Carl Dennis' Practical Gods are truly gods we as readers can find evidence of in our daily lives.
Dennis is the master of conjecture -- his poems present us with a myriad of "what ifs" and "supposes" for life as it "could have been." Even the definite is indefinite as Dennis' poems welcome you to re-imagine reality. For example, in these lines from "The God Who Loves You" Dennis imagines the sadness of a god who sees all the lives you could have lived:
...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.
Dennis isn't just a poet, but a storyteller, his long and weaving lines and meandering syntax feel like an open invitation to kick your shoes off and fix yourself a cup of tea. For example, these lines from the poem "View of Delft" use art as a jumping off point for introspection:
...As for your dinner, isn't it time
To close the art book you've been caught up in,
Fetch a bottle of wine from the basement, and stroll
Three blocks to the house where your friend is waiting?
Don't be surprised if the painting lingers awhile in memory
And the trees set back on a lawn you're passing
Seem to say that to master their language of gestures
Is to learn all you need to know to enter your life
And embrace it tightly, with a species of joy
You've yet to imagine. But this joy, disguised,
The painting declares, is yours already.
You've been longing again for what you have.
Many of Dennis' poems seem autobiographical but describe action as if "you" are in his place, and this is a great skill for a narrative poet -- to invite the reader into the poem instead of simply saying "look at my life and how insightful I am." It is no wonder Practical Gods won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Once you start seeing life thru Dennis' skilled verse, it'll be hard to revert to a one-dimensional reality. His interwoven lives within lives are addictive.
