Phil Repko Adds "Ankh" to Repertoire for National Poetry Month

For the remaining days of April, The Expression will publish a poem. Should you like to contribute to the series, send your favorite poem--one of your own or one by a published author. Send your poem to janeEstahl@comcast.net with a sentence or two about yourself as the author or why the poem is among your favorites. And stay tuned for announcements of local poetry readings in the area that you may wish to attend to celebrate the integral role poets play in our culture.

Phil Repko, fresh off of publishing his inaugural book of poetry Pieces of April, continues his annual effort along with his two sons by creating a poem a day throughout April, National Poetry Month.  

On April 28, 2025, 6:30-8:00 p.m., Phil will be a guest poet at Firefly Bookstore in Kutztown, PA, along with Robert Fillman and  Brandon Kreig.  Copies of Pieces of April can be found on Amazon or  at Studio B Art Gallery. 

Ankh

~Phil Repko

I wasn’t feeling cross when I suspended,
For a time, some minor flourishes of faith.
Around my neck, a sign and chain,
Since grammar school had so remained.
Without a silver thought of why or how.
The pendant seemed a comfort then, and now.

So for a time no outward link
Gave space for anyone to think
That there was spirit anywhere to see.
It was not fear that so subdued
Displays of ties to holy roods,
Or to a rood of any kind or See.

Instead, no ostentatious show
Would raise a hand or blow a nose,
That needed ways to shed the phlegm
That came with stalwart vertigo.
The world was always cautious then
To keep the thumpers taut and thin.

So now I wear a daily ankh,
To shade the threat of catholic zeal.
May god forbid that we all feel
Some harmony with those of faith
Whose hearts maintain a different face,
Or—horrors!--those who innocently kneel.

The ankh so long the cross predates
That centuries of love and weight
Lay soft foundation with a simple curl
I could with flint-like bearded chin,
Replace the one I’ve worn so thin.
Each symbol praises life, and prays our world
Can outlast hate, and fear, and even sin.

Phil Repko is a career educator in the PA public school system who has been writing for fun and no profit since he was a teenager. Phil lives with his wife Julie in Gilbertsville and is the father of three outstanding children, two of whom are also poets and writers. He vacillates between poetry and prose, as the spirit beckons, and is currently working sporadically on a novella and a memoir.

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