What do you think?
Rate this book
Bad Summon
Winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize
Bad Summon explores the relationship between the majesty of nature and the quiet violence humans inflict upon themselves and others. The poems are dipped in loss, traveling between death and mountains, romance and rivers. They are addicted to the truth of experience and the energy behind regret. Bad Summon conjures its own ghost. According to David Baker, the judge who selected the winning manuscript, this is a “surprising, coherent, original collection of lyric poems. I felt peril, heartbreak, catastrophe, sorrow, genuine soulfulness. It’s also funny, yet its humor is not comic but possesses a terrible gravity.” This is a volume every poetry lover will want to explore. [In this one we aren’t exactly drowning]
but we are falling through water.
Quieter than we expect. Churning
is how we’ll later describe it.
Our arms dig out two wet Cs,
a heart if you want to look at it
that way. Though the body is always
in between—that unoriginal arrow.
Bad Summon explores the relationship between the majesty of nature and the quiet violence humans inflict upon themselves and others. The poems are dipped in loss, traveling between death and mountains, romance and rivers. They are addicted to the truth of experience and the energy behind regret. Bad Summon conjures its own ghost. According to David Baker, the judge who selected the winning manuscript, this is a “surprising, coherent, original collection of lyric poems. I felt peril, heartbreak, catastrophe, sorrow, genuine soulfulness. It’s also funny, yet its humor is not comic but possesses a terrible gravity.” This is a volume every poetry lover will want to explore. [In this one we aren’t exactly drowning]
but we are falling through water.
Quieter than we expect. Churning
is how we’ll later describe it.
Our arms dig out two wet Cs,
a heart if you want to look at it
that way. Though the body is always
in between—that unoriginal arrow.
- GenresPoetry
88 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2017
16 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 4, 2019
Wow, wow, wow.
Philip Schaefer's gift of word usage creates the most intriguing and thought-provoking messages that had me returning again and again, diving deeper each time.
This poet awakens the mind and soul; Schaefer's work will be discussed for decades to come.
Philip Schaefer's gift of word usage creates the most intriguing and thought-provoking messages that had me returning again and again, diving deeper each time.
This poet awakens the mind and soul; Schaefer's work will be discussed for decades to come.
May 29, 2019
True art
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews