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The Dance
A new book of poetry from the celebrated poet and essayist, who has “wrestled eternity onto the page” (The New York Times).
Few contemporary writers ask the questions about faith, morality, and God that Christian Wiman does, and even fewer―perhaps none ―do so with his urgency and eloquence. In his seventh book of poetry, The Dance, Wiman is at the height of his powers. These searching, sharp, wide-ranging poems are a testament to the staying power of a poetic voice we will be reading for years to come.
Few contemporary writers ask the questions about faith, morality, and God that Christian Wiman does, and even fewer―perhaps none ―do so with his urgency and eloquence. In his seventh book of poetry, The Dance, Wiman is at the height of his powers. These searching, sharp, wide-ranging poems are a testament to the staying power of a poetic voice we will be reading for years to come.
- GenresPoetry
126 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2026
About the author
Christian Wiman
154 books346 followersChristian Wiman is an American poet and editor born in 1966 and raised in West Texas. He graduated from Washington and Lee University and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College in Virginia, and the Prague School of Economics. In 2003 he became editor of the oldest American magazine of verse, Poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
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September 20, 2026Christian Wiman is, by far, my favorite living poet.
This collection was uneven for me, but it includes one of the best poems I’ve read in a long time- “Geoffrey Hill.”
And even inside the poems I didn’t love, I found lines that amazed me:
“Here we are, then, our little when”
“one strains to tell if memory fog horn is real / or if that’s simply the sound that memory makes”
“Spasmodic God / what constitutes devotion / to a vital null that will not be known?”
“The Deuteronomists of Should”
“To make of loneliness a keener means/ Of seeing”
This collection was uneven for me, but it includes one of the best poems I’ve read in a long time- “Geoffrey Hill.”
And even inside the poems I didn’t love, I found lines that amazed me:
“Here we are, then, our little when”
“one strains to tell if memory fog horn is real / or if that’s simply the sound that memory makes”
“Spasmodic God / what constitutes devotion / to a vital null that will not be known?”
“The Deuteronomists of Should”
“To make of loneliness a keener means/ Of seeing”
August 16, 2026
Prefer the more psychologically troubled work from Wiman, but his cadence and formal chops remain top of the game, particularly in a poetry landscape collapsing under the weight of a post-BookTok free verse culture of bare literacy. Speaking as one, every atheist would do well engage with Wiman. No one writes more complexly or compellingly or even-handedly on notions of faith, God, and the divine experience of mundanity. If only religion embraced this form post-transcendental theology rather than a child's rulebook and binaries of bigotry, the world might be a percentage point less awful.
June 9, 2026
What a stunning collection of poems! Wiman is a true wordsmith. I loved the layers in his poetry, the little turns of phrases that not only are pleasing to the ear but flip the meaning of the poem on its head. I feel like I could read this collection again and again and take away something new each time. Some of my favorites from the collection: “Prelude in Gray Major”, “Pity the Man”, “Jamesian”, “The Dance”, “Holding an Earthworm at Fifty-Eight”, “The Cage”, “Out of Time”, and “Year”.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!
August 17, 2026
Uneven as most poetry collections seem to be, but this one has its pleasures, and one poem about Christmas that stands next to Mark Doty's Messiah poem on the riser of greatness, in tee shirt and jeans, and lit from within like a cathedral.
October 28, 2026
“touch as if with
care and keen discernment
each notch and knot
in the old wood as it senses
itself back to grass”
“I lived
into and by means of
a particular and inchoate love”
“cracked and creased
as a creekbed in the mouth of drought,
and with the breath of earth and earthen stone
flung to sun”
“FALL)
The season itself a sentience”
“WINTER)
Crispings, icelight, January’s stiletto”
“SPRING)
Sunlight delighting itself on the winking creek”
“I’m left
with that half-elated, half-depleted
feeling of coming back
to consciousness, bereft
of something I can’t even name, and called
with all my mongrel words to praise
the very same.”
“a tree released
its shadows, two of them,
oaring over the water,
plumed, light-limned, heroned”
“I am nature’s changes now, past all change”
“These green declivities we come upon,
these easing umbers and bowls of snow,
were, scientists say, formed by fire and fear,
buffalo and deer fleeing the flames
our ancestors first learned to wield”
“Here we are, then, our little when,
our hearts hard in our chests from the climb,
trying, one more time, to feel at home
in nature, whose nature’s not to feel,
these verdant slopes, this winking stream,
intimately beckoning, adamantly real.”
“one strains to tell if memory fog horn is real / or if that’s simply the sound that memory makes”
“Spasmodic God / what constitutes devotion / to a vital null that will not be known?”
“The Deuteronomists of Should”
“To make of loneliness a keener means/ Of seeing”
care and keen discernment
each notch and knot
in the old wood as it senses
itself back to grass”
“I lived
into and by means of
a particular and inchoate love”
“cracked and creased
as a creekbed in the mouth of drought,
and with the breath of earth and earthen stone
flung to sun”
“FALL)
The season itself a sentience”
“WINTER)
Crispings, icelight, January’s stiletto”
“SPRING)
Sunlight delighting itself on the winking creek”
“I’m left
with that half-elated, half-depleted
feeling of coming back
to consciousness, bereft
of something I can’t even name, and called
with all my mongrel words to praise
the very same.”
“a tree released
its shadows, two of them,
oaring over the water,
plumed, light-limned, heroned”
“I am nature’s changes now, past all change”
“These green declivities we come upon,
these easing umbers and bowls of snow,
were, scientists say, formed by fire and fear,
buffalo and deer fleeing the flames
our ancestors first learned to wield”
“Here we are, then, our little when,
our hearts hard in our chests from the climb,
trying, one more time, to feel at home
in nature, whose nature’s not to feel,
these verdant slopes, this winking stream,
intimately beckoning, adamantly real.”
“one strains to tell if memory fog horn is real / or if that’s simply the sound that memory makes”
“Spasmodic God / what constitutes devotion / to a vital null that will not be known?”
“The Deuteronomists of Should”
“To make of loneliness a keener means/ Of seeing”
November 9, 2026
Before the Bone Marrow Transpant Christmas 2022 was one poem I really really liked. Of the others, broadly.. i felt their ideas would likely be better expressed in a different format, although i acknowledge that it is difficult to foster Real intimacy of communication & avoid the stink of didacticism in religious poetry
he is playing a little fast & loose adjectivally like i didn't find his imagery very precise. he likes to use a lot of "a certain" this and "almost like" descriptors, which i cannot enjoy or approve of! the literary references i caught (the dante line for example. i have not read moby-dick so excluding that one,) are static, once invoked. also the puns... Not really setting yourself up for success there IMO. Was lowkeyyyy aghast upon two instances of this....
he is playing a little fast & loose adjectivally like i didn't find his imagery very precise. he likes to use a lot of "a certain" this and "almost like" descriptors, which i cannot enjoy or approve of! the literary references i caught (the dante line for example. i have not read moby-dick so excluding that one,) are static, once invoked. also the puns... Not really setting yourself up for success there IMO. Was lowkeyyyy aghast upon two instances of this....
March 25, 2026
As a poetry lover, I must confess that, to be honest, I didn’t particularly care for the poems, Perhaps it’s because I’m someone who prefers collections of melancholic love poems; I don’t know. But I still have boundless respect for the effort that goes into writing poetry; after all, every poem carries a piece of the poet within it.
July 9, 2026
Pity the man who understands
the gift and gravity of what is not,
who lives to its conclusion
the doctrine of Saint Paul:
if being more means being less
God’s truest form is godlessness.
from Christian Wiman, “Pity the Man” The Dance
the gift and gravity of what is not,
who lives to its conclusion
the doctrine of Saint Paul:
if being more means being less
God’s truest form is godlessness.
from Christian Wiman, “Pity the Man” The Dance
July 12, 2026
Five-stars, but allow me to descend into gossip by asking whether the poem, Two Poets, where this otherwise Godstruck poet gets earthly catty and mocks two famous poets. A bit of detective work on my part has me guessing he is referring to Allen Ginsberg and Alice Walker. Thoughts?
August 1, 2026
Wiman is smart and witty in his exploration of the interior world of faith and spirituality. Perhaps a bit too heady for me, but I’d definitely try another volume of his poetry if given the opportunity.
March 12, 2026
A few of my favorites: Deep Space in the B Minor Mass, Note in the Margin of Moby Dick, Two Poets
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
2.5
July 10, 2026
Loved it! So many lines that resonated…and the last poem was awesome. ❤️
July 10, 2026
everyone should actually go read this right now!!!!!!!!
August 19, 2026
The concupiscent porcupine aside, there are numerous lovely and thought-provoking poems in this poetry collection by Yale professor Christian Wiman. Search it out and find the ones that speak to you.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews