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 | Mar 12, 2024 | GE, MA, QU, Ta
A Twenty-eight Year Old Baker Boy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We go to evensong and never think Of Tankerfield, not once. The anthems rise More jasmine-like than incense — not the stink Of...
by phillipw | Nov 30, 2022 | DE, FR, QU, WH
The Verges of Oblivion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem These ones lie now in death except in scraps Like tombstones, marriage licenses, and birth Certificates. From these no useful maps Can...
by phillipw | Sep 18, 2022 | BE, DE, EL, MO, QU
cows two days before a funeral Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Proverbs 26:11 When Queen Elizabeth is dead, brown cows Will, still, be lying in the Windsor fields. The autumn fields will hint...
by phillipw | Feb 20, 2022 | CH, FR, PE, QU, RE
Live Aid Because God has Allowed Famine in Ethiopia Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem All things work together for good ~ Romans 8:28 The congregation raises hands and wrists In Christ Church,...
by phillipw | Dec 6, 2021 | AL, AR, GL, HA, IN, QU, WI
Magnanimity: Mourning Gladstone Finally Offers a Peerage to Tennyson and Finally the Mourning Poet Accepts It Arthur Henry Hallam William Ewart Gladstone Alfred, Lord Tennyson Forget the jealousy between two men in love. Forget what beardless envies that in youth...
by phillipw | Mar 19, 2021 | CR, LO, QU, SE, TH
Queen Mary Had Only a Tumor as her Phantom Pregnancy We all know what the phoenix is about. It glories in the flame like Dido burned Upon that throne. That passion has a clout. It has its flame, it is the flame, flame turned Upon itself, flame causing us to die And...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2020 | BI, CH, DE, GO, IS, JU, KO, LE, OL, QU, RE
Dead Sea Salt, not Caves “Many soul-destroying things/In folded tablets” ~ T. S. Brandreth, The Iliad of Homer, 1816 I know those soul-destroying things, those things In ancient texts on parchment, vellum, or Papyrus, rolled or folded. Suffering...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | AR, FO, HE, LO, PH, PR, QU
Arcachon, Summer, 1923, White-Blond Hair “quite too adorable for words, a perfect pet, so grown up & speaks quite a lot & uses grand phrases. He is the sturdiest little boy I have ever seen & I can’t say he is spoilt.’ ~ Louise, Queen of Sweden,...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
The Poet Passes through Surrey while Reading Young Prince Philip More like a colt than other creatures, born A colt with slim limb beauty and with lock Of blondness down his forehead to adorn It, princely maleness made those near him gawk. He was not a Greek god or a...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | CR, GO, HR, PH, PR, Prinice Philip, QU
Queen Mary & the Governess: Ho Hum Hussies The queen of England met the young Greek prince. She said he was quite nice and had blue eyes. Her Majesty flunked the test to evince The slightest insight. That is no surprise. Queen Mary was just a bloody...
by phillipw | May 24, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
The Foal Who Might Have Been an Untamed Stallion A prince was just a swimming boy once (Though destined for the polo course), but still A little lad like others . . . and no dunce About controlling nannies. He was shrill In his refusal to be bossed around There on...
by phillipw | May 23, 2020 | EL, PH, PR, QU
Philip, Prince of Greece and Great Britain — a sonnet sequence within the larger sonnet sequence, The Encyclopedia Sonnetica Simian Wound to Greece “The new Greek king, Alexander, … was out walking his wolfhound, Fritz … and the dog was attacked by a...
by phillipw | May 23, 2020 | EL, MA, PR, QU, SE
H.R.H. Prince Philip His limbs have shrunk. The skin is slack And wrinkled like his balls have always been Though it is paler, thinner than that sack. The hairs that used to stick out from each shin Evaporated years ago and yet She still remembers him hunching...
by phillipw | May 9, 2020 | EL, MA, PR, QU, SE
H.R.H. Prince Philip His limbs have shrunk. The skin is slack And wrinkled like his balls have always been Though it is paler, thinner than that sack. The hairs that used to stick out from each shin Evaporated years ago and yet She still remembers him hunching...
by phillipw | Oct 14, 2019 | QU
Homophobia Psalm 11 and Genesis 1 I’m like a bird that hopes he might be free From harm among the hills. He spreads his wings And hops from branch to branch. Each budding tree Protects the happy bird whose true heart sings Through throat and beak. But what the cock...
by phillipw | Aug 13, 2019 | QU
Queen for a Day When “Queen for a Day” came on, my world stilled. Whatever else was happening, my day Went solemn like a praying nun who filled Her heart with peace. I knew that come what may A needy woman miraculously Would have oppressive troubles swept...