{"id":1238,"date":"2011-04-03T00:27:48","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T04:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/03\/carl-phillips-clear-cloudless\/"},"modified":"2011-04-03T00:28:35","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T04:28:35","slug":"carl-phillips-clear-cloudless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/03\/carl-phillips-clear-cloudless\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Phillips, “Clear, Cloudless”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"carl-phillips-2011.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n

Tonight—in the foundering night, at least,
\nof imagination, where what I don’t in fact
\nbelieve anymore, all the same, is true—<\/p>\n

the stars look steadily down upon me. I look
\nup, at the stars. Life as a recklessly fed bonfire
\ngrowing unexpectedly more reckless seems
\nneither the best nor worst of several choices
\nwithin reach, still. I wear on my head a crown<\/p>\n

of feathers—among which, sure, I have had
\nmy favorites. Fear, though, is the bluest feather,
\nand it is easily the bluest feather that the wind loves most.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Double Shadow<\/i><\/a> is the eleventh collection of Carl Phillips’ poems. It also includes several poems first published by Kenyon Review<\/i><\/a>, and “Sacrifice Is a Different Animal Altogether<\/a>,” which was published in Drunken Boat<\/i>. “Civilization<\/a>” appeared in The New Yorker<\/i>, while “Of the Rppling Surface<\/a>,” “My Bluest Shirt<\/a>,” and “Master and Slave<\/a>” appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Here’s some video of Phillips reading for the Cornell creative writing program in the fall of 2010.<\/p>\n