"I have been a fan of Greg Pape's poetry at least since 1978, when his first book Border Crossings appeared--clarity, concision, a deep yet accessible human subject were its hallmarks. In Four Swans, those virtues are doubled in a subtle and fully mature voice. Candid, modest, yet confident, a delicate almost spiritual attention is paid to his surroundings and the birds and animals with whom we share the planet. Four Swans confronts mortality by enunciating the muted and emblematic transformations that most of us would miss were it not for such keen sensibilities as Pape's. James Wright, Richard Hugo, and the great Chinese poets sit over his shoulder as he connects us to the luminous actual world in which we live and die."--Christopher Buckley