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    Ranking the Wishes

    Part of Penguin Poets

    Author Carl Dennis
    Paperback
    $27.00 US
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
    5.44"W x 8.29"H x 0.26"D   | 4 oz | 30 per carton
    On sale Jun 01, 1997 | 96 Pages | 9780140587791
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    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.
    © Mary Richert
    Carl Dennis is the author of fourteen books of poetry, most recently Earthborn (2022). A winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Ruth Lilly Prize, he taught for many years in the English Department of the State University of New York, and in the Warren Wilson Writing Program in North Carolina. He lives in Buffalo, New York View titles by Carl Dennis
    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

    About

    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.

    Author

    © Mary Richert
    Carl Dennis is the author of fourteen books of poetry, most recently Earthborn (2022). A winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Ruth Lilly Prize, he taught for many years in the English Department of the State University of New York, and in the Warren Wilson Writing Program in North Carolina. He lives in Buffalo, New York View titles by Carl Dennis

    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

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