The Modern Ships Retreat from Searching for the Golden Fleece
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The word ship he is making is a war
Machine upon the sea of poetry.
The battles are between him and a corps
Of gun ships that do not love poetry.
In hate they are destroyers. They, because
Their minds are full of fear, attack the great
Armadas sailed before them and would hawse
Them into harbors or a sealed up strait.
The Modern battleships despise the power

Of galleons and the triremes of the past
Because gray metal knows that it must cower
When larger admiral brains stand by each mast.
The cowards fear that they cannot compete
And so they write in free verse, bleat, bleat, bleat.
~ Phillip Whidden
by phillipw | Jan 31, 2025 | MO, TR |