Before the Distance

by Pasquale Trozzolo

Scheduled Release Date: Dec 1, 2020

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

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