Things I Know I Love: Odes to Food by Wally Swist
$14.49
In this book, Wally Swist pleases our palette yet again, this time with a collection of epicurean poems that celebrate life’s abundance with a deep sense of spirituality, each poem a sacred feast for which we must give thanks.
From the sandwiches in “Ray’s Sandwich Shop,” where “Ray and his wife laid the prepared sandwiches…/on wheat or white–/and the real charm of having them all wrapped/in waxed paper,” to “The Dante Alighieri Summer Paradiso Al Fresco,” where “besides, where you find yourself now/Appears to be the Florian, a sidewalk cafe, with/The most fascinating of angelic faces at each table,” this collection is in itself an abundant harvest that reminds us to savor life in all its seasons. Not only are Swist’s words delicious, they leave us thoroughly and delightfully satisfied while still craving more.
–Pat Mottola, M.F.A.
Editor, Connecticut River Review
Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]
Things I Know I Love: Odes to Food teaches us how to cherish each day by seasoning “each of us to the depth of our very soul.” Like the mythical figure of the giant Antaeus, Wally Swist’s poems get their strength from having at least one foot on a specific patch of ground which has grown the food he celebrates in this mouth-watering collection. An abundance of sensual particulars such as “dewy-eared sweet corn” create poems that glow, shift and blaze with a passion for being and teach us to “savor the present moment.” These fine poems are meditations crafted by Swist’s emotionally complex mind, which recognizes that we must be “able to enjoy the taste of the combinations of simple food and good wine, even though there is poverty and scarcity in the world.” Each poem about preparing food and sharing it with others creates a sense of communion and achieves a grace that approaches the sacramental. With a sense of connection to all who have come before, to the land they have tilled, Russian kale becomes “a friend who had gone unseen for years.” What other poet has written a poem about standing next to Meryl Streep “as luminous as a Botticelli” while buying a sub in Ray’s Sandwich Shop? Things I Know I Love: Odes to Food not only nourishes the body with garden fresh tomatoes and snow peas, but also feeds the spirit by showing us how to stay centered, how to rise. Like the “crunch of the MacCoun, and the sweetness of the Honey Crisp,” music and wisdom in this shimmering collection of poems linger first on the taste buds but finally find their way to our heart.
—Vivian Shipley, Editor of Connecticut Review
Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]
Description
Things I Know I Love: Odes to Food
by Wally Swist
$14.49, paper
Wally Swist’s books include Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012); Velocity (Virtual Artists Collective, 2013); The Daodejing: A New Interpretation, with David Breeden and Steven Schroeder (Lamar University Press, 2015); Invocation (Lamar University Press, 2015); Things I Know I Love: Odes to Food (Finishing Line Press, 2015); and The Windbreak Pine: New and Uncollected Haiku, 1985-2015 (Snapshot Press, UK, 2015).
Pat Mottola –
In this book, Wally Swist pleases our palette yet again, this time with a collection of epicurean poems that are beautifully written and artfully conceived.
Swist celebrates life’s abundance with a deep sense of spirituality, each poem a sacred feast for which we must give thanks.
“Apples” is my pick, as it begs the reader to wander out of the poem, into the Garden of Eden, to Eve’s passion, to its sinful delight, and then back into a life “brimming over with the abundance/Of the fruit of the harvest…”
“…Cortlands, MacCouns,/And Honey Crisps, each its own cadenza/In the symphony of streaming October/Sunlight, as strong as the light in Emmaus/When Christ reappeared to the disbelief/Of his apostles. Each apple, one for each/Day, as resilient as if it were its own last/Meal…”
The odes seem set to music by Swist’s melodic voice and his ability to so eloquently turn a phrase like the perfectly tilled soil in which we plant and reap.
From the sandwiches in “Ray’s Sandwich Shop,” where “Ray and his wife laid the prepared sandwiches…/on wheat or white–/and the real charm of having them all wrapped/in waxed paper,” to “The Dante Alighieri Summer Paradiso Al Fresco,” where “besides, where you find yourself now/Appears to be the Florian, a sidewalk cafe, with/The most fascinating of angelic faces at each table,” this collection is in itself an abundant harvest that reminds us to savor life in all its seasons. Not only are Swist’s words delicious, they leave us thoroughly and delightfully satisfied while still craving more.