Ariadne & Other Poems

From the Introduction by Andrea Moorhead: "Simplicity and silence form the central axis of Swanberg�s work in much the same manner as clarity of gesture and centered thought create the necessary dynamic tension in a Zen adept�s meditations. Swanberg�s poems are linguistic line drawings...The restricted palette of the poems acts as a translucent potter�s glaze or watercolorist�s wash. Gold, white, blue, and unspecified dark are the coordinates of the poems� light.... Binding everything together is the voice of the eternal feminine, the yin yang of harmony and dissention, the essential expression of fertility and art created and expressed in the female voice and point of view. Consciousness is co-shared in Swanberg�s world; the eternal feminine, viewed through classical mythological figures, allows us to move out of our limited and restrictive view of the natural world and into a more inclusive comprehension of the planet�s life forms. The ghost pony�s wonderful spirit is present for all those who allow imagination to open their spirits to the fundamental essence of the other creatures with whom we share the planet."

Ingrid Swanberg is a native Californian transposed to the Midwest. She learned a love of the wilderness early on, spending much of her childhood in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and on the shoreline of the Lost Coast. Her poetry has appeared in numerous small presses since the late 60s. She participated in the mimeo publishing movement that flourished in the 60s and 70s, and worked then on publishing two magazines focusing on women poets. Since 1980 she has edited Abraxas Magazine and directed Ghost Pony Press in Madison, Wisconson. Under the Ghost Pony imprint she published Concrete Zen & Etc, a major collection of d.a.levy�s poetry that has done much to preserve his legacy as one of the 20th Century�s great poets, and she continues to contribute to the growing scholarship on his work. She has a lifelong interest in mythology, particularly the figurations of the Great Goddess of antiquity. Her poetic focus is on the lyric mode.

She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. levy is a central figure in her dissertation, Poesis, Techne, and Silent Writing: Lyric Poetry in the Destitute Time. Her chapbook, Eight Poems, and the poem sequence, �in the dreamtime: currently appear in the online Light and Dust Anthology of Poetry. Earlier chapbooks include Flashlights and Letter to Persephone & Other Poems. The Costmary Press has just released her broadside, suburban, and a new chapbook, Three Bird Songs. She is also a collagist and prose writer. A future project is a book on lyric poetry taking up the work of Ohioans d.a.levy and James Wright.