Michael Philips

Michael Philips Poems

Your gentle yawn
while reading the sports section
as they fill your prescription.
A light scratch of your nose
...

There are two types of people:
Those who play golf,
And those who recognize it
for the idiotic malpractice that it is,
...

I want someone to invent
a coffee table book that
rapidly deteriorates and
transforms itself into something else,
...

She made a scene at the wedding
Wearing a black leather miniskirt
Upstaging the livid bride
My kids thought she was exciting and cool
...

I.
Researchers say Mormons have continued
to posthumously baptize Jewish Holocaust victims
into their faith despite a promise to discontinue the practice
...

Colleagues who die
kept in my rolodex
alive in circulation
flipping round in ritual
...

You cannot see the upper reaches of Everest
from the base camp, where you acclimatize
with attitude and finger exercises.
...

Those old communists – the ones in the
triumphant revolutionary posters with
broad shoulders and eyes on the horizon
where the sun is rising on a better world,
...

The white one purred and was soft.
We gave it a name.
Got hit by a car.
We buried it in back.
...

Just shut up already about herbal remedies, I told her.
This was on Valentines Day, hours before Sally fed
my dog some herbal medication
and he brewed butt coffee
...

Sitting on the patio
At Jeff and Melanie’s
Just to be near Melanie
In hopes I would be well positioned
...

Roll down your window and smile.
Hold it.
Now let me get one with the background of vintage automobiles,
tinted postcards, motels, and Route 66 trying to slake my
...

I forgot the bug spray
So mosquitoes keep attacking me
Some guy brought a blender for Happy Hour
And some people even bring their TVs
...

As he crosses into
the end zone
and the crowd
ejaculates in rapture,
...

When people heard
that you sent me poetry
they commented that
you must be a wonderful and sensitive man
...

I’m giving all my Colombo videos to the library,
I don’t know if they want them,
Perhaps curious folks with time
Will check them out and get hooked,
...

When your rationale for going to war
turns out to be false,
...

Saturated in morphine
breathing like a hurt animal
maybe somewhere deep down
at the bottom of the mineshaft
...

Now why would you question my love for you, honeybunch?
You know that you are more precious to me than
A 1973 Gibson ES335 sunburst semi hollow body guitar
(Which I would love to have)
...

Have you watched the slow caravans of clouds
And felt the earth’s pull as they lean into the sky
Or maybe zeroed in on a single star in the wash of a black night
And know this tapestry of distant heat
...

The Best Poem Of Michael Philips

Sports Section

Your gentle yawn
while reading the sports section
as they fill your prescription.
A light scratch of your nose
as you read the review of the
newest hippest band out of L.A.
while your new tires are installed.
Waiting is the dullness of a brown sparrow
flitting to the next wire,
the line of ants on a tree trunk.

Not so bad
if you have something inoperable
and know that boredom
is a luxury for the living.
The forgettable moments the doctor consults
with the nurse in the hallway,
the trees from outside swaying in the glass picture frame,
the shoe scuff patterns on the linoleum.
I didn’t know the cloud I floated on
until it was yanked away
and I see the dark rocky ground
speeding upwards.

Michael Philips Comments

Lare Austin 23 January 2005

Hi Michael...I just read your poem, 'Naming The Boat'. Very well written story...like a good book...I couldn't put it down. Thank you for sharing...and perhaps you might think of putting together a book of poetry. It would do well... Lare Austin

4 0 Reply
Mare Dylan 18 March 2012

Wonderful stuff, keep writing.

6 2 Reply
Lori Boulard 26 November 2006

I could leave a comment on every one of your poems, Michael, I like them that much, but I'll spare the space and say so here. Your writing is original, tight, and just funny enough to remind me that poetry doesn't have to be dry and 'proper' to be good. Keep it up, my friend. Cheers, Lori

5 1 Reply
Max Reif 24 December 2005

I tell you, Michael, I've enjoyed quite a few of your poems-'Route 66' is still my favorite-but just now, clicking through your pages to find your new one, I had more fun with your TITLES than most poems! I'll have to come back and read 'Song of the Peeping Tom', 'Song of the Porn Webmaster', 'Song of the Tabloid Hack', and all the rest.

5 1 Reply
... ... 21 December 2005

Rebirth, I'll Still Be Dead, Getting it Wrong, Cowboys...just some of the poems I've really enjoyed, not least for the playful tones and clever touches in the work...they are humorous, and, in essence i feel, life-affirming, in their own peculiar optimistic and individual way. But possibly the most entertaining thing is your refusal to resort to stock emotional responses.

4 1 Reply
Michael Gessner 23 April 2005

Just beginning to look at your titles, 'Dartmouth Alumni Survey, ' 'Melody The Comptroller, ' 'My New Screenplay, ' et. al. & find them strikingly original, resonant-with humor that doubles as entertainment & the Cosmic Laughter of The Profound-as tho' I've stumble thought the door to a Gallery of Undiscovered Things-

4 0 Reply
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