Poetry and comedy are really the same thing; they both depend on a kind of absolute, if also artfully deployed, vulnerability. There is no better proof of this than What Is Otherwise Infinite by Bianca Stone. These poems are deadly earnest, but there are some serious truths that can only be revealed in a joking tone: 'There are wildfires/ switching course to worry about./ I take my daughter to the lake and watch her feel the tiny waves./ A seagull lifts a sandwich right from my hands.' On almost every page, these poems take that kind of journey--from fear through tenderness to transcendence in only a few lines. In short lyrics and long poems, Stone unflinchingly faces her depths, finding surprising light in a dark and frightening time. I feel befriended by this generous book, which understands that, in some ways, happiness and sadness are also the same: 'I have nothing to give but tears, of which one/ is too much and a whole sea/ not enough.

--Craig Morgan Teicher, author of Welcome to Sonnetville, New Jersey.