by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | RI, VE
The Blankness of the Prosaic “like an unfeeling stone” ~ Arthur Rimbaud while in Harar What turns a teenage poet into stone Without emotion? Maybe in the nest He made there he had banished joy and groan. Perhaps he planted rocks inside his chest To make the desert...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | LO, RI, VE
Watered Down Wine “My life would always be too ungovernable to be devoted to strength and beauty.” ~ Arthur Rimbaud That’s why he chose Verlaine. This Rimbaud deemed Himself unworthy, incapable of Superior phenomena. He steamed With second-rate...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | VE, WI
“The Most Beautiful Life in History” (Oscar Wilde on the life of Paul Verlaine) Wilde’s entertaining Magdalen French did not Amuse Verlaine. The fireworks of those words Were sparkling like champagne but they meant squat To Paul—or were as...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | BA, FO, SE
The Origin of the Dead Sea The music sears, romantically intense, As well it might because it is a sea On fire. It is a sparseness that is dense With utteration of severity. The darkest wine dark ocean set to flame Sings out like pain’s eternity in time. It is an...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | MO, Uncategorized
….A Planet with a Blue Star for its Sun I should have brought blue roses for the man, Pale blue, dark blue or coloured like the sky. His grief is like the darkest navy span Of uniforms that sailors who comply With grave formality must wear. Instead I...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | LO
Serial Disappointment — Barraqué’s Emotions & Music “I want no more ‘Decembers’” ~ Jean Barraqué to Michel Foucault, soon after the premiere of Séquence in 1956 In composition, forms don’t flow as planned...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | LO
[Barraqué] The Twelve Tones of Love Love’s limerence inebriates like wine, The sparkling kind. It shows itself in waves Of feeling. First, euphoria: we shine With thrilling giggle-like desire. It raves Around inside us, ricocheting, quick. The fantasies and...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | LO
Subtraction by Addition Pour Barraqué Love takes away our freedom like a chain Of need wrapped round the wrists and heart. They feel And do not feel possessiveness’s pain: It chafes and comforts them till they congeal...
