Practical Gods (Poets, Penguin) [Paperback]

Carl Dennis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Poets, Penguin | Publication Date: October 9, 2001

Practical Gods is the eighth collection by Carl Dennis, a critically acclaimed poet and recent winner of one of the most prestigious poetry awards, the Ruth Lilly Prize. Carl Dennis has won acclaim for "wise, original, and often deeply moving" poems that "ease the reader out of accustomed modes of seeing and perceiving" (The New York Times). Many of the poems in this new book involve an attempt to enter into dialogue with pagan and biblical perspectives, to throw light on ordinary experience through metaphor borrowed from religious myth and to translate religious myth into secular terms. While making no claims to put us in touch with some ultimate reality, these clear, precise, sensitive poems help us to pay homage to the everyday household gods that are easy to ignore, the gods that sustain life and make it rewarding.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dennis's (Ranking the Wishes) eighth book of poems continues his longstanding meditative project: long, elaborate free-verse sentences amble down odd paths of thoughts, past forested landscapes, furniture, paintings and solitary men, to end up with NPR-like reflections on human life. "Today I seem to be focusing on my wish to sand/ And stain and varnish my bookcase, a job that a monk/ Who specializes in repetition might embrace as a ritual," one poem muses; another offers "the comfort of familiar shadows/ But not the glory of leading those shadows/ Out of the flickering dark into the living present." Dennis's warm, accessible approach has garnered him several awards (most recently a big prize from Poetry magazine); it should please devotees of Stephen Dunn, or even of Raymond Carver, whose regretful musings suffuse the volume-closing "The God Who Loves You." Praising "the light touch of [Vermeer's] brush on canvas," or saying, "there's nothing wrong with imagining missions," Dennis can end up saccharine or predictable. At his best, though, Dennis can be far stranger, and funnier, than that; his attractive webs of phrases and sentences can take on a zigzag aspect almost akin to Ashbery. And his best poems make space not just for wise speculations but for genuine oddities, from Utica, N.Y., to "a senior coach like Mr. Ruggieri," to homely, handy extended metaphors: "The past we need is only a kind of currency/ Stamped in red with the date of this day."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The title of Dennis' lucid, canny, and warmly funny eighth collection is a bit of an oxymoron and a gauntlet gently thrown down with equal measures of self-mockery and panache. What Dennis wants to know is, Why aren't the gods more responsive, more helpful, more accountable? Plainspoken and resonant, his poems hopscotch from the divine to the ordinary as they challenge pagan gods and the biblical God. Dennis muses on oracles and gods who demand sacrifices and ponders the glory that can be found in everyday chores. Saint Francis thinks about how much easier it is to pray with birds than answer the tough questions of a dying nun, and a man considers the commandment against coveting in "Department Store," a poem both wry and poignant. Dennis also writes piquantly about how we play god by writing fiction, failing to care for an absent neighbor's garden, and donating organs. Dennis' bright poems, as deft as Billy Collins', offer the comfort which the "cold, companionless cosmos / That never comes through when you need a friend" does not. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141002301
• ISBN-13: 978-0141002309
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #788,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem, October 13, 2002

By 

"sharonentress" (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Gods (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

This collection of poems is a gem. Mr. Dennis explores, from both religious and secular perspectives, issues of practical concern that touch all of our lives such as faith and its absence, paths not taken, regret, envy, forgiveness, happiness, and living a life that we can be proud to claim as our own, particularly in the face of multiple and often conflicting standards. For example, in "Guardian Angel," he illustrates how happiness often hits indirectly, "Like losing oneself in a casual conversation/ That tests our powers of empathy, not cleverness." In "Pride," he embraces self-esteem, suggesting that it can open our eyes to the good in others, even if it doesn't enable us to see in ourselves the virtues others find in us. He considers in "Department Store" whether the moments we covet in others' lives aren't "...only a truce/ In a lifelong saga of border warfare," a saga similar to our own struggle to not envy and be proud of who we are. In "Not for the Idle," he explores why the books of those persons often mistaken as idle, "Lined up on their desks, don't look like drinks/ Lined up on a bar..." In "The God Who Loves You," he suggests that peace can be found between the life we have and the life that might have been by recognizing the former as the life we've chosen. These are lines from just a few of my many favorites. I have read these poems four and five times, both because they are simply beautiful and because I can tell that Mr. Dennis has thought long and hard about these issues and I want to make sure I catch every insight he is conveying. With each read, I develop a greater appreciation for how exceptional his work is. These poems are reflective, honest, intimate, and rich in compelling metaphors, analogies, irony, and humor. I might add, as an additional compliment, that poetry is usually not my cup of tea, but Mr. Dennis's perceptiveness, as well as his writing style, which is never pretentious, captivated me from the start. So if you happen to be reading this Mr. Dennis, thank you!! Thank you for an extraordinary collection of poems and for the insights and inspiration they have given me.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rueful wit, September 29, 2002

By 

paedagogue "paedagogue" (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Practical Gods (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

Dennis is not a "difficult" poet, but he has perfected a wonderfully flexible, almost conversational style of versification which artfully conceals a highly pondered structure. He relies on enjambment to propel the reader from one line to the next, allowing the ironies to blossom almost as if by chance, as he spins out "what-if" scenarios over which his own rueful intelligence presides like a benevolent deity. Dennis' "practical gods" arise from the texture of our everyday lives, and wish-fulfillment reveries, but they are also religious entities, vehicles for prayer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical Gods, August 18, 2002

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theworstpoet (Seattle WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Gods (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

I do not generally like free verse as a rule. I hoped that a pulizter prize winning collection would help me gain a better appreciation of the genre (figuring that, with a Pulitzer, my appreciation would be on trial rather than the skill of the poet). I had to force myself to read the works through a couple times but after the fourth read through, I have started to favorably appreciate many of the works. I still am not devoted free verse fan, but there is no denying Mr. Dennis is skilled at his craft and he has me warming up to the genre. I'd purchase the book and give yourself some quiet time to ponder his work. If it takes an effort I believe it will be worth it.