The Road We Take is an encore to Barry Lee Swanson's critically acclaimed, best-selling novel Still Points. A poetic portrait of a journey spanning the past seven decades, it provides the reader with a first-hand view of one baby boomer's life experiences. From a college student caught in the quagmire of the Viet Nam War to the halls of collegiate academia to a senior citizen facing irrelevancy while considering the inevitable end of life, the author explores themes of loss, love, contemplation, and celebration with honesty and authenticity. His poetry displays a combination of humor, irony, and passion, riddled with midwestern common sense and sentimentality, as he examines the complexities of family, education, romance, religion, and divisive national issues. In the book's title poem, the author claims he is just "a common boy from Illinois." Swanson is far from common. The Road We Take is a tour de force, a book of poetry that is both relevant and timeless.