Infinite Arrivals

<p>St. Catherine of Sienna said 'All the way to heaven is heaven.' So in these songs each day each step along an epic pilgrimage is revealed as one of infinite arrivals. Full of the joy that comes from mourning and with the gift for friendship born of loneliness Nick Maione's work conjures a distinctive sound: crafted yet improvised fresh plaintive and vulnerable. Here John of the Cross meets Robert Lax set to fiddle music.-<span style=color: rgba(192 0 0 1)>ISAAC (JOHN) SLATER</span> OCSO author of <em>Lean</em> and <em>Beyond Measure: The Poetics of the Image in Bernard of Clairvaux</em></p><p><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify><em></em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>This book these poems their songs their titles their</span> <span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>arrivals are playful somber soul-searching celebratory prayerful. You can meander through this book without fear of losing sight of its solemn intentions. Even better: with every step you will find yourself just where you hoped one day to arrive.</span>-<span style=color: rgba(192 0 0 1)>DARA BARROIS/DIXON</span><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> author of </span><em>You Good Thing</em> <em>Reverse Rapture</em> and <em>Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina</em></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>These poems are a great and joyful surprise. Writing of his real-life pilgrimage on the Camino Nick Maione offers sharp-eyed detail and characterization incisive poetic image humor and wisdom. Yes the poet is rooted in the Catholic poetic tradition and is unmistakably serious in his spiritual journey but at the same time has in spades what poetry must have or die-newness. The poems crackle on the page. Despite pilgrim-blisters the pace is quick. We weep with Maione. We laugh. We learn.</span>-<span style=color: rgba(192 0 0 1)>SALLY READ</span><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> author of </span><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Dawn of this Hunger</em></p><p class=ql-align-justify><em> </em></p><p>Devoted to life Nick Maione gives us an inspirited language desirous and in pursuit of the many places where mystery resides. Modest in tone but not in their aspirations the multiform poems of <em>Infinite Arrivals</em> seek the very diverse world they encounter-and having patiently perceived that world allow its ethereal body to glow enigmatically.-<span style=color: rgba(192 0 0 1)>RON SLATE</span> author of <em>The Incentive of the Maggot</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span><em>The Great Wave</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> and </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Joy Ride</em></p>