Video from the 2009 National
Book Awards Finalist Reading
Photo credit: Rachel
Eliza Griffiths
CITATION
"We believe, wishing for
what, by now even we can't put a name to,” says
Carl Phillips in his book's title poem "Speak Low."
We believe because his poems offer us hope through the
constellation of the body and soul, suffering and salvation,
and, ultimately, many truths. Like a constellation,
these poems forecast and guide with light. Through deep
structural and syntactic dexterity, Speak Low
illustrates life's tension between desires of the body
and the weighing of our actions by the spirit.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In his tenth book of poems,
Carl Phillips examines the moral and psychological fetters
that we impose on ourselves and that are imposed on
us, as well as the possibility of achieving some meaningful
freedom from both. Moving effortlessly from the body
as a site of conquest to the human history of power,
Speak Low weighs the human cost of ambition,
desire, and risk. What is meant by a fully lived, authentic
life, and what must be sacrificed to achieve it? Phillips
addresses these topics with his characteristic clarity
and originality of thought, beautiful imagery, and linguistic
dexterity. Speak Low is the record of a powerful
vision that continues to illuminate what it has meant—and
can mean—to be alive and human in the world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carl Phillips is the author
of Speak Low and nine previous books of poems,
including Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems, 1986-2006;
Riding Westward; and The Rest of Love,
a National Book Award finalist. He teaches at Washington
University in St. Louis.
