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

by Leo Luke Marcello

Cover for Nothing Grows in One Place Forever: Poems of a Sicilian American
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Summary

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 Old World dishes. Part 5 begins with the ecstatic poem "The Infinite Possibilities of Desire," and the title poem from an earlier manuscript, which received the first David Lloyd Kreeger Award. Part 6 looks to the future. 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.

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