What Is Otherwise Infinite: Poems

by Bianca Stone

Written in four sections with incisive and vivid lyrical language, Bianca Stone’s What is Otherwise Infinite considers how we find our place in the world through themes of philosophy, religion, environment, myth, and psychology. “I deal only in the hardest pain-revivers, symbols and tongues,” writes Stone. “I want to tell you only / in the intimacy of our discomfort.” 

Populated by Archangels, limping in paradise; by allergies of the soul; the intimacy and danger of motherhood; psychic wounds; and dirty, dirty chocolate layer cake, What is Otherwise Infinite deftly examines our inherent and inherited ideas of how to live, and the experience of the Self—which on one hand is so intensely personal, and on the other, universal.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Religion

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 2022

About the author

Bianca Stone is a writer and visual artist. She was born and raised in Vermont and moved to New York City where she received her MFA from NYU in 2009. Her poems, poetry comics, and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of magazines including The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, American Poetry Review and many others.

She has returned to Vermont with her husband and collaborator, the poet Ben Pease, where she is director of programs for The Ruth Stone House, a literary nonprofit artist residency, letterpress studio and community poetry center.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘There is always more to know
of suffering’

‘The uneasiness of being alive wears you down,’ writes poet Bianca Stone, a feeling I know I have felt myself and suspect many others are experiencing as the years seem to be an ever accumulating chaos. Stone’s fourth collection, What is Otherwise Infinite taps into the ‘intimacy of our discomfort’ and bursts open the existential questions that seem to be weighing on everyone during our collective experiences of being overwhelmed, anxious or isolated. Stone’s poems sway on the dancefloor of introspection, changing partners between philosophy, religion, psychology, and mythology in a search for our place in a world beset by struggles, suffering and a sense of impending doom. Even God has self-doubt in these poems and our attempts to be productive are questioned to perhaps merely be distractions. By turns harrowing and hilarious, and always poetically ponderous, this is a marvelous collection that has the pulse on the current era of anxiety and imposture-syndrome as we all question who we are, how we fit in and what will become of us.

‘is our problem that
we do not actually live
at the top of the food chain.
And are devoured daily by thought. And time.’
-from Does Life Exist Independent of Its Form?

‘Of my unclear and unimaginable self / I want none of it’ Stone writes from the perspective of God in the aptly titled poem God Searches for God’. This becomes a rather freeing image, with even God questioning their sense of self and ‘who will take my eternal life in their hands?’ Questioning our place in the cosmos or even just local society is the age-old train of thought who’s tracks can take us into some pretty dark caverns. Stone explores them with great wit but also a whimsicality in humor and imagery from ‘Archanges, limping in paradise’ to ‘dirty, dirty, chocolate layer cake.’ In an interview with NPR, Stone says ‘I think it's a human condition to search. With so much happening in the world right now that is unfamiliar and confusing, I think we're trying to figure out, 'what next?'’ This is deeply felt on each page.

Stone, who is the granddaughter of the late, great Ruth Stone, has already become an exceptional poet with a strong, unique voice in collections such as The Mobius Strip Club of Grief and here we really watch her blend academic insight, social commentary and charm into accessible poetic vibes that seem magically and effortlessly conjured. Greek myths, Star Trek, Mayakovsky, even Pigpen among many others all make cameos that feel earned and exciting. There is such a gorgeous analysis of personhood that is both singular and collective here, racing from one disposition of insight to the next as if caught in a spiral of stress and searching. ‘Language is really at the heart of this,’ she tells Literary North, ‘it is our unique situation as a species, although it is fumbling, flawed, always inadequate—but how hard I’ll try to be precise!’ Stone’s poetic style truly replicates this idea, being both aimed at precision and abstraction in order to create an ineffable insight best captured through the poetry.

‘I will start tomorrow
the essential dismantling
of how I live.’

Just making it through the day sometimes can be exhausting. ‘I’m tired of wine,’ she writes, ‘tired of trying.’ Stone looks at the ways society makes us think we must be constantly productive, and also what our sense of ‘productivity’ looks like, such as in Routine where she writes of getting ready for a run but just sitting around writing poems instead. What does productivity even mean in a pandemic, and also why should we care? Are we unproductive when we enjoy our time, or watch our child sleep instead of doing work like in During the Nap? She shows the ways these lines of thinking are harmful, particularly when productivity and industry is driving us off a cliff in climate crisis where to the trees ‘we are her lung cancer.’ Additionally, she examines the ways comparing ourselves to others is unhelpful, asking why ‘I sit in the lobby of someone else’s potential.’ Are we wasting our energy, trying so hard to be productive but missing out on life all the same?

‘I have nothing to give but tears, of which one
is too much and a whole sea
not enough.’

What is Otherwise Infinite is a joy of a collection and Bianca Stone is a wonderful poet with a lot to say. These are poems that both cut and heal, reverberating with the deep existential questions that lurk in all our hearts and heads. Luckily for us, Stone is there as a poetic Virgil to guide us through the caverns of these poems.

5/5

The Body

I am tired of algorithms.
I was promised oblivion!
Now I must remake world order.
Nothing changes.
All these nerves and
yellow lacy fat.
It hides in a stupor
in plain sight.
I yank it around like a mule.
Cannot live by it…
What is it,
what is it
but a stained document
you turn in
to the school nurse

a parchment
you’ve been
clutching forever
that turns out blank?

[Mark Leidner · Rating 5 out of 5]

all the best things about a discursive, open-hearted, narrative seer both reporting on life and abstracting it into cosmic inquiry — a welcoming philosophical presence to listen to and ride the mineshaft roller coaster of experience with — sans the posturing/de rigueur formality that makes other narrative/discursive modes stale — flown through w unexpected / chaotic / anarchic bite — open-ended lyric — intuitive flights of feeling that destabilize expectation as they hew you closer to the emotional moment — does not shy from direct confrontation with so many rich existential mysteries, and never seems to hide from the raw adventure of those inquiries — drizzled with evocative metaphor — beautiful and honest about a great many complicated things — made me feel grounded in the infinite

[Louise Worthington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first collection of poetry by Stone that I've read and it didn't disappoint. In many ways, it is full of contradictions and juxtapositions, not least tragic and comic, high-brow and domestic. I enjoyed the strong female voice which is playful, thoughtful, lyrical and cutting. It's best enjoyed in the privacy of your own home as I found myself saying out loud how beautiful and insightful particular lines and images are.

Thank you to the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy, and to the poet Bianca Stone and her publisher.

[Ben Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I’ve previously expressed frustration at poetry rating inflation on goodreads, but 5* for the highs of the collection rather than the mean. Damn. Crazy to read expressions of thoughts and feelings that should not make sense but also perfectly do. Spent like 5 min on the bus today staring out the window wishing I could express myself as well as these poems do.

[Julieta · Rating 5 out of 5]

“every daughter has a cage around her head and a mother on the cross. i always hope to take it off, and rarely do. instead, i climb up, like a child into the bed. i nail myself beside you.” are you fucking insane?

[Raychel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of poetry. This was my introduction to Bianca Stone and it will not be the last I read of her. This is a very cerebral collection with a lot of references, biblical imagery, and connections to mythology. I did not get every reference but the ones I did get I found to be very striking. "Autobiography" has joined the ranks of my favorite poems of all time.

**Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

[Tate Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I replay on a loop my one stoic consistency,
my middle-of-the-night vow
that I will start tomorrow
the essential dismantling
of how I live.”




•




🌟3.5/5🌟I have been in such a poetry mood as of lately - I have been trying to read a few poems everyday in between some of my other reads. This was my first collection of Bianca Stone’s work and I am impressed. Of course not every poem is going to speak to everyone but there is a certain universality of Stone's subject matter in this collection that I think can speak to a lot of us. These poems about the self drew a lot on themes of religion and mythology that made me constantly turn to my computer for more context so this wasn't quite the relaxing read I was hoping for but I was able to learn a lot through this reading experience. This collection is perfect for fans of the dark academia aesthetic.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I sit in the lobby of someone else’s potential / thinking it is my own. I go about my day / convinced I am immortal.”

I loved this collection. It made me think of poetry contributions past & present, as well as the big past / present / future considerations of the “how should a person be” question.

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Bianca Stone on the new yorker poetry podcast and loved the way she spoke about poems but also just her voice and the way she would “bite” words as she read them aloud. In her book, her poetry carries that same intensity, and even when I wouldn’t fully connect with a certain poem overall, I always found them fascinating on the line level.

[Nique 💫 chroniqled ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHAT AN ABSOLUTELY MINDBLOWING COLLECTION OF POEMS

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this book after hearing an interview with Stone on NPR. The poetry within these pages will not only give you pause, but may also alter your current vision of reality (and the past and the future). Stone writes with a pragmatic approach to life in the 2020s as an academic with a sense of humor. There's a comparison of Pigpen (from Peanuts) as one's personal golem ("I'll Tell You" 22). "You Could Spend Every Night with the Television" (71-72) probably sums up how we all feel after living through 2020 (and 2021 and the start of 2022).

Here's a a few lines that I found quotable:

...I will start tomorrow
the essential dismantling
of how I live. ("Marcus Aurelius" 7)

Maybe humans are the failed AI of Nature. ("Nature" 11)

...Nothing
can be relied upon but the disappointment
of beer. ("The Human Good" 17)

I enjoyed this volume of poetry but did find it hard to digest in one setting (even for a slim volume). I had to revisit it a couple of times before I deemed myself finished. (I will probably revisit it again....)

[Jess Rhiannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s incredible and it pried my mind open like a crowbar but I'm not sure that I really understood anything? Anyways, I give it a 5/5

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much in Stone's book about the poet's reckoning of depression and personhood. Like there's this way she feels depression as though it were a substantive presence, like you feel as though she can taste it and see it around her. And what does this mean when you're a mother? How do you account for the needs of a child while you cope with your own human struggle?

And the dynamic I find most fascinating is the grammar of religious imagery appearing in the poems. Most often irreverent or playfully surreal, the poems pull a lot of energy from the Christian tradition. Because what is religion supposed to offer? Respite? Explanation? Is someone supposed to take comfort that someone before them has also suffered? I appreciate the poems' struggle to understand the elaborate religious stories that are available to the poet, like the poems feel organic in how they sort through the story, I also hear an irony in Stone's irreverence. Her degree of doubt takes her further and further into what religion might mean. Especially if one sees doubts as an implicit and essential part of faith's fabric.

[Mary teacher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stone is a clever wordsmith with allusions galore but often the notes felt flat- the simpler the thought expressed and the less an attempt to show a witty insight flourished by tireless negativity, the more the poetry hit home for me! Wished for more beauty and wonder from the new poet laureate of VT…

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not my kind of Poetry.

[kali ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

second read: apr 2024
you know what? bury me with it!!!

first read: feb 2023
first favorite of the year AND new all-time favorite 😭😭

[Jed Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bianca Stone’s poetry is so lucid and well-informed.

[Geo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I love the way the great mystery looks back at itself in horror.”

I loved the landscape of language in these poems. Visions of angels and gods, the language of mythology and religion and literature used as brush strokes to illustrate feelings and emotions. I loved all the literary references, both to the occult and to mythology. I love that this weaves personal histories with the language of gods and monsters. I love when people mythologize their own experiences, elevating the mundane to something greater, finding gold in their darkest moments. I think this is one of the greatest purposes of creating art. So much of art is reflected through people’s capitalistic worldview; they only measure art through what they perceive to be skill, they see creativity as a product or a piece of content where others see craftsmanship and an expression of one’s inner voice. This limiting worldview is reductive and sad, and is what is responsible for this age of corporate artificial slop that we’re living through now. I love that these poems reference other great pieces of art. Some would say it’s arrogant to assume you’re in conversation with the greats, but the truth of it is that all artists create art after being inspired by those who came before them. We’re all in conversation with those who came before us. This collection is refreshing because it reminds me of the interconnectedness of all things, and that message isn’t even central to what these poems are trying to do. The author is exploring their experiences through literary references to mythology and biblical stories, and I love them for that. A modern experience expressed through poetry, told through a lens of mythology. There’s something beautiful about that.

“Sometimes, I want to be taken into nothingness. I want to be burned with the gypsy moths and bindweed. Run to exhaustion with the wildebeest. I don’t want this phone; I want to kill God.”

[Kelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It is said this planet came to be
when I was pulled apart.” (16)

This collection is savage and dirty, brilliant and brazen.

That is to say I enjoyed every awful, transcendent minute of reading it.

Female rage—but make it poetry, make it mean, make it hurt and make it bleed. That’s what this collection does.

I don’t think I could pinpoint any one aspect of this collection I appreciate most—and I believe it would be disingenuous to try—but I do want to say how much I appreciate Stone’s lyricism and line work. Every line of every poem could be its own poem. The craft, the care—it is gripping, arresting. I felt compelled to pause and savor, swish around the flavor of every line.

If I had to choose a standout from the collection, it would be between “Illuminations” and “Wolves”. One tore me in half and the other finished the job. Wonderful. Thank you.


Can’t recommend the experience of this collection enough~

[mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Is Otherwise Infinite ya se consagra como mi colección de poesía mas apreciada de este año. Aquí unos fragmentos que andan rondando por mi cabeza..

“how can someone not become
heartbreaking in one sense
of the word—not find
they are a stranger in their own household
of truly
unnamable need?”

“Sometimes, I want to be taken into nothingness.
I want to be burned with the gypsy moths and bindweed.
Run to exhaustion with the wildebeest.
I don’t want this phone; I want to kill God.
Maybe humans are the complex systems
of a natural order that must build and destroy itself
in perpetuity.”

“The wound is usually someone else’s.
My love was never enough.
I couldn’t touch the whole of it.
I wasn’t a match for that depth.
Every daughter
has a cage around her head
and a mother on the cross.
I always hope to take it off, and rarely do.
Instead, I climb up, like a child into the bed.”

“My love could never be
fully trusted.”

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a poetry reader per se, though I try to add a collection or two here and there into the rotation to spice up my reading roster.
This collection attracted my attention with its title and description. I liked that it seemed to be broader than the average navel-gazing confessional.
And sure enough, it turned out to be one of the best volumes of modern poetry I’ve read in a long time.
With varying rhymes and themes, it hops around with verse and panache from subject to subject all amounting to doing the thing poetry is supposed to which is contemplating life and people’s place in it.
The writing was engaging, erudite, clever. The linguistic acrobatics were an absolute delight. Made for an enjoyable and interesting read. Recommended.

[Mariam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I am not sure if I like poetry… Perhaps if I related a lot to the author and knew they were muslim then I might enjoy it.

Many of the poems conveyed a sense of melancholy, and while I found some lines relatable, they didn’t resonate with me as a whole. One poem focused on Jesus particularly affected my rating, as I felt it presented him in a way that was disrespectful. But then again, poetry is personal to the author.


“I woke in the middle of the night
for my usual routine of self-hatred
until I realized how excruciating it all was
and instead wrote down on the set schedule”

Same, Bianca, same.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy wow, I’m in love with Bianca Stone’s mind. The poems in this collections are fresh, irreverent, quirky, and deeply felt. There are definitely some covid lockdown reflections here, as well as meditations on life, god, birth, death, art and all that heavy stuff. But there’s also a sexy swagger that makes me swoon.

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have little to no exposure to poetry save for one creative writing class in college so I have no idea how to actually review a poetry book? I enjoyed it, especially The Wealth, and The Infant’s Eyes.

“Every daughter / has a cage around her head / and a mother on the cross” — I will think about this stanza for the next month.

[Ryan]

I enjoyed these very much she’s a great writer. One of my biggest takeaways from this is how she writes about things I think about (specifically with familial relationships) but I tend not to and it’s like her words are the words id like to use if I did that but she’s smarter and cooler. Gonna have to write a poem called twins now thanks

[Chris]

Bianca Stone writes of the everyday: house chores, child care, everyday work, with an eye on the meaning and clarity it brings us, the order, the routine, the necessity, the security, the relationships built and strengthened. In the mundane, she finds, and calls us to, what is immortal, and what might be divine, in our existence.

[Rachel Hellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the way Stone treated the subject of her poems: twisting sentences unexpectedly to reveal the mundane in the sacred, not the other way around. Her word choice is incredible. So much about the uncomfortableness of aliveness, the contradictions innate to believing (in anything).

[Chris Roberts · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tomorrow is a make-believe spaceship
I am a devourer of satellites
Perpetual motion
Or how I collected your tears
And made of them a grand, saline lake
Draining off the skiltered edge of the planet.

Chris Roberts

[sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

“it is because i haven’t been touched nearly enough in one lifetime to be satisfied—and now want you, across all this dead gauze, to put your lips to mine.”

i was left GAGGED. DISTRAUGHT. MIND BOGGLED. ON THE FLOOR CRYING.

[Esther Button · Rating 3 out of 5]

hmmmm. honestly thought I'd like this more than I did. some absolutely gorgeous (and very unique) poems though.

rating as of 09/01/2025: 3.25 stars (Goodreads how is it literally 2025 and you still haven't implemented decimal ratings)