by phillipw | Dec 12, 2025 | JO, KE
Poetry’s Tiltings “bride of quietness and slow time” An emerald gem does not require your praise To be a wonder as it waits. We cut With laps and chisels reverently to raise Its hallowed thrill. The angles need not strut Their loveliness. It lies in silence while...
by phillipw | Dec 11, 2025 | BL, MY, WI
Reach Out and Touch The mystic cites a grain of sand. He means An emerald, cut, belonging to the New Jerusalem, implying all the greens That Christ created. Though the mystic knew Of sapphires and of diamonds, he chose To mean not blue; not purest of clarity; But...
by phillipw | Dec 10, 2025 | MA
Farewell “Look thy last on all things lovely,/ Every hour.” ~ Walter de la Mare, “Fare Well” She turns and looks for one last time upon The neighborhood she leaves. The asphalt where The ambulance is waiting isn’t dawn. She turns to see the roses where they blare In...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2025 | AE, BE, ES, Ho
Epic Similes as Nectar Among Thorns “A poem of any length neither can be, nor ought to be, all poetry.” ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Litteraria “ ‘Why did the whole Greek world exult over the combat scenes in the Iliad?’ asks Friedrich Nietzsche. We modern...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2025 | Uncategorized
An Endless Strung Out Gordian Knot “Ihm gleich” bezeichnet noch immer Fremdheit und Ferne. Darum ist die Seele Gott nicht gleich, sondern vielmehr ist sie mit ihm “allzumal gleich,” und dasselbe das er ist.” ~ Meister Eckhart [“Like Him” still denotes...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2025 | DO, JO, Uncategorized
Death Be Taut, Proud Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Death never can be killed. If death could think That, it would be as calm as light, as calm As darkness. Death could smell the faithful stink...
by phillipw | Dec 8, 2025 | ME, PE, WH
Imaginary Fabulous Beasts Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If you want emerald mermen, unicorns Of ivory, Galahads in siver white Bright armor, whitest roses lacking thorns As lovers; if a man who does not...
by phillipw | Dec 8, 2025 | CA, CH, GO, JE, WE
Never the Fall Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “there was no more sea” ~ the Disciple whom Jesus loved I never fall in love. I raise my heart And fling it up to soar across loves’ skies So planets, moons...
