Richard Swanson

CONTACT

7320 Cedar Creek Trail
Madison, WI 53717
608-833-9556

Richard Swanson
Madison, Wisconsin

BIO

Richard Swanson’s Men in the Nude in Socks (Fireweed Press) won the Posner Award in 2007 from the Council for Wisconsin Writers for the best full-length book of poetry. Copies of the book can be obtained through his email: rwswanson@tds.net This is a quality paperback, 70 pages, selling for $13, check payable to the author.

Richard publishes widely in literary magazines, and his poems are noted for their humor and humanity. He writes in both free and conventional verse often about popular culture topics like Ted Williams, Jimmy Hoffa, and the pope. This author prides himself on his poetry being accessible to audiences.

Look for this writer to be publishing a chapbook soon on the relationships between body and mind. Long-term peace advocate, Swanson is developing a volume on the psychology of war.

PUBLICATIONS

Not Quite Eden, Fireweed Press, 2010 - $13.00
Men in the Nude in Socks, Fireweed Press, 2006 - $13.00

BOOKINGS

2010

March
Featured reader with Richard Merleman and Richard Roe March 28th at 2:00 PM at Avol's Bookstore

May
Featured reader on May 3rd at 6:30 PM at the Harmony Cafe in Appleton

POEM

MEN IN THE NUDE IN SOCKS

Hey, lookit!

These men in the nude in socks -
all pinko torso and hatchling-haired legs.
Are those bald spots on the backside
or rumps on top?
Gawd, get a snapshot,
get a guffawish gawk at
the gluteus maximus,
the muscle minima.
Remember the member-
ous droop and its stoop-
endous particulars.
Come, let us ga-ga this foldout,
slather our ardor at this
bare-boned dualped planted in argyles.
Observe, observe:

Herr Fashionable Fuzzy Foot,
dimples, moles, flabulous contours
a haunch to shame the showcase tapestries
of a meat market, oh there’s more . . .

No nothing more than the image
of men in the nude in their socks
and the point the image is for:

Men in the nude in socks do not make war.

-Richard Swanson

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