Earthborn
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this quietly moving outing, Pulitzer Prize winner Dennis (Night School) places human feelings under a microscope to reveal their significance. A neighbor stands in her driveway and remarks, "We really need this rain," which causes the speaker to contemplate "the green life we've gathered about us:/ The pin oaks and silver maples, the holly/ And lilac and dogwood, whose ancestors/ Did what they could to make a home here." In "Stoplight," Dennis evokes the grief one might feel about losing a spouse after decades of marriage through the simple image of a man sitting at a traffic light, in no particular hurry to return home "To a house that's silent." There are instances of wry humor as in "New Light Tabernacle," which opens with the poet admitting he would drive an extra 10 minutes to shop at a solar-powered grocery store, "Though I admit that an extra thirty minutes/ Might prove a problem. I have my own life to live/ After all." What begins with a comic moment turns into a profound discussion of spirituality and stewardship and humanity's obligations to itself, the Earth, and God. Dennis grants reverence and crystalline attention to each moment; it is a joy to see the world through his perceptive eyes.
