Swimmer - Paperback

by John Koethe (Author)

A searching new collection from America's philosopher-poet

John Koethe, in his tenth volume of poetry, investigates the capricious nature of everyday life, "the late-night jazz, great sex and all / The human shit defining what we are." His poems--always dynamic and in process, never static or complete--luxuriate in the questions that punctuate the most humdrum of routines, rendering a robust portrait of an individual: complicated, quotidian, and resounding with truth. The Swimmer argues that this "energizes everything" life's trivialities, surprises, and disappointments, and the "terrible feeling of being just about to fall."

Author Biography

John Koethe has published several books of poetry, and has received the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Kingsley Tufts Award, and the Frank O'Hara Award. He has also published books on Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosophical skepticism, and poetry, and is the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.