Abstract
The Ritualites is Michael Nardone's book-length poem-the first in a series of planned works-on the sonic topography of North America. Composed at sites all across the continent-from Far Rockaway to the Olympic Peninsula, Great Bear Lake to the Gulf of California-the book documents the poet's listening amid our public exchanges, mediated ambiances, and itinerant intimacies. The Ritualites is a series of linguistic rituals that shift, page to page, through a range of forms and genres-a rhapsodic text for occasional singing and a best-selling thriller, a self-help guide and sabotage manual, a score for solo performance and a cacophony of voices.