Exaltation

With Exaltation, Michael Indemaio has returned with his voice stronger and more succinct, but still loaded with the passion and pain of a man bent on beauty. Few poets emote quite as fearlessly, even as he hints at a surprising philosophic depth. Leaving little room for interpretation, Indemaio declares, "Here is the secret of a heart that won't quit: love is the meaning of all that exists." The 82 poems vary from short pointed thoughts to long meandering musings, with the occasionally bold rhyme or heavy-handed rhythm accenting otherwise hushed and delicate phrasings. The tone is always laden with a palpable artistic reverence, but still couched in a simplistically elegant language that is both comfortable and conversational. Beginning with a preface extolling the virtues of objective truth and carousels, and ending with the hauntingly poignant title poem, Exaltation reads like a collection of secrets from which it's hard to turn away. Where not edifying it is deeply relatable, and where not moving it is whimsically wry. On any given page we may find the whispering of a spiritual insight or then the shouting of an ephemeral feeling, and while many of the poems are about either love or love lost, the rest are built on the kind of hope and yearning without which love poems lose meaning. The real joy is that Indemaio does this not only convincingly and directly, but also with a deft and unwavering intensity.