Waltzing Through the Endtime

by David Bottoms

In these 14 poems, David Bottoms waltzes through the "Christ-haunted South" and highlights how and where the afterlife intersects our daily lives. In a strong and musical voice, Bottoms, the poet laureate of Georgia, modernizes the narrative traditions of the American South. He encounters the ghosts of musicians and recounts strange instances of religious visitation:

From "Vigilance"

Like my neighbor again who grew a yellow...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556592159
• ISBN13: 9781556592157
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Will be Remembered as Some of His Best Work

First and foremost, these poems will certainly satisfy long-time readers of the author's work with its southern settings and atmosphere. Anyone wanting vintage Bottoms is going to like this book. However, in addition to harkening back to his prior work, the poet definitely breaks new ground with his longer poems. I found myself completely enthralled by the extended pieces - so much so that I didn't want them to end, and neither will any other reader of this wonderful collection. Read it and thoroughly enjoy it.

A Balm for the Spirit

Memory and music intertwine in Waltzing through the Endtime, a book destined to insure Bottoms' rank among the maverick poets of all time. Throughout the book, Bottoms achieves the swaying arc of the waltz, matching its sweeping rhythm with the mastery of his lines, lines as all-encompassing of the human spirit as Whitman's. Roethke said a poem is a holy thing, a good poem, that is, and with Waltzing through the Endtime, Bottoms offers immeasurable blessing for us all. Like no other poet writing today, he rages against the materialism of our time and delivers us once again restored and spiritualized.