Bad Summon (Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry)

"Reading a poem by Philip Schaefer is like taking a bath in broad daylight. You’re naked and sort of covered by bubbles, but mostly you’re totally vulnerable. Something is horribly wrong. The water is boiling. 'So,' Phil says, 'this is what your life has come to.' All your relationships, those broken hearts, the good shower sobs, the reckless nights under a big sky stabbed with stars, the general violence of living, the quiet domestic spaces. You really believe you were alone? Ha ha. Phil was there, writing a poem."

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