The God of This World to His Prophet by Bill Coyle

I can’t let Poetry Month slip by without mentioning several collections I’ve acquired this year, mostly by friends, starting with Bill Coyle’s The God of This World to His Prophet, which won the New Criterion Poetry Prize. It is stunning work. You can read the title poem here at Bill’s website. Another of my favorites (he read this at Sewanee last year), “The Soundman’s Funeral,” you can read here at The Hudson Review (scroll down and click on Bill Coyle--it's a pdf). Still others you can read here.

I’d seen several of the poems in the collection, but “The Face on Mars” was new to me. Subtitled “a sermon,” here’s an excerpt:

"You will recall, from past sermons I’ve given
on different members of the host of heaven,
that Mars is the most crucial—more so even

than Jupiter. I wonder have you read
any of what has recently been said
about Mars having been inhabited?"

This is a fine book, and an excellent investment for Poetry Month.