"Wally Swist's fine poems do justice to love and nature, and those we hear on this recording are both well written and well read."
– Richard Wilbur, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 1957 & 1989
OPEN MEADOW is the perfect title for Wally Swist's latest collection of nature poetry, in which he examines closely the rich teeming life of such a place where there is love and death, too. He takes us on a nature hike, if you will, beyond the meadow and along paths and trails that lead past bogs and ponds, through woods, and up a snowy mountain. Underfoot there may be dusty beds of pine needles, orange fungi, and mud; and overhead the songs of sparrows and migrating snow geese, depending on the season. He walks hand in hand with his love. He says we need to return to the source and observe carefully. We are often in such a hurry in this life that we miss our true destinations and we need to be ever-cognizant to the "delirious music of nature." Swist, who is "thoroughly engaged in the language of the heart," is a wonderful guide along the pathways of the meadow, and his voice is perfect for his moving words.
-Sanford Phippen, author and assistant professor of English at the University of Maine, is the editor of PUCKERBRUSH REVIEW
79 minutes
