Infinite Variations

Poetry. Composed from source text randomly selected from On the Origin of the Species and the Old Testament, INFINITE VARIATIONS seeks to puncture the political in exploring and re-imagining these seminal texts. Splicing cell structure with the numinous, it careens, stutters, and reinvents."Using phrasing and vocabulary from the Old Testament and Darwin's On the Origin of the Species as her raw material, Nelligan creates startlingly fresh structures, contemporary in their vigorous parataxis and suspension of normative logic, timeless in their explorations of origin and, ultimately, of being. But above all, there's a marvelous mix of delight and gravity in the way she wields these words, letting sound and association create bridges across epochs and disciplines. An extremely promising first book, at once intimate and immense, luminous and lively."—Cole Swensen"INFINITE VARIATIONS takes two loaded and locked works—On the Origin of the Species and the Old Testament—and uses them in allegiance to an exploration of desire. Each word is, thus, resonant, full of debate. It is a defense of evolution's role in love and about a love of evolution's variations. Throughout it is provocative in its simplicity, luminous in its word play."—Juliana Spahr