Pining from the Heat

In Pining from the Heat, Szwed has selected poems that he wrote about love, relationship, and intimacy. Biographical in many respects, this collection of poems wends its way through the years of his life, from the time the author left the U.S. Army after serving and being wounded in Viet Nam, until 2002. Through divorces, marriages, a variety of jobs, raising a daughter, in sickness and in health, walking the beach or smelling a flower, Szwed's poems, with brevity, humor, succinctness, or sarcasm let us know that this is his way of seeing this world.

These poems demonstrate that we can not always say nice things in comfortably metered terms, nor need we always say hard things awkwardly or harshly. We find the author exploring lust, puppy love, delicacy, intimacy, disappointment, fantacy, victory, longing of the body, pleading of the spirit, and the overcoming nature of a love that is thankful and knows how to give.

The author refuses to be locked into a single style or form of poetic expression. Paraphrasing Joseph Grucci, the author's former poetry workshop instructor at Penn State University, Szwed notes that all elements, including title, rhythms, color, and sentiment of a poem, should be organic and unique to the construction of the whole. At times there is a shift in some element within a poem that stops the reader to meditate on the mood change, or some clash of thoughts or feelings. This is part of how the author poetically recognizes the natural struggles of our hearts and minds, even in the best of relationships. Szwed's poems encourage readers to enjoy our God-given gift of being able to love and to give to one another.

The author's book "Three Crows Hunting" is being concurrently published by 1stBooks Library.