by phillipw | Jul 24, 2019 | DA
Annie Darwin and Arthur Hallam One Charles Darwin doubted God because The daughter of the scientist had died. Or maybe it was more than that. The claws Of scarlet snarling nature would have dyed Pure certainty about a loving force Behind the curtains of the...
by phillipw | Jul 24, 2019 | MA, MU
Pious, Pious, Pious Papyri If you were set the challenge, “Think about The most surreal conflation of the facts From distant times,” I wager (with no doubt That I would win the bet) that certain acts In ancient Egypt would be well beyond Your best (or worst)...
by phillipw | Jul 22, 2019 | HI
The Legends and the Gods, the Victors and Obliterations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-2khcTHIgs The flow of cosmic history through this mote We call the world has always been a rush, Not slow like muddy streams but more a bloat Of rivers gorged with spate of...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2019 | BE
Virgins in Self-sacrificial Auto da Fé “His ‘magic’ does not take account of what cannot be known.”* His beauty does not care Who worships it with fragrantly white-hot Devotion at a burning altar where Our ribs are offered up as incense to The...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2019 | BE, BR
Death Defied in the British Library I sit across from Wayne, but decades on And much improved. Not only young again, But cuter nose, and lips more cushion drawn, More velvet-shaped—too lovely, these, to deign To pray or sing a Sabbath verse. The hair Is lovely,...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2019 | TR
Once was Evil Enough The ancient tragedies of Athens played Upon that stage just once and then were rolled Around themselves in paper. They had made Impressions strong enough and so were scrolled Up, waiting … silently … for who knows what? For paper...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2019 | RI, VE
Black Star “Poetry is a Destructive Force.” ~ Wallace Stevens “Panteurs cruelles” ~ Arthur Rimbaud, “Voyelles” A hurricane’s extremest blast is like The force of Rimbaud. Alexandrines fell Like...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2019 | PA
More Pointed than Pantheism The god of gods appeared on earth today. He settled on a springtime tree—a crown Of whitest pink and petals came straight down From heaven. There they murmured silent whims Of glories that no mortal eye has seen. They chanted without sound...
