Seaway: New and Selected Poems [Paperback]

Poetry is a universal form of communication for thoughts, ideas, insights, and emotions expressed not only in the rhythm of the words, but in the silent pauses between the words. Such is the case with the poetry of the Canadian poet Todd Swift as presented in "Seaway: New And Selected Poems", a compendium of eighty poems of superbly written free-form verse that is enthusiastically recommended for personal, academic, and community library Poetry collections and reading lists. 'The Call': The call, when it came/Was Hong Kong quality:/Could have been from/The next room; which it was./I wasn't glad to take it/But the phone range and rang/And in reverse. The voice/Kept saying cockles-mussels./I went and took the call/And now and now/We're gathered here, that is all.

"There is, in the Beat-influenced imagination of Swift's earliest poems, an exquisite timing and formal innovation that goes on to characterise his work so far. As intensely spiritual as it is erotic, this is writing of sometimes uncomfortable honesty, which never fails to tell us something about the
strange business of being alive. The elegiac melancholy of Cafe Alibi and the
free-wheeling imagistic felicity of Rue de Regard, meet in his latest work to form a poetry as poignant as it is celebratory, shot-through with eccentric details and rueful wit." Luke Kennard

"I love the way Swift ranges from the heartbreakingly beautiful stories about his family to the witty experiments with form where any subject matter is up for scrutiny. Sincerity and comedy attuned to a subtle ear make Swift a top quality poet!" Daljit Nagra

Todd Swift is one of the leading Canadian poets and poetry activists of his generation. The collection of essays about Anglo-Quebec poetry, Language Acts (which he co-edited with Jason Camlot), was a finalist for the 2007 Gabrielle Roy Prize. He has had four previous collections of poems published by DC Books in Montreal, Canada. He lives in London, England, with his wife, where he works as a lecturer in creative writing, editor, and writer.

SEAWAY: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS gathers together 80 poems and is the first full retrospective of a poetry career that spans over two decades.

Todd Swift was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Good Friday, 1966, and grew up in St-Lambert. He was one of Canada's top-ranked student debaters throughout high school and university. He graduated with a BA in English and Creative Writing from Concordia University. In the 1990s he helped develop spoken word in Canada, with his poetry cabarets. His CD-length experimental text-music collaboration with Tom Walsh, Swifty Lazarus: The Envelope, Please, was released by Wired On Words in 2002. A graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at UEA, he is core tutor with The Poetry School, and a lecturer in creative writing and English literature at Kingston University. His recent collection of critical essays about Anglo-Quebec poetry, Language Acts, co-edited with Jason Camlot, was a finalist for the 2007 Gabrielle Roy Prize. His poems have appeared in the major anthologies The New Canon and Open Field; and his poem "Gentlemen of Nerve" was selected to appear in The Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2008. He is the editor of many significant international poetry anthologies, including Poetry Nation, Short Fuse, and 100 Poets Against The War; and is the poetry editor of Nthposition. In 2005, he edited a special section on The Young Canadian Poets for New American Writing. He has had four full collections of poems published by DC Books in Montreal. As Oxfam Great Britain's first Poet-in-residence, 2004-2008, he ran the influential Oxfam Poetry Series, and edited the best-selling CDs, Life Lines and Life Lines 2--Poets for Oxfam. In 1997, Swift moved to Budapest, then to Paris in 2001. He now lives and works in London, England, with his Irish wife, Sara.