The Ramifications is a collection of five long, multi-part poems written over the last several years, the exception being ""Twenty-Four in Twenty-Four,"" which was written approximately ten years ago. With these poems, John Zedolik goes beyond the one-to-two-page length of the overwhelming majority of his poems. This great increase in length is a result of reading poets from a wide variety of eras and cultures and being intrigued about what he could accomplish if he extended the poems by dividing them into sections, thus being able to shift focus while still maintaining a unified theme. Additionally, in ""Heliosebas,"" ""Prestidigitation,"" and ""La Fiamma Invisibile,"" he incorporates bits of others' poetry and some Scripture. These inclusions further increase the number of directions the poems take while maintaining their own integrity.
In terms of main ideas, ""Alternative Route"" deals with an ""alternative way"" of looking at self and family. ""Heliosebas"" deals with the desire for life, ""Prestidigitation"" with perception, and ""La Fiamma Invisibile"" with those forces that drive us in our everyday existence. The final poem, ""Twenty-Four in Twenty-Four,"" describes each conscious and unconscious hour of a day in twenty-four fourteen-line sections.
