From a stone to fireflies, from childhood to growing old, Brian Swann’s poems contemplate the moments and individual objects that create a whole life and our relationship to them.

There is a clearing by a certain stone
where images flow and are worth stopping for.
I have stayed there almost all day in silence
until night remembered what belonged to it
and its shadows started to take back its own.
I’ve found it hard to walk away as starlight
infused daisies and the stone itself began
to feel like a star so, although what I have done
with my life may not be much, for a while
it seemed to be in line.

The poems of In Late Light situate objects and experiences (both large and small, concrete and abstract) within Brian Swann’s perspective of the natural world. Sixty-two poems presented in four sections explore his life—from early days to the present—evoking friends and family on two continents. His sharp, bright imagery affirms the unique beauty of our world and explores its invisible mysteries.

Brian Swann is the author of several collections of poems, most recently Autumn Road, winner of The Ohio State University Press/The Journal Award and Snow House, winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Pleiades Press/LSU Press.