Poetry. In SWIMMING THE COLORADO, Denise banker's poems capture the reader for an intense existential journey from remembered childhood into an adulthood haunted by loss and grief but redeemed through nature by love. The lyrics—beautifully etched—are at turns provocative, sensuous, healing, and real. This is Banker's long-awaited first collection.<br /><br />"Denise Banker's poems have an uncanny ability to be at once soothing and rattling, to speak to us like an old, long-loved friend while also lifting us from our comfort zones and tossing us to parts unknown. They chart a course that ranges from unfathomable grief to bright transcendence. I won't be prying myself loose from them anytime soon."—Meghan Daum