Poem of the Week | March 30, 2015
Phillip B. Williams: "The Fawn"
This week we’re delighted to feature a poem by Phillip B. Williams, a finalist of our 2014 Editors’ Prize. Williams is a Chicago, Illinois native and the author of the forthcoming book of poems Thief in the Interior (Alice James Books, 2016). He’s also co-authored a book of poems and conversations called Prime (Sibling Rivalry Press). He is a Cave Canem graduate and received scholarships from Bread Loaf Writers Conference and a 2013 Ruth Lilly Fellowship. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Anti-, Callaloo, Kenyon Review Online, Poetry, The Southern Review, West Branch and others. Phillip received his MFA in Writing from the Washington University in St. Louis. He is the poetry editor of the online journal Vinyl Poetry.
Author’s note:
I wrote “The Fawn” hoping to write a poem that could be taken on its own merit as mix between two realities. I wanted to have the supernatural, the surreal, happen and test the limits of human imagination’s training of turning everything unfamiliar or impossible in a symbol. It’s how we are taught in school, I suppose, and that training has burdened me as I fought through poems and stories asking “Well what does that really mean? What does that object or animal truly represent?” It seems unlikely that this literal reading of the fantastic can be taken without readers wanting to connect the dots beyond what few dots are connected here. The six-headed deer will become a candelabra of motherhood, some beastly representation of family drama. The family represented here will be read as the “real” story simply surrounded by fantasy that only reimagines the family. It’s a poem that I will use as a foundational text as I explore how to move through my own myth making and attempt to merge worlds, incidences, locations, and circumstances without allowing (at least not easily) the reader to trust more in themselves (creating symbols), forcing them to trust more so in me (what I give is all that is required).
The Fawn
SEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT

Poem of the Week
May 16 2022
“Initiation” by Austin Segrest
This week’s Poem of the Week is “Initiation” by Austin Segrest. Poet and critic Austin Segrest is the author of Door to Remain (UNT Press, 2022), winner of the 2021… read more

Poem of the Week
May 09 2022
“Blue Perennial” by Susannah Lodge-Rigal
This week’s Poem of the Week is “Blue Perennial” by Susannah Lodge-Rigal. Susannah Lodge-Rigal is a teacher, writer, and editor living in Berkeley, California. She holds an MFA from Colorado… read more

Poem of the Week
May 02 2022
“Pilgrim” by José Antonio Rodríguez
This week’s Poem of the Week is “Pilgrim” by José Antonio Rodríguez. José Antonio Rodríguez’s latest books include the poetry collection This American Autopsy and the memoir House Built on… read more