“Late in the Long Apprenticeship”

Carl Phillips
Selected by Jo Stewart

It’s astonishing how a poem can sound just like an exhalation. I’ve never been able to read Carl Phillips without an audible sigh of relief.

—Jo Stewart


Late in the Long Apprenticeship

At last, he’s asleep.
I can look at him the way I’m meant to.

His body moves like any ocean. The ocean moves like any field
back home: submission, submission’s shadow, wind, submission.

 

 

Silverchest - Carl Phillips

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Carl Phillips is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Silverchest, a finalist for the International Griffin Prize, and Double Shadow, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His most recent book of prose is The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination. Phillips teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

Jo Stewart is an editorial assistant at FSG.

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