Nothing Grows in One Place Forever: Poems of a Sicilian American Book

This book reaches from one side of the ocean to the other, from the past to the future. Here are poems lamenting the disappearance of the Sicilian-immigrant culture of a childhood, yet here too are the joyful songs of someone grateful for every discovery -- a paper cup, the voices of ancestors, a handwritten will. Part 1 spans the wide sea of immigrants' voyages and their arrival in the New World. In part 2, a father dies and returns years later, a memory as delicate as a piece of paper folded into a paper cup or as intense as hot cinders swirling up out of burning leaves. In parts 3 and 4, relatives and friends gather, and tables are heavy with the feasts of the Old World dishes. Part 5 begins with the ecstatic poem "The Infinite Possibilities of Desire," the title poem from an early manuscript, which received the first David Lloyd Kreeger Award. Part 6 looks into the future. "If this tree lives and you like purple figs,/ plant your own cutting wherever you want," the poet urges a child of the next generation.

Here a weary traveler finds a place to rest and reasons to rejoice. Experiencing the loss of a parent, an ancient language, even the Old World itself, the poet finds music in discovery, in love, in celebration.