Manny's: Something Necessary - An Afternoon of Poetry

Join us for this special reading and book signing with poet Paul Jones. To read Paul Jones is to behold how there is always “still some place deeper, / some place both dark and alive.” In formally versatile, emotionally visceral poems, he immerses us in the body and spirit of the timeless everyday: tomato sandwiches, watermelons, vape shops, graveyards, basketball, grief, memory, friendship, marriage, poverty, flying kites, and Dolly Parton. Throughout it all, we have the natural world: the animal kingdom, the seas, the air, and the ground right in front of us. In that emphasis on the everyday, his poetry practices the hope that we might at last “be free from the nation of strangers.” His poems do “the work of roots, / how each strand reaches for its neighbor.” That’s the work we should do too, and we’ve got Paul Jones to point the way, take our hand, and walk with, stepping forward together. – Andy Fogle, author of Mother Countries and poetry editor of Salvation South For poems and more see SmallJones.com