by phillipw | Jul 29, 2024 | OD, QU
Possibilities as Exotic as Zanzibar Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem These things I might have been: streaked tourmaline Stone baked and crushed in lava, or stringed pearls So ancient that they...
by phillipw | Dec 28, 2020 | DE, HE, IM, OD, TE, UL
His Beautiful Son Does Not Have the Brains Odysseus decides he will not die. This glares as clear to him as April light On Ithaca. He knows this is awry So he will have to trick the gods. Some sleight Of mental hand will come to him in time. He guesses he will have...
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 16, 2020 | JO, KE, OD, PO
Stunned, Stung with Esthetic Tears “When it reaches Alexandria, poetry comes in out of the sun, retires to the library . . . And so it [poetry] survives in a world where the vulgar tongue is not Greek.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 19 At Florida Technological...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2020 | OD, PO, PR
A Sacred Prize Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse Gods used to care about men’s singing love And poetry. A victory in song Made up of music and male words above The rest in contests was akin to strong Success in battle. ...
by phillipw | Jun 17, 2020 | AR, IT, OD, PE, TE
Ithaca ( Ἰθάκη), the Dull Town Your wife is there, your two-balled heir, and hound Still true (like bone to brawn) behind his eyes Destroyed with cataracts—but his snout’s bound To ravel your armpit; he’s the surprise That isn’t surprising when you return Among the...
by phillipw | Feb 18, 2020 | OD, UL
Ἰθάκη, the Dull Town Your wife is there, your two-balled heir, and hound Still true (like bone to brawn) behind his eyes Destroyed with cataracts—but his snout’s bound To ravel your armpit; he’s the surprise That isn’t surprising when you return Among the...