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Swift River Ballad
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781639804160
Publisher: Kelsay Books
Published: Sep 2 2023
Pages: 46
Weight: 0.18
Height: 0.11 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
-Jennifer Martelli, author of The Queen of Queens
Joy is what Thomas DeFreitas brings us with Swift River Ballad-earthy devotion, spirituality grounded in the ordinary facts of Creation. Whether in his friendship-tributes (Her Mind, Her Heart), a dream-elevated celebration of Somerville, Massachusetts, or the sensibility seeing hearth-gather, harvest-hoard, cider-huddle in November's decline, the poet puts mud between the toes of mortality's Great Matters. This festival-feeling hasn't come easily, as we see from the title poem and others such as She, Barkeep, to Him, Barfly. If he tells us, remarkably, that he does not approve of death / Unless it is sensual, we have to imagine that he will and must approve when the conditions are right. So let us consider this, then turn back to the rejoicing of My Belly-catholic and capacious ... brave with bombast. Let DeFreitas remind us that the swallow passing above our heads has come from everywhere.
-David P. Miller, author of Bend in the Stair
Swift River Ballad knows where it is situated. Like a river, it flows along, at times swift, and others lingering. It remembers those who came before, persons public and private, paying each homage in equal measure as only a river could; DeFreitas is generous in his sweep and deep in his scope. This collection runs along the landscape of a life-from dive bars to church basements, from Sweet Caroline to the Cistercians, from Andy's Diner to Cooke's Hollow. In each reading, you will find someplace new to linger, some new twist in the turn, some new delight to discover, some memory that rises to the surface, recovered.
-Christie Towers, author of and again i heard the stars
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