by phillipw | Jul 8, 2019 | IS
Christian and Muslim in North Africa Devoted as that Berber, Augustine Of Hippo, Antonin defends belief. Why shouldn’t he? The young man’s mind is clean, As clean as desert dunes without relief From blasts of wind and brutal sun, as pure As cool oasis water, still,...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2019 | RI, WI
[Arthur Rimbaud and Oscar Wilde were born four days apart from each other. They both died and are buried in France. Wilde arrived as a student at Oxford at the same time that Rimbaud was abandoning poetry and teaching French in the large house of his employer in...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2019 | BE
Orlando Sanford International Airport Not just the eyes, but lashes too: the young One there behind the check-in desk has hearts- Stopping eyes and lashes, black, highly strung Sublimity of beauty to launch hard parts Of anyone who yearns for grace, launched to...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2019 | RI, VE
A Found Sonnet: Blue and Black Gemstones “I cannot accept this death. It’s been some Years now since we’ve seen each other. Rimbaud, Though, Arthur’s art and face, still shine out from The back of my dark brain. Rimbaud is a low, Bright sun which burns inside me,...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2019 | RI, VE
Sacerdotal Insects Young Rimbaud kept live lice in special seats Up on his head for a specific need. He didn’t leave’em in his guestroom sheets To cause insult. He needed them to breed There so that, when in passing through the rues De Paris he encountered...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2019 | GO
Imagine How Much Like a Man’s Shaved Armpit Allah Would be without Mohammad No matter who the god is, he needs men To help. He needs the prophets to deploy Their fiery beards and bristle-tongued quill pen Before he can proceed to pushing pain as joy, Vituperation,...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2019 | RI, VE
Narrow Rooms It started in a room made narrow by Paul’s Belle-mère. Lice-filled Arthur bailed from this Before the bourgeois ones could make him fly At their command. He fled to the abyss, The alleyed chasm of streetlife. When Paul Found Rimbaud after...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2019 | RI
Four Hundred & Twenty Some Odd Days When genius lived in London, English brains Were unaware. When genius loved among Them, drinking gin is what they did. The chains He broke in poetry and sex with tongue And knife and fists, the bindings he destroyed,...
