Ranking the Wishes

by Carl Dennis

Overview

In his seventh book, Carl Dennis explores the ways in which our wishes - those in our power to fulfill at any moment and those that have no chance of ever being realized - define who we are. While some of the poems view wishing as a failure to do justice to the world we have, others regard it as a recognition that no present, however rich, can satisfy the imagination, and suggest that one of the functions of poetry is to keep significant wishes alive. In showing with moving clarity how wishes are essential to giving shape and direction to the moment, these poems make use of a rich variety of genres: elegy, advice, meditation, warning, consolation, and prophecy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101161807
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/01/1997
Series:	Penguin Poets
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	96
File size:	268 KB
Age Range:	3 Months

About the Author

Carl Dennis is the author of nine books of poetry, including Practical Gods, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, in 2000 he was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize from Poetry Magazine and the Modern Poetry Association for his contribution to American poetry. He teaches in the English Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and is a sometime member of the faculty of the MFA program in creative writing at Warren Wilson College.

Table of Contents

Ranking the WishesFall
Cedar Point
Time Zones
Loss
Days of Heaven
To Reason
Gifts
Pendulum
Parley
Seven Days
Sarit Narai
Holy Brethren
Swindle
Say It
Night Drive
The Line
Tune-Up
The Canvasser Knocks
Aunt Celia
As If
The Messenger
The Great Day
The Pond in Winter
All I've Wanted
Inventory
The Pancake Hour
To the Soul
Distinctions
Land and Sea
Grace
Consolation
Bivouac Near Trenton
Genres
Two or Three Wishes
Integer
Writing at Night
Still Life
Starry Night
Your City