Practical Gods is the eighth collection by Carl Dennis, a critically acclaimed poet and recent winner of one of the most prestigious poetry awards, the Ruth Lilly Prize. Carl Dennis has won acclaim for "wise, original, and often deeply moving" poems that "ease the reader out of accustomed modes of seeing and perceiving" (The New York Times). Many of the poems in this new book involve an attempt to enter into dialogue with pagan and biblical perspectives, to throw light on ordinary experience through metaphor borrowed from religious myth and to translate religious myth into secular terms. While making no claims to put us in touch with some ultimate reality, these clear, precise, sensitive poems help us to pay homage to the everyday household gods that are easy to ignore, the gods that sustain life and make it rewarding.;Priest of Hermes -- Saint Francis and the nun -- Department store -- Not the idle -- Gelati -- To a pagan -- History -- School days -- Glory -- Prophet -- Delphi -- Infidels -- Pride -- On the bus to Utica -- Jesus freaks -- Serpent to Adam -- View of Delft -- Chance for the soul -- Halfway -- Audience -- Letter from Mary in the Tyrol -- Numbers -- Fallen -- Eurydice -- Lace maker -- After eden -- Progress -- Progressive health -- Just deserts -- More art -- Basho -- Improbable story -- Bishop Berkeley Sunrise -- Eternal Poetry -- In the short term -- Guardian angel -- May jen -- Eternal life -- God who loves you.