I liked the poetic title of a book of local poetry at the Book Nook and decided to give it a spin:

Amazon Editorial Review

In the brief turn of a line David Bottoms reveals "the talent the world shows for mystery." Following in a rich literary tradition his poems are rooted both in the details of life in the contemporary American South and in a history scorched by violence. His portrayals of human tenderness, vulnerability, and cruelty, blur the divisions between good and evil.

Clairmont Road's BookNook is a great place for "vagrant" book "grace" with its used contributions from students moving on from local higher learning institutions and an unusually well-read population. I have been aware of Georgia poet David Bottoms, who was for years the state poet laureate. I was once, I believe, at a reading of his. Still, I hadn't really paid attention until carrying this used book home. VAGRANT GRACE was published in 1999, nearly 20 years ago now. And there are poems that anchor it to that time. Bottoms writes, for example, of a rape victim of the Bosnian War and of places in Atlanta that have since gentrified. The book is not salacious yet a previous owner noted in immature script in pencil on the back inner cover and with pink highlighter, highlighted this passage from "Living Laungerie: In the Modeling Parlor" on page 68:
"She turns in the mirror to unbutton her dress, her company now an ideal loneliness." In the next poem, "Steve Belew Plays the National Steel," the phrase "vagrant grace" emerges on page 68. Bottoms is writing of Ponce de Leon Street near the Cleremont Hotel, a strip of poverty and decadence through the 1970s, 80s and 90s that's becoming fashionable and revitalized now. Even the famously dodgy Cleremont has been renovated. That stretch of road was indeed characterized by vagrant grace. There was an authentic humanity there that separated it from commercially aspiring Atlanta. To those of us who know this city, where the Federal Government waged war against civilians, it is a haunted place. In considering his toddler daughter's bronchitis, Bottoms calls back the life of another 3-year-old, killed when the Federals began bombarding the city. Of course there's no historical marker for that innocent death. Many scenes like this are characteristically Atlanta--the city is in many ways a prostitute offering "ideal loneliness." But that grim urbanity wasn't the heart of the book for me. I loved Bottoms' relationship to his rural family and their place in Georgia. His family were people of the land swept into the wars of the 20th Century. His father and uncle are both survivors of World War II in the Pacific. Though they did not speak of that war, it marked their country life around the north Georgia town of Canton, described with canniness and love in these poems. Sadly Canton is now part of the heartlessly growing "Metro Atlanta Region". Bottoms' poem "On Methodist Hill" shimmers with the life of its past. There he considers and mourns the life of a shuttered rural church. I wept with him as I read this poem. This was the right time for me to discover VAGRANT GRACE. It has been a great initiation to Bottoms. I WILL read him again.

Sometimes labmomnm and I are on the same wavelength as far as books are concerned. I hope this will be a pleasant BookCrossing surprise for her.

Arrived in the mail - sorry for the delay!

I really liked some of these. I think I re-read "The Widower" 3 or 4 times in a row, it is so lovely. I will keep this for a while & watch for his work.

I still like "The Widower" the best in this collection. I'm ready to let this go, but I am not certain where I will leave it.

Little Free Library behind Eldorado High School