A timely new collection that sounds themes about the fragility of life and our duty to respect the planet in a time of climate change, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose work “begins in delight and ends in wisdom” (Carrie Fountain)
The work of Carl Dennis has won praise for its “integrity, its substance, and its seemingly effortless craft; and for its embodiment of passionate inquiry” (Times Literary Supplement). The title of his new collection, Earthborn, helps to point the way to its two central concerns: how to find meaning, as creatures of the earth, in lives that are short and frail and destined to be forgotten; and how, as stewards of the earth, to address the need to protect our home from ourselves, from the menace to life posed by our own species. The book succeeds in braiding together a recognition of our limits and of our responsibilities in ways that are deeply moving and revealing.
ISBN-13: 9780143137016
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: 03-01-2022
Pages: 128
Product Dimensions: 6.05(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Series: Penguin Poets
Carl Dennis is the author of 13 previous works of poetry, as well as a collection of essays, Poetry as Persuasion. In 2000 he received the Ruth Lilly Prize for his contribution to American poetry. His 2001 collection Practical Gods won the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Buffalo, New York.
Table of Contents
I
Canadian Hemlock 3
Bottle of Wine 4
Primitive 5
Guest List 6
Another Earth Day 8
Winter Gift 10
From the Trustees of Forest Lawn 12
Down Here 14
II
Stoplight 19
A Hat 21
In Traffic 22
Love and Duty 24
Second Best 26
A Key 28
Too Bad 30
The Right Time 31
Driving to Syracuse 32
III
First Mate 37
We 39
New Light Tabernacle 40
Beyond Will 43
Thought Experiment 45
Dependence Day 46
Three Pages 48
Children's Day 50
IV
Rare Mood 53
A Daughter of the Puritans 55
Questions for Lazarus 57
Former Lives 59
Nobody Knows 61
Palmyra 63
The Fall of Man 64
At Chartres 66
V
Art and Life 71
Simon Pell 73
The Muse of Music 75
Unanswered Letter 77
Snowplow Driver 79
War and Peace 80
Violin 82
For Tony Hoagland 84
VI
A Romance 89
Embodied 91
The Night before Halloween 93
One Thing Is Needful 95
A Journey 97
Sunday with Trees 99
Breath 101
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