(DePaul University/Jeff Carrion)
Avalon
By: Richard Jones, Department of English
"Avalon" is a world where the mundane and the spiritual intersect. Guided by the poet's voice—precise in his descriptions, trustworthy in his insights—readers experience a receptivity to all life offers and imposes.
What's the most surprising thing you learned while writing this book?
Poetry is a constant surprise to me. One of my books is titled "Apropos of Nothing" because poetry comes to me out of the blue, apropos of nothing. When I feel the stirrings of a poem and pick up my pen, my family says I virtually disappear. They say the house could be burning down and I’d just keep writing. That’s true enough -- I sit at the kitchen table, open my notebook and the next thing I know I’m descending into some mysterious place "under the house."
Writing to me is a spiritual activity, a way of paying special attention to those delights and terrors that come from the wordless realm of the unconscious, the imagination, and the infinite beyond. It’s pretentious to talk this way, but fun to compose in this manner. After writing "Avalon," I discovered it to be an allegory about art and eternity, cleansing and renewal. The details that make up the book—the kitchen, my notebook and the sunny garden where my wife and daughter relax in their lawn chairs—that’s just daily life.
Image courtesy of Green Linden Press
Persuade someone to read your book in less than 50 words:
Poetry has the magical ability to guide, heal, and center us—to ground us among "the true things that last forever."
About the author:
Richard Jones is a professor of English at DePaul. He is the author of several books of poetry, including "Country of Air, "The Blessing: New and Selected Poems," "Apropos of Nothing," "The King of Hearts" and "Stranger on Earth." He also is the editor of "Poetry East," and over the last four decades has curated its many anthologies.
Publisher, publication date, length:
Green Linden Press, June 2020, 75 pages
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