“signifying nothing”

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

We do not want our poetry to reach

The moons of Saturn.  Reaching Saturn’s clouds

Will be success.  Those clouds are cousin speech

To sonnets.  They are like the living shrouds

That ghosts would wear if they, alive, could speak.

The poets of the earth express in space

Attempts to penetrate what ancient Greek

Religion tried to seize.  They tried to trace

The truth with pictures of their Zeus and myth

Arranged like candles in a dirge but failed

As all the prophets like a Joseph Smith

Have flunked.  Their truths, supposed, are tangled, veiled.

  The Shakespeares do a better job.  They pose

    Their insights honestly as crap game throws.

~ Phillip Whidden

by phillipw | Mar 13, 2025 | AM, FA, PO, PR | 0 comments