by phillipw | Sep 24, 2024 | RE
Back Garden Universal Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The dew upon the petal of the rose Remains undyed, a purity of red, A purity of crimson drops transpose To brightness held up in a flowerbed Like...
by phillipw | Sep 19, 2024 | BU, HI, MO, RE
Not Just Nirvana The meaning of the Passion does not quite Fit in with Buddha’s or the Hindus’ way So near enough one fifth thinks Passion’s blight. The point is in escaping it, its sway. Samsara is at best a dirtiness That reels out incarnations,...
by phillipw | Sep 10, 2024 | AU, LA, PR, RE
Goodnesss, Truth and Beauty, All A torch with smoke and gods unknown despatched The darkness, making more than art, much more. The spirit kingdoms, kin to men’s, were snatched Occult from realms unpainted, made to soar From mere reality and sent above To walls...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2024 | AR, BE, RE
Rimbaud Lived at 165 Kings Road in Reading, Berkshire, from August to December, 1874 Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Two times today he passed the mansion where A tamed down Arthur Rimbaud stayed up in...
by phillipw | Sep 3, 2024 | HE, RE, SA
Avila Cathedral Interior by Heinrich Hermanns Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal” Imagine turning richness into haze Of mystic light and...
by phillipw | Aug 12, 2024 | CH, CO, FR, KN, RE, RO, SA, SU
Compostela or Knock — Wherever Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The saints are dressed in all their silks and gems As never in their holy lives before Their martyrdoms or whatever. The hems Below...
by phillipw | Jun 26, 2024 | HE, LO, RE, RO, YO
Knots Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Every word was once a poem. ~ Emerson We try to tie a knot to give some truth To life, our lives. At times this means red grace, A bow of...
by phillipw | Jun 13, 2024 | EL, PR, RE
No Need to Lament Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Since fire is always chaste, we do not need To know its secret. Smoke is not its soul. Its soul is more a blue and yellow steed That rages...
by phillipw | May 10, 2024 | LI, RE
I Don’t Believe the Doctrine that Readers, not the Authors, Finish a Book Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Occasionally another reader made Red marks inside the margins by some lines Of poetry as if an...
by phillipw | May 9, 2024 | RE, SP
Wakeful Peace Under Shining in the Sky Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The morning April dawns, the force of March Prepares to fade. A quietude so faint That it is silent, unheard, starts to arch Its...
by phillipw | Apr 19, 2024 | CH, CR, RE, RO, TH
Gargoyles Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The gargoyles were created to display Some truth and not to ward off evil things. Perhaps grotesques were fashioned to betray The evils of the Church, the...
by phillipw | Sep 3, 2023 | AN, DI, GR, RA, RE, SE
The Ancient Gods in Perfect Geometric Shapes Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The skyward gods (like levitating shapes Of gold) float flawless, utter in the air, The ether, far above their crimes and...
by phillipw | May 12, 2023 | Ho, MA, RE
Of Divine Feet Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The truest God would make most horses wear Those manes of gold that stallions and their colts Deserve. These all and phillies—and...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2023 | DO, FA, RE, Uncategorized
In a World Weltered with Religions and Atheism Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem How far can we still look with eyes of faiths In spite of doubt and science twined like chains Of platinum and gold among...
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 | Apr 5, 2023 | BU, FL, LO, RE
Incapable Beauty The best thing that the poet pointed out Is that wise roses never know that all Are shriveling, young. The flowers never pout In sympathy with us. They never brawl With gods for us, to spare us from some fate We do not know awaits us. ...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2023 | RE
Saint Ouen Illustrated below “One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we’ve developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God[,] they believe in nothing. The truth is much...
by phillipw | Jan 13, 2023 | MO, RE
By the Stone Path The morning glories do not have to pray Or chant a sutra in a scarlet voice In sunlight, do not even need a sway From breezes. They are holiness, no choice Or sacred regimen, the sort that monks Or nuns indulge required. Blooms’...
by phillipw | Jan 8, 2023 | IS, RE, SE
Time separates more widely, fatally Than space. The second that just passed goes, gone, Leaps gone forever, plummets weightily, More heavily than gravity’s hard, wan Iron cannonball in vacuum, yanked fast Away where science cannot find it, lost Eternally and...
by phillipw | Jan 5, 2023 | BU, FL, PH, RE
Sacred and Profane Buddhas The meaning of the Buddha is in all Things, not just sacred lotuses or trees Saints sit beneath. Secular flies let fall Their droppings on the painted frieze Brushed onto white rice paper on a screen, Or watercolor painted on...
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 | Apr 24, 2022 | BE, HA, Ho, RE, TR, VE
Truer than Truthem Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Great is Beauty’s grace, Truth is yet as fair as she. ~ Thomas Campion High duty comes in...
by phillipw | Feb 24, 2022 | PE, RE, RO, SE
Shunning Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He could have broken off the rose, its pinks And petals. Hands veered past. Perhaps he saw The curvatures as sacred, or the winks...
by phillipw | Feb 21, 2022 | CH, JU, RE, RI, SO
Inner, not Outer Rightness 12 Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them … , with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and...
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 | 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 1, 2021 | CH, MI, RE, RO
Moving, Moving, Still The pilgrims on their way to Lourdes are just Like entomologists that chase fey things, Except the nets do capture perfect dust In patterned beauty on the wanton wings Symmetrical in color and in shape, Those doomed realities. The...
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 6, 2021 | EN, IS, RE, SA
No Separation from the Holy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The soul becomes disturbed when it returns From ecstasy. Ask Saint Teresa or Saint Francis. Spirit memory still burns Like coals that touch...
by phillipw | Aug 13, 2021 | FA, RE, SU
Migration and Transmigration The thought of ancients not set down in words Cannot be weighed. That they were like our own About the cleanest things is clear. Those birds That wing their ways in autumn’s bluest zone Above the reach of men and weapons mean The...
by phillipw | Aug 10, 2021 | BO, RE, SA
Vision as Daybreak Like white cloud samples brought right down to earth By Buddha as a guide to finding death Inside his blank Nirvana, they bring birth To sacred thoughts, these insights. They bring breath To bodhi. When they come, they come like...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | CH, CO, DO, RE, SE
The Holy Roast “peace on earth, good will toward men” I’m having distant arguments without Connection to the ones I’m fighting with. I write my brutal points because I doubt My brothers will consider them. The myth Of brotherhood is only that, a tale...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | BU, CH, JU, RE, SH
Judas as a Cannibal Interpreting Holiness Korea sends a priestly man, a monk, To worshiping Japan. He preaches that The animism of their bones is drunk, More like a drunken mouse or bat, And will remain so till they realize That silent Shintō gods are reflections Of...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2021 | AS, PA, PE, RE, SE
Singing Sacred Ones When things become invisible, they turn To something like the Holy Ghost. They might Come back like torching tongues of fire to burn Above apostles’ hair, or come at night Like floating space ships filled with promise, hope,...
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 | Jul 8, 2021 | AS, CH, PH, RE, SC, TH
Yeah, Right “with God all things are possible” ~ Matthew 19:26 A semantics teacher begins his first lecture of the course with this introduction: “In English grammar a double negative produces a positive. In some languages a double negative...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2021 | BU, RE
Messy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The snow has melted On just one metal shoulder Of the Great Buddha. ~ Shiki Not ours the purposes of nature. Not God’s either, not so...
by phillipw | Jul 5, 2021 | AR, CH, ON, PA, PH, RE
Perspective Without perspective we can live in white Infinity, far longer than the space In Leonardo. Chinese painters’ sight Swerves larger like an Orthodox choir’s bass In search of certain formlessness. Their blanks Loom almost misty like...
by phillipw | Jul 4, 2021 | CH, RE
The Truth about Fulfillment “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthinans 13:12 Saint Paul, beheaded for his once seen Lord, Predicted that believers all will see Him...
by phillipw | Jun 28, 2021 | BO, EN, EP, HA, IN, RE, SA, UN
They Hold their Hats in Deference in their Hands Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Two men are bowing at the crossroads to Each other. Though already distant they Grow fainter even as they set off...
by phillipw | Jun 21, 2021 | CA, CH, FA, IN, PI, PR, RE, RO, SU
Miraculous Bunkum The minds of pilgrims plod along because They lack the gifts required to see without A relic. Hunkered there inside its gauze Of cloth of gold as if in holy pout, It waits for priests to open up its box Or gate, the reliquary encrusted with ...
by phillipw | Jun 10, 2021 | CH, JU, MY, RE
144,000 Thrones Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem My childhood little church, that concrete block One painted white with ziggurat-like face, Was filled with mystic preacher salesman talk So...
by phillipw | Jun 9, 2021 | GO, MY, RE, SP
“the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem ... We live with those bright beings long ago And far away inside our bones and mind....
by phillipw | Jun 6, 2021 | CH, CO, DR, RE, ST
Loose Needlework The sage walks round in circles. Blessings burn. The blessings burn farewell. They burn the facts. They never matter. They are there to turn To incense all your scarred up faithless acts Against your wife, and son, and Jesus, too, Those...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, CH, MA, PH, RE, ST
No Hypocrisy or Self-deceiving in Esthetics Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Jesus speaks, the monasteries chant And convents count their beads. On Georgia’s roads His words are...
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 21, 2021 | CH, FR, LO, MA, RE, RO, SP, ST, UN
Tightly Closed in Open April during the Cherry Blossom Time Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Remembering sapphire air, I think of you. We shared a cut gem spring which lasted long And long because the...
by phillipw | May 1, 2021 | LA, PR, RE
Perverse Psychology Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I keep on losing arguments with me. I don’t like losing them with anyone But it’s far worse (a serendipity Unwanted) to face up to...
by phillipw | Apr 21, 2021 | HE, LO, PA, RE
Galumphing Patriotism The worst of patriotic people’s verse Is halting lineage of “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” Two lanterns would disperse (Or one) the orders that were set to guide The rider. Lucklessly, no one offered Such guidance to the poet. He...
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 11, 2021 | RE, SC
Scientific Religion We stand upon the ebbing seashore with Our backs turned firmly on the past unless We need it in our daydreams. They are myth We build on while envisioning success Or what we think the future offers. We Imagine we can almost touch it, yet...
by phillipw | Apr 4, 2021 | BU, CH, IM, RE, RO
He Wore his Royal Robes to Lead Out in Matins and Vespers Some lines of verse by Robert King of France Sing, simply pious, from one thousand years Gone by. We analyze them, though, askance Because his holiness had fatal fears Like flaming coals inside it. He was so...
by phillipw | Mar 29, 2021 | FA, IS, MA, RE, SA, ST
Righteous Believers Stop their Ears When Stephen, dragged for stoning, knelt at last, The Middle Eastern mob predicted our Times. Vicious truths lived, brutal, in the past And live outrageously. Their hour Is near, unending in that hateful realm. This hatred...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2021 | AD, CO, DO, DR, EL, FA, MA, PA, PR, RE, SE
There to Efface Himself in Ecstasy Religious? There to efface himself in Ecstasy he flailed about. Yes, he tried Cocaine at first and, lolling in that sin, He won election victory as he fried His brain that way. Of course he used plain Ole dope as well but somehow...
by phillipw | Mar 23, 2021 | DE, PR, RE
Antarctic Ambivalence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We think of death . . . and warmth is hardly part Of such reflection. Buddha does not think Of death as much as he attempts to chart The...
by phillipw | Mar 11, 2021 | BU, NI, RE
Paradox of Paranirvana lotusculpture.com My desire Is that I may die Beneath the cherry blossoms, In spring, On the fifteenth night Of the second month. ~ Saigyô Religion is the most elastic thing, Much more elastic than a rubber band Or even more elastic steel. We...
by phillipw | Feb 28, 2021 | DR, FL, RE
Escape from Recurring Pain The water comes before, then comes the flow Of water after. Now, forever, these First lead then follow. Floods or trickles go Wherever they insist. Priests can’t appease Them. Always they repeat their sequence, force, Retreat, return. ...
by phillipw | Feb 24, 2021 | BU, RE, TR
Día de los Muertos and Egyptian Pyramids Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons The lotuses in...
by phillipw | Jan 29, 2021 | AE, BE, BU, ES, PE, RE, RO
Peony Piety Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A proper reverence for petals should Be kept, especially for pink and white Ones, peonies. Perhaps a veil-like hood Should be required for viewing...
by phillipw | Jan 21, 2021 | AE, BE, DI, ES, Ho, IL, RE, RO
Gardener, Heal Thyself for the Sake of Devout Worship Recovering from fever, he looks through His window. Roses bloom in glory there But they are powerless to cure. The view Should help at least, perhaps more than a prayer By priests to pagan goddesses of earth. Yet...
by phillipw | Jan 12, 2021 | AE, BE, ES, PE, RE, RO
Peony Piety Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A proper reverence for petals should Be kept, especially for pink and white Ones, peonies. Perhaps a veil-like hood Should be required for viewing...
by phillipw | Jan 5, 2021 | AU, BU, EP, KO, MO, MY, PA, RE, SA
“Autumn Revelations”; “Monistic Meditation”; and, “Comprehension”: a Trio of Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Samaras wirble down. One hits the pond. The silence and the ripples...
by phillipw | Jan 3, 2021 | EP, MY, RE, TR
Who Can Know? Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It seems that God (or gods) goes moving through The dawn invaded by exhaustion in The night. The hormone tentacles construe The twilight...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2021 | AP, Ho, RE, SP
The Daffodils Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Another year the daffodils will rise, For centuries, millennia again, Perhaps for eons. Yellow trumpets’ cries Though silent...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | BL, CH, IN, JU, RE, SA, SI, ST, VI
Inspiration Our days and nights are blind like Homer, blind And seeing, deep and wide, but still inept. Time carries us through life but like a mind Confused through madness. Life remains adept At fraud, poetically and just with scales Upon its...
by phillipw | Dec 27, 2020 | KA, LI, NA, RE, VE
Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima The past is nuclear, exploding in A present moment boring as a brown Field waiting for some turnip seeds. The skin Of now is guiltless, threatless till the frown Of yesterday’s wide sins rips up the fleece. The grimace is electric in...
by phillipw | Dec 21, 2020 | IN, PR, RE, SU
Moanasteries, More Like Most prayers are cramped things. They are far too full Of names, though mostly just the one, your name. Prayers think that childishly their words may pull A loveless god (or God) to feel some shame For not observing our exactest...
by phillipw | Dec 13, 2020 | CH, CR, FO, GO, RE
Godly Fluids God lives where time is an instruction, since Eternity requires a teacher doomed To death. Divinity can never wince Unless his palms and arches are consumed By pierce of nails to agony, are torn As gravity drags down the flesh, and rips...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2020 | CO, DE, DI, GH, MA, OR, PE, RE, SO, SP
Reincarnation The spirit wishes it could look back to Its body, not the rotted one, and see The firm young form with hair and holy blue Of Mary’s robe in clear young eyes still free Of intimations of their death. The hair, The blond head...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2020 | CH, GO, GR, OR, PA, RE
They Never Slumber nor Sleep The reason icons break but still remain At crooked angles over slopes and cracks In eon landscapes is to entertain Their sacred irises. Greek mountains tracks Show off to icons ancient splits pronounced By earthquakes forty thousand times...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2020 | AN, GO, GR, PR, RE
“The Isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!” The icons looking over valleys down Beneath, and over hills across the way, Are placed to shine like jewels on a crown. This crown looks far to mountains where priests pray And past the harbors where boats wait before They...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2020 | AL, GO, IS, PR, RE
Revenant Religion The ancient skies were filled with gods and gods And gods. We sickened of them, most of them. The priests and prophets held them up at odds With us. The gods were one vile diadem That crowned creation. But these gods were red As death...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2020 | DR, EZ, RE, SU, UN
Holiness of Rationality Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If we could ripen sleep to more than dreams And nightmares—visions verified by veiled Ezekiels, Isaiahs, or the beams Of truth from...
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 | Nov 14, 2020 | CH, RE, ST
Arms, Shoulders, Legs Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Your dancing causes clouds to form around Your dreams. These clouds are far more solid than The dreams, except the nightmares. Clouds...
by phillipw | Nov 4, 2020 | Ho, PR, RE, SA, SE
Who is Healed? “I stand up to see thighs covered in blood and semen and sweat, and I heal. I heal.” ~ Jaime Mathis, It Rises and Falls The sight transfigures. It ennobles. Eyes Become the prophets of a sainthood’s view. A holiness of liquids comes in...
by phillipw | Oct 22, 2020 | AN, CH, DA, GR, HE, IS, JU, PH, RE
Darwin and Heraclitus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Homer should be turned out of the canon and whipped. He was wrong in saying : ‘Would that strife might perish from among gods and men!’ ...
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 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 9, 2020 | ID, NE, PL, RE
Gospel Songs and Other Falseness Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The hollowness of neys is crucial to Their meaning. That is what platonic thought Would say. Their Dervish melodies are true, But...
by phillipw | Oct 9, 2020 | AN, BU, GE, PH, RE
Our Choice of Ancestors What we think, we become. Buddha Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are...
by phillipw | Oct 4, 2020 | FI, MO, OB, RE
Conspiracy Theories and Pop Psychology The history we avoid is what comes back. A son abhors obsessions in his dad And then becomes a monomaniac. A daughter who found mother’s ways too sad Drives daughters of her own to turn out poor In spirit, sozzled drunkards. ...
by phillipw | Oct 4, 2020 | FO, RE
Forgiveness You kill a man. He can’t forgive you. God Steps in. He can’t forgive you. That would be Too easy. Murdered meat beneath the sod Is munched away by worms. Once murdered he Is able as a rotten burger to Give grace. His wife, his lover,...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2020 | AB, AN, MU, RE
Laius and Jocasta, Medea, etc. Simone de Beauvoir speaks of passion “born from love to murder love.” Does she mean women (or their men) who want Abortions after passion (or just sex Or lust)? Does she mean women born to haunt The cosmos with those listless babies,...
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 | Aug 29, 2020 | AT, RE, UN
Cleaving Like iron filings you were trapped against My heart. It drew you to its outer flesh And tried to suck you inward. You were fenced: Your dark male filings harshly made a mesh, A metal net to hold off my desire. It turns out softened, hardened...
by phillipw | Aug 2, 2020 | AN, GA, Ho, IN, KE, PR, RE
Some readers may find this piece offensive. If you think you might be offended, please do not read it. Conversion at the Cliff Edge of the Great Rift Valley Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Beyond...
by phillipw | Jul 27, 2020 | KA, LI, MA, NU, RE, TR, VI, ZO
Some readers may find this piece offensive. If you think you might be offended, please do not read it. “Both in the Heavens and on Earth, Visible and Invisible” ~ Colossians 1:16 Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem...
by phillipw | Jul 26, 2020 | OR, RE, TR, WO
Orpheus and Male Reincarnation When Orpheus decided that he craved Escape from women utterly and so Desired migration of his spirit saved From birth to any of them and to go Instead into the beauty of a cob, The poet did not try to fly away To some escape from further...
by phillipw | Jul 24, 2020 | AN, IC, RE
Floating Between the Stars and the Depths Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Black unseen forces move the stars above Us and below the southern hemisphere. Some unseen forces like the wind and love,...
by phillipw | Jul 19, 2020 | BU, EL, LO, MO, RE
The Voice Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 1 Kings 19:11-12 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and...
by phillipw | Jun 17, 2020 | MI, OR, RE, TR
Invisible Ivory Music Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. ~ John Keats Herus Pamphilius claimed that Orpheus’s drifting soul, destined to be incarnated anew in some other physical form after he had died, elected to be born a swan so that he...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | AL, GO, HY, RE
And Lifted Up If poets and composers failed to come, Then who would write the hymns for Venus, Mars, And Jupiter? Our race would be a numb Excuse for souls. If none could look at stars Through telescopes, or build an altar, then Existing would become a...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | AN, MU, RE, SA, WI
A Tenor in the Choir His face is like a student I once taught; Not just the pupil’s eyes, the brightness, too, And humor in the face, with freckles fraught, A gratifying galaxy, a slew Of them across his cheeks, his brow, his nose. It seems as if each stipple...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | FO, RE, SA, WH
February Fox Last night the fox we feed in bowls behind Our house came just at twelve. His long, thick tail Was bushier than last time and defined By flakes that fell and fell within the veil Of cold for whitest hours. He, taking out His chunks of chicken one...
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 17, 2020 | AD, DA, LO, RE
A Plea from Sodom and Gomorrah Please return to pain and bruising, not scars With numbness in the tissue. Trauma gives A certainty at least. Those dense armoires Of pale cicatrice commemoratives Might be, you think, better than current harms That sting, then ache,...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | CH, RE, RU
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Deepening Twilight with Shining Bells in Dark Recesses Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A golden cross, liturgical in bright Elaboration stands against a lead Blue sky....
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AL, CO, IS, RE
Uranium Rods and Synergy “no proud dreams and no proud lusts” ~ H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds The swelling and the force of men is like The power of God, Jehovah at his best, Or Allah at his fiercest, or, more the spike In Mercury’s performance, gods...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | AU, CO, FA, FI, LA, OX, RE, SP
The Knighthood of the Countryside Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Genteel, the hills of Oxfordshire are clothed With farm fields at their feet, brocades of trees On shoulders and their chests. The...