Poetry. While writing SWERVE, Bruce Cohen decided to avoid addressing a particular audience. That is, not an audience of poetry readers. "I just wanted to talk intimately to myself, my family, and my friends," he says. As a natural consequence, while building these poems Cohen struck upon an essentially authentic voice. With his guard down, with his most intimate familiars as his only audience, he was able to write with startling honesty. The brilliance of these poems is the mixture of that honesty with humor, with sentimentality, and sometimes with horror. In these poems you will find a long-lined American surrealistic sensibility. There is new discovery of language here, playfulness with both vernacular and formal diction. Simply put, you're going to love this book.