I can't seem to get the syntax right using s-sql. I can write a straight sql statement, but it looks ugly in the middle of a lisp program.

Sample sql statement from the postgresql docs is:

WITH RECURSIVE search_graph(id, link, data, depth, path, cycle) AS (
        SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, 1,
          ARRAY[g.id],
          false
        FROM graph g

      UNION ALL
        SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, sg.depth + 1,
          path || g.id,
          g.id = ANY(path)
        FROM graph g, search_graph sg

        WHERE g.id = sg.link AND NOT cycle
)
SELECT * FROM search_graph;
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/queries-with.html

Sabra