The Poetry Box

Sale!
CoverFront-BeforetheDistance
CoverBack-BeforeDistance

Before the Distance

(1 customer review)

$9.00

by Pasquale Trozzolo

Released on Dec 1, 2020

In stock

SKU: 978-1-948461-74-0 Categories: , Tags: , , ,

Description

Before the Distance

Virus Poems by Pasquale Trozzolo

The COVID-19 pandemic had us all sheltering at home, and with all that shelter comes time to reflect, and with all that reflection comes truth. From that truth, if we are lucky, comes poetry. Before the Distance visits what we miss, our longing for whatever normal once was. It also visits our fears and helps us conquer them. And yes, among our longing and fears there is optimism and hope that all the missing will be for good. For good: that would be good, maybe even better than Before the Distance.

About the Author

AuthorPhoto-Pasquale Trozzolo

Pasquale Trozzolo is an entrepreneur and founder of Trozzolo Communications Group, one of the leading advertising and public relations firms in the Midwest. In addition to building his business he also spent time as a race car driver and grad school professor. Now with too much time on his hands, he continues to complicate his life by living out as many retirement clichés as possible. He’s up to the p’s. Before the pandemic Trozzolo only shared his poems with a handful of close friends. Since sheltering-at-home he has begun to share what he calls Virus Poems.

<pasqualetrozzolo.com>

All author royalties during the pre-sale period are being donated to JDRF. Learn more about their work to find better treatments, preventions and a cure for type 1 diabetes here:

Early Praise for Before the Distance:

Before the Distance will take you farther than you thought you had energy to travel in a pandemic . . . to memories you didn’t know you had, and through longings you kept secret, even from yourself. It will take you back to the color blue and to the fragrance of lost love. The collection both inhabits and sets free the goblins of uncertainty: free-floating worry, off-kilter encounters, mind games, and coping skills. We can tell Trozzolo is not a young man. He knows shortcuts. With sure-footed prose, he takes us by the hand and shows us to shelter, in places like backyards and morning kisses and winter’s end. You will leave his verse infected by questions: “When is my party?,” “Does dust make choices?,” “What wonder could have flowed?” And eventually, “Did you find your way home?”

—Becky Blades, author Do Your Laundry or You’ll Die Alone

Pasquale Trozzolo’s Before the Distance is an invitation. Here, we enter the life of a fully lived man in a time of social and global upheaval. But unlike today’s social media or news feeds, this is not a rant, and it is not a call for anything. Rather, it’s an introspective dialogue between peace and chaos, love and instability, joy and fear. Like a conversation, the poet casually speaks to us, sharing his innermost self as if we’re gathered around the table, each truth spoken in the shape of a stanza. They’re measured words that carry tenderness and purpose, and they examine the state of our place in the world, the doubts we all carry, the rites of passage we must go through, and the social norms we must now question more than ever in response to COVID. Ultimately, Trozzolo reminds us that we are not in control, and that we are simply navigating our circumstances as best we can. The poet writes, “Everything seems so big and hard and dangerous/ that we often forget the scale—the one that measures us like a pebble of sand.” In this gorgeous debut chapbook, we are reminded to look at our catastrophes and celebrations not as good or bad, but simply, as reality.

—Alan Chazaro, author of Piñata Theory and This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album

 

ENJOY PASQUALE READING FROM HIS NEW BOOK:

PASQUALE TROZZOLO — A Featured Poet on The Poetry Box LIVE (Jan 2021)

Additional information

Weight 4 oz
Dimensions 5.5 × 8.5 × .3 in
ISBN

978-1-948461-74-0
Pages

56
Wholesale Channel(s)

INGRAM

Sample Poem

Graduation

~for Sophia

Although she did not ask
Questions hang in the air
Like fog clouding what comes next
Waiting patiently to consume
Nothing is clear—only mist.

Will we see gowns?
Will caps fly?
Will we remain suspended,
Unable to escape,
A distant stage our only set?

Although she did not ask,
Questions remain.
Where are my flowers?
Will there be music?
When is my party?

1 review for Before the Distance

  1. Neon Books (UK) –

    Review: Before the Distance by Pasquale Trozzolo
    4th November 2020

    Before the Distance – a collection of poems and reflections by Pasquale Trozzolo – was written and published at a strange time in history: now. These 21 poems were, for the most part, penned as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting series of national lockdowns.

    This subject will, of course, be familiar to many. Though based in the US, Trozzolo writes about aspects of isolation that affect everyone: cancelled celebrations, missed connections, fears and insecurities about the future. While the poems often speak with the voice of the poet, there is a sense that they are not tied to any one particular narrator, but instead arise from the collective experience of quarantine.

    Each poem is accompanied by a brief paragraph explaining the genesis of the piece, or expanding on the ideas which it explores. In reference to “Graduation”, the first poem in the collection, Trozzolo writes:

    “Graduation is a milestone we share with friends and family. An official declaration of completion. Success. A gateway. A right somehow lost to the class of 2020. A loss that will bind them like no other—perhaps for good.”

    The poems themselves are relatively simple. They’re plain-spoken, considered, and usually brief. They ask questions directly of the reader, and are sometimes plaintive in their evocation of loss and uncertainty. The effect of combining this simple but urgent poetry with the explanatory snippets is to create a collection that feels raw, open, and intimately personal – these are thoughts that most people will have experienced at some point during the events of 2020.

    Of course, the events which Before the Distance references are still ongoing. Some verses already feel as though they come from a previous era – a space in time not mere months ago, but years past. This is, perhaps, an inevitable consequence of recording in print responses to such ephemeral happenings.

    The tone varies from piece to piece, but the collection as a whole eschews catastrophizing. Some poems give voice to despair, some are melancholy or sorrowful… but there is almost always a note of resilience. Engaging with these sometimes-fearful voices is, in part, an act of collective unburdening – of feeling less alone in a time of social isolation.

    Before the Distance is a straightforward and unassuming collection that does well to document some of the more intangible effects of the pandemic. It’s a fascinating read at this particular point in history… and will no doubt be an interesting – if strange – set of verses to look back on in future years.

Add a review

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related products

%d bloggers like this: