Double Shadow: Poems

I should start this review off by admitting that I don’t read an awful lot of poetry and when I do, I prefer when the poem tells a story (think Rime of the Ancient Mariner or The Cremation of Sam McGee). I have never been any good at understanding the deeper meaning that many poems contain – or what I consider the more abstract nature of many poem – so it’s not surprising that a number of the poems in Double Shadow pretty much went right over my head. I ended up having to rely on published reviews to explain to me that this collection examines “the double shadow that life casts forth” between risk and faint heartedness. The poems, written with sparse, carefully and deliberately chosen language, convey a somber quality that show more may be more in tune with a meditative as opposed to inspirational feeling that probably resonates more with other readers than it did for me. That being said, I did still manage to enjoy a few of the poems and can see why some refer to Carl Phillips as “one of America’s most original, influential, and productive of lyric poets”. show less