Here’s a bit of poetry trivia for you. When two award-winning writers get together at family functions, they don’t necessarily talk about their work. Instead, the conversation is far more mundane: family gossip and appreciation of the latest “kids without a dog” pictures. (Yes, I am the unruly aunt who gave the kids a way to tease their parents about not being allowed a canine family member.)
My talented brother-in-law, Robert Piazza, recently published a book composed of 45 villanelles. Distilled Spirits: Coffee & Recovery is gritty and powerful. It deals with various forms of addiction, eventually pointing the reader to hope for recovery.
I decided to commemorate his publication day with a short interview. Before going back to talk about the kids, we managed a few book-related Q&A.
Poetry Power
AP: How did you learn that language has power? 
RP: Experiencing a psychologically traumatic event when I was a boy (around eleven years old), something snapped in me (a broken heart)… and, to my amazement, poetry spontaneously poured forth. I really had no one with whom to talk, and poetry literally saved my life. Much to my surprise, later in the school year, my poems were given an award, resulting in my first publications!
AP: Does writing energize you or exhaust you?
RP: Tapping into the primal life force, or what the Hindus might call “Prana,” creative writing definitely energizes me. As in the Saint Francis Prayer, it’s all about channeling energy… I can numb myself and run from myself via myriad destructive escapes (which I portray in graphic detail in my new book); or conversely, I can channel my energy creatively and constructively toward catharsis and healing. Whichever wolf you feed gets stronger…
Humility in Action
AP: What role does ego play in poetry?
RP: You need to believe in your own work, having the strength of your convictions. Most of the poems in my new book had been rejected many (many) times by other publishers, but I never gave up. Rather, I continued to revise and submit, revise and submit, perpetually honing my craft, until my manuscript (to my surprise and delight) won the chapbook contest at Cathexis Northwest Press in Portland, Oregon.
AP: What is your favorite young adult book? How did it impact you?
RP: Growing up in the Northeast throughout my childhood and adolescence, I abruptly moved (because of my father’s job) to Miami for high school in the early ‘80s, which was a total culture shock! I didn’t realize how homesick I was until, in 11th Grade, I opened my American Literature textbook and found Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening.” Reading the poem aloud in class, many of the other students had never seen snow, but I felt oddly at home for the first time in years. Since then, I’ve actually drafted a poem called “Frost in Miami,” which at some point may rhyme with “lost in Miami.”
Poetry Pilgrimages
AP: Have you ever been on a literary pilgrimage? 
I’ve had a crazy fascination with Robert Frost for many years, so I’ve been to his cabin in Ripton, Vermont, where we had a poetry séance late at night beside a bonfire. Also, I’ve performed a poetry reading at the Frost Farm in Franconia, New Hampshire, overlooking the White Mountains.
Oddly enough, it took me years (and several futile attempts) to finally make it to Emily Dickinson’s house in [nearby] Amherst, Massachusetts, but it was definitely worth the wait. I’ve also seen Poe’s original manuscript of “Annabel Lee” at the Morgan Library in Manhattan, and, most recently, I had the privilege of going to Yale’s Center for British Art to see the original illuminated manuscripts and engravings of William Blake’s poetry from his Songs of Innocence & Experience, including “The Tyger” and “The Poison Tree,” two of my all-time favorites.
You can pick up your own copy of Distilled Spirits: Coffee & Recovery at many independent bookstores and here at the giant one.
Let’s connect on social media.
