Practical Gods

Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

A critically acclaimed literary treasure, Practical Gods is a captivating poetry collection that transcends conventional perspectives.

Many of the poems in this eighth collection by Carl Dennis 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.