St. Paul writes “the foolishness of God is wiser than men.” The poems in William Wenthe’s God’s Foolishness mine the feelings of human uncertainty in matters of love and desire, time and death, and uncover difficult truths with transformative insights.
These are poems of crisis. Wenthe examines our conflicting urges to see nature as sustenance and to foolishly destroy it. His poems shift from close observation to panorama with cinematic fluidity, from a tea mug to an ancient monument, from a warbler on an elm branch to the specter of imminent natural disaster.
Offering passion and intellect balanced with a careful concern for poetic craft, Wenthe’s God’s Foolishness gives us fine poems to savor and admire.
I.
The Call
Parable of a Birthday
A Cedar in Paris
Monuments
A Lesser Story
Junkyard
Between the Lines
When the Circus Comes
Crying Dog
II.
The Assistant District Attorney Quits His Job
Steve
Police Blotter
The Night Shift
Against Witness
Stopping in Artesia
Holy Saturday
Flyover
Driving Westward
Peaceable Kingdom
III.
From the Footbridge
Carrizo Creek
Consider the Hagfish
Departures
Harbor Scene
“The Land’s End”
In Praise of Angus
For the Coming Catastrophes
Bitter Lake
IV.
Heron
The Man Who Confuses Sex with Love
Prenuptial
Hospital Room, 1 A. M.
Error upon Me Proved
In the Place Des Vosges
Ambition
Counterpoint
If I’m Reading You Right, Immanuel
V.
The Story
Impromptu Novena in Mid-September
William Wenthe has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts, as well as two Pushcart Prizes. His previous poetry collections include God’s Foolishness and Words before Dawn. Born and raised in New Jersey, he has lived in New York City and Virginia, and teaches poetry at Texas Tech University.
