by phillipw | Sep 10, 2024 | IN, PO
The Greek Word “Muein” Says “Do Not Utter” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You keep your mouth shut till the moment comes That mysticism enters you. That light Floods in until your inspiration...
by phillipw | Sep 10, 2024 | AD, PO
The Computer Room Replaces the Bedroom Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Men used to disappear in mistress ways, Their mistresses agreeing that a wife Was worth disdain. While in the bedroom blaze Of lust...
by phillipw | Aug 25, 2024 | IN, PO
Primeval Will A poem is primeval will as strong As impetus in evolution for Our trees around the globe. The words push, long, Enduring as a Giant Redwood, core Of heartwood at trunk’s center. Poetry Demands that humans write it, speak it, sing Its...
by phillipw | Aug 19, 2024 | AP, AR, DI, PO, Uncategorized
For TikTok, Instagram and Not . . . Eternity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A buried sundial, buried in the ash Of Pompeii’s death, saw time not marked by sun For nearly two millennia. As trash In...
by phillipw | Aug 6, 2024 | CL, PO, WA
Classic Roman Marble Walls are Not Poetry. Monet Water Lilies Framed upon Them Are Not Poetry. Poetry is Made to Spill. Soul is Never Still. and Art May Be Degraded But Is Not Defeated or Transient: paired sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2024 | CA, PO, SA, SM
Dusk on Cape Canaveral Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem That which travels ...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2024 | DA, FL, GA, OR, PO, SA, SN, SU
Weird Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem How strange these bright orbs seem beneath the snow Of Florida. The rarity should be The flakes heaped up on an orange van Gogh Might...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2024 | AM, AN, DE, HA, PO, PR
Delphi Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem To die while the dew Is yet undried, that would have Meaningless meaning. ~ Kōyō [Englished and twisted by Phillip Whidden; the more correct...
by phillipw | Jul 10, 2024 | MI, PO, RO
Thrills and Swoon Romantic Novels Your fantasy reaches as far as your hands ~ Lorca, “Oda a Salvador Dalí” (Ode to Salvador Dalí) The prophet is a poet. His experience is one known to the poets. What the poets know as poetic inspiration, the prophets call divine...
by phillipw | Jun 15, 2024 | PO
Double-edged Eternity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He kissed and in the flowing stream on earth A pool of halt and depth spread, still. One branch Stretched out across the mirror. Silent...
by phillipw | May 27, 2023 | CO, DE, PO
My Treatment of You is Far Worse Supposing that you wrote a new computer tongue, String codes, a new computer language, whole, From start to finish new, completely strung Out like a spider’s web from you, its scroll From nowhere else but from your mind—and you Then...
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 | Apr 15, 2023 | PO, Uncategorized, WR
In an Ivory Attic Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My ivory attic sees me writing lines Alone both day and night. (It isn’t like Young Chatterton’s.’ The flash of light that...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2023 | IN, OR, PO, RE
Among the Stench of Abasement, a Sonnet for Good Friday Where poetry is from is far away Or cavern deep, or both, or just a girl Who passes on the sidewalk, hair a-sway, Or even one full man whose hair is curl, And curl and curl persuading in their black, As black as...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2023 | DE, PO, RE, RO, SU
Heart Disease Men think to use gold, trivialities, To turn their superstitions, nonsense of Their so-called thought, to firm realities. They pile up symbols of agape love, Like golden crucifixes, golden rings And gilded crosses all around a snap Of...
by phillipw | Sep 4, 2022 | CO, DE, JO, KE, PO, RO, SP, TU
Autumn and the Spanish Steps Though waiting for the wind so long, the leaves Know patience, or at least they know no dread. The autumn wind is patient, too, perceives Their stoicism wearing orange and red, October yellow even, brighter in Their bravery. ...
by phillipw | Aug 7, 2022 | PO, SE
Platonic Sweat Only, Please Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You thought that poets do not have plain sweat In armpits, or in crotch . . . or on the chest. Admit it. Poets shouldn’t have a wet...
by phillipw | Jun 18, 2022 | PO
Shakespeare’s Ancestors “his feeling is that poetry is expressions of ‘moments of vision’.” ~ R. H. Blyth on Sōgi We think that poets must have Persians through Their blood. Persepolis and pillars high, Though broken in those measured meters true Too...
by phillipw | May 23, 2022 | PO
“…poetry is not thought, is not emotion, is not beauty, is not morality, is not religion, but something else….’Seek ye first the kingdom of poetry, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ ” p. 27 ~ R. H. Blyth,...
by phillipw | May 9, 2022 | CH, HA, JA, PO
Burden Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem All the cherry blooms I saw today have become A pink load on me. ~ Sobaku [freely and unfreely paraphrased by Whidden] Sobaku’s postscript to his painitng...
by phillipw | May 2, 2022 | OC, PO
West and East Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The best of western poetry brings stabs Of truth and recognition to the lung And heart. Those lines do not bring hardened scabs,...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2022 | AR, PO
Arions Conflated Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If you had hooves and mane—and god-made wings— And if you had a voice that let you speak, You might well be a flying horse who...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | BR, IM, MA, PO, RU
Wince “Hynes succeeds in reducing Brooke to two pitying, scathing lines: ‘Poor Brooke: it is his destiny to live as a supremely poetical figure, shirt open and hair too long and profile perfect – a figure that appeals to that...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BR, PH, PO, RU
Poetry Saved by Photographs and Words of Memory It hardly matters if his verse is great, Carved lines, bronze poetry, immortal stuff, Or not. Brooke’s like a surfer on the spate Of swollen wave tops. Killing beauty’s tough. It lingers on in culture’s core. His face...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2022 | BE, BR, MA, PO, RU
Approximating versus Knowing He wasn’t photogenic, no, not quite. Some formal portraits capture beauty, glow Almost with glory, but don’t hold the might To hint enough of what he had to show, Why men and women staggered in their hearts. These pictures made...
by phillipw | Feb 6, 2022 | AN, PO
Who Made Gods and Constellations and Our Deaths? Amos 5:8 The poets , long before the writers, made The myths of pregnant moon, and miracles, land With Godzilla quakes, realms of hell-born shade, And ocean, sick divinity, its hand And penis moving everywhere in...
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 | Jan 19, 2022 | PE, PO, RE
The Rebirth of Religion If horses flew with equine, stallion wings Unfallen as archangels’ feathered shapes, And Pegasus drank deeply from the springs And falls of Peirene inspiration, drapes Of godlike water for his throat, then we Might...
by phillipw | Oct 4, 2021 | FO, PO, SO
Half a Thousand Years from Now Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The harp that once through Tara’s halls” Messi and Neymar HUG Each Other After Argentina’s Win | Copa America...
by phillipw | Sep 27, 2021 | AE, ES, PO, RE, SE, TR
What Poetry Should Be and Never Be Too many people think that poetry Should be like this one photo of a dusk. They think that poetry should only be Pink, lavender, and fuzzy clouds. No musk Of malenesss, armpit smell, and not, not, not A waft of crotch sweat from a...
by phillipw | Sep 2, 2021 | FR, HA, PO, RA
Japanese and Chinese Poets Imagined Frogs Performing Poems Te wo tsuite uta mōshiaguru kawazu hana Placing his hands on Mud, the frog respectfully Recites his poem. ~ Sōkan Those poets speak of frogs producing lines Of poetry. Such poets of the pond Gulp forth...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2021 | GR, PO
“Poetry is idealized grammar” ~ Oscar Wilde An epigram is not required to be Grammatically as logical as laws Of science. If the bon mot holds the key To paradox, an ideal plants the cause Of poetry in fields of richer loam Although the weeds of words may interfere...
by phillipw | Jul 15, 2021 | BO, FI, PO
A Doll Manufactured before Sex Perhaps: Prelapsarian Porcelain Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The doll, its face, and limbs, hold dignity As sweet as childhood when imagined by A sentimental mind, a...
by phillipw | Jul 4, 2021 | AR, NA, PO
Blush Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Three thousand sonnets, thereabouts, he writes But then three plums with blush and underglow Come into his existence. Smooth skin lights Up...
by phillipw | Jun 27, 2021 | BR, DE, PO, RU, WA
The Soldier Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem In Skyros’ grove of olives, olive leaves Are brought to death by being torn from trees. The party carries him in death and grieves To lay his...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, CH, DE, FI, GA, Ho, LO, MI, PO, RO, RU, SC, WO
Blue Rugby and Blue Gallipoli Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We do not think of Rubert Brooke in blue, When we remember him at all. We think of Brooke Between some pages of a volume, true To...
by phillipw | May 30, 2021 | LI, PO, RE
Ricocheting and Reverberations “A Poem of any length neither can be, nor ought to be, all poetry.” ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge The lazy ones all say, “I like this line.” That keeps them from admitting that they don’t Like all the others. That is all just...
by phillipw | May 30, 2021 | BA, JA, PO, ZE
Sado Island Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A haiku does not aim for beauty. In The essence of the poem beauty waits. A prima donna stays behind the thin Wing curtains. ...
by phillipw | Apr 21, 2021 | AR, FR, MO, PO, RI
Rimbaud’s Tiny Kisser Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem …….. It’s worse than that unsmiling mouth implies. It’s more a grimness, executioner Made flesh and teeth. If he were...
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 | Mar 24, 2021 | AN, LI, PO, TE
Textually Abused It used to be that English teachers taught Us poetry by reading it aloud Or telling us that on our own we ought To memorize it. In the distant cloud Of eons past all poetry was set In memory by bards but maybe no One else. Our teachers...
by phillipw | Mar 22, 2021 | DA, DR, PO, SP
Whack Humor Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When he is at his gayest, you can know That he hulks earnest in designs. To take Him at his surface meaning is to go Awry the way a moth in...
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 21, 2021 | PO
The Poet Can Change his Spots Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The poet sometimes writes with ermine as The trim upon his writing lordly robe, But sometimes he is playing sultry jazz, Progressive,...
by phillipw | Mar 18, 2021 | CO, DR, FR, HI, PO, SO
Distant Hits The writing of vague truths in sonnets to Those readers you will never know takes on An almost holy redolence. You brew Up draughts of hormones and of nights long gone, And other steams of psychedelic drugs, And somewhere far away,...
by phillipw | Mar 17, 2021 | AL, BE, BI, CO, DU, HE, PO, RH, TH
Binfield’s Baddest Bantam Boy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Pope devised heroic couplets, they Were like the weapons of the day men walked With by their thighs. Their rapiers’ display Was...
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 12, 2021 | EM, PO, RA, TR
Sexual Torture The phrase in Japanese “comes smelling out” Becomes just “wafted.” What a letdown such Attempts result in, only a Girl Scout Translation. Poetry deploys a crutch When being forced across from foreign tongue To foreign tongue. When...
by phillipw | Mar 3, 2021 | PH, PO
Symphonies or Aristotle Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A poet opens up his lips. We want A poem from them, not wisdom. A sage Pronouncement we can do without. The font Of clear philosophy...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, AT, BE, ES, PE, PO
Tulip Eclipse Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When peonies erupt, they look like bombs Of lava made of petals, pinks and whites, Hurled up in mid-May air, or more like psalms Performed...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2020 | FA, HU, MO, PO, WO
Woman You slip away in poems that you wrote, In songs composed, in paintings painted by Your lust and fingers. You turn out the vote For candidate and then learn just how sly He was, or muster funding for the cause— And win—but then the circumstances...
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 | Nov 2, 2020 | CO, CY, GE, Ho, MU, NA, PO, PR, ZY
Zyklon B The darkness hangs so heavy it might make A sound if struck. The darkness is like black So weighty nightmares might begin to shake If they encountered it. Hearts might attack It. Hearts are only hearts, though. They are made Of blood and...
by phillipw | Oct 28, 2020 | BR, CO, JA, PO, RO
MENSA I have a lack of knowledge that is quite Encyclopedic when it comes to “pop” (Pop culture stuff). I like more erudite And highbrow matters. Tracks like “Lollipop, Oh Lollipop, Oh Lollie! Lollie!” can’t Appear on radar screens for me. Some lines From...
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 21, 2020 | AN, EP, HE, Ho, IL, LO, PO, RO
He Lost, was Slaughtered, but Only He and She had Triumphed Prince Paris was the winner. Every day For years he woke up to his perfect love. He knew where perfect love and beauty lay Because she lay beside him. Far above All other beauty and above the race Of women,...
by phillipw | Oct 16, 2020 | HE, MU, PE, PO, SE, SI, SO, VA
The Point of Poetry and Song Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A poem or a song can be as fierce As knife points. They are neutral, though, about The hole they make. They care not whom they pierce...
by phillipw | Oct 12, 2020 | AC, AN, Ho, PO, RA
Reeking Champ Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Achilles exists only through Homer.” ~ François-René de Chateaubriand in his preface to Les Natchez, 1826 “Achilles was a heel.” ~ Lapel badge...
by phillipw | Oct 11, 2020 | BO, CR, HI, IN, LI, MO, PO, TE, WR
A History of Upswelling Poisons Unintended Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem e plants some seeds, some sentences and words In rows. What might become of clauses, verbs, And paragraphs he cannot know. ...
by phillipw | Oct 10, 2020 | AN, BO, DE, HE, IS, OX, PO, SA
Dead Sea Scrolls and Caves Discovered Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The words remain on pages and on scrolls Through centuries and millennia. On dark Cave walls the long lost paintings left by...
by phillipw | Oct 8, 2020 | AM, DO, PO, SU, TR, UN, US
Would-be Dictator, a Reptile-like Surinam Toad The President begins to sip his tea. He holds the cup, not daintily. His firm Two fingers grip the handle. His decree Has just been tweeted. Those who start to squirm Are not considered. Gazing out beyond The roses in the...
by phillipw | Oct 7, 2020 | EL, PO, SS, ST, SW, TR
Translations of Poetry Are Not Like Translations of Saints to Heaven Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Elijah Translators kiss a piece of writing to Another language. Does the piece survive This...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | AN, BY, CO, GR, PO
Snake Intestines in the Royal College’s Library of Constantinople Inked lines of Homer quilled inside a roll, One hundred twenty feet of words along A parchment made of serpent folds, a scroll From fabled serpents’ innards, softly strong, Was laid as almost...
by phillipw | Oct 5, 2020 | AN, DR, LO, PO
Antarctica’s Dry Valley Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Extremes beyond imagining for most Are what some poets want to capture. They Want more. They strain to make their minds engrossed With...
by phillipw | Sep 16, 2020 | AN, CO, Ho, IL, PO, Ta, TR
Taironan Troy See “Mucho más que libros,” Semana, 4 June 2001, Bogatá “At the time of the conquest, the Tairona had different cultural practices than Modern Native American populations. Ethnographic sources highlight freedom to...
by phillipw | Sep 13, 2020 | BR, JA, JO, MO, PO, TH, WI, WO
Thoreau in His Worst Freudian Nightmares Could Not Have Imagined Pollock or de Kooning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Thoreau says nature does the better part Of work oak carpenters get credit for,...
by phillipw | Aug 25, 2020 | BE, Ho, PO
In a Florida Beeyard Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The lightest, powered gold is carried by The bees. They do not think of it as gold. They do not think of it as light. They fly Through beauty’s...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2020 | BE, EA, LI, MU, OR, PH, PO, SO, Uncategorized
Initiations “Every word was once a poem” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, “The Poet” “A single letter was a matter of life and death.” ~ Anne Michaels The alphabets came late, like virgins to A wedding feast. The clauses, words, and grunts Of love were...
by phillipw | Jul 28, 2020 | BR, CO, PO, ST, TE, WE
Dagger-like and Sword-like Will Notwithstanding The tears do not comply with lines in skin. They course along outside the ditches, rude Though silent in belligerence. These thin Trails cannot hold the pain when it is skewed Away from tracks that time has dug. ...
by phillipw | Jul 28, 2020 | AT, DE, HE, MO, PE, PO, VE
Their Painted Desert Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem They wait. They wait beneath. They wait below Us, we who live. Some wait in mud like Peat Men sacrificed for long lost reasons. Woe Is far...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2020 | BI, CA, DO, EA, FL, MI, OS, PE, PO, WH
The Cape Consider what the cape desires. It wants to see The clouds of birds that used to fly above It in their immemorial paths, sea And sea and sea beneath their search for love And nestlings. Cape Canaveral wants the white And white and white...
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 | PH, PL, PO, SO, WI
What We Drink Who wants thick wisdom first in poems? It Is ours for chewing in the pleasures of The scrolls of Plato, thinkers who permit The thought that pleasure proves the point of love, And stern philosophers with guts to kill All weakness, straight. The...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AE, AN, FR, GO, GR, JA, MY, PO, TH
Three Thousand Years before Apple and Three Thousand Years after the iPad I carry in my knapsack poems by The ancient Greeks, the eldest ones, the best, The best of elders. They are still as spry As dolphins’ arcs by the Argosy’s quest. Lines wait within the safety...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | AR, HE, Ho, NA, PH, PL, PO, XE
The Truth about Ancient History, Plato, and Poetry “Socrates says in the Republic that he and Plato’s brothers might have to inform poetry about the ancient quarrel between it and philosophy. Glenn Most (“What Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry?”) argues...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | GA, LE, PO, SO
The Triune Potency According to Penelope Murray, “Socrates . . . . says, ‘any story or poem . . . narrates things past, present or future’ ”. ~ Plato on Poetry, 4 We want a poem that is full of now, And past, and future, full. We want intense Severity of...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2020 | PH, PO, SE
The Poet! “light, winged, holy creature” ~ The words of Socrates to describe a poet, as quoted in Penelope Murray, Plato on Poetry, 8 That’s always how I’ve thought about myself, Yup, yes, of course, at least when I have thought Of me as “poet”—surely...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2020 | OL, PO, WA
The Luxury of Peace Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Long centuries before the growth of hate...
by phillipw | Jul 17, 2020 | AB, FE, FO, GE, PO
I Don’t Know which e-Company Tried to Abort my Poem, but I Won Anyhow (the Complacent Bastards) Today I found a sonnet I’d mislaid. In some brief crisis of a laptop sort. I’d e-mailed lines to me because afraid That in a crash a system glitch would thwart The still...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | OR, PO, TR
The Creed Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “One mustn’t accuse Virgil or Ovid of originality, of wilfully making fictions of such importance. By the time of the Roman poets, everything was...
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 | PH, PO, SA, SO
Socrates versus Sappho One wonders if poor Socrates might just Have been much happier if he had made Up poems, not philosophy. A gust Of inspiration from Apollo swayed The poets into rhapsody of thrill. While lost in love for some young person’s hair, The writers...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | DI, IN, PH, PL, PO, SO, TI
Spells and the Thoughts of Tiresias “Halliwell’s basic argument is that Socrates admits the Book X arguments to be insecure and open to defeat. He calls them ‘spells’ rather than philosophical knowledge, and he asserts that he must use them [those arguments]...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | AN, PH, PL, PO
Sovereignty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Is it simply that people who philosophize think that people who produce, consume, or appreciate poetry (the philopoiêtai) have the wrong...
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 16, 2020 | PO
Treatments in English Lessons Yet even poetry is now without Transcendence. No one wants to read it. No One pays for it and no one is devout About it as they were before the glow Of cinema and television screens. Forget about the God is dead debate. Forget about the...
by phillipw | Jul 15, 2020 | PO, TR
Where? Where? Where? “Achieved poetry paints with at least one colour which can be found nowhere else.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 19 Do you know just what that color is? Gods’ Eyes must contain it—goddesses’ more so— Yet can we see it there? Perhaps it...
by phillipw | Jul 15, 2020 | PO
Personalized Epiphany “This ‘conspicuousness’, he adds ‘will later be inhabited by poetry, thus becoming perhaps the characteristic that distinguishes poetry from every other form.’” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 19 Deep poetry does something depths can not...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | BE, EU, PO, UG
Poets, Poetry, and Women For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel. Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold, Thy face hath not the power to make love groan ~ Sonnet 131 Who thinks of blank Eurydice? None. Slack...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | PL, PO
Poets as Healers The first great poet, Orpheus, was called The Healer. Is there some great truth involved In that? Surely Plato wasn’t enthralled With poets. Plato sneered. He was resolved To say that they were more inclined to ill And that they couldn’t...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | AN, GR, PO
Poetry, Crime, and Government “Poets are the legislators of the world.” ~ Shelley The ancient Greeks still live. They are not dead. Their poetry from then speaks still upon Some pages on our shelves. The scholar’s head Refuses to let go that singing dawn. These...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | OR, PL, PO
Poetry and Hateful Plato Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Alone among male populations of The ancient world (and modern) Plato held The poet Orpheus in hatred. Love Of poets and of music had not...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2020 | AM, PO, TR
Plato and Powerful Enigmas Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When best, it hums ambiguous like tunes From dead archangels, or like rubbed out lines On palimpsests, or like the muffled runes From mouths...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | AR, IN, MU, NO, PA, PO, TI, TS
Piéria Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “the Muses’ ancient home between the roots of Olympus and the sea; to where ‘Pēneus rolls his fountains Against the morning star’.” ~ F. L....
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AR, PL, PO
Oracular, or Delphi at its Worst* In Homer’s time no word existed for Art. Praxitiles and Sappho had no term For it. The Greeks had not even the spore Of such a word, so Plato spoke no firm Ideals about that thing which we call art. He had too much, perhaps, to say...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AN, PO
Only the Poet Triumphed Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The only man to live the storm through on The wind-wrecked ship was singing all the while. The singer, he survived it in the dawn. Alone he...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AE, AN, BE, ES, HE, PO
No Room for Unholiness not Cleansed “ ‘What would a man not give,’declares Plato in the Apology, ‘to engage in conversation with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer?’ Can we do something of the sort? If not to engage in conversation, then at least to glimpse...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AM, AN, AR, MA, MU, PO, ST
Music, Poetry, and Architecture, All from Mathematics Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The poet Amphion rebuilt the streets And temples, houses, and the stoa of The ruined Cadmeia. His lyric beats Were...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AN, GR, PO, SA
Murmurs/Purling Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem [“Lo! I divine through murmurs borne The subtle thread of voices old” ~ Paul Verlaine, “Je divine, a travers un...
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | DI, MI, PL, PO
Mixed Race Divinity and Humanity Socrates “builds up a picture of the poet as ‘a light, winged, holy creature’, who cannot compose until he is out of his mind and possessed . . . . The god takes away the poet’s senses, and uses him . . . so that the poems he utters...