What do you think?
Rate this book
Swan, What Shores?
Winner of the Colorado Book Award;
Winner of the Willa Literary Award
As heard on Public Radio International's The Writer's Almanac!
Full of music and evocative word play, Veronica Patterson's Swan, What Shores? offers alluring poems varied in form and inventive in approach. In language that is both precise and lyrical, Patterson's work, like much of the best poetry, plumbs the human condition with depth, wit, and, above all, compassion.
The poems offer fine surprises, from the lyrical litany of "The Riddle of My Want" ("the stride of your eyes / a summering of skin") to the unusual elegy "Three Photographs Not of My Father" to the mysteries embodied in "Where Are My Swans?": "All movement in their dreams is theirs / that glide-without-haste, for what core of the universe / has to hurry?"
Swan, What Shores? marks the blossoming of a major poetic talent.
Winner of the Willa Literary Award
As heard on Public Radio International's The Writer's Almanac!
Full of music and evocative word play, Veronica Patterson's Swan, What Shores? offers alluring poems varied in form and inventive in approach. In language that is both precise and lyrical, Patterson's work, like much of the best poetry, plumbs the human condition with depth, wit, and, above all, compassion.
The poems offer fine surprises, from the lyrical litany of "The Riddle of My Want" ("the stride of your eyes / a summering of skin") to the unusual elegy "Three Photographs Not of My Father" to the mysteries embodied in "Where Are My Swans?": "All movement in their dreams is theirs / that glide-without-haste, for what core of the universe / has to hurry?"
Swan, What Shores? marks the blossoming of a major poetic talent.
- GenresPoetry
94 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2000
About the author
Veronica Patterson
14 booksVeronica Patterson received Individual Artist’s Fellowships from the Colorado Council on the Arts in 1984 and 1997 and has had residencies at the Ucross Foundation, Hedgebrook, and Rocky Mountain National Park. She is a graduate of Cornell University, the University of Michigan and the University of Northern Colorado. She also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. (source: her website)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 5, 2010
One of the premium poets...I keep Patterson close by, just in case I need to quickly refer to one of her poems as it applies to my life...
June 19, 2010
An interesting, if somewhat cryptic book. Her language is beautiful and many of these poems are moving, but there were some moments I think were a bit abstruse.
August 25, 2014
Unique and exquisite. Every line is one to be savored.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews