by phillipw | Dec 25, 2024 | AC, AE, BE, ES, MA, PH, Ta
Alpha Men and the Arts Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When far too manly in your thought, don’t dream Of doves collecting sighs or nightingales Amassing sobs. Your thick-thighed rugby team...
by phillipw | Sep 14, 2024 | AE, BE, ES, IR
All Ways Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The figure of the Real Man Standing there, Just a glimpse of him,– And we are in love. ~ Ikkyū Two Years...
by phillipw | Aug 25, 2024 | AE, ES, Uncategorized
Poetry Competition and Demolition Derby Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The only competition in the world Of poetry that matters is the fight Between the heart and mind. If they are...
by phillipw | Aug 21, 2024 | AE, ES, Uncategorized
Amaranthine Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Eternal skin does not exist. That’s wrong. Eternal beauty begs to be rehearsed, Again, again. Eternal beauty, strong As death, as wide as...
by phillipw | Jun 30, 2024 | AE, BE, ES, LA, MA, NE, SE
New England Rock-bound Coast Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When something is quite beautiful but not Quite gorgeous, we are likely to forget It, swiping left or turning to some hot Alternative,...
by phillipw | Jan 21, 2024 | AB, AE, BE, DE, ES, PH, Uncategorized, YA
Awe of the Heavenly Bodies Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The moon would kill to have a face the shape And beauty that yours shows, the smoothness, force, The splendor of your dazzle with escape...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2024 | AE, AR, BE, CH, ES, MO, underarm hair
Microbes’ Excretion in the Priests’ Hair Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I ask you, what’s the use of beauty if It’s undermined by nuns and monks at prayer, Their hands unknown to you that have a whiff...
by phillipw | Jun 16, 2023 | AE, ES
Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “What Keats meant was that the further into beauty we go, the more we make it our own, the more our life is immersed in beauty, the...
by phillipw | Aug 8, 2022 | AE, BE, ES, PR
Yearnings White clouds are lovelier or much more bright Than high blue domes. The sky above them both, And clouds and Orthodox cathedral, write A trinity of beauty, God’s own oath. A prayer for monks to chant these three compete. A shape of...
by phillipw | May 4, 2022 | AE, BE, ES, HE, JU, LI, MA, PH
Junge Männer, a Sonnet Sequence on the photographs in Herbert List’s Junge Männer [Each sonnet is about at least one of the sonnets in List’s book. Before the title of each sonnet is the number of the photograph the poem is about, as in (#1). Often (or...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | AE, BR, EC, RU, SE
Rupert Wanted Surrender “Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate. Love sells the proud heart’s citadel to fate.”~ Rupert Brooke Would women be as likely as a man To write such sentiments, to think of love As breaching...
by phillipw | Sep 27, 2021 | AE, ES, PO, RE, SE, TR
What Poetry Should Be and Never Be Too many people think that poetry Should be like this one photo of a dusk. They think that poetry should only be Pink, lavender, and fuzzy clouds. No musk Of malenesss, armpit smell, and not, not, not A waft of crotch sweat from a...
by phillipw | Sep 26, 2021 | AE, DE, EM, PR, RA, WA, WH
Barbaric Yawp His “poetry” is not so much a thing Of barbarism as it is bad Greek Or Roman oratory. In its ring It has the sound of bombast. No, not sleek, But more like overstated prose tricked out As verse on pages. Rhetoric high-flown Quite...
by phillipw | Aug 7, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PH
Gemmed Jeremiah Vituperating in Japan The pheasant screeches on the village roof. The startled hamlet is transformed, not by The gorgeousness or by his squawk; the proof That transcendental beauty needs the cry Of ugliness to set a splendor far Apart is shown by this...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2021 | AE, BE, CH, GO, JE
Abandonment’s Magnificat A beauty gone is never gone. It goes Down deep in memory. It does not turn To boredom and it never turns to prose. True beauty is like branding irons that burn The hips because of him or her but more Like him because of what he did between...
by phillipw | Jul 9, 2021 | AE, BE, CA, ES, SP
Tacit Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Where mountains aren’t, the world is still the world. There may not be the white of peaks or harsh Escarpments, but the streams of spring...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, IN, JU
White and White and Blue and Blue Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Some otherwhere the snow is lingering on The ground between the bark of oaks or pines, Perhaps beneath a peak awaiting dawn. Mount...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, CH, MA, PH, RE, ST
No Hypocrisy or Self-deceiving in Esthetics Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Jesus speaks, the monasteries chant And convents count their beads. On Georgia’s roads His words are...
by phillipw | May 31, 2021 | AE, BE, ES
A Water Drop on a Peacock Feather Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Esthetics lacking hair are bound to fade. They last less long than orange sunsets on A tropical horizon. Such are swayed To...
by phillipw | May 9, 2021 | AE, BE, BO, ES
Wisteria Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The problem with true beauty is that you Lose interest. You can look at it so long But then your mind goes wandering from the view. The truest...
by phillipw | May 1, 2021 | AE, BE, DA, ES, FE, MI, PL, ST
The Data of Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I met Miss Universe when I was just A boy of seventeen. I’ve never quite Recovered from that moment. I was thrust By accident to grasp...
by phillipw | Apr 30, 2021 | AE, ES, PH, PL, SE
Escapism = Carnevale Claptrap Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Religion, fantasy, pornography And science fiction, even pink, pink verse Are merely magic. Hearts’ geography Is what they master. They...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2021 | AE, AL, AR, CA, DE, ES, SO
Libation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Solutrean bison – By Museo de Altamira y D. Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 3.0 I sprinkled my best wine with dust from tombs, Presuming that...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, CO, ES, MO, SO, TR
The Sonnet in Its Little Room The sonnet, much too like a tight cocoon, Encased inside its silk-like threads is far Too tiny and too strict but not immune To mystic grandeur. It is not a czar Upon a dais seat raised up and vast Of gold, but more a derringer...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2021 | AE, AR, BA, GR, MO, SH, WA
Simplicity and Complexity The modern Scandinavians and chairs By Shakers have their meaning just because Of life’s complexity. The Cubist squares And glossed rectangularity give pause Like Philip Johnson’s house of cleanest glass. The house by Gropius in Lincoln...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2021 | AB, AE, AR, BE, CU, ES, MO
Picasso! Don’t look at nature after art to slight The art. The point of art is not to ape But thinking. Artists target to incite, Not prettify, but cause the mind to gape. To criticize a painting for a lack Of slavishness to facts is silliness Akin to faulting...
by phillipw | Feb 27, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, SW
Above, Beyond The swan does not desire to leave his white On water. Swimming on the surface he Turns neck and head towards his goal with slight Concern for beauty. Serendipity Meanders on the surface. Folded wings Are calmer than the flowing stream he...
by phillipw | Feb 27, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, ES, PH, PL, SW
Solemnity The swan reflects the water. Water’s light Shines off the grace. It moves like moon-drawn flow Up rivers. Streaming feathers claim the white Of foam on ocean waves. The feathers go Where God would go if he were mortal in A world devoid...
by phillipw | Feb 18, 2021 | AE, BE, BO, ES
Bonsai: Big is Not Better Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem …… Who says that small is not as good as large? Would you prefer a splendid sailboat or The heavy, hulking hull plate of a...
by phillipw | Feb 18, 2021 | AE, AU, BE, ES, PH
Sumptuous Fabric with Bl♦ck Di♦monds Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A copper-breasted pheasant shifts from claw To claw up on the autumn branch. The cold Of evening settles down upon him. ...
by phillipw | Feb 17, 2021 | AE, BE, CL, ES, RO
But Perhaps Keats Understood It at His Best Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The Pure Present which so often aroused Goethe’s admiration in every product of the classical life and in sculpture...
by phillipw | Jan 29, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, ES, PE, RE, RO
Peony Piety Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A proper reverence for petals should Be kept, especially for pink and white Ones, peonies. Perhaps a veil-like hood Should be required for viewing...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, EN, ES, PE, SA
Circumstantially Separated from Satori Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The blossoms hidden by the hedge in dark Of mid-May twilight still are seen from where I sit. Their perfect pink is light,...
by phillipw | Jan 21, 2021 | AE, BE, DI, ES, Ho, IL, RE, RO
Gardener, Heal Thyself for the Sake of Devout Worship Recovering from fever, he looks through His window. Roses bloom in glory there But they are powerless to cure. The view Should help at least, perhaps more than a prayer By priests to pagan goddesses of earth. Yet...
by phillipw | Jan 19, 2021 | AE, AN, BE, ES, JE, MO, PE
Red Peony Petals Fallen on a White Windowsill The fallen red lies still as it is weak And strong. The petals lie as still as prayer By Buddha in serenity. A Greek Simplicity is called to mind. An air Of Classicism rules the scene, restrained. Yet scarlet does not...
by phillipw | Jan 18, 2021 | AE, AN, BE, GR, MO, PE, SA
Rectitude and Beauty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Matthew 6:28 The ant, a Puritan in black, moves right Across the petal’s purity. The black One works, works,...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2021 | AE, BE, CA, CH, ES, MI, OR, RO
Milele in His Temple Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Beijing cat, a silvery chevron on His head, between his ears, in fur as white As whitest peony, the chevron drawn As Chinese artists with...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, MI, PE, RO
Ten Nine Eight Seven Six Five Four Three Two One Ignition Blast Up Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The cushion launch pads of the leaves and stems Of bushes’ light up buds...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2021 | AE, BE, DE, ES, HA, JO, PE
Sheer Vanity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It isn’t just a little happy face, This flower, though fat and happy this one is. Because of gorgeousness and grinning grace, It glories in...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2021 | AE, AN, BE, ES, MA, NA, SE
An Alternative Universe Has No Narcissus Blossoms Lingering by Ponds Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Narcissus climbed down from the edge and stepped In, lowering himself until he saw The water start...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2021 | AE, BE, DA, EN, ES, MI, PE, SA
Unfathomable in Meditation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The peony made Him measure it with his fan, The daimyo’s fan. ~ Issa [A haiku expanded by Phillip Whidden] Some things are large. Some things...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, EV, IN, PE, PU, SU
White Petals and Yellow Pollen Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem This, then, the open face we wish that we Could see throughout the universe, the pure, The innocence are utter. We would see These...
by phillipw | Jan 15, 2021 | AE, BE, CO, ES, PE
Sotōba’s “bijin” Applied Not to a Perfect Confucian Man Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The peony adorns the bed, a piece Of heaven settled down in earth. The blooms Themselves are heaven. ...
by phillipw | Jan 15, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PA, PE
Exquisite Conflation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The peony, extravagant in red Vermilion pigment dug from underground, Is so extreme it is as if it bled, This flower, from hell and...
by phillipw | Jan 14, 2021 | AE, BE, DE, ES, PE, PR
Dual Supplication against Death The flower burns its whitest white but not Alone. Beside it in the window glows A candle in the evening air so taut The flame burns on without a flicker. Those Who know the truth can see that light is light In spirit even when the...
by phillipw | Jan 14, 2021 | AE, KI, LE, ME, MO
Meager Medieval Males and Meager Modern Males Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We wonder if they honestly deceived Themselves with legends told as histories. Were decorated prose and rhyme believed As...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, LO, PE, RA, SE
Virginal In dusk of night the moon begins to rise. Enough of it invades the garden with The light the peony desires. The wise One there succumbs to Oriental myth And spreads white petals even further to Embrace the gift the heavens offer. White Adheres...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, ES, GE, HI, Ho, IS, JU, TR
Vicars of Esthetics Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Triangular like God the flowers are shown Against a boring green of lawn. Arrayed In righteous revelation now full blown Their holiness of...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, AR, BE, EN, ES, MO, NA, PE, SA
No Divisions Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Tokonama no Botan no yami ya Hototogisu ~ Shiki The darkness of the alcove Where the peonies are; A hototogisu...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, ES, PI, TE
Peace that Passeth Understanding Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So no kuraki yo woshizuka naru botan kana The garden is dark In the night, and quiet The peony. ~ Shirao The garden, dark with...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2021 | AE, AN, BE, ES, PE
A Calm Antarctic in May Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The stillness matters. Quietude prevails The way a frozen king upon a frost Throne reigns across a frozen ocean, sails Of icebergs also in his...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, GE, PA, SE
Peony and Fulfillment Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem No man has ever done a thing as lush As this. The stamens and the pistil of The peony rave out. The yellows gush Among the petals like the...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PE
Royalty and Commoners as One When peony perfection is upon Us, strong protection pulses out from them. Their petals send out messages. The dawn Of something quite so beautiful as hem, And skirt, and petticoats of flowers such As these is matched by spirit signals...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, AT, BE, ES, PE, PO
Tulip Eclipse Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When peonies erupt, they look like bombs Of lava made of petals, pinks and whites, Hurled up in mid-May air, or more like psalms Performed...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PE, RE, RO
Peony Piety Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A proper reverence for petals should Be kept, especially for pink and white Ones, peonies. Perhaps a veil-like hood Should be required for viewing...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PE, SA
Bright Pastel Beatitude Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem As darkness deepens in between the hedge And me, the peonies grow dim but do Not disappear. They hang just by the edge Of nothingness. ...
by phillipw | Jan 11, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, EN, ES, PE, SA
Circumstantially Separated from Satori Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The blossoms hidden by the hedge in dark Of mid-May twilight still are seen from where I sit. Their perfect pink is light,...
by phillipw | Dec 27, 2020 | AE, DE, GR, TH
The Darkened Sea Imagine, then, that salt waves draw the soul Of hyacinths, their purple fragrance down, The fragrance of high lilacs from rock knoll, And cliff, and pathway of an island’s crown To blue Aegean stretches. Purple falls To salt and blue. The...
by phillipw | Dec 1, 2020 | AE, BE, DI, ES, EY, GO, IL, JE
Revelations Revelation 21:19 Your eyes arrived as if a sea of blue Is where they came up from, as if they rose From Caribbean waves. If all love blue, Then all adore your look. Your eyes expose In just one glance divinity the way That it would choose...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | AE, ES, Ho, ID, PH, PL
Plato Alludes to and Quotes from Homer 331 Times Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A thinker who can’t think attempts to be Philosophy’s Big Name. He blames those who Write poetry since they lead...
by phillipw | Sep 14, 2020 | AE, BE, CH, ES, LO, MA, ST
Black and White He had black hair in hexing curls, so nth That they caused cursing in the heavens. She Held up a fan, white, silk. These caused a length Of mesmerizing love. These colors, free Of him or her, would register as nought. Because of...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AE, ES, PA, PL, TH
Widescreen, 3D, Surround Sound, Buttered Popcorn and Icy Coca-Cola® “It follows from the fact that poets do not have knowledge of that about which they speak, but aim to seem as though they do, and some listeners do not realize that poets lack knowledge.” ~...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AE, AG, AR, BE, ES, MA, PR, TR
Upon the Face of Agamemnon “and also he [King Priam of Troy] admires Agamemnon for his beauty” ~ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, XIII, 906 Forget that Helen for a moment. Think Of gorgeous men. The King of Troy could not Resist men’s beauty. Helen caused a stink That...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AE, OR
Twingeing Faint Orpheus is made of firefly light And phosphorescent footprints in the sand Inside Aegean coves of curving white. He fades and shines like constellations spanned With stars and planets hidden often by The clouds of time. He goes and comes...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AE, AN, FR, GO, GR, JA, MY, PO, TH
Three Thousand Years before Apple and Three Thousand Years after the iPad I carry in my knapsack poems by The ancient Greeks, the eldest ones, the best, The best of elders. They are still as spry As dolphins’ arcs by the Argosy’s quest. Lines wait within the safety...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AD, AE, AL, AR, BO, LO, PA, PH, RO, SE
The Venerable, Ancient Need Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “And Socrates the philosopher, who despised everything, was, for all that, subdued by the beauty of Alcibiades; as also was the venerable...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | AE, AN, BE, CH, ES, PH, PL
Philopoiêtai, Poetry Lovers from Time Immemorial “Plato’s Symposium shows how Plato deploys dramatic irony to undermine the philopoiêtai’s use of poetry. Elizabeth Belfiore (“Poets and the Symposium”) argues that the dialogue’s first five symposiasts, in their poetic...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AE, AN, BE, ES, HE, PO
No Room for Unholiness not Cleansed “ ‘What would a man not give,’declares Plato in the Apology, ‘to engage in conversation with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer?’ Can we do something of the sort? If not to engage in conversation, then at least to glimpse...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, FR, NI, PH, PL
Nietzsche vs. Plato Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Nietzsche said that Plato was “the greatest enemy of art Europe has yet produced.” This Plato spoke in imagery so far Removed from Heidegger...
by phillipw | Jun 16, 2020 | AE, AN, ES
Ancient Art Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “the ancients had not that conception of beauty separated from goodness which forms the basis and aim of aesthetics in our time” ~ Leo...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AE, AN, BE, ES, GO, JE, LO, MA, PO, SC, ST
Utmost Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Perfections are perfection but just one Is perfect. This is it. Yes, even he Is stunned to musing by the thought that none, No other single truth,...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AE, BE, EM, ES, FE, FR, HA, LO, PO, RA, Uncategorized
Haydn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A poem does not need to be about Emotions, yours or anyone’s. Instead A sonnet may avoid a tear or shout. Indeed the lines could be about your...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | AE, AN, BE, ES, MA
Silenced Pigments Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The shadows on a marble sculpture mean As much or more than its undarkened white. They have a message, vivid as that seen Upon the surface of a...
by phillipw | May 12, 2020 | AE, BE, CH, ES, FR, LO, MA, ST
Unforgotten Love Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If love were like best poems, it would last Forever, or as long as things that are not God Survive. But love is not quite perfect, vast, And...
by phillipw | May 7, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, MA
Playalinda The honey light of Florida I see In you, the orange-blossom nectar turned To amber. Frenzied buzz and frenzied bee Produce a beauty like your own. We yearned For it for decades. Now it comes in you. The gold of hair against the suntanned...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, LO, RA, UG, WA
Remember, Remember Not Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pause. Think of all the beauty lost in time, The beauties are hidden in the loss of days We never think of, beauties lost by crime, Like...
by phillipw | May 1, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, PE
The Clearest, Flawless Sonnet A sonnet made of silence set in lines Of comet-white intensity I want, The music of the spheres as heard in shrines Of Taj Mahal shaped characters, a font Of purest marble alphabets that shine Inside because of soundless Klieg light...
by phillipw | Apr 27, 2020 | AE, BE, ES
Distortions of the Lovely in Ancient Greece The beautiful in ancient times could see Themselves less perfectly than we can view Ourselves. A pond might give a good degree Of truth in its reflection, even blue Of eye and undistorted skin and shape, But other mirrors...
by phillipw | Apr 27, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, LI, PL, PO
Plato Pooh-poohs Poets, like Blaming a Leopard for not Being an Antelope Poor Plato misses, glaringly, the point, As eggheads often do. Poets, he “thinks,” Are worse than useless. That’s due to their joint Mistake of using mimesis (which stinks)...
by phillipw | Apr 26, 2020 | AE, ES, ID, PE, PO
The Triune Potency According to Penelope Murray, “Socrates . . . . says, ‘any story or poem . . . narrates things past, present or future’ ”. ~ Plato on Poetry, 4 We want a poem that is full of now, And past, and future, full. We want intense Severity of...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | AE, ES
An Esthetic Rule for Life A wasp just landed on my hand. It moved About a while and flew away. A breeze So tiny I could barely feel it proved The threat was gone. My feeling of unease Was just as short as those antennae. It Was perfect as a killing thing. That black...
by phillipw | Apr 17, 2020 | AE, AG, AN, BE, ES, PE
Peonies, Agamemnon, and the Iliad The peonies hold on in night-time dark. They fade and slacken to another kind Of loveliness. They do not know the stark Fate bearing down on them. Their pinks are blind, As blind as Homer in the palace of A king condemned by...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2020 | AE, AP, DI, ES
Volcanic Balance Cleanliness is what we need in the art, In music, and in poetry. The heats Of passion and the pulsing of the heart And other organs, lungs, are best when beats Become subdued by breezy parts of mind, The temperate regions. Coolness enters in...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | AE, ES
The Poetic Kind of True “The stories begin in kinds of truth. As events recede in time, they grow not smaller but larger in language. The ancestor who fought locally becomes a hero in a battle which assumes the scale of the epic.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First...
by phillipw | Apr 9, 2020 | AE, BE, ES
Critiquing Beauty Your beauty reasons truer than the truth. It throbs a thoughtful feeling where a mere Veracity of judgement yields to youth And freshest irises. Your pupils peer Past plain philosophy. Where liquid lies On lenses, they give entrance...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, PO
Glory, not the Mundane Why let the facts invade the realm of beauty? The truth is not the point, or rather Truth Is sovereign. It is the poet’s duty To cut through ugliness to regal youth And highest glories, not to serve glib facts. The loveliness of lively...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, MA
Troy in New Orleans, Manhattan, or London So I found “Helen” sitting in a streetcar; the Dionysian revels of her court were transferred to a Metropolitan roof garden with a jazz orchestra;and the katharsis of the fall of Troy I saw approximated in the recent World...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2020 | AE, BE, ES, MA
Blond and Black: Victor in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room That blond one now has risen in my mind. The sight that I remember most is blond, Blond curls, a curving beauty that might blind Unwary men, a loveliness beyond The fatal sight of Gorgon snakes. His...
by phillipw | Mar 2, 2020 | AE, AR, ES, PO
The Lost One “Master Alfred de Musset says great artists … belong to space, to the universe, to anything infinite.” ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan I could not give an outline of him, for how Could I begin, or end? A paradox Is all that could...
by phillipw | Feb 10, 2020 | AE, BE, BR, ES, MA
Ashurbanipal Reincarnated At a Desk in Rare Books and Music A sternness in the beauty of his nose, His eyebrows and the arch above them, Its sweeping, upward, back—these all compose An epic that should wear a diadem. Its jewels should be from Asia and the isles Of...
by phillipw | Feb 9, 2020 | AE, BE, MA
Higher Still and Higher That lower lip alone could cause us all To ponder beauty in the abstract — if The lip were not so lovely to enthrall Beyond pale intelligence. A hieroglyph For everything which symphonies desire, This fuller plumpness with its carnal...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | AE, BE, DE, ES, PE
Easter Peonies Pink peonies are dying. Only those Most hidden in the shades from one near bush Hold on to sturdy hope, to lingering rose Determination not to wilt. These push With frilled resistance, blowse-like guimpes, against That insubstantial...
by phillipw | Dec 15, 2019 | AE, BE, ES
On the Right Hand of God, the Father Almighty The pheasant stalks the hoar-frost farmer’s field, But early morning’s backlighting shines strong, So blackest silhouette is this dawn’s yield. No. Wait. Pure ugliness does not belong To spring. A moment...
by phillipw | Nov 15, 2019 | AE, AE, BE
Dark Curly Hair Blue He wears the heavenly blue of Mary’s cloak Across the bicep on his left-hand side. That muscle is not very male. The stroke Of folded blue placed there helps him to hide That fact. Another crucial part is veiled By Mary Queen of...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2019 | AB, AE, BE, ES, MA, NI
Abel, Niels Henrik ……………………Wikipedia …..Wikd Could someone please propose equations for The beauty of a man? They must include His hair (of course) and—if divinest Thor Resembled him in any way — warm hued...
by phillipw | Aug 25, 2019 | AE, AL, BU, FL, IN, LO, ME, NO
Erde und Himmel: a Sonnet The picture on the page (this photo in the ad) was not of you. It looked like you, though. Can it be that something quite so thin and boring as casually leafing through an in-flight magazine might bring this...