A Scrap in the Blessings Jar
New and Selected Poems

David Bottoms (Author), Ernest Suarez (Edited by), Dave Smith (Series edited by)

9780807180693

Hardback, published 4 October 2023

192 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.272 kg

PRAISE FOR DAVID BOTTOMS

"David Bottoms is brilliant in the clarity and richness of his language, profoundly humane in the breadth and compassion of his vision. He is quite simply one of the best poets writing today." - Jane Hirshfield

A Scrap in the Blessings Jar, a volume of new and selected poems by David Bottoms, captures the evolution of the poet's spiritual quest over the past fifty years. A native and longtime resident of Georgia, Bottoms draws inspiration from the American South, and his work examines themes related to family dynamics, the woods, animals, fishing, and music in an effort to, as he once told an interviewer, "reveal something about the hidden things of the world, the vague or shadowy relationships and connections that exist just below the surface of our daily lives." This book charts his progression from tightly wrought naturalistic narratives to works that reflect his shifting conception of the interplay between memory, the present, and the metaphysical. At heart, Bottoms remains a storyteller who employs figurative language to discover the extraordinary in the seemingly mundane, and whose poetry explores the depths of our existential condition and common humanity.