by phillipw | Aug 2, 2024 | GH, HA, SP
Arctic Incantations Only in Their Nightmares Since ghosts make sounds of silver freezing, we Do not hear specters. Lost, their metal stains Of tarnish are more silent. Throats might see Them as the smoke from Eskimos. Refrains From howling will not do. The...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2023 | AN, GH, IN
Oppositional Productivity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Emotion is as difficult to free From poetry as cultures’ deepest faiths From superstition. It will have its spree Inside...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2020 | GH, HA
Nudging You to Accept Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The reason ghosts exist beyond our sight Is so that they can do their sucking lick Unnoticed as a breath on lips when night Has coddled us. ...
by phillipw | Dec 13, 2020 | GH, HA
It’s Useless to Cover Your Nose and Throat Ghosts never come to us, but if they do It may just be to try to smooth us into death. They will not want to grab and pull us through To their invisibility. Our breath Is far too warm and wet. It would disgust Their...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2020 | CO, DE, DI, GH, MA, OR, PE, RE, SO, SP
Reincarnation The spirit wishes it could look back to Its body, not the rotted one, and see The firm young form with hair and holy blue Of Mary’s robe in clear young eyes still free Of intimations of their death. The hair, The blond head...
by phillipw | Dec 7, 2020 | GH, LA
Lack When once your world is gone, you lurk, a ghost, Your own ghost. What would be the use of glows Of warmth when what you loved is lost? Life’s boast, That love, is silent echoes in the throes Of ricocheting vacuum. Not just That love but all else is...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2020 | AU, GH, LO, NI, TH
Starving Phantoms Missing Thanksgiving Ghosts love to gather in the kitchens where We want our memories to be. The ghosts Are hungry. Famished ghosts would love to snare Lorena’s apple pie, the smell of roasts, Aroma of her pie when bringing slice And whipped cream...
by phillipw | Sep 9, 2020 | GH, LO, ME, PH, PI
Some are Even Stored in a Sealed up Barrel in a Garden Shed The family albums brim with pictures held In off-white stasis turning yellow, stained With busy carelessness. They have been quelled By years of disregard. The snaps, constrained Inside the pages, huddled,...
by phillipw | Aug 10, 2020 | DE, DI, GH, GO, HA, JE, SO, TR, YE
Knowing Men Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ~ Ezekiel 16:49 Both Sodom and Gomorrah, salt-lick...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2020 | AR, FR, GE, GH
Smooth Contours are the Best Smooth contours are the best things in the world, The universe in fact. Who wants the straight When you can have the circular, the curled, The bent and curved? That box would be a crate (The Taj Mahal) without its graceful domes. If...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2020 | GH, SP
Eurydice behind Orpheus Do spirits dress in spirit clothes and shoes? Do spirit sandals make a sound when on The road in night or are they too diffuse Of spirit atoms? Spirits walk in dawn When desperate. Pale clothes do not make sound, No swishing in the sunrise. ...
by phillipw | Feb 10, 2020 | GH
Phosphorescence in the Ocean Waves and Footsteps on the Shore Dead souls are everywhere and not just in The ground or air from pyres. Dead spirits form A haze of hueless smoke. They are so thin, Though, that despite this insubstantial storm Around us (and presumably...