by phillipw | Nov 25, 2024 | GI, LE, PL
Giacomo da Lentini Mentioned in the Purgatory of Dante Conductor and Alighieri slight The soul of Giacomo. One notes that he Like others had not seen the change to might That Dante started, offering the key To wider, deeper understanding of The realm of passion for a...
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 | Sep 7, 2021 | DI, GI, GO, Ho, JE, NO, PA, TR
Supreme L-o-n-g-s-h-o-t-(s) The Father reigns supreme in every way. It’s all a bit uncertain if the Son Came later and is lesser (this sounds gay) But still divine. And then the other One Is even more ambiguous. We know This biblically,...
by phillipw | Mar 1, 2021 | GI, IL, ME, MU, PH, SY
lluminated Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The secret bird refuses to be known. Its color is a flavor still unnamed, More like a smell than scarlet, a tone, Shennai in voice perhaps. It...
by phillipw | Jan 8, 2021 | BU, GI, SA, WI
The Ancient Evergreen Did Not Become a Buddha Hotoke to mo Narade uka uka Oi no matsu. The ancient pine-tree Not yet being wise Buddha Is idly dreaming. ~Issa An ancient redwood lived its slowest youth So long ago that nothing else recalls It. Redwood mindlessness...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2021 | GI, MY, SE
At Least among the Redwoods “Man is somehow out of place in ‘the brotherhood of venerable trees’[1] Yet they are meaningless without at least his absence.” ~ R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Autumn – Summer, volume 3, p. 842 Wallpaperup.com Among the brotherhood...
by phillipw | Dec 8, 2020 | AS, FR, GI, GR, ME, RO, SK
Frilly Pleats and Blokes When Greek men dance in unison, their shoes Don’t dance like chorus girls’. Men’s feet, Too large for pretty grace, are like drunk crews Of slack-foot sailors. Men ignore the neat And opt for strength. Approximate stomping Will do. ...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | ES, GI, MA, MI, PL, SO, VE
Watered Down Wine and Esthetics “Gretchen Reydams-Shils (“Myth and Poetry in the Timaeus“) deals with Socrates’ puzzling remark that his description of an ideal state was like a painting.” ~ http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/plato-and-the-poets/ Socrates’...
by phillipw | Jun 11, 2020 | AL, ES, GI, LI, SE
Gin as Tonic It moves like hypnotism down the throat, Like fuzzy ecstasies that stroke the tongue Along their way. A beauty soon begins to bloat The brain like sugared peace and mist among The nagging weights, those boring days, the nights Of brownish...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AL, AN, BO, CO, DO, GI, OS, PE, RO, WI
The Ultimate Chamber of Silent Adoration Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “When Robbie Ross died, […] he triumphed over both Bosie and Constance, by having his ashes interred in Oscar’s tomb.” ~...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | CH, GI, GR, ST
I Used to Think Unfailingly of Charles When I Passed that Tree Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I pass the giant redwood limbs each day Still. Something’s altered. It is not the tree. It’s more I don’t...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | AN, CA, DO, GI, PR
Salvation for the Calvinist Fanatic Who Did not Know Yet that He Was a Lover of Boys; the Doctrine of Double Predestination? Christ’s zealot, Gide, was taken on a trip To London by a friend. This duo went A-slumming, spiritually . . . took a sip Of...
by phillipw | Nov 6, 2019 | AD, CH, CL, GI, HE, KI, TE
….. Pubescent Vector Tom’s shoulders—knots of boyishness—were tied By Jahweh when in Baden-Powell mood But move in that white shirt where they must hide (Required by dress-code rule, to make Tom good), So they remain as veiled, as chaste, and...