Callings

by Carl Dennis

From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Ruth Lilly Prize

This new collection by acclaimed poet Carl Dennis is about vocation in the largest sense, the work that we believe gives our lives meaning, and the challenges that come in defining such work and in doing it well. The poems approach their subject from a variety of a calling may involve a compromise with limitations, or be an expression of individual purpose; if a calling in some poems provides an alternative to the disorder of the world, in others it offers a means to shape the world as we are shaped by it. As the poems speak to each other, they form a dialogue of attitudes that makes room for both frustration and achievement, a dialogue that includes us and takes us beyond ourselves.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Peycho Kanev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rescue

Those few who ride off in search of the truth
And are lucky enough to come across it
After years of wandering
Are likely to settle down on the spot
And bask in its steady brightness.
For them to trudge back to the dark for us,
Some motive other than love of the truth
Must also be working,
One they may not be able to name,
One they may try to resist
Even at the moment they reach the ridge
Overlooking the cluster of tattered tents
That make up our camp in the wilderness.
How tempting for them to gaze down on us
As we might gaze down from a seat
In the balcony on a character
Doomed by his ignorance and impulsiveness,
And by the plot of the play he stars in,
To make the same blunder he always makes.
Truth declares Othello’s downfall predictable
Ten minutes after the curtain opens.
Some other voice will have to prompt us
If we’re to be moved to descend to the stage
And act the part of a friend not provided,
Of counterpoise to the secret enemy.
Now to urge the hero to pause a moment,
Listen, and reconsider. Now to assure him
He needn’t always stumble without a candle
To the final scene, needn’t always learn late
What he’d give everything to learn earlier.

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like when collections of poetry come together in some interesting way. In Callings, Carl Dennis, the author of Pulitzer Prize Winning Practical Gods, writes poems about callings in all the senses of that word. Sometimes it relates to career choices, other times, to a reticent and reluctant prophet. To be honest, the first ten or so poems in this collection didn't wow me. I greatly enjoyed Practical Gods, so I am familiar with Dennis's aesthetic; those initial poems just lack the surprising word choices and possibilities for discovery that one hopes for in poetry. Beginning with "Drugstore" however, rings really pick up. In that poem, Dennis imagines a future husband and wife meeting in the cold and flu aisle of a drugstore, selecting anti-histamines. Dennis urges their offspring, "Don't be ashamed that your parents didn't happen to meet at an art exhibit." This is humorous but also speaks leads to one of Dennis's most profound insights. "Drugstore" ends with an exhortation to resist romanticising the exotic possibilities of place. He reminds us in a non-trite way, that wherever you go, there you are, as long as you make a commitment to actually being there: "You're still thinking of moving on,/Of finding a town with a climate/Friendlier to your many talents./Don't be ashamed of the homely thought/That whatever you might do elsewhere/In the time remaining you might do here/If you can resolve, at last, to pay attention." That "at last" is a big one. It spoke deeply to my own personal history in sometimes allowing myself to believe that a change of venue or career might be all I'd need to be fulfilled or whole. But here, Dennis reminds us that what we are called to do, we can do exactly where we are, exactly as we are, as long as we learn to listen carefully to the callings.

[Ed Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually read Pulitzer Prize winners but I make
an exception here. Carl Dennis new book of poems Callings
expands my poetry reading lists.

from AT THE WINE STORE
"when he pronounces a bottle "fine,"
Means neither that it's merely decent
Nor that it's so superb it can turn in a day"

I checked on Wiki and other interviews he has given
over the Internet Poets Q & A.
Don't forget he is 71 years. Dennis does NOT have
a TV maybe that is why his poems are good & terrific.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems lack the punch of those in Practical Gods, but the voice is the same, and there persists the focus on the daily goings on in Buffalo, NY. The appeal is the wisdom with which Dennis analyzes the human errors and longings beneath the surface of mundane occurrences, and the celestial significance he bestows upon them. Carl Dennis is one of my favorite poets.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of longish poems that take ordinary events and trace them either forward or backward with great leaps of imagination. I especially liked one about imaging how your parents met, called "Drugstore".

[Sue Whitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

insightful, inspiring, oh never mind, just read it for yourself

[The Book : An Online Review at The New Republic]

Nobody, so far as I know, calls Carl Dennis a great innovator, and I would not trust anybody who did. Insofar as he has distinctive gifts—and he certainly does—they are gifts firmly opposed to great innovation, to major endeavors of any sort. It is in the minor efforts, the daily or weekly rewards and tasks that make up most of any life, that Dennis finds his métier. He was, and remains at the age of seventy-one, a poet of what we are pleased to call Middle America, of a circumscribed middle class in mid-sized towns, of self-control, long-range planning, and middle age. Read more...

[Austin Bauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy Carl Dennis. "Practical Gods" is an amazing book that is hard to match. "Callings" contains some really good poems, but few match those of "Practical Gods".