From street-gang punk, to navy recruit, to rent-a-Santa, a collection of poems celebrating the possibilities of the individual.

Robert Sward has been writing poetry since age fifteen when his couplets informed other members of his Chicago street gang where meetings were to be held. The poems in Four Incarnations chronicle Sward’s life and writing with poetry from each of his twelve previous volumes as well as much new material to comprise a poetic range that is considerable. Throughout his work is a warm sensitivity and a sharp sense of humor, and above all, a celebratory humanism.