"Robert Sward's poems are the result of a plunge into a never fully ironized, often hilarious sense of mysticism: they are the product of a restless, spiritually adventuresome sensibility masking itself as a stand-up comedian. This poet learned early that the comic, the 'zany, ' was a mask by which one could assert oneself--through which one would be listened to. In his poems, the mask remains, but it is at the service of an essentially visionary impulse: 'the vision, the life that it requires.' Wonderful work."
--Jack Foley

"These are such funny, sad, generous poems--peopled with characters it's impossible not to love, especially Robert's podiatrist-Jewish-Rosicrucian father with his wisdom that bridges all dualities expounding on the feet and the soul, sex and death, the broken and the whole. In one poem, Robert asserts, 'In a world of No, dogs are a Yes'. And in the world of poetry, this book is a resounding Yes. Read it when you're happy, but especially read it when you're depressed. You'll find yourself joining in with the many dogs in these poems, saying, 'Woof, woof f--in' woof!'"
--Ellen Bass