This Geography of Thorns: Blues Poetry from the Mississippi Delta and Beyond

by J. Todd Hawkins

This Geography of Thorns is the winner of the 2019 Catherine Case Lubbe Manuscript Contest, sponsored by the Poetry Society of Texas. These poems represent a journey deep into the heart of American Southern landscapes and personae. The pieces here discuss figures like Memphis Minnie, Bukka White, Mississippi John Hurt, Charley Patton, Jelly Roll Morton, and Muddy Waters as well as places like the Lorraine Motel, Clarksdale, New Orleans, Beale Street, and Dockery Plantation. Contest judge Adam Tavel had the following to say about Hawkins’s book: “Haunted, meditative, and lyrical, This Geography of Thorns takes readers on an engrossing, Dantesque sojourn through the American south in search of that most authentic of American artforms: the blues. To call this book a mere homage to the blues, however, would be a disservice to its heart, its sophistication, and its astute avoidance of cliché. Polyphonic and brimming with myths, these poems express the inherent complexities not only among the blues, but also among its most famous and tragic practitioners such as the legendary Robert Johnson. Sacred and profane, aching and hopeful, sparse and decadent, the blues has, much like the land that made it, always been rife with contradictions. These poems lay bare that evocative emotional force while simultaneously acknowledging the inscrutable mystery at its core. Like midnight smoke in a juke joint, it can be sensed but not held.”

“Beyond question, Hawkins has written a major collection of poems that must be included in any discussion of Delta poetry today and way beyond.” — Philip C. Kolin (Distinguished Professor of English at University of Southern Mississippi; Emeritus Editor, The Southern Quarterly; Author of Emmett Till in Different States: Poems)

“J. Todd Hawkins’s This Geography of Thorns is an autumnal journey through the vivid and moving lives and soundscapes that bore the great Blues singers through their triumphs, sorrows, and often too-brief time on earth. . . . With as strong a sense of Place as any Southern writer, Hawkins gives us a memorable collection, one with an eloquent sense of joy and sorrow, both luminous and haunting.” — Jeffrey Alfier (Founder & Co-editor of Blue Horse Press & San Pedro River Review)

“I relish the times I’m reading a book of poetry and the lines convince my ears I’m sitting in an old joint listening to a band cutting things to bits. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I’m hooked, forever. That’s definitely the case with J. Todd Hawkins’ new collection, This Geography of Thorns. There’s blues in these fine poems, for sure, but a whole lot more joy, with language that sways and strikes like snake tattoos on a muscled arm. Poem by poem, Hawkins lays his melodies down like a master bluesman, and I feel blessed to have sat a while listening to him play.” — Jack B. Bedell (Poet Laureate, State of Louisiana, 2017-2019; Author of No Brother, This Storm)

117 pages, Paperback

Published July 9, 2020