by phillipw | Nov 9, 2024 | BI, DE, ME, ST
Dark Lead or Scarlet Glass Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The others go around as mopes since stress, Depression, or gray weather makes them think about Gun trigger, feeling they might even press...
by phillipw | Oct 7, 2024 | LO, ME, PH
Pinioned Prescriptions: Two Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Ornithological Therapy If birds obliged, they might resolve to aid Us in disorders of the heart and mind. The robin might...
by phillipw | Sep 5, 2024 | ME
As Crazy as Allen Ginsberg Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Imagination is a bit too small Inside my brain. I can’t imagine why An Indian chef would ruin food, appal It with green peas, or...
by phillipw | Aug 27, 2024 | BI, CH, CL, DE, ME
Melancholia Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The dreams reach out as branches from the trunk And try to scratch the brain from far inside. More bark-clamped than a deep-celled troubled...
by phillipw | Aug 20, 2024 | ME, TI, Uncategorized
Anterior Cingulate Cortex as Superior to a Graff Diamonds Hallucination Watch Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Scientists uncover a fundamental aspect of time perception (msn.com) Graff Diamonds...
by phillipw | Aug 8, 2024 | BO, CO, CU, DU, MA, ME, PE, PH
Suspended Pistols Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem Most men are made of crudest iron in shapes Like penises instead of thorns. These blunt Iron prickles make their forced, demanding scrapes In victims often in...
by phillipw | Jul 30, 2024 | AB, CO, LU, ME
Coral Griefs “The Sea on Fire”: Jean Barraqué Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If mermaids basked on beaches, then their hair Would be of swaying sea grass, whether blonde Or red, and combed with coral...
by phillipw | Jul 8, 2024 | CO, ME, NU
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The novice nun waits still, a candle flame. The flame burns still. These three are still; no, not The column only, white, avoiding shame. A dusk of autumn fills her with...
by phillipw | Jul 7, 2024 | CH, CO, ME, TO
Tranquil Tokonoma One thing a perfect purple rose cannot Accomplish is a type of sadness. Man Is best at that. That is mankind’s special blot. The plants and animals have learned to ban Such uselessness. They settle in their fur Or leaves and just get on...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2024 | CO, FL, ME
Levitation above the Arbor’s Lawn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Some petals send no scent that human nose Can sense. These flowers have no fragrance for The person passing by. Smells dispose...
by phillipw | Jun 15, 2024 | ME, Uncategorized
Malformed Offspring Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Camille says Greek and Roman sculpture thrived On in medieval armor, very male Forms but of course. Such slickness has survived In metal...
by phillipw | Jun 5, 2024 | ME
“Inward Agony” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “ It had a dying fall” ~ Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene 3 “Call no man happy until he is dead.” ~ Solon Men’s lives are like played melodies. If...
by phillipw | May 10, 2024 | IN, ME
Do Not Fling Poetry into Foolishness The poet Merwin thinks about the whim That language uses us. He doesn’t say That this is just a playful notion. Slim That whimsy, though of course it’s fun to play With half-time silliness. Yet then the game Is quite another...
by phillipw | Apr 12, 2024 | CR, MA, ME, VI
Damned Quixote Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When William Blake went mad, it was his soul That drove him to it. It was far too straight, As straight as light, unerring in its goal When...
by phillipw | Jan 29, 2024 | CH, FO, HE, ME, SA, UN
No, Not Really The Christ will not ascend to heaven while One sinner screams in hell or close His gates. This absolute is known, or, if not, vile That Gospel truth of love since hellfire waits Forever and forever forcing God, Omniscient, to feel the...
by phillipw | Jan 19, 2024 | ME
Life Lives the Life of Life Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A friend asks you the meaning of our life. As soon as it is asked, the question fails. To ask it shouts religions’ godless strife. To...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2023 | ME, OR, PE
The Ghost of Grieg Imagine that you are an instrument Who offers only atmosphere, no flow Of melody, no hint of what you meant In beauty or of brass notes curved to glow Across the universe, beyond the notes That carry concepts that a poet would Convey in...
by phillipw | Jul 3, 2023 | IL, ME
Adherence to Pain and Truth of Elements Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Such things as small communion cups were notWhat gray medieval monks could use as toolsIn doing gilding on mild vellum. ...
by phillipw | Jun 18, 2023 | LO, ME
Memories as Lasting as a Christmas Tree Dumped on a Heap Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Mind, even Christmas Days can be denied Their memories. Lost for decades now a pic Resurfaces. (A special day...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2023 | ME, NO, PO, Uncategorized
Notre Dame’s Acoustics Taken Up with Enoch The polyphonic music of the time When lords and ladies and archbishops ruled, Rose made of notes and lines that as they climb Evaporate. The melodies were cooled, It seems, to nothingness at last, though lower notes Would...
by phillipw | Oct 17, 2022 | CH, ME, SA
Etudes and Sounds as Frozen Colors Echo from the Stone So let your left hand play your melody. Shake hair above the keyboard and the rules. Fill twilight holy air. Let music be The sacrament (in aisles) spilled out like jewels A ghost remembers, or the calving ice,...
by phillipw | May 29, 2022 | ME
The Spring Each thing, if large or small, does not have wide Or universal meaning. Cherries bloom And that is it. The blossoms aren’t allied With cosmic import, are not signs of doom Despite the fact that they will die. Instead Each...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2022 | AR, CO, JA, ME, PA
Cherubim Etched in Gilding Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Back then world was filled with gold, gold skies. The angels’ wings were tiny, but they flew. Two cherubim in gold attract our...
by phillipw | Jan 28, 2022 | AN, HA, ME, PO
Hesitancy Being chased The firefly Hides in the moon. ~ Ryōta When poetry is analyzed too much, It starts to lose its meaning or its force. A haiku clarified with heavy touch Becomes transparent to the mind, of course, But dies inside the heart. The...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2021 | BL, ME
Life Flame in an Anchoress Your life itself is purest flame. No flame Burns ever as impurity, but you And everyone have something never tame Inside you, screeching, an unseen sun. Blue, Its heat cannot be measured. Blue involves Both heat and cold. Blue...
by phillipw | Oct 24, 2021 | AD, AN, GR, JO, KE, LA, ME, OV, SI, SU
On First Looking into Ovid’s Metamorphoses For Adam Meister and Suyash Singh His hand was heart. His heart was hand. The hand Was heart and more. This hand was soul and mind. He learned that there are more than Sabbaths, bland And filled with trifling things like...
by phillipw | Oct 18, 2021 | BR, LO, MA, ME, RU, WO
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 walled in strength, as Æthelstan...
by phillipw | Sep 9, 2021 | EN, ME
A Butterfly Rests upon the Chapel Bell Inside the young monk’s mind a butterfly Has settled on the monastery bell. The novice has been trained to use his eye, His spiritual pupil, let it dwell On just one image for an insight in His room. The hermit settles on a...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2021 | DR, ME, SE, SH
What Your Shirt Says about You Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Your shirt says that you stink inside its pits. The cut may be as classy as a new Prince undisturbed by later teenage zits, Or whoring round...
by phillipw | Aug 29, 2021 | HA, ME, MU
At Last Explain the rise of scents, those melodic Perfumes that we call music. There were drums And rhythms, but what brought on rhapsodic Cantabile is hidden. Passion thrums Through men and women, mango girls and boys, And one night...
by phillipw | Aug 5, 2021 | CA, LO, ME, RO
Cats and Men Winn wasted love, romantic life, on men And cats like men. The men walked round as proud As only cats (and men) can be and then They left. Sometimes the men and cats allowed Some stroking of their hairy bodies for A little while and...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2021 | CA, ME, MO, RE
What is the Meaning of Life? He asks what meaning life has. It is life. The question does not have a purpose. No Reply is needed. Answers just cause strife. Philosophy is like a blizzard, snow Opaque and countless thoughts of white that pile Up beautifully, but...
by phillipw | Jun 2, 2021 | CO, GU, ME, NE
Phantom A special shadow might reveal much worse, Much more than just a silhouette of shade That trails you. It might cast a hex or curse That clings because of sly mistakes you made So long ago you thought that you should not Be punished for them, or the...
by phillipw | May 25, 2021 | ME
Circular Thinking Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A shaman or a sage walks round and round One circle. Objects in it are the past. These items may not want to be re-found. The problem is our...
by phillipw | May 13, 2021 | ME, NO, PE
Difference and Sameness Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Each rose is slightly different yet the same As all her sisters (or her brothers) on The stems. Perhaps it might be quite a shame If all...
by phillipw | May 3, 2021 | AM, AN, BI, GA, GR, ME, RA, SE, ZE
iOvid Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem What Ovid did two thousand years ago, The World Wide Web has lately caught up with. He did it many, many times. The slow Web has, at last,...
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 | Apr 19, 2021 | LO, ME, RO, SO
Recovered? Recovered? Covered once with scars, before That with the Mylar we call love, my heart Deals gingerly with this collection. More Reflective sonnet talents in the art Of poetry and love have run ahead Of my discovery of little gifts Forgotten in...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2021 | LO, ME, MO, SO
Lunar Loneliness Don’t the Moon Look Lonesome? ~ Sonny Rollins The moon has been too visited by rocks, Celestial bodies and all sorts of bits And pieces from deep space. Yet frequent shocks Of such communication are just hits Of loneliness, again,...
by phillipw | Apr 15, 2021 | DA, DR, ME, NI
Strata Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Our memories bring us home to more than just Ourselves, or rather to those selves that we Once were and later. Souvenirs are trussed Up in...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2021 | CA, CO, ME
Grieving in the All but Lost Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Our memories are retrieved by golden chains That reach, reach, reach until they hook a jewel From cavern depths. The caves are...
by phillipw | Apr 12, 2021 | ME, PS, SA, SE, TH
Saint Sebastian Sans the Sacred Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Most memories cannot be kept close, not near, Not near enough to scar, unless the scar Is of a tribal kind gouged in by fear Appearing...
by phillipw | Apr 12, 2021 | ME, RE
Necromancy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You are a soul assembly gadget. You Bring past’s romances back to life with their Discrete perfumes of armpit sweat, pass through Me once...
by phillipw | Apr 5, 2021 | CA, CH, GR, Ho, ME, TO
Not as Certain as Dim Marble in the Nave We pause beside those tombs, the ones with white Carved marble hands in praying firmness there On chest and breast. They look to be contrite And will be ever so. The lordly prayer Is undermined since also there beside Him is...
by phillipw | Apr 4, 2021 | CH, DE, LO, ME, MO, ST
Submerged City You lie, a city now, beneath the clear Depths. You are still but we can see you move Because we knew you when you filled the sphere We call the past now. Memory can prove An old existence: archeology Can bring perfection up from underneath...
by phillipw | Mar 22, 2021 | GO, IN, LI, ME, PO
Four Corners Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The Earth was said to have four corners when The Bible first appeared in Jewish minds. My mind has just four corners. Its amen Is...
by phillipw | Mar 16, 2021 | CH, CL, ME
Waking Up Still Alive in a Pastel Gas Chamber The melancholy of a lifetime hums, Hums silence into sadness, though a mild Kind, in the velvet sunset which becomes The sum of all the wounds your beds compiled. The noon intensifies the wounding if The melancholy lingers...
by phillipw | Mar 16, 2021 | EA, ER, HA, HE, HI, LO, MA, ME, SE, ST
Recollections Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Dawn comes and wakens up inside my core The reminiscences that sleep inside The past, that sleep there, stowed subconscious lore That...
by phillipw | Mar 16, 2021 | GA, GE, ME, PO, SI, SK
The Lark Ascending “But wider over many heads The starry voice ascending spreads, Awakening . . . As he to silence nearer soars” “The Lark Ascending” ~ George Meredith He hopes to raise such images, and thoughts, And beauties in his poems as the...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2021 | EL, ME, SE, SU, Uncategorized
Who Needs the Islamic State? Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Severed heads: The green and orange Elysia marginata sea slug is capable of decapitating itself when its body becomes infected with...
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 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 10, 2021 | IL, LE, MA, ME, MO, TH
Medieval Razzmatazz in Le Morte d’Arthur Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Than he com on so faste that his felyship semed as blak as inde.” ~ Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur Let’s...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | HA, LI, LO, Mc, ME
Linda He falls apart. He picks it up and goes To pieces. Snapshots there had lain inside The closet darkness decades. In the throes Of stirred up memories, he learned they misguide. Blank absence makes us think that we’re like ones Who don’t believe...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | CA, CO, IL, ME, PA, PS
Devotion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A fictive leaf of ink, or paint, or gilt On vellum is perfection brushed there small But large in love of utterness. The...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2020 | ME, TH
Psychotherapy Prognosis Your history can’t be cured. It only goes To something like remission lacking hope. Your past remains. Its presence, fungal, grows In X-rays probing memories. You can cope If you are drugged enough with commonplace Forgetfulness and don’t...
by phillipw | Dec 23, 2020 | AC, AN, EP, Ho, IL, ME, MO, PO
Absence Forbidden by Anamnesis Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pure absence is unknown—as long as mind Retains the memory, absence is denied. An ancient poet, wandering and blind, Can see that fact. ...
by phillipw | Dec 23, 2020 | AN, JA, ME, SA, ST, Ta
Fabulous Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The ancient Japanese sword-makers bent Bent, coaxed their steel, more thousands of plies, than Rehearsing swordsmen slashed their blades. ...
by phillipw | Dec 16, 2020 | LO, ME, RO
Unworthy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My hands would pluck you stars and let you place These red hots, stellar candies, on your tongue To cool them. Then my arms would sweep...
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 | Dec 2, 2020 | AN, BA, EU, HA, JA, LY, ME, MU, MY, OR
Lyrical Light and Annihilation The harp is not of heaven alone. Its strings Have been to Hades on the saddest trip. A gilded harp may seem to have the wings Of Hermes. It may ride an Argo ship Which has one eye to see its way to fleece And gold, to beauty’s...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2020 | CR, DO, GO, ME, MU, PH, SP, SU
Still God Amphibole Tremolite-121232. By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10140515 Suppose that God could resurrect you whole, By quarks and hadrons, nth particle by Nth...
by phillipw | Nov 15, 2020 | DI, GO, ME, OR, RE
Seilênos, Apollo, and Orpheus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We want a poet who is satyr, god (As Dionysus), both, and more, combined. We want his beard raised high and want him shod...
by phillipw | Oct 24, 2020 | BO, BU, EN, ME, MY
The Harvest of a Quiet Eye “The harvest of a quiet eye” ~ John Richard Vernon Ignore the razzmatazz, and sex, and stuff. Just look around you in the dawn and see A crack in God’s eternity, enough To show the mystical, mystery In twilight. Take an old, old book...
by phillipw | Oct 11, 2020 | FO, JU, ME, PU, RE
Mercy Tempts, Too Late Redemption of a tragedy by facts Is not enough. To gather them and write Them out slinks, paltry. Call up pulsing acts But they are lost if they are in the plight Of scholarship. Recording them is not Enough. To put them in the rites of...
by phillipw | Oct 10, 2020 | FO, HE, ME, SI, ST
Frozen Heaven and Hot Hues Hell Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When I am dead, my secrets will be turned To frost up on a pane, up in the New Jerusalem, or maybe will be burned In stained glass down...
by phillipw | Oct 9, 2020 | ME, SE, YO
Little Nooks Our selves, our other selves, remain in some Place, somewhere. They are in our minds, the minds Of others, in our memories. They come Up, recollections in our brains. These rinds Are what we used to be when younger, young In places...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | BI, HA, IG, LO, ME, MO, PE, ST
Madness of Musical Men Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The work is characterized by the so-called Petrushka chord (consisting of C major and F♯ major triads played together), a bitonality device...
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 23, 2020 | FE, HE, ME, SE, ST, WO
How Men Feel about Women Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We feel that they are hostesses. That’s best. That’s how they are at best. They have long hair (At best) but short will do. We like the...
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 2, 2020 | CO, DE, FU, ME, MO
Rites When undertakers take the body, pimp It up to please its final lover, stretch Its limbs to that position while still limp And use mascara and lipstick to etch A long-time disposition for the lips To welcome death, do hands attempt to call Up...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AD, AN, FE, GL, HI, Ho, KY, ME
Were I to Believe in Angels’ Songs If angels, each one, had a message they Would sing to us, would each charge be the same, A Kyrie, an Adoramus te, Or Gloria? No, that would be too tame. I’m thinking every one would be unique, Each text and melody enough to...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | AP, DI, GO, LI, ME, MU, PO, RH
The Cavern Leading to the Muses When Linus first invented rhythm with A melody in song, the beauty came Ideal — so lovely that a sacred myth Could not compete. Apollo could not tame A thing so perfect, so he had to kill The poet. Deity must never lose With humans,...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | CO, GO, JA, ME, OD, PE, SA, SO, WI
The Big Exceptions The women move in caged in places both In life and plays. In poetry they are Curtailed to Sappho and Corinna. Troth Constricts Penelope. It hems. No spar To take her seas away, she sits at loom, Is trapped at night unpicking her trapped work,...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | JA, MA, ME, MU, OR
Dissonance in Early Poetry Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse The primal poet sang at Jason’s feast, At Jason’s wedding to Medea. Gods Are vile: the marriage’s allure deceased As Orpheus’s melody, at odds With fate, began to fill...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | AN, ME, SY
Ancient Greek, Then Church Latin, Symposium, Scriptorium Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Readers of Greek poetry constituted an élite, as in the Middle Ages readers of Latin did.” ~ Michael...
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 18, 2020 | DO, ME, TR
Trump and Melania, Liberace and Scott Thorson,Verlaine and Rimbaud … the List Goes On and On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saQ5PY4XyYQ When men grow old, they suddenly can still Be caught up by cyclones whirling in their veins. The younger winds around them...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | MA, ME, PO
“Man” His birth was over hidden shoals and shores So he was destined for a freedom in His living. Voices he could raise were roars Or singing. He could be a monk or sin With gold along his wings. His ways could sweep Wide continents or oar their ways on...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | EF, GR, ME, TO
Across the Breadth and Height Across the breadth and height of England spread Out harshly on their slabs beneath the stained Glass, death, and honor men lie, with a head Of stone or metal, memory sustained Just barely in a chapel or a church, Cathedrals...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | ME
A Consternation of Forgetfulness Our memories are only mirrors backed With ruined silver, tarnished souvenirs Remembered by each other. What they’ve lacked In authenticity they’ve mixed with tears Or brightness so that seeming to forget We cleverly do conjuring with...
by phillipw | May 18, 2020 | ME, SO
Melodies for Sonnets I searched the Web for melodies to sing A sonnet to, and YouTube offered four. Four measley tunes for sonnets! Here’s the thing: I reckon at the very least that more Than 40,000,000 sonnets will have been Composed since Petrarch tidied up...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | DA, ME, RE, WH, WO
Antechambers My father’s residence was memories As if a chambered nautilus turned back To find in older shapes a lustrous ease As snug in paradox, as neat in tack As any yacht that sails against the wind. He found his comfort in a smaller place When he, an...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | MA, ME
Commonsense, Centaurs It stands to reason that if men become Themselves, a fractionation will result. The only way for unity is numb Society. Agreement will insult The purpose of a man. Why bother with Essential masculinity if what We want is maleness purified like...
by phillipw | May 14, 2020 | BU, GA, HI, ME, MY, PA
Siddhartha “and things stable by unceasing mutations” ~ Thomas Taylor, 1792 The glacier is ever changing, still And not still, frozen, flowing, fixed and not, Yes, like Jehovah’s unperplexing will, And whitened like a purpose not forgot. Crevasses...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | FE, ME, MU, RI, RO, WA
The Descent from the Scottish Highlands and Luzern Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The melodies that go on long and fine, And long and long, without a gap or pause Streamed out from Mendelssohn. An...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | AC, CE, CH, ED, JA, MA, ME, RE
More Widely Sage than Plato Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A cave as classroom with a centaur (wise And just) as teacher is a place to learn, Surpassed by none. They straddled with their thighs...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AM, ME, PE, VA
Shalimar by Guerlain Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Nothing is ever quite lost, even though its sense might be.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The Story of Poetry, 11 When time has taken long enough to...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AS, CA, CH, ME, NE, PO, SA, ST
“Like Some Clean Beast” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “In the evenings at Streonshalh . . . farm labourers gathered to play the harp and to sing. Caedmon . . . was in the habit of withdrawing to his...
by phillipw | Apr 24, 2020 | MA, ME
The Eternal Cry of Women about Men and Love “Your thoughtlessness in love, Orpheus, has wrecked us both.” ~ Virgil, in Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, p. 93 They never know, these men, not even when They get the clearest orders. Even gods Are useless. Pluto gives...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2020 | ME, RE
Renaissance Confusion Leading on to Shelley http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/harris/StudentProjects/Laset/DefenNotes.htm Though poetry is not divine, some minds, Awakening centuries’ minds, turn Plato’s views To make that claim. A lonely scholar winds The esthetician’s...
by phillipw | Apr 16, 2020 | AN, ME, SC
Medieval or Eternity The artist does not have a name. Severe With grace in stone, the sculptures look down on Us, masking his identity, a tear Not shed, a smile withheld. The brawn Of arm and shoulder, strength and talent of The hand can only be supposed. The man...
by phillipw | Apr 14, 2020 | AN, IL, ME
Ancient Greek, Then Church Latin, Symposium, Scriptorium “Readers of Greek poetry constituted an élite, as in the Middle Ages readers of Latin did.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 13 “The symposiasts drank rather too much-watered wine, wore crowns, perfumes and...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2020 | ME
Medea Made of Marble, Barbarity, and Beauty …… One difficulty is that we make gold Where only bronze was. Alchemy of mind Tends finally to turn ideals and old Exemplars into falsenenesses which blind With kitschlike beauty. Worlds built on slaves Are...
by phillipw | Mar 12, 2020 | ME
Turkish Delights The fruits of memory caked with silence are Unlike those crystal petal bonbons, sweet And bright in colors. Memory’s like a star Collapsed upon itself with weight, not heat, Far cooler. Keepsakes wrapped in rigid loss, Our memories...
by phillipw | Mar 11, 2020 | ME, MU
Mendelssohn without the Strains of Music How plain and stultified is music on The printed page, but stiff black staves and straight Blocked measures have a graceful antiphon Of phrase marks and of oval notes. Collate These with the treble clef and bass clef to Obtain...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2020 | ME
The Woven Cord for Precious Stones I have a cord of gold and silver strung With gemstones. They are hue struck like the leaves Of autumn, spring and summer, winters stung With frost and beauty, and my thought perceives Them as I pull them from the caverns of My...
by phillipw | Feb 25, 2020 | DR, FO, ME
Mind Cankers “the realm of forgetting, that overcrowded land’ ~ Donna Leon The kingdom of forgetfulness is large, Much larger than the empire of memory. Forgetting is the way that humans charge Ahead. Our histories are just the quay That once great...
by phillipw | Feb 6, 2020 | HE, ME, PH, WH
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose Today I chew the peanut butter, sweet Grape jelly, white bread sandwich which she made For me those sixty years ago. I eat Not just a memory refusing to fade But actually the groundnut spread and dark Fruit layer in between the...