Like Practical Gods, the poems in Dennis's sixth poetry collection, Meetings with Time (1992), explore various philosophical ideas, while contrasting them with the mundane details of everyday human experience.

In Dennis's only work of literary criticism Poetry as Persuasion (2001), the poet discusses his various poetic methods, including creating voice, the use of irony, and the use of myth.

In Dennis's seventh poetry collection, Ranking the Wishes (1997), he examines the ways that our wishes define us, through the use of several poetic mediums. Like "The God Who Loves You," this volume explores the concepts of free will and predetermination.

Stephen Dunn, a contemporary of Dennis, is also a poet who examines the everyday details of the human experience. Unlike his previous volumes, however, Dunn's Landscape at the End of the Century: Poems (1991) examined these experiential details within the context of the then-upcoming...