by phillipw | Nov 11, 2024 | FA, WH, WO
Look at His Eyes First Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Try looking at the brother on the right, Far right. What wisdom do you see in eyes Above his winsome smile? A photo’s blight Is that it...
by phillipw | Nov 10, 2024 | FA, IV
The People Who Are Too Easily Bored Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The people who too easily are bored Have boring minds, my brother Ivan says. When brains were given out, too many scored At low IQs. ...
by phillipw | Nov 4, 2024 | DO, FA, HE, IV, PH, WH
Big Eyes, Bigger Insight Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I dare you all to tell me what you see In eyes the farthest to the photo’s right. Clairvoyants alone might hold the key To fathom out...
by phillipw | Nov 4, 2024 | DO, FA, HE, IV, PH, WH, WO
The Tidy Family Composition Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We see him in his 1950s suit. Beside him sits the alien he wed; Her hairstyle would turn E.T. dumb and mute. Of course, this...
by phillipw | Sep 13, 2024 | AU, DE, FA, MO
Autumn Reincarnation or Moksha Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When autumn comes, comes wisdom made of fierce Transcendence, beauty of the hues of fire And death, the beauties, harshness, force to...
by phillipw | Aug 17, 2024 | BR, FA, JO, KE, LI, Uncategorized, WI
Mrs. Lindon and Beyond the Veil Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Fanny Brawne, later Mrs. Lindon Avoiding ghost temptations to go through The curtain made of voile of silk between The living and the...
by phillipw | Jul 11, 2024 | FA, Ho
Wretched Romans 7:24 The heart desires to be misled. It hopes And hopes and hopes. The heart wants silliness Instead of facts and facts. It goes down slopes Of wishfulness. The heart picks frilliness On Valentines, or hard testosterone If...
by phillipw | May 22, 2024 | FA, MA, OL, PU
He Had to Leave his Old Man’s Hot Water Bottle to Come Out to Work Today Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I do not know quite why, but I can tell The puppeteer I cannot see is old. Perhaps it is his...
by phillipw | May 6, 2024 | AU, FA, JO, SA
Like the Burning Stake of Saint Joan of Arc A scarlet leaf, a yellow one, a gold Flame leaf, an orange one, these rages yield Enough to cause a fire. These colors scold The other seasons since they failed to wield Such passion. They held hot as summer sun And cool...
by phillipw | May 1, 2024 | AU, FA, LO, PA, UN
Clarity and Mist in an October Morning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When autumn comes, we cannot be alone. The scarlet, orange, yellow gold and green Of leaves reach out, refuse to let chest moan, And...
by phillipw | Feb 8, 2024 | DR, FA, GR, NO
Creature of Compassion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Although in worlds outside of Asia some Might think that pink and green are linked to love Of softness, few think dragons might succumb To...
by phillipw | Jan 20, 2024 | CA, FA, SA
Insatiable Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Insatiable, your death creates a hole That sucks, a vacuum, a vortex made Of solar wind without a sun. No coal Was ever black as this. No...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2024 | AU, FA, PA, PR
Heroic The autumn brings the woods to life at last, The life of splendor made of God and light, The light and colors dreamed of though more vast Than men imagine even in a rite Of Orthodox and patriarchal sheen Of silk, embroidery. The...
by phillipw | Sep 19, 2023 | FA, MA, Uncategorized
There Are Other Organs than the Heart: Body Parts for Love Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2023 | DO, FA, RE, Uncategorized
In a World Weltered with Religions and Atheism Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem How far can we still look with eyes of faiths In spite of doubt and science twined like chains Of platinum and gold among...
by phillipw | Nov 30, 2022 | CH, FA, GI, MA
Marilyn Monroe’s Father, Charles Stanley Gifford Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He’s obviously an alien. Just look At him and then at her. The evil shows Despite the camera and the way it took Him at...
by phillipw | Aug 22, 2022 | AU, FA, WI
Autumn Wind The autumn wind has never found its shapes. October sends it through the yellow leaves, The orange ones and the red ones. Wind escapes, Not ceding any clue. Each leaf receives A hint about the contours of the wind But does not...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2022 | AR, FA
Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer in Leaves The voice of autumn yet unheard is still, But soon a breeze will turn, become a wind, Become a storm. October spreads a chill, A silence almost sound, or singing thinned By yellow in the leaves of aspens, beech And maples to the...
by phillipw | May 23, 2022 | BE, FA, MA, PE, SI
If men desire to find belief, to sing It out through throats works best to make the soul Embrace it. This will make the sought faith zing Behind their hearts and manliness’s whole. The faith will throb straight through the tenor throats, The baritones and basses’...
by phillipw | Feb 9, 2022 | AU, FA, HA, SI
Silence Beyond Silence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The quietness; A chestnut leaf sinks Through the still water. ~Shōhaku When all the world is hushed, the quietest sounds...
by phillipw | Feb 4, 2022 | DA, DR, FA, HA, HE, PE, SE, VA
Dreaming of the Coming Spring Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem They blossom, and then We gaze, and then the blooms Scatter, and then… ~ Onitsura The tightness of the winter now is...
by phillipw | Nov 8, 2021 | CH, DO, FA, HE, IV, PA, PH, WH, WO
There Wasn’t Any Hill in Brevard County, Florida, but There Were Songbirds The oatmeal made with milk and honey . . . and With mother love . . . was eaten with the sound PATTI PAGE – Mockin’ Bird Hill（1951）with lyrics – YouTube Of “Mockingbird Hill”...
by phillipw | Oct 3, 2021 | BU, FA, LE
Symmetry in Asymmetry The fawn Shakes off the butterfly And sleeps again. ~ Issa A sacred symmetry descends upon The drowsiness of spots, haphazard white, Set out on red brown pelt. The sleeping fawn Is wakened by the...
by phillipw | Aug 13, 2021 | FA, RE, SU
Migration and Transmigration The thought of ancients not set down in words Cannot be weighed. That they were like our own About the cleanest things is clear. Those birds That wing their ways in autumn’s bluest zone Above the reach of men and weapons mean The...
by phillipw | Aug 3, 2021 | BI, FA, LA, MU, SK
Cleaving Above Upon the smaller island even there A skylark lives and sings. It lives and sings And rises to the highest heights through air. The rapture of the lark swells up and springs To levitate so far above the farm And farmer that his...
by phillipw | Jul 28, 2021 | FA, IV, MO, OB, PH, SI, WH, WO
Single Perspective Single Perspective Single Perspective All All All Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The single-hearted skylark calls to mind My brothers and my father and my true, My truest self. Our...
by phillipw | Jul 27, 2021 | FA, MY, SC
Human Nature Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The sun does not begin to rise because Of songbirds singing. Manly brains know this. The dawn begins to break because of laws Of...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2021 | DA, FA, LO, PA
Penumbra around the Male Heart Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The father picks it up, the doll, and grins. He thinks of her, his daughter. She will love It, he decides. His happy moment spins Around...
by phillipw | Jun 21, 2021 | CA, CH, FA, IN, PI, PR, RE, RO, SU
Miraculous Bunkum The minds of pilgrims plod along because They lack the gifts required to see without A relic. Hunkered there inside its gauze Of cloth of gold as if in holy pout, It waits for priests to open up its box Or gate, the reliquary encrusted with ...
by phillipw | Jun 2, 2021 | FA, GR, Ho
Fixative on White Watercolor Your hope is like a cloud—in a picture. While firmer than a cloud, your hope is bright And, yes, is fixed forever. Your stricture Keeps hope in place. A watercolor white Is painted on white paper—to make sure The cloud is white. Your...
by phillipw | May 4, 2021 | AR, DA, FA, FE, GE, GR, MA, SE, SO, SP, UN
Armpit and Genital Hair on the Masculine Anima Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The armpit hair of spirits is too dark For women. Females do not like to think Of it or get a glance of it as stark As...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2021 | AU, FA, LO, ME, NO, RO
The Month of Dying Beauty The month of dying beauty made of leaves That bleed with scarlet, crimson, and the flash Of orange, hurtful yellows and bright sheaves Of golden, sickled hay revealed a gash. A wound in present time was opened by My finding of a cache of...
by phillipw | Mar 29, 2021 | FA, IS, MA, RE, SA, ST
Righteous Believers Stop their Ears When Stephen, dragged for stoning, knelt at last, The Middle Eastern mob predicted our Times. Vicious truths lived, brutal, in the past And live outrageously. Their hour Is near, unending in that hateful realm. This hatred...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2021 | AD, CO, DO, DR, EL, FA, MA, PA, PR, RE, SE
There to Efface Himself in Ecstasy Religious? There to efface himself in Ecstasy he flailed about. Yes, he tried Cocaine at first and, lolling in that sin, He won election victory as he fried His brain that way. Of course he used plain Ole dope as well but somehow...
by phillipw | Mar 26, 2021 | AU, FA, NO, OC, OX, PA, SE
Perfect Paradoxes, October’s Oxymorons The point of fall is melancholy joy. The oranges, yellows, and the reds are breaths Of autumn but in parallel destroy. Their bright solemnity a trillion deaths Entails. The oranges are calmly rife With gorgeouness of gloom. ...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2021 | AN, CO, DE, DI, FA, FE, FU, HE, KE, PE, SE, SK
Coffin, Bed, Whatever He used to have a black nacrotic ____ But now, because of you, it swells again. It pulses and is desperate to _____ Out words and symphonies so full of pain That laughter is the only option. ____ Is there if you desire it in your throat. If...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2021 | FA, IN, LO, MA, MO, PR
Love’s Predestination The baby Cain asleep upon the breast Of Eve with Adam looking fondly on Would be enough to make the sight arrest Unease in anyone. At that white dawn Of motherhood with Eve as God designed Her lovingly, her man as beautiful In her fond...
by phillipw | Mar 13, 2021 | CE, DE, FA, GR, OP, TE, ZY
Recognition Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pick up a torch and carry it up high, And carry it throughout the world, and you Will find that fame is gilding as a sly...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2021 | AL, CR, DE, ED, FA, GA, GR, Ho, SC, SM
Wandering in Warriston Cemetery “Smith contracted diphtheria in November 1866 and, although he seemed to have recovered by Christmas, was then struck down by typhus. He died at home on 5 January 1867 at the very beginning of his thirty-seventh year, and was buried in...
by phillipw | Feb 7, 2021 | AU, FA, FU, MU, Uncategorized
Curve, Raggedness, and Tininess Squared Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The thusness of the mushroom is increased By one orange leaf which falls upon it, so, An autumn colored cloth a Druid priest...
by phillipw | Jan 15, 2021 | AN, DE, FA, FI, GR, PE
Withered Chances When just a boy, he broke the beauty, broke A peony. Then later, decades on He still remembered how he felt the choke Of anger like the pain a marathon Participant endures when he sustained His father’s wrath. It rankled still beyond...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2020 | FA, HU, MO, PO, WO
Woman You slip away in poems that you wrote, In songs composed, in paintings painted by Your lust and fingers. You turn out the vote For candidate and then learn just how sly He was, or muster funding for the cause— And win—but then the circumstances...
by phillipw | Dec 21, 2020 | AU, BL, CL, FA, PE, PU, SI
Physics and Metaphysics Clean Water and Black Hole Scars Shizukasa wa kuri no ha shizumu shimizu kana The quietness; A chestnut leaf sinks Through the clear water. ~Shōhaku The simple, clear, transparent, and the pure Are summed up in the...
by phillipw | Dec 7, 2020 | AN, AR, CA, DR, FA, GA, LU, PR
Gabriel or Lucifer? My cat is like an angel when he dreams, An angel from the furry realms of God. It is as if he more than merely seems To be archangel-like, a cat who’s awed By holy visions twitching in his paws, And lies angelic in his twitching calm. His...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2020 | AU, CO, DA, EM, FA, HE, Ho, MA, NE, RA, TH, TR
Mystics of Concord Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem New England thinkers mixed autumnal views With leaves from Homer, also Dante’s leaves. That blinded poet managed to suffuse The thoughts...
by phillipw | Oct 8, 2020 | BR, CH, FA, GA, HA, HE, Ho, JO, KE, LO, RO, ST
A Quieter Love Knot like Keats’ and Fanny’s Hair Woven in Cameos A quieter thread of memory wrapped and clung To images, those shins I leaned against As jazz laughed over us, or we’d sung While standing side by side; our shoulders sensed Each other even though they...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | CA, FA, SO
The Point of Greens Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The scents are green in golf. They are the green Of grass, and hope, and promise, and of rest. Perhaps they are the green of youth as seen...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | AN, DO, ED, FA, PA, WA, WI
Edward Wilson’s Uncompromising Painting in the Face of Doom … It is as if the realm of ghosts and shades Were painted in a watercolour of Pale blues and soft frost blacks, or like charades Performed behind auroras from above Antarctic twilights. ...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AN, BU, FA, IL, LI, OB, SA
Where Cleanest Vaulting Beauty Flies Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Youths and maidens all blythe and full of glee, carried the luscious fruit in plaited baskets; and with them there went a boy who...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | DE, FA, MO
Mother and Father in Death Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He dreamed about his mother—then reached out To touch her, but his hands came up against A marble wall of blackness. In a pout...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | DE, FA, JE, RO, TI
Jews Made the Roman Fire Attack Worse John Updike in Rabbit at Rest has a Floridian Jew sneer that the proof that the Jews are God’s chosen people is in the fact that He gave them such pathetic enemies. The Romans thought destruction of the Jews, Jerusalem, and their...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AG, FA, Ho, LU, TR
It was (you may say) satisfactory Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When once there was a war above, not all Was wrong. The heft of heaven is the strength Of its stability. The walls, though tall, Are...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AU, CH, FA, FU, MO, OA, SP
Skywriting Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The well-shaped maple on the hilltop spreads Its leaves and limbs like rhythmed lines and rhymes. It is a sonnet that in autumn sheds God’s colors...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AU, CO, FA, FI, LA, OX, RE, SP
The Knighthood of the Countryside Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Genteel, the hills of Oxfordshire are clothed With farm fields at their feet, brocades of trees On shoulders and their chests. The...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AU, BE, CA, DE, DO, ED, FA, RO, WI
A Seal Upon my Heart Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My lingering rose, the lightish purple one, Has failed to open. It is still a bud In late November. Though the autumn sun Indulges it, the rose will...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AT, AU, FA
October Conviction Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The bird lifts up its wings to soak up fire’s Orange warmth, its orange and yellow heat. The wings Spread wide to soak up more. The black aspires...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2020 | DE, FA, MO, NI, SE
Selenicereus Grandiflorus I planted night-blooming, LARGE white blossomed cacti in my white garden in Kenya overlooking the Great Rift Valley. They were planted so they could climb into trees at the edge of my Moon Garden–and the edge...
by phillipw | Mar 1, 2020 | BR, FA, JO, KE, ST
The Hard Truth: Keats The myth rides gently on that wasting death. Consumption weakened him as if a spell Were cast by Tories hating lines with breath For weaker ones among us. He was well In brain and soul, this little giant filled With all nobilities, this...
by phillipw | Feb 21, 2020 | FA, HA
Dignity in Ritual Petticoats The rose is like a courtly dance in New Orleans two centuries ago. In shape The blossom has formality as true As layered dresses launched in crêpe De chine across the ballroom floor. The scheme Of petals in their strata, patterns, and...
by phillipw | Feb 17, 2020 | BR, FA, JO, KE
The Jewel a Bright Star Gave Him . The lover holds carnelian between His thumb and finger (far too late to write More poetry), then palms it there to lean Against his lifeline. If the stone is white Or red like blood that turns away from life Is well beyond God’s...
by phillipw | Feb 14, 2020 | AU, FA
Royal Fields and Horizon, Windsor: Crown, Orb and Swaying Sceptre The gentle foliage arc the hill provides Because of autumn limbs held up to touch The blue curved sky, this two-greened arch, divides The earth from heaven and then joins up much Besides. The dual bow...
by phillipw | Feb 9, 2020 | FA, LO
If Only Love L’amour est comme le vent, nous ne savons pas d’où il vient. ~ Balzac If only love were like the wind, as clear And as predictable as on our screens When forecasters pronounce, and as austere As mathematical statements, or...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2020 | AR, FA, FR
Facebook Pages I look at other people’s pages. Post, On post, on post. It is as if folk think (If that’s the word) that out there there’s a host Of hungry eyes so thrilled that they can’t blink Because of all the drivel there displayed To them by...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2019 | AU, FA, SP, TR
Tree Fates When trees begin to pale with hints of bling The first effect seems like a gauze-glove haar, A tailored fitting from the hidden spring Which spins this morning mist, distinct and far Removed from gloom. It corresponds with dawn. Yet...
by phillipw | Dec 12, 2019 | AN, FA, PS
Freudian Slope When angels go insane, what does the Great Physician do? Does He invite them to His soft, silk-covered couch, help them uncrate Their dreams, discuss them, and reveal their true Anxiety? Perhaps He gives warm drugs Injected lovingly...
by phillipw | Dec 12, 2019 | CH, DE, FA, LU, PR
Your Death Will Not Be Love Your death will not be in the order of The alphabet. Destruction comes as planned By God (predestination) from his love, From luck (though thinkers cannot understand That concept), or from nothing more than chance. Extinction doesn’t...
by phillipw | Dec 3, 2019 | FA
Antinoüs What must it be to be remembered for One thing, especially if that is as The friend of someone famous? What a bore To be of finest beauty (all that jazz) But end up just a slur in river mud, Antinoüs the god, yet only in The hollow heart of...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2019 | DE, FA
A Final, Desperate Hope When I am dead and Johnny Depp has died As well, will we find cuddling in our deaths A sweet replacement on the other side For troubled things, like orgasms and breaths? Do arch Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde Find...
by phillipw | Sep 30, 2019 | AN, CU, FA, LU
God’s Love An angel sought to be like God, better Than Him. This Lucifer was hurtled down. He wanted only to break the fetter Of abject devotion. A fiery gown Enveloped him. He wears it still. It’s Hell. Eve tasted fruit. The curses came like snake...
by phillipw | Sep 30, 2019 | A, FA
Bereft I like his armpit hair. It shows, a dark Assertion, that the angel is a full, Male entity. This exclamation mark Beneath his shoulder gives the eye a pull Towards blackness and deep masculinity. Contrasting with it are the pinions white Against his back. ...
by phillipw | Sep 18, 2019 | FA, SP
Spenser’s Red Cross Knight Edmund Spenser, Wikipedia The Red Cross Knight was far too much. The dark Spell-casters, monsters, faeries–whatever– He kept avoiding, meeting in the park Of that ridiculous poem, never Found him interesting...
by phillipw | Aug 21, 2019 | FA
You Stare at Them, Can’t Help It 0 You stare at them, can’t help it, as they stalk Along the catwalk or they stare at you From glossy magazines. Perhaps you gawk At them as if your hungry look could hew A way to beauty in their beds with them Where you...
by phillipw | Jun 5, 2019 | FA
He’s Only Young He’s Only Young He wears a wedge of kinky hair on top, Created by the barber when he cuts The sides and back. This ridge is like a crop Of blackened Brillo pad. Where it abuts The forehead, razor scraping has refined The topiary shrub. A...