Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love

In Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love, poet Wally Swist blends themes of love and epiphany to lead readers into a more conscious interaction with the world around them. These ethereal poems call upon a spirituality unfettered to any specific religion, yet universal and potent in its scope, offering a window through which life can be not only viewed but also truly experienced.

This luminescent collection illustrates the joys to be found in the everyday world and the power of existence. Unveiled here are the twin edges of love and madness; the quiet mysteries and revelations of a New England night or the glittering spark of snowdrops; the sharp scents of sugar maple and cinnamon; and the rustle of a junco’s wings. From the restoration and peace of silence or the rush of a brook, to spiraling hawks and Botticelli’s “The Annunciation,” Swist’s poems linger somewhere between the earthbound and the sublime.

Wally Swist is the author of Luminous Dream, which was chosen as a finalist for the 2010 FutureCycle Poetry Book Award. His poems have appeared in a number of anthologies and journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Alimentum: The Literature of Food, Appalachia, Rosebud, Stories from Where We Live: The North Atlantic Coast (Milkweed Editions), and Yankee Magazine. He has published more than 17 books and chapbooks.