Practical Gods

by Carl Dennis

Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. 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.

Genres: Poetry, Religion, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Mythology

78 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Carl Dennis has a good reputation, but I was not impressed. The poems are plain-spoken and accessible, both of which are virtues, but I felt they lacked wit and an original perspective. There are occasional bits of wisdom here, but even these are commonplace, and the mythological references, calculated to add depth and resonance, are commonplace as well.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical Gods by Carl Dennis

Here are some of my favorite poems from this collection that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002.

1. Jesus Freaks - an effective strike against Christianity. The approval from above is all they will ever need.

2. The Fallen - an ode to a friend who passed away a year previously.

3. Sunrise - choosing a god and why the pagan sun gods are more rational choice than Jesus

4. The God who Loves You - a brilliant tongue in cheek poem about the tremendous guilt you should feel for putting God through the ringer with your bad choices. The best poem in the collection.

4 stars

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poetry book makes me want to flesh out a metaphor that's been on my mind lately. I'm currently reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and prior to Anna Karenina I read Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Bronte is a favorite of mine and Tolstoy is new to me, however, it didn't take me long to see why Tolstoy is one of the greats. His writing comes across clear, smooth, and elegant. In comparison, Bronte's writing in Villette comes across clear, abrupt, and somewhat raw. Both, in my opinion, are brilliant in their own ways.

Thinking of these two authors, I likened them to two different types of lightening (the metaphor!). Tolstoy is more like that lightening that quietly illuminates the whole sky all at once, allowing you to see a full panorama of things (i.e. characters, story lines, etc.) whereas Bronte (in Villette) is more like those randomly occurring jolts of lightening - she withholds information and then shocks you with it here and there. She is very dramatic at times.

Now, to apply this lightening metaphor to my poetry reading of late.

Practical Gods is the 4th pulitzer prize winning poetry book I've read over the past several weeks. The others are as follows (ranked in order of my liking :)

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
Failure by Philip Shultz
American Primitive by Mary Oliver

While Life on Mars is pretty smooth in its delivery, it's still a little raw to me, if only in its theme and author's voice. It gives you some jolts of excitement here and there. How could bringing Space into poetic pondering be anything other than raw. It's not as smooth and consistent as Failure. Failure is a little more grounded in its subject matter of people and their "failure" and its author's voice is a bit more like Tolstoy's (just in comparison as related to this review).

Is Practical Gods a jolt of lightening or that smooth flash of illumination? To me, it's more like that smooth flash. However, its panorama, when illuminated, is still not quite clear. This is not to say that it is difficult or cryptic in any way - I felt like I understood it quite well. I just don't know that I got the full effect of what was illuminated. I think I saw something beautiful and I want to see it again. What I saw was expansive and I need to reign it in closer. I almost had difficulty in remembering the form of what I saw in the form of any of this book's poems, but there is one that I remembered when I closed my eyes and tried to recollect - that is the poem Sunrise. What an interesting observation Carl Dennis makes in this poem regarding the sun god of the Aztecs versus the one God of the Bible? Blasphemous to many I'm sure, but interesting none-the-less. And then there was that poem called Progressive Health! Another very interesting idea, yet I didn't remember this poem until I saw where another reviewer mentioned it. Perplexing as it is for me that I couldn't remember any of the poems at first, the one thing that speaks volumes to me is that I want to read this book again and am eager to do so. I'm not usually one who is eager to reread anything a 2nd time.

Now that I've hashed out my feelings about it, I believe I really like this book and that it is potentially a favorite of mine. I think it sits somewhere along the line of where Tess of D'Ubervilles sits for me - a beautiful, elusive flash of something!

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too well read in poetry, but this is one of my favourites so far. Most of the poems had a lot of nice content to ponder over. My girlfriend and I would read them to eachother - enjoying the sounds of the words at first - and then ponder over the meaning. It jumpstarted lots of interesting conversations.

I think I'm in the same boat as Dennis concerning Gods and religion; I don't reject it outright but I'm very skeptical, and at the end of the day I ask myself: what is the practical, or pragmatic, effect on my life?

ps

I was reading this shortly before I listened to "Ready to Die" by Notorious BIG - two guys from completely different universes, but living in the same society. It made me release that Dennis speaks in a very formal language, whislt Biggie is able to express his feelings using very complex slang/lingo. Dennis has read too much Homer, and studied too much, and then interprets his trips to the supermarket as somehow deep and meaningful - which, I suppose those trips can be. But where the rapper reflects on his hard life, Dennis can only reflect on his privileged life. I suppose, in the end, the latter represents mine more accurately.

[Peycho Kanev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Метафизичният завой надолу

Двата мощни двигателя зад издателство „Фрост” – поетът и преводач Благовест Петров и поетът и графичен дизайнер Иво Рафаилов – правят, след Тед Кусър и Били Колинс, още един красив подарък на българските почитатели на голямата поезия: стихосбирката „Практични богове” (2013) на американския поет Карл Денис.
Тази книга получава престижната награда „Пулицър” през 2002 г. и то напълно заслужено, защото Денис още с първите си стихосбирки - „Моята собствена къща” (1974) и „Катерейки се надолу” (1976), прави доста точна заявка за бъдещето.
И то не закъснява. „Практични богове” просто го поставя на заслуженото място, там, при големите американски поети. Но нека да разгърнем страниците й…
Самота, това е първото, което изниква в съзнанието ми, докато чета „Практични богове”. Но тази самота е само привидно захлупена отгоре, служи за онова покривало върху празничната маса, отрупана с най-превъзходни ястия, което поетът леко и постепенно издърпва пред очите ви. Правата, по която Карл Денис е избрал да се движи, е правата на божественото, на вечното, но и тя е само илюзорна... и само в началото. Следват толкова много метафизични завои, водещи надолу, толкова се разширява дълбочината на тъмния му кладенец, че когато достигне дъното, читателят ще разбере, че водата там, долу, е от онази, живата.
Но, ако трябва да бъда честен, Карл Денис въобще не е лековат поет, който да се чете с половин око. Понякога ще трябва да прочетете някое от стихотворенията му по няколко пъти, за да успеете да премахнете пластовете скала и да достигнете до златната жилка. И щом го сторите, ще разберете, че това въобще не е било нужно. Златото през цялото време е било и в камъка, било е навсякъде.
За да достигне прецизността на своя изказ, той използва нещо, което малцина от другите академични поети имат смелостта да употребят, а именно да работят с обикновения разговорен език. Виждам го като ездач, който препуска през необятната степ на американската поезия и вика от седлото си на всички яздещи след него: „Нямам време за метафори, приятели! Просто трябва да разказвам. Трябва да разкажа моята история!”
И той го прави. Разказва, но не ви оставя ролята на безучастни наблюдатели. Заинтригува ви, събужда съзнанието, изпод перото му изпъплят големите въпроси, скрити из полусенките на редовете. „Водя ли живота, който душата ми, /Смъртна или не, иска от мен да водя...”, и „Посадил ли съм семето на таланта си в безплодна земя?” (от „Надежда за душата”, може би най-доброто стихотворение в книгата). Все пак, не очаквайте отговори на тези въпроси, защото целта на голямата поезия не е да дава готови отговори, а да ви накара да тръгнете по вярната пътечка, която би могла да ви изведе към пътя на познанието или поне да ви бъде един приятен спътник в дългото пътуване. А с ерудиран и мъдър другар като Карл Денис разходката ще е повече от превъзходна. Той, освен че е професор в университета на Бъфало и от години преподава творческо писане в Уорън Уилсън Колидж, отдавна е почетен член на онзи най-висш университет, в който само малцина избрани биват допускани.
Ако мога да си послужа с езика на мъдрия дядо Славейков, ще кажа, че този поет въобще не пише „бадева”, знае как да “уйдурдиса” езика, да „натамани” думите, така че нищо да не се „вкаскастява” и по този начин да се „хароса” на всички поетични читатели. На много от вас, също като мен, израснали с европейската поетична традиция (руска, полска, френска, немска и българска, разбира се), ще им е малко трудно да „превключат” към неговите стихове, понеже постройката им е доста „заключена”, доста повествователна, но щом веднъж се настаните удобно, почувствате се у дома сред неговото стилистично майсторство, гостуването ще е повече от приятно. И съм сигурен, че ще останете с прекрасни спомени.

Пейчо Кънев

http://www.kultura.bg/bg/print_articl...

[David Ranney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the Idle

It's not the idle who move us but the few
Often confused with the idle, those who define
Their project in life in terms so ample
Nothing they ever do is a digression.
Each episode contributes its own rare gift
As a chapter in Moby-Dick on a squid or hardtack
Is just as important to Ishmael as a fight with a whale.
The few who refuse to live for the plot's sake,
Major or minor, but for texture and tone and hue.
For them weeding a garden all afternoon
Can't be construed as a detour from the road of life.
The road narrows to a garden path that turns
And circles to show that traveling goes only so far
As a metaphor. The day rests on the grass.
And at night the books of these few,
Lined up on their desks, don't look like drinks
Lined up on a bar to help them evade their troubles.
They look like an escort of mountain guides
Come to conduct the climber to a lofty outlook
Rising serene above the fog. For them the view
Is no digression though it won't last long
And they won't remember even the vivid details.
The supper with friends back in the village
In a dining room brightened with flowers and paintings
No digression for them, though the talk leads
To no breakthrough. The topic they happen to hit on
Isn't a ferry to carry them over the interval
Between the soup and salad. It's a raft drifting downstream
Where the banks widen to embrace a lake
And birds rise from the reeds in many colors.
Everyone tries to name them and fails
For an hour no one considers idle.

[Jeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carl Dennis is an accomplished, agile poet, who loves the art of the sneak-attack (a poem about alien abductions in a book titled "practical gods"? Or did he just foresee the Indiana Jones Crystal Skull debacle?), and although his poetry is easy to wade through, you'll catch some burrs if you rethink or allow these to sink in. This is one of the books on my "reread in five years" list, as I think it'll catch me completely differently - "The God Who Loves You," for example, with god contemplating the differences between your potential and your choosing, beginning: "It must be troubling for the god who loves you/To ponder how much happier you'd be today/Had you been able to glimpse your many futures."

[Eva McCollaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this collection six stars, I would. Dennis is one of my all time favorite poets, and this is one of his best collections. He poems read almost like prose, but their weight and instructive power is undeniable. Totally delicious reading!

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Accessible in the most uninteresting way. Couldn't bring myself to finish this collection.

[kenzie hampton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t want to say anything too bad, especially about a Pulitzer Prize winner, but I just couldn’t get into it.

I don’t think the work was objectively bad, but it wasn’t for me. I also think it doesn’t help that its not what I thought it was going to be.

I was under the assumption that the poems were more mythology and story focused, but instead revolved more around religion and faith (which isn’t my cup of tea)

However there are a few poems I really enjoyed including “Eurydice”, “Not The Idle”, and “The Serpent to Adam”

[Josh Lambie]

Fierce concept. Fugly execution.

[Sunni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so appreciate lucid, thoughtful, accessible, and surprising poetry. The picture of Carl Dennis at the back of the book makes him look like a quiet man, even awkward in front of the camera, and that seems to match the genuine, intelligent but often quiet voice in these poems. There is a lot of contemplating going on, moments where the speaker is alone watching others and pondering life situations and what they teach us. The reason I re-read this collection was mainly for the way he manages to end the poems. The poems each spend at least a full page (with long lines) meandering through myths or personal moments, trying things on, moving away from them, then back, and then somehow each one winds down to such a profound point that you marvel how he got there. A Pulitzer Winner from 2000, it's made me want to explore some of his other collections. My favorites were 'View from Delph' and 'Department Store' where he observes a father and son picking out a gift for the mother.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not one prone to reading books of poetry, but when I found out that one of the former professors at the college I went to wrote a pulitzer prize winning book of poetry I decided to check this out. I was not disappointed. The language displayed here does not sound like poetry, Carl Dennis' poetry stems from what he says and how he says it rather than whether or not his poems rhyme. I was put off by how many references to Greek mythology there were, this being something of a cliche in poetry. Carl Dennis shines his brightest when he does not refer to mythology or relies on the post-modern technique of "Oh-yeah-I-referenced-something-clever-therefor-I-must-be-clever-as-well". His best poems here are "Not The Idle" and "The God Who Loves You", both of which are not like this. "Practical Gods" as a collection of poems does face the problem of seeming too much like a collection rather than a suite of related poems at times. What the hell was up with "On The Bus To Utica"?

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good stuff. The poems in Practical Gods give a slant take on everything we revere, religion, love, sex,family, you name it, it's in there somewhere. One of my favorites is the last poem, "The God Who Loves You", in which a nameless god frets about the decisions you haven't made, that would have made you happier. But, because it's a god who loves you, he allows you to make the wrong decisions, without telling you that you might be happier. It is, in a nutshell, something I've always believed about God and love and free will, but could never put so succinctly.

The perfect read for a quiet Sunday.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the first complete book of poetry I have ever read. When Madelyn Morey and Bud Frankenberger visited a couple months ago, they talked about one poem - Progressive Insurance - and Madelyn said it was so good, and funny, she wanted Bud (who happened to have a copy handy, I can't remember if paper or Kindle, read it and it was funny, and good, so Lucy and I got copies for our Kindle and I read it all. In one poem, he compares essays to poems. I think a lot of his poems are essays, some very funny, in clear, everyday language. He won the Pulitzer. Deserved it.

[Austin Bauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this in a discount bookstore. It is a true gem! I recommend it to anyone I know who enjoys poetry. Dennis has a very unique voice and style, and the religious tones in this book are accessible and enjoyable for believers and nonbelievers. This book is written that way. It seems like Dennis is both skeptical and open to faith. His humanity in the topic of religion is something we've all encountered, making this book very relatable and fun to read. I could definitely see why this book won the Pulitzer Prize.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just discovered this author- he is an English professor at UB and lives downtown in the neighborhood where I used to live. His style is spare and elegant and his themes run the paths my mind often treads down: the vibrancy of rich moments against the shadow of death, the poignancy of human connections, the beauty of simple pleasures, the disorientation of simultaneous belief and disbelief. He is a poet of the highest order. Highly recommended.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite poets. Most poetry I read seems inaccessible. I will then read about two to three more times. If I am still unable to determine what the poet is trying to say, I will not usually return to that book.

In this book of poetry, every poem is accessible on the first read. The great thing is that I can find something new about the poem on just about every new read. That's what makes me love a poet, and thus, that is why this is, in my opinion, one of the best.

[Noa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that doesn't answer questions so much as pose questions. You get a sense that this is an exploration of the author's view of faith in many forms. He almost wants a reason to believe, like he is looking for the loop hole that makes faith feasible. It is a great mind exercise and the voice is charming...a bid droning. There isn't too much of a sense of conversation, but it is a likable voice, so you don't mind so much.

[Inverted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often Kooser-quotidian, but unquestionably builds more punch. Practical Gods draws its consistent power on the subjunctive, on its clash and fuse with the actual. This trick can be tiresome after a while, but Dennis has a way of making it really work (again) every once in a while. He is brilliant at extending Commonplace until it touches Interesting.

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its hard for me to classify this collection of poems as "read" because I keep reading them. It is a collection of poems that contemplate fundamental questions but by mixing scenes from everyday life and scenes from myths and religious stories. It is deeply meaningful but not unduly weighty poetry. The words resonate but yet they sit lightly on a person's soul.

[KL (Cat) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but not amazing; the prose plain most of the time. Personally I don't think it's striking enough to merit its Pulitzer Prize. The mythological/religious references were plenty (as the title suggests), but again, you could find writing of similar quality (or even better!) from Tumblr's wide range of amateur poetry.

[Keeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book of poetry, which engages with multiple mythic traditions in interesting ways. The "Eurydice" and "Serpent to Adam" poems are among my favorites. Dennis' words are well-chosen and his rhythms propel the reader forward.

[Whitney Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of my favorite collections of poetry in a while. I like a lot of things about the poetry, but particularly how Dennis takes ordinary things and makes them have an interesting meaning. there are definitely some moments of humor and some moments of soberness, both done very well.

[Ashlee Draper Galyean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastically funny and poignantly sombering at the same time. Just as I would let out a chuckle I'd be struck by the weight of the next statement that pushed on my thoughts and made me think how beautiful and sad it all is.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. I love the setup. Using stories from Hebrew and Greek mythology, as well as other sources, to write the metaphors for his poems.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. A collection with answers I didn't know I was looking for.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised to see such divisive reviews of Practical Gods. I really enjoyed it.

It's very reflective and pulls heavily from classical and biblical themes. There's a deep sense of loneliness and coming to terms with the end of one's life.

Some lines that really stuck with me:

From Department Store:

"Thou shalt not covet," hardest of the Commandments,
Is listed last so the others won't be neglected.

From Not the Idle:

The few who refuse to live for the plot's sake,
Major or minor, but for texture and tone and hue.

From Prophet:

If you're going to be a prophet, you must listen the first time.

From A Chance for the Soul:

Have I planted the seed of my talent in fertile soil? Which seemed a musing right at home with the best of Mary Oliver.

And finally, all of The God Who Loves You, worth savoring in its entirety.



It must be troubling for the god who loves you

To ponder how much happier you’d be today

Had you been able to glimpse your many futures.

It must be painful for him to watch you on Friday evenings

Driving home from the office, content with your week—

Three fine houses sold to deserving families—

Knowing as he does exactly what would have happened

Had you gone to your second choice for college,

Knowing the roommate you’d have been allotted

Whose ardent opinions on painting and music

Would have kindled in you a lifelong passion.

A life thirty points above the life you’re living

On any scale of satisfaction. And every point

A thorn in the side of the god who loves you.

You don’t want that, a large-souled man like you

Who tries to withhold from your wife the day’s disappointments

So she can save her empathy for the children.

And would you want this god to compare your wife

With the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus?

It hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation

You’d have enjoyed over there higher in insight

Than the conversation you’re used to.

And think how this loving god would feel

Knowing that the man next in line for your wife

Would have pleased her more than you ever will

Even on your best days, when you really try.

Can you sleep at night believing a god like that

Is pacing his cloudy bedroom, harassed by alternatives

You’re spared by ignorance? The difference between what is

And what could have been will remain alive for him

Even after you cease existing, after you catch a chill

Running out in the snow for the morning paper,

Losing eleven years that the god who loves you

Will feel compelled to imagine scene by scene

Unless you come to the rescue by imagining him

No wiser than you are, no god at all, only a friend

No closer than the actual friend you made at college,

The one you haven’t written in months. Sit down tonight

And write him about the life you can talk about

With a claim to authority, the life you’ve witnessed,

Which for all you know is the life you’ve chosen.

[Nick Milinazzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's a chance for the soul to fit its truth /To a world of yards, moons, poplars, and starlings, / To resist the fear that to talk my language / Means to be shoehorned into my perspective / Till it thinks as I do, narrowly.

"Be brave, Soul," I want to say to encourage it. / "Your student, however slow, is willing, / The only student you'll ever have."

In this collection, Dennis uses metaphor to transmute pagan and biblical myths into secular terms. These quiet introspective musings bring the holy into the commonplace. My favorite poem from the book is "A Chance For The Soul," a portion of which is found above. Although I enjoyed his work, I felt it missing a key element allowing me to adore it.
3.5 stars

[Timothy Juhl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another poetry collection leaves my shelves.

I was completely unaware of Carl Dennis as a poet, but apparently he received the Pulitzer for Poetry in 2002.

There was a brief moment, early in the collection, that I thought, "This guy is kind of cool." He had a strong narrative in a couple of poems in the beginning, but then I noticed all of the poems starting to feel like the same thing: a bunch of metaphors that must mean something to him, endless references to the gods of history, and lines that ran too long (and poems that ran too long and shouldn't have).

He has been relegated to my bin for donation or a potential pop-up venture I'm considering.