Conley Bottom is a poemoir ( a memoir written in poetry not prose) reflecting Ben White’s childhood, adolescence, and teenage years growing up in south central Kentucky in the 1960s and ‘70s. Conley Bottom evokes a place, and a spirit–the place: Conley Bottom, a lake created by a hydroelectric dam on a river that was a gathering place for many and all people until it was converted into a private resort; the spirit: the innocence of childhood, the growing edges of adolescence, and the easy freedom and invincible spirit of youth.