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poetry “Complete with walking stick, a sharp eye for birds and botany, and a yearning for passion, Wally Swist makes his way through the world and takes the lucky reader with him.”—BILLY COLLINS “Love, nature, angels, age—these poems illuminate the important but very subtle issues that give life just the right modest weight it requires. I read them as teaching poems, teaching how to notice signals of meaning before they slip past. I will give these poems to friends who are always looking for a true insight and a worthy observation.”—THOMAS MOORE, author of Care of the Soul “Nothing goes unnoticed or unsung in this fine collection of works from Wally Swist—the lingering scent of crushed garlic, the songs of birds, the light above the wings of the angel Gabriel in Botticelli’s Annunciation, the arrow flight of a sharp-shinned hawk. This is a book you could live with for a very long time.” —JOHN HANSON MITCHELL, author of The Wildest Place on Earth: Italian Gardens and the Invention of Wilderness “In this book, Wally Swist uses the flora and fauna that haunt the hills of New England to articulate love and its seasons. The ephemeral presence of deer, juncos, snowdrops, and new maple leaves express the absence of a lost love, while the poet’s confidence that each creature will reappear in due course transforms elegy into paean. The hand that lets go is open to receive something new and unexpected: coils of bittersweet, a dragonfly, a Chinese poem, another song.” —EMILY GROSHOLZ WALLY SWIST’s previous book of poetry, Luminous Dream, was chosen as a finalist for the 2010 FutureCycle Poetry Book Award. His poems have appeared in a number of anthologies and journals. He has published over seventeen books and chapbooks. CRAB ORCHARD SERIES IN POETRY—OPEN COMPETITION AWARD Printed in the United States of America cover design: Erin Kirk New cover illustration: iStockphoto LP; copyright © lhpgmbd9999 Southern Illinois University Press www.siupress.com elizabeth wilda $15.95 usd isbn 0-8093-3099-7 isbn 978-0-8093-3099-7 ...

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