Carl Phillips – Michigan Quarterly Review

Carl Phillips

Carl Phillips teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. His most recent book of poetry is Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007–2020 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022), and his new prose book is My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing (Yale University Press, 2022).

“What Are We For What Are We,” “Like So,” and “On Why I Cannot Promise”

What Are We For What Are We The buck’s iridescent titanium antlers are meant to distract from the buck himself, that he might instead seem an oil spill, some likewise regrettable aberration in the air, and not a deer for trophy… * Proud it up all you want, that you didn’t become the disaster you […]

“What Are We For What Are We,” “Like So,” and “On Why I Cannot Promise” Read More »

What Are We For What Are We The buck’s iridescent titanium antlers are meant to distract from the buck himself, that he might instead seem an oil spill, some likewise regrettable aberration in the air, and not a deer for trophy… * Proud it up all you want, that you didn’t become the disaster you

“Return to the Land of the Golden Apples,” by Carl Phillips

“Blue wash. The winged horses look
like horses—artless, free
of connotation. They hide

just now their wings,
or they forget, or do not
think to make

much more of a gift
for flight than
of the water viewable

behind them–“

“Return to the Land of the Golden Apples,” by Carl Phillips Read More »

“Blue wash. The winged horses look
like horses—artless, free
of connotation. They hide

just now their wings,
or they forget, or do not
think to make

much more of a gift
for flight than
of the water viewable

behind them–“

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