Swimming with Shadows,
Ethna McKiernan?s fourth collection of poems, returns to her earlier
themes of loss?of her youngest son, of her father, and of the pervasive
losses of the homeless population with whom she works. This new
collection also addresses political wounds of a bygone America?the
bombings of school girls in Alabama the 1960?s and the racially charged
beating of Rodney King in the 1990?s?as it presents poems that address
the conflicts of today. Interspersed are poems of love, praise and joy
like ?Thanks? and ?Night Time on the Island,? poems rooted in the
natural world, as well as some wickedly funny poems about the craft of
poetry.