The Blessing: New & Selected Poems

by Richard Jones

Gathering out-of-print and previously uncollected poems together with new poems and work from four previous volumes, The Blessing provides an overview of one of the most surprising, deceptively accessible poets currently writing. Jones’s poems explore the sacredness of the ordinary and everyday, imbuing the simplest of human gestures with delicate grace. Whether coming home to a burglarized house, weeping over a nineteenth-century novel while riding a train through the Italian countryside, or simply cooking tomato soup in a yellow pot, he writes from a calm interior and creates a beautiful and fabulous world.

Genres: Poetry

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Richard Jones was born in London and educated at the University of Virginia. His first book of poetry, Country of Air (Copper Canyon Press, 1986), won the Posner Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. He published At Last We Enter Paradise in 1991 and Perfect Time in 1994.

Jones has edited Poetry East since 1979 and has edited two critical anthologies Poetry and Politics and Of Solitude and Silence: Writings on Robert Bly. He is a professor at DePaul University in Chicago.

Reviews

[Brian Payan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of poems. They're deep and sometimes morbid, but I really enjoy them. I had the privilege of having him speak to us in class and he's a phenomenal writer and extremely humble.