Swamp candles
Subtitle: poems
By: by Ralph Burns.
Series: The Iowa poetry prize
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Iowa City, Iowa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 65
Description: In his convincing and highly accomplished fifth book, Ralph Burns draws on his deep practice and experience. His tones, forms, and subjects are various and striking, the work of a poet mature and courageous enough to range through the full spectrum of his emotions.

Sometimes Burns is haunted by the strength and fallibility of the Christian tradition, and in many of his poems he explores the conflicts between individuals and the larger world - the mystery and responsibility of choice, consequence and inconsequence, "the terror of being taken."