BORN ON GOOD FRIDAY

Now available from Roadside Press!

ISBN: 979-8-851193-24-8

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When you were born at exactly 3 p.m. on Good Friday, you can either start a cult or write poems about it and live a life of relative obscurity.

 

Nathan Graziano chose the latter, and in Born on Good Friday—his first collection of poems in nearly a decade—he addresses his complicated relationships with Catholicism and guilt while staring down myriad vices and a veritable midlife crisis with a little doom, some sprinkles of gloom, and a healthy dose of good humor.

 

Born on Good Friday won’t save your soul, but it might amuse you or—more likely—sit on your bookshelf while you wait for Armageddon. 

    

"Nathan Graziano is back, and those of us who love his work couldn’t be more excited. Maybe the Catholic Church will recognize Graziano for his excellence and anoint him with Sainthood. Maybe not. But I guarantee you will be holier by reading this amazing book of poems."

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-Dave Newman, The Same Dead Songs

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"The book moves effortlessly between what we lose from our childhood dreams to the wisdom we gain as we age."

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-Lindsay Wilson, The Day Gives Us So Many Ways to Eat

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Other praise:

 

"Graziano is a master of that which startles yet succeeds the way nothing familiar can, as when he writes that the chicken fingers and fries in a kid's meal sit on her plate 'like dead relatives in lawn chairs.' But it's lines like 'Beautiful women kill me and now I'm dead' that make me stand tall, make me proud to be an American poet."

 

-David Kirby, author of The House on Boulevard St.

 

"If Keats is right about that whole truth and beauty thing, [Teaching Metaphors] is the most beautiful book about high school you'll ever read. Graziano's poems capture the experience of high school, especially the uneasy coexistence of the pain of being young and the pain of growing old, with clarity, grace, and heart. Teaching Metaphors is a powerful collection that should be read by anyone who has ever worked in or attended an American high school."

 

-Brendan Halpin, author of Donorboy

 

“After the Honeymoon is a fine addition to this young poet’s body of work. Simple thoughts, simply written, deeply felt meditations on everyday life, and the ability to write locally with universal themes; if Manchester ever is looking for an official city poet, I will be the first to nominate Graziano.”
                             

-The Hippo