Then the War

&quote;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.&quote; - AudioFileWINNER OF THE 2023 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRYA new collection of poems from one of America's most essential, celebrated, and enduring poets, Carl Phillips's Then the WarI'm a song, changing. I'm a light rain falling through a vast darkness toward a different darkness.Carl Phillips has aptly described his work as an &quote;ongoing quest&quote;; Then the War is the next step in that meaningful process of self-discovery for both the poet and his reader. The new poems, written in a time of rising racial conflict in the United States, with its attendant violence and uncertainty, find Phillips entering deeper into the landscape he has made his own: a forest of intimacy, queerness, and moral inquiry, where the farther we go, the more difficult it is to remember why or where we started. Then the War includes a generous selection of Phillips's work from the previous thirteen years, as well as his recent lyric prose memoir, &quote;Among the Trees,&quote; and his chapbook, Star Map with Action Figures.Ultimately, Phillips refuses pessimism, arguing for tenderness and human connection as profound forces for revolution and conjuring a spell against indifference and the easy escapes of nostalgia. Then the War is luminous testimony to the power of self-reckoning and to Carl Phillips as an ever-changing, necessary voice in contemporary poetry.