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In this collection of forty-four poems, Robert Swearingen takes us on a journey through a life that is by turns raw, humorous, and at times, poignant. With a brutal honesty that asks for neither pity nor condemnation, these poems tell of growing up in a rough blue-collar family in the fifties, of a young man working in the steel mills of Gary, Indiana, of love and the end of love, and finally, of a life on the streets for nearly two decades. He speaks ? in the context of personal experience ? of a life of material success, selfishness, loss, folly, loneliness, and the hope for a redemption that will transcend the mistakes of the past.
What reviewers are saying about
Street Milk . . .

Mr. Swearingen's work can probably be set side by side with some of the best poetry being written today. His images are fantastic and his line structure meticulous, his craft nosing about the perimeters always searching for ingenious ways to fit his experience, his vision in this literary contained area.
? Jimmy Santiago Baca

Not since Jim Daniels and Charles Bukowski has an American poet written so vividly about work and survival. And what makes Street Milk even more remarkable is that in many of these poems Robert Swearingen isn't engaged in what we typically know as work ? he's at a bar ? but his ability to document his existence is a testament to any work ethic. His job is being a poet, and the way these poems stay in your mind long after you finish them is ample proof of that.
? Hal Sirowitz

This first book of poems by Bob Swearingen has the qualities of a veteran worker in words. They are passionate with the language of small details, the human confusion of what is just, and the illusions of the human mind . . . this book is worth a standing ovation. ? Gene Frumkin

Here is poetry that is candidly honest, deftly written, sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant,and always interesting. ? Midwest Book Review

Being who you are and finding one's voice are truisms of the poet's quest for authenticity. Just how difficult and important that quest is to this poet is revealed by the huge energy and wide-eyed sweep of Swearingen's writing. He is a poet of body and soul and this work reveals a gritty, vibrant portrait of life on the road, rich with tales of abandon. ? Southwest Book Views

Street Milk is a simple, beautiful volume, filled with poems that are as contagious as any I've read or heard in a long time. ? Steven Robert Allen,
Albuquerque Weekly Alibi