Todd Swift

Swiftís Budavox: poems 1990-1999 explored sex, violence, art, and memory, to critical acclaim. His new collection, CafÈ Alibi, written while the author lived abroad in Budapest and Paris, extends these concerns to include popular culture, history, desire, nostalgia, and the often competing claims of travel and home. Swiftís crisp, elegant, deceptively calm language questions images of 'the child, the adult and the outside world' in ways both witty and disturbing. CafÈ Alibi maps a stylish itinerary through exotic terrain, offering at once hostility and ultimate peace, poetry that puts love to the test and disarms our darkest fears. Critical Comment ìThis slim edition ... contains elegant, swift poems ó precise as shards of glass.î ó Bridget Hourican,The Dubliner Nov. 2002 ìSwift writes exquisitely about everyday experiences, changing the base metal of our existence into something fine and valuable.î ó Tony Lewis-Jones, Poetry Scotland ì[Swift] arranges that formal, renegade language into an entirely believable, and often lovely, alibi.î ó Lisa Pasold, Literary Review of Canada, Dec. 2002 ìThese are the words of a poet where words are ... lavishly seemingly uncontrolled but finally right, fitting, suitably apt.î ó Harriet Zinnes, The Hollins Critic, June 2003 ìWere a director like Jean-Luc Goddard to create a full-length feature film from a collection of peoms, CafÈ Alibi would be the perfect choice. î ó Vallum, Fall-Winter 2005 ì...a collection that is both colourful and sharply crafted. CafÈ Alibi feels packed somehow, a kind of suitcase of stylish imagery for the elegant traveler. Here are poems infused by Budapest and Paris, and written in a brilliantly intriguing way.... Itís an impressive collection.î ó Leviathan Quarterly, 2003

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