Ruth L. Schwartz was born in Geneva, New York in 1962. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University and M.F.A. from the University of Michigan.
She has published three books of poetry including Edgewater (Harper-Collins, 2002; National Poetry Series winner, 2001), Singular Bodies, and Accordion Breathing and Dancing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996). Her poetry has won numerous national prizes, including Nimrod’s Hardman/Neruda Award (twice), the Chelsea Editor’s Prize (also twice), the New Letters Literary Award, the North Carolina Writer’s Network Randall Jarrell Prize, and the Kalliope Sue Saniel Elkin Award.
This poem uses the swan as a metaphor for Lorie at 27 with all her mistakes and bad choices taking away her likelihood of a good life. At 16, she was full of promise, the world awaiting. Now, like a once magnificent swan, her chances of escaping the dirt and detritus, seem dim.