THEN THE WAR And Selected Poems, 2007-2020

In much of the best contemporary poetry, beauty of thought is at least as important as beauty of language. Carl Phillips, here reading his own Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, has an ample supply of both, but it is the thinking behind each poem that makes it possible for the language to have power. Nature--in particular, horses--shows up in many of the poems, but what moves the listener is the connection between nature and humanity. Since this is a "new and selected" collection, we also get to see the evolution of Phillips's work as it becomes more universal. His voice varies less in volume than in intensity, and he conveys the passion of his poetry without ever becoming strident. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2023]