Pining from the Heat: (and other poems of relationship and intimacy)

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.

Craig M. Szwed has written poetry since the mid 1960's.  He retained his poetry until satisfied that his poems are what he wants to say, in the manner he wants things said.  His poems have been read and edited by friends and family, near and far, some of whom are teachers and writers who encouraged him to continue writing and to publish.  Craig's poetry has been published in Once Upon a World (2001) and in Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (2003).  In 2001, Craig  self-published the compact disk "american haiku."  To him, writing is the love of expression, the hope of being heard and understood; of sharing common human things that may often feel too elusive to say in conversation.

Focal Point

The body parts, by which
we are so enthralled,
our virile focus,
our touch of fire---
we find them
melting in passion,
then fleeting into eternity,
though the ecstatic moment
denies their temporal breath;
their certain end.

Striking beauty must be more
than the depth of a few cells;
than furtive glances;
than beguiling smiles;
than cascading tresses;
than the passing of one's age or flower.

What aches these conjure!!
Yet, to last, to grow---
they can not but aspire,
and must give way
to a beauty deeper,
from within:
clear and still,
at peace---
in spite of age or hormones.

Yet rages the outer,
consuming, consumed,
very aware the ticking of its life;
desire...................
the yearning to stay,
and to go farther on as well.
But, look now,
on the deeper beauty,
standing still.

Arms Expended

Your canon shot,
well placed,
sizzled in,
exploded,
to send me beyond clouds
I'd never passed before.
But, falling earthward,
once again,
I, too, landed spent,
as did the round of arms
with which you roused me so.