The Last Nostalgia: Poems, 1982-1990 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781557285584)

Joe Bolton studied universal connections--the tension between the transitory beauty of the physical world and a yearning for the eternal. He turned his eye to the world, to the cultures and the people around him, and saw reflections of himself. In this collection, he works in both free verse and traditional forms, rendering scenes of exquisite detail that pry into the hearts of his characters and reveal the contradictions that bind father to son, lover to lover, and person to person. From the broken hills and drowsy river valleys around Paducah, Kentucky, to Houston diners and Gulf Coast shrimp boats, to the tropical cityscape of Miami, Bolton creates vivid scenes in which his characters confront the loneliness and the "little music" of their lives. With a richly musical voice and an ear for the cadences of everyday speech, Bolton gives his readers not the trappings of love and grief, but the very things themselves, rendered in lines that reverberate with the authority of sincerity and truth.

Author: Joe Bolton
ISBN-10: 1557285586
ISBN-13: 9781557285584
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Language: English
Published: 07/01/1999
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 9.08h x 6.03w x 0.66d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 05/15/1999 pg. 1663
Library Journal 07/01/1999 pg. 93
Booklist 03/15/2000 pg. 1316