph in that field Or any...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | RE
Alien Piety Religion comes to me in little waves Or more like ripples on the warming sea Around my thoughts and pulsing nerves. The caves And sounding feelings that are really me Along this coastal tide refuse the hints These riffles whisper in their...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | FR
Moonlight on the Lamentation Beloved, loving John in pink is stretched Beyond the women and the men, his gold Love’s crescent brighter than them all and etched Against dark cliffside blue. Grief uncontrolled Coerces him to thrust his unstabbed palms...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | BE, MA
The Fortunate Fall of Hair Across a Forehead His hair is worth the trouble Christ has caused In making all this universe of pain. This hair is Rupert Brooke’s hair, waved and paused In holy photographs, but blond again, Not printed, real as Christ surrounded by...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | MU
Schematics vs. Rubato A music that is mostly logic breaks The purpose. Why make strictest melodies And madrigals that imitate stone snakes In formal basalt if the urge to please Is what should be consulted for the ear? If every sterling sound is settled...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | RI, VE
…….Paradox The rupture caused by Rimbaud, alcohol, And green absinthe destroyed fatherhood And Holy Matrimony. Like Saint Paul Struck down (but not by Jesus) Verlaine could See nothing till the scales fell from his eyes. Before that boy Verlaine had...
