Poetry. PRISONER OF THE SWIFTS treats themes of birth, creation, cosmology, and mortality with the lyricism and depth readers have come to expect from Skillman. Four sections weave a delicate tapestry, that of pedestrian lives overlaid and informed by the acrobatic flight of swifts. "Like Dickinson, another poet whose passionate imagination 'overflowed / the room' to embrace the whole universe, Skillman watches the aerial acrobatics of never-alighting swifts beyond her 'Victorian walls,' and discovers in them the strength of spirit to confront her own frailty and to celebrate a life 'that seeds and recedes.' These poems 'render in iridescence' the mortal lives, with their windows onto eternity, of us all"--Carolyne Wright.

Author Hometown: Kennydale, WA USA



About the author: Judith Skillman is the author of twelve books of poetry. Her work has appeared in Field, The Iowa Review, Northwest Review, Poetry, Southern Review, and Prairie Schooner.

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