Salvation Blues: One Hundred Poems, 1985-2005 [Paperback]

Jones, who grew up in rural Alabama, and whose mother and grandparents (the poems tell us) were farm workers, pursues gritty anecdotes that place him within a Southern narrative tradition from Robert Penn Warren to Yusef Komunyakaa and Dave Smith. In this culling from six previous volumes and from new work, Jones (Elegy for the Southern Drawl) portrays "cows named for friends/ and fated for slaughterhouses"; "the tongue-tied, the murderous, the illiterate/ And the alcoholic"; waitresses in "the Benzedrine light of waffle houses"; "a semi loaded with bridge girders"; mules, pigs, and hard physical labor; "fingers cracked by frost/ And lacerated by Johnson grass." As much as he chronicles hard lives, Jones (who teaches at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale) shows an unusual intellectual reach and a large verbal ambition. While this ample book will serve many readers as an introduction to Jones's work, it also contains surprises for his fans: 24 new poems (some his best yet) build on his descriptive strengths as they incorporate political commentary, remembering high school, conceiving the end of the human species or excoriating politicians who sing the "Low-Down Sorry Right-Wing Blues." (Mar.)
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Jones' more-than-20-year compilation of six volumes is a six-pack of rich southern smoothness. If poetic voices were heard on the radio, his would be a late-night crooning of midnight tales. Satisfying. Deep as a well. Filled with a bit of everything. Although it's an overused term in today's poetics, it is anything but a slap to suggest that Jones' poems are accessible. And although the literati play a role in "The Poetry Reading' (which reminds one of Mark Strand's "The Great One" in sardonic fun), "Plea for Forgiveness," and "The Limousine Bringing Isaac Bashevis Singer to Carbondale," Jones is hardly above writing about laundry and male genitals. A sample: "A young terrorist, sprung from prison / And bound for home, bent on sedition." Jones' poems report on a life spent detailing the sacred and the profane, and together they create a solid, highly recommended volume. Mark Eleveld
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

"For most of twenty years I have been reading Rodney Jones poems, admiring the daring of his mind and attention." --W.S. Merwin

"Reading [Rodney Jones'] poems [is] a continuously liberating experience. This is work that really matters." --Carl Dennis, 2002 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry

"An essential American voice perfectly attuned to its subject matter...[Rodney Jones] is one of our very finest poets." --B.H. Fairchild --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Rodney Jones has long been praised for his masterly storytelling and the bold southern voice he brings to his poetry. Salvation Blues celebrates the range and evolution of his work over a twenty-year period with one hundred selected poems -- including twenty-four bold pieces published only in this collection.

RODNEY JONES, born in Alabama, is a professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Salvation Blues is his eighth book of poetry. Among his many honors, Jones was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Southeast Booksellers Association Award, and a Harper Lee Award.