GIBSONIA — Longtime psychiatrist Gordon Foster suffered a massive stroke three years ago, a life-changing event that compelled him to start the book he always thought he'd write — just much sooner than expected.

At age 59, Foster began assembling a pleasantly weighty book, not about his field of medicine, but about swans, treated uniquely.

He paired up color photos from the more than 30,000 he'd taken over the years with poems by authors like Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ogden Nash, D.H. Lawrence, Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare. The list goes on: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Dylan Thomas and W.B. Yeats of "Leda and the Swan" fame are also included.

"The Seasons of the Swans" was published earlier this year by Mechling Bookbindery, Chicora.

"The book has been therapeutic," said Foster, now 63. "It's restored hope, finding something besides medicine."

Foster began the book as a way to combat his fluent aphasia, a result of the stroke which affects his speech.

His wife, Cecelia, describes the condition as "the files haven't been deleted; they're all still there. It's just a matter of how to retrieve them." Notably, he can spell out some words, and rather quickly, but may not be able to say the word itself.

To complete his book, Foster first had to learn to use a computer. For that task he had the help of Emilie Tucker, who ended up assisting with photo organization, publication correspondence, research and formatting.

"Clearly she was a driving force," Cecelia said. "There was a ton of stuff to navigate."

For 20 years, Foster had taken photograph after photograph, about 35,000 in all, of swans and other wildlife at their home property on Route 38 in Butler County. One of his favorite swans, Olivia, preserved through taxidermy, moved with them to their new home in Gibsonia. "Black swans are rarer here than white swans, because most of the black swans are in Australia," Foster said.

Olivia would come into the house and eat like a pet, he recalled. "Black swans are more sociable; they're rarely aggressive like the white mutes, who are much more aggressive, they're terrible even to their own young," he said.

For 188 touching pages, this book reveals pens and cobs, white swans and the rarer black ones, and their baby cygnets. They're in flight, floating, nesting, squawking. On one page, ice droplets shimmer like pearls on a swan's feathered back.

It took 18 months to get permission to use all the poems, but Foster said he "used it as a chance to look at some of my favorite stuff."

Even now when Foster flips through the book, he selects one favorite poem, then another and another. He wanted to add 15 more even after the final proof was done. The royalties to be allowed to use the poems "got kind of expensive," he conceded.

"But the loves of my life have been my birds, literature and my patients." Add to that of course the people to whom the book is dedicated, his family.

Additions notwithstanding, Foster said he's proud of the book, especially the glossary.

"To understand swans, you have to understand mythology," he said. So there are explanations galore, plus a bibliography of poems, an appendix about the creatures, and an index.

Part of the book with a poem by Mary Santon will be featured in the December issue of Stroke Smart.

Now that he has in his hand the end result of his work, he's eager for more challenges. He's applying to go to school at University of Pittsburgh to get a master's degree in library science so he can become a librarian.

The book is available at the Cherry Tree Gift Shop at Butler Memorial Hospital; at Bortmas, the Butler Florist; and the Horse and Hound and the Glass Onion, both in Penn Township. Butler Public Library also has a copy in its collection. The hard cover book costs $37.95.

The author and his wife have a daughter living at home. He also has two grown sons.

<B>WHAT: </B>F. Gordon Foster, M.D., signing his book "The Seasons of the Swans"<B>WHEN: </B>10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday<B>WHERE: </B>Donna's Hallmark, Clearview Mall. The book also is available at the Cherry Tree Gift Shop at Butler Memorial Hospital; at Bortmas, The Butler Florist; and at the Horse and the Hound as well as the Glass Onion, both in Penn Township.<B>COST: </B>Hard cover book is $37.95.