Hammer Is the Prayer

A luminous collection spanning three decades from one of America's most acclaimed poets

Christian Wiman, hailed for his "daring and urgent" poetry (The New York Times Book Review), has forged a singular style that fuses vivid musicality, clear-eyed realism, wry humor, and visionary intensity. In his critically acclaimed memoir, My Bright Abyss, Wiman ponders poetry's role in a world afire. Hammer Is the Prayer: Selected Poems stands as a powerful response.

From the taut forms of his early work to the jagged fluencies of his later collections, Hammer Is the Prayer showcases Wiman's restless interrogations and slashing lyrical precision. Yet it also reveals his narrative gifts, as in "Five Houses Down" with its "wonder-cluttered porch" and "eyesore opulence," or the tragicomic figure in "Being Serious" who endures "the world's idiocy / like a saint its pains."

Curated by the author himself, this generous selection affirms Wiman's place as an essential voice in contemporary poetry. Brimming with metaphysical urgency and a multifaceted spirit, Hammer Is the Prayer bears witness to the human experience in all its riven beauty.