It\'s difficult to accept that shadows, too, are products of the natural world. -Amaud Jamaul Johnson.
Reading these poems is an act of surveying light.
We are left with faith.
As if negotiating the cliff\'s edge, or wading into open water, her speakers are at the mercy of currents.
But what is poetry if not the mind\'s silhouette? In the pastoral tradition we confront our reflection, and here, Swan uses nature to look inward.
Elegant, image rich, and full of birdsong, these poems question and delight.
In Heather Swan\'s A Kinship with Ash, wisdom is hard won.
As much as we want to appeal to our better angels, cruelty hovers and haunts our hearts.
Often we hold what\'s beautiful next to what we fear.
It\'s difficult to accept that shadows, too, are products of the natural world
