by phillipw | Oct 7, 2024 | BE, FU, GE, JE, LU, PY, SP
Retort to an Unthinking Funeral Ceremony “Daur ye say Mass in my lug? ~ Jenny Geddes Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The priestess said that God loves everything He made. I kept my seat. I did...
by phillipw | Sep 10, 2024 | CH, JE, SP
Questing Everywhere Except Inside Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Too many try to live by trifles taught Them by a fast-filled Buddha or a saint, Pastel in spirit by the time they sought His insights...
by phillipw | Aug 26, 2024 | JE
Rethink of Wordsworth—Recollection is the Point Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “I saw gods ascending out of the earth.” 1 Samuel 28:13 Tranquility is not the point. The calm In future shadows does not...
by phillipw | Jul 18, 2024 | GR, JE, LI, Ta, WA
Walter Gropius and Jetliners Good Neighbors Make Good Venetian Blinds Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem That which travels clouds itself. ~ Lorca, “Corriente” I learned long, long ago that in...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2023 | AR, AU, JE
Photographs as Conquerors She languishes beyond the portraits made, Aligned above the keyboard and then on Her dressing table. In the one with shade Below the left eye rests a darker dawn Which, if we might have known its meaning first, Would maybe have required...
by phillipw | May 1, 2022 | CH, GE, JE, Uncategorized
“The Very Stones Will Cry Out” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Contemplative are agates, geodes too, And also quartz within them. All are filled With meditation colored with the blue Of...
by phillipw | Apr 28, 2022 | CH, JE
“The Universe, the Mind of God” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The leech that falls from trees in Nippon sucks From animals and humans blood. This leech Falls down and finds the flesh and then...
by phillipw | Mar 4, 2022 | BR, JE, RU
“Apollo is here, divinely cruel, and Dionysus, who maddens by his presence” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Apollo and Hyancinthus Abandoning Olympus when One God Arose from death, the Greek gods...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2022 | CH, JE, PA
“Tarry,” is Spring’s Command Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. Matthew 25:13 Yet if we grieve, the spring that blossoms will Not come as wishes quick or slow will leap. The grief of spring will hasten just...
by phillipw | Sep 28, 2021 | GE, Ho, JE, LU
Mazel Toffs It didn’t hurt to be a Gentile on The Silver Screen within the Golden Age. The Jews who ran it walked out on the lawn (The Riv of course). They had to disengage Their cut cock culture from the shiksa one. They played croquet for goodness sake And...
by phillipw | Sep 19, 2021 | HA, JE, LU
Stagey Witchiness Why bother with salvation when that “blonde” From bottles does the trick? The Hollywood Of hocus pocus Harlow’s hair has spawned One billion knock offs. Even Bollywood Would try the spell if it could get away With platinum...
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 | Sep 7, 2021 | AG, DI, ET, GO, HE, IM, JE, LO
The Immortality of the Trinity’s Adoration of Lost Souls The bliss of all the saints in Heaven is Piss poor when set against the searing pain Of those in Hell. God loves and loves. Gee Whizz, Though, what about the agony, that stain, Eternal filthy stain upon that...
by phillipw | Sep 5, 2021 | CH, GO, Ho, JE, TR
Does a Daydream in the Mind of God Become Reality? Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Jesus has a daydream on his throne, The Holy Spirit and the Father share It since the Trinity has always known...
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 | May 17, 2021 | AD, BA, CH, CR, EV, JE, TE
Fingering of Instruments So, we are made of dust; at least we men Are. God created us from dust. He bound The dust together with some liquid. Then He made us breathe. Between our thighs two round Or oval things he hung. He must have meant For us to use...
by phillipw | Apr 3, 2021 | CH, GO, JE, PO
Which God is Not “The intellect can understand any part of a thing as a part, but not as a whole. It can understand anything which God is not.” page 193 That’s really not what poetry can deal With. Poetry that’s poetry cannot Express the whole. A poem makes...
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 1, 2021 | DE, GO, GR, JE
A Sparrow Falls in Eternity He felt a small, one moment’s stress when he Rode past the fox in Slough. The coach swept by It, beautiful, quite orange. Divinity Would also have looked down from God-filled sky Since He is everywhere. He would have seen The...
by phillipw | Dec 31, 2020 | HE, JE, LO, RO, ST
Walking with Another Man in a Street of Athens Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He bought her earrings, rings in rings in rings Around a sphere, the whole arrangement made Of tempered steel. Well...
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 | Nov 11, 2020 | AL, BR, GO, IN, JE
Harvest and Outside Harvesting 1 Kings 8: “Then spake Solomon: “The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.” First Samuel 22: “He made darkness pavilions round about Him, dark waters.” Psalm 18:11: “He made darkness his secret place.” The harvesting...
by phillipw | Oct 26, 2020 | CH, CO, DE, FI, GO, HA, JE, PO, VI
Cormorants Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Morning twilight; in Their basket the cormorants Asleep, exhausted. ~ Shiki The poet notices the tiny things,...
by phillipw | Oct 13, 2020 | AN, AP, BE, CH, DI, JE, MA, RE
Christ vs. Apollo Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If true Apollo’s temple has been crushed By buildings of the Vatican, the ground Of Lord Apollo’s prophecies now hushed By singing in the...
by phillipw | Oct 8, 2020 | BL, BR, DE, GA, Ho, HU, JE, LE, MO, UN
The Song for the Statue of Liberty Sing out your foreign song. Sing out your truth. Sing out the way that you are different from The rest. Chant out from in your Succoth booth Or from your monastery. Let songs come From pink brown Harlem lips. Involve the...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | BE, JE
The Mystery of Color Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A color’s meaning is not something priests Can understand, especially if they Are Jesuits trained up to gorge a feast Of Roman Catholic thought...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | AL, GO, JE, JU, LI, ZE
Lightning Gods Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The lightning rods for timelessness, we wait For sly eternity to strike. We wait in time Yet immortality aims to castrate Or drown us. ...
by phillipw | Sep 17, 2020 | AN, AS, GR, HE, JE, PY, TR
Infant Mild and Astyanax, the Son of Hector, Hidden in Hector’s Tomb Our western world begins its dating with The birth of one warm glowing baby. Glow And gilding in the paintings are like myth. They make truth truer. Little foot and toe On manger straw are our...
by phillipw | Sep 16, 2020 | HE, JE, JU
Veiled Olympus and the Heavenly Sanctuary, with His Camouflaging Masculine Vestments God pours from jars of bounty in his halls, The jars of pleasure and of sorrow. Both. We men and women make our chorused calls From earth below. We call in prayers for growth Of...
by phillipw | Aug 23, 2020 | CA, CO, JE, KH, ME
More a God-like Tease Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Imagine if the murdered victims, all Of them, in ethnic cleansing, had their names Carved in a frieze in heaven on a tall Throne, high as...
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 | Jul 20, 2020 | AN, AR, DE, DO, IM, JE, MU, OL, OR, PI, PO
Πιερία Pieria Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pieria was laid with plains and peaks, The highest one Olympus, when the gods Set forth the world. Poseidon’s seashore speaks And gives...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | BE, BR, CH, FR, JE, LO, MO, PH, PL
Presumption Who teaches us what love is, what it means? Who? No one. Many try, but none of them Succeeds. Some say it’s like quick benzedrines Without inhalers needed. Bethlehem Is touted as another meaning of This principle or feeling—whatever....
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | BI, BO, GA, HE, JE, JU, LO, MA, RA, ZE
The next two sonnets may offend some readers. If you think you may be offended, please do not read them. Painless Pleasure: Two contradictory versions of the myth of Ganymede “to be very eager in the pursuit of pleasure is to go hunting for pain…. ...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, CO, FO, GA, JE, LU, MU
Foucault Addresses Barraqué After his Death Invisible inside sapphiric blue, Pale beauty was the hidden man. Your need To hide–conceal yourself, seek to subdue All revelation of your soul, impede Not only others but your mouth and hand From searching out your...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, FR, JE, MA
Barraqué, Un Homme Piquant comme Moi Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The newer teacher didn’t know me long Before he asked, “You are a tetchy friend, Aren’t you?” Mais oui, I think that it is wrong...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, FO, GA, Ho, JE, LO, MI
Barraqué Breaks Off Their Love The breaking off of love is not a small Affair. It’s not like breaking off a limb That’s hanging from a tree. It’s not at all Like breaking off the singing of a hymn Because the practice isn’t going right. It’s more like sacrilege,...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, FO, GA, Ho, JE, LO, MI
Julian the Apostate Proclaimed Emperor Near Notre Dame Cathedral Mais où sont les neiges d’antan! ~ François Villon In 1952 Jean wrote his first Great opus. Barraqué of Notre Dame Became the lover with a champagne thirst For Foucault. After that,...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AL, AN, DI, GO, JE, ME
Some readers may find part of this pair offensive. If you might be offended, do not read these sonnets, please. “The Men of Ancient Hellas” and “Exodus 34:14”— a pair of sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem...
by phillipw | May 19, 2020 | BA, JE
“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.” My love for you is like unceasing verse, Immortal poetry in endless lines Consumed by never ending flames. Disperse It like the incense burned in pagan shrines, But beauty of this sort...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AD, DA, JE
The Pygmy Despair The other John was in there first or you Were in him first. (That’s what I suspect.) I Was not the first and that’s the point. Your true Loves, firstly, are for one who made you cry, Who hurt you awfully, pepper sprayed your heart, And then for...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | AR, BE, BR, DE, JE, PH
Jeanette Black and White Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Her eyes cast down as if ashamed of style And beauty, she is captured. She is held Forever in the falseness. All the while This image has...
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 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 7, 2020 | BO, CY, GA, Ho, JE, LO, SY
How the Cypress Came to Be Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Sylvanus loved the boy and gave a gift To Cyparissus, gave the boy a doe. He doted on it. Then the truest shift Occurred. Sylvanus killed it...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | GA, HE, JE, SE
Wife Beating: Gore and Poetry The Greeks came up with a quite a novel cause For beating wives. The men of Thrace attacked Their wives because they whacked a poet. Claws (Well, jealous fingernails) tore up and hacked To death the world’s greatest singer. They Were...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | GO, JE
Divinity Jehovah hovers, prying with that eye, All-seeing gaze, omniscience. Worse than That sideways eyeball of Egyptians, Spy- In-Chief, He’s always seeing if He can Trip up and punish. He comes down in the cloud And fire on Sinai and writes on stone With...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2020 | AS, BU, CH, JE, SA
Petaled Salvation An emperor or any man must grope His mumbling way if he would go as pure As Buddha or as Christ. The slightest hope Is offered. Jesus holds out just one sure Path forward into holiness. “Go sell All, all you have and give it to the...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | CH, JE
The Long-haired One The long-haired man, the trouble-maker in A pose, yes, always; ever in those clothes That none of us would wear . . . he has that chin Held there too strong (as if he could depose Our ways with just his attitude) Or much too low (as if...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2019 | JE
Constipation Jealousy is not smooth and isn’t green Either, not at all like a garden pea; Rather, like rotten vanilla, obscene, Emetic—palatable as the Dead Sea. Manageable till it conquers the veins, Yet savage and wild, too, it lurks in wait &...
by phillipw | Nov 4, 2019 | FL, JE, TI
Quintet of Sonnets about Jeanette Black and White Her eyes cast down as if ashamed of style And beauty, she is captured. She is held Forever in the falseness. All the while This image has existed, it’s compelled Jeanette...
by phillipw | Oct 7, 2019 | JE
Myrrh When God Became Small Two times the God of Heaven and earth became As small as God can be. The first time he Was laid in swaddling clothes. They made him tame As any ox or sheep. Eternity Looked down upon a little mite on straw, The might of heaven in a...
by phillipw | Sep 16, 2019 | AE, AR, ES, JE, OI, PA
Wonky Shoulder Christ Perhaps the reason why the painting makes Christ’s shoulder look deformed is not because The artist, Rubens, wants to show God aches For human suffering he’s caused with flaws In his creation. Why this wonky joint Was perpetrated on...
by phillipw | Aug 7, 2019 | JE, LO, ST
Ghostly Surgery When we are sleeping, both, forever, I Will sift your soul subconsciously. This search Will certainly include past dreams and pry Among your souvenirs. I’ll find the perch Where this and that love rival have been stored. I’ll oust them,...
by phillipw | Jun 8, 2019 | JE, WH
Jeanette Black and White Her eyes cast down as if ashamed of style And beauty, she is captured. She is held Forever in the falseness. All the while This image has existed, it’s compelled Jeanette to be perfection with a full Dark lip weighed down by knowledge of a...
by phillipw | Feb 14, 2019 | JE
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 shrine was not wrong, But just. Rome...